I've got a 2015 laptop with a GTX 960M and I want to finally play through Skyrim with some mods, but I don't want my game running at 15 fps. Should I just stick with visual mods or are there performance mods I should grab first? What's a realistic amount of mods for my setup?
You don't necessarily have to choose between visuals and performance - the smart move is grabbing performance mods *first*, then layering in lighter visual stuff afterward. Start with things like SSE Engine Fixes and a decent ini tweak guide (there are solid community ones out there), then maybe add texture downsizing mods and weather/lighting tweaks that won't tank your framerate. Realistically you're probably looking at 30-50 mods total if you're careful about which ones you pick, but honestly even 15-20 well-chosen ones can make a huge difference over vanilla without turning your laptop into a space heater. The GTX 960M isn't amazing but it's not hopeless either - just skip the ultra-detailed 4K texture packs and ENBs.
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