I saw this on
reddit and although I found little difference it may work for others:
So I was messing around with my usersettings.txt file and found a couple things which gave me a huge (because i was at 27fps before in Vulkhel Guard) fps boost. I now get around 35-45fps constantly. I have two Nvidia Gts 450's in SLI (but the game does not work with SLI because it lacks true full screen)
Documents -> Elder Scrolls Online -> Live -> usersettings.txt
SET GPUSmoothingFrames "10"
> SET GPUSmoothingFrames "0"
SET HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOWS "1"
> SET HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOWS "0"
SET SOFT_ALPHA "1"
> SET SOFT_ALPHA "0"
SET MAX_ANISOTROPY "3"
> SET MAX_ANISOTROPY "1" (can set to 0 if you would like)
I went from 27FPS to about 39FPS (which goes up to 45 in some situation inside the city). For me the city is the most GPU intensive place to be so this is a MASSIVE improvement. For others it may not yield the same results but it is worth a try!
Be aware that a lot of settings in UserSettings.txt do nothing on the Mac (or PC for some) or have no actual function.
Backup the original UserSettings.txt first! In case you mess up or want to revert.SET GPUSmoothingFrames "10" --------> SET GPUSmoothingFrames "0"
The one that will probably make the bigger difference is the GPUSmoothingFrames change. Had report that on a MacBook Pro it helped boost FPS. Personally from a quick test it didn't change noticeably. A poster noted it's likely function
Smoothing" should be some sort of algorithm that attempts to smooth out frames rather than have them jump around greatly, so you could think of it being a bit like V-sync
I would try this one first.
SET HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOWS "1" --------> SET HIGH_RESOLUTION_SHADOWS "0"
Enables/ Disables high resolution shadows. Little noticeable difference in quick test.
Edit: Not the same as
Shadow Quality in Settings Video which is;
SET SHADOWS "0"
Already confirmed that this is the biggest hit for framerates. I tend to set it Medium on my iMac with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096 MB.
SET SOFT_ALPHA "1" --------> SET SOFT_ALPHA "0"
Not sure if this works on not on the Mac. Poster suggested
Soft_Alpha - I think it's to do with blending the edges of textures for a softer look. Probably marginal.
SET MAX_ANISOTROPY "3" --------> SET MAX_ANISOTROPY "1" (can set to 0 if you would like)
Again not sure if this functions on the Mac.
Enhances the image quality of textures on surfaces that are at oblique viewing angles (the higher the value, the more intensive it is, and the better it should look). Like in Skyrim or WoW. Probably a marginal difference if functioning.
Not had time to test fully but thought I would post it here for info.