Installing ENBoost causes 5+ second freeze when switching spells, drawing sword, or equipping torch

[kkoliver]

Without ENBoost, Enderal runs fairly smoothly but stutters during chaotic fights or when loading new zones. I would like to install ENBoost to smooth out performance but have been unable to get it to work. I downloaded ENBoost v0.308 from http://enbdev.com/download_mod_tesskyrim.html and copied the d3d9.dll, enbhost.exe, and enblocal.ini into my Skyrim folder from the WrapperVersion folder. Then, I set my enblocal.ini settings exactly as recommended for the STEP guide (http://wiki.step-project.com/ENBoost#Recommendations). However, the game runs poorly with a ton of macrostutter after this installation. Most noticeably, if I switch spells, draw a sword, or equip a torch I get a 5-10 second freeze. This happens 100% of the time and can be repeated indefinitely without causing the game to crash. I'm not sure how to go about debugging this issue. I would greatly appreciate any help I can get! Thanks!

SOLVED: The culprit was the f4 key which is a built in hotkey in ENBoost that dumps the VRAM, and also the hotkey for one of my most commonly used hotkey groups for SkyUI. I kept repeatedly dumping the VRAM which caused the stuttering.

[ALemonNamedDuck]

Well, if you check the Skyrim Nexus page of Enderal (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/77868/?), you will see that ENB's are not supported (and why would you put an ENB over an already great built-in ENB?)

See this:

[stuemper]

ENB =/= ENBoost.
ENBoost without graphical modifiers won't effect Enderal, but it improves the memory management of the Engine.
But I myself have no clue about setting them up properly. I've just read that ENBoost is quite good working with Enderal.

Do you have addional mods installed, like UI mods, they could cause those freezes.

[kkoliver]

Thanks for the replies! The only mods I have installed are iHud, Dynavision, and the temporary bug fix mod for Mirella. I tried to find anyone else having issues with ENBoost combined with these UI mods and could not find anything. I'm going to try reinstalling Enderal and using ENBoost without any mods at all and see if the problem persists.

[kkoliver]

Unfortunately, reinstalling Enderal and removing all mods did not solve the problem. I still get the same terrible stuttering as before the moment I install ENBoost. I did notice something that might help solve the problem though. I do not get the massive repeatable stutter unless I use SkyUI hotkey groups. For example, equipping the protection from magic spell using the f4 key causes the game to freeze for about 5 second but .....

And as I was typing this it dawned on me exactly what the problem was!! ENBoost has some hotkeys hard-coded in and f4 is one. The f4 key causes ENBoost to dump VRAM which would explain the 5 second freeze. And the massive overall stuttering was a side effect of dumping VRAM over and over. Hopefully, this explains all of my ENBoost issues but I'll have to try playing for a while to test it.