Overhaul does include the 4gb patch.

Overhaul is the best way to get the most polished experience with the least effort actually. Going through all the individual mods created in over than 10 years of Morrowind's existence can be quite frustrating and time-consuming. That is if polish is all you need. Additional quests, serious gameplay mechanic changes and landmasses are a different subject. But hey, even the original Morrowind with absolutely mandatory Unofficial Morrowind Patch (and similar patches for Tribunal and Bloodmoon) is a great experience.

i got my morrowind running quite splendidly after going through this thread!

thanks to fr33kSh0w2012 for:
MORROWIND MOD MANAGER! M.M.M.

- i found that one alive here.

thanks to logorouge for the reminder of these additional patches:
now includes the patches (MPP and Code Patch).

- could only find the edited version of the MPP 1.6.5 here.
Morrowind Code Patch alive here.

thanks SheBear for the link:
Also the official Morrowind mods ([url=http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Official_Plug-ins]http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Official_Plug-ins[/url]).
/
Cormoran for:
the free DLC's Bethesda came out with, they're small but some of them are quite useful.

thanks Roberttitus for these mod recs:
A Good Place to Stay
Balmora University
Better Clothes
Better Bodies
Better Heads
Follow Me! (Companion Mod)
Rin's Beauty Shop

thanks to sheepdragon for:
Magicaka Regeneration
Regenerates magicka without potions or having to rest, as long as you don't have the Atronach birth sign

- i found that one alive here.

thanks to Sogi-Ya for the tip about:
the most awesome mod I ever came across was one that added physical backpacks to the game.

- i 'think' this might be the one (i havent tried it yet, and it required another mod to aid its function)
Inventory Helpers by cdcooley

thanks to Arkose for:
Are you using an enhanced EXE? These can be used to make Morrowind use SSE and up to 4GB RAM to improve performance. , [url=http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php]4GB Patch. Some enhancement packs do these improvements for you so you may already have them.

- (i need to make sure the rest of these mods work together before i can evaluate if its running better, but this is one i will need to try out)

thanks to Elaria for these mod recs:
Signy Signposts
Fresh Faces II
Soulgem Ingredient Retexture

thanks to pi4t for:
the unnamed highly needed mod

-i went with a 2.0 version based on that suggested mod that supposedly eats less resources.

i didnt think i needed it til i fell asleep on a giant mushroom, only to be kicked awake... after days of peaceful in game naps.
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only ones id add from my sifting though all the links that havent been mentioned (but probably would be incorporated in the larger MGE or Morrowind Overhaul for all i know):

Better Dialogue Font replacer
Ore Rock Retexture
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i had to skip:
Morrowind Overhaul / MGE
i found a 1.65GB version of one of them and then another page was talking about a 2gb version with no links. in addition to the added sys requirements and the FPS dropping down low.
the 1.65gb version had a torrent from what seemed to be the makers of it, if anyone has any link to the 2gb version (latest version im assuming) add a link in a post please i did do some searching but met many dead ends.

i used all the mods from the links posted above (unless otherwise mentioned), and the versions i linked (if there wasnt a direct link at the time).

main Q:
after enabling all the mods i found this Bugs and Fixes room near where you start off the game, that was enabled by the
Morrowind Code Patch.
there was a mannequin i clicked on that turned me into a vampire, i clicked it again and it returned me to normal.

however i still have a spell/skill that works called:
Vampire Fly

my question is if i keep the skill, later on down the line will i now be unable to do the vampire quests + join one of the vampire bloodlines?
i dont think my stats are boosted or anything but this would be an awesome skill to hang on to to explore morrowind with, villagers dont react like im a vampire either.

in a similar situation to the OP but wouldnt mind keeping this flying skill even though its not vanilla, as long as it wont disrupt the questing further down the line.

im not so far into the game now that essentially restarting is off the table if the ability messed up my character.

minor Q:
is there a mod that will make gather items slightly easier by popping the cursor over to "take all" when i spacebar and item/body/plant?
that would make this part of the game much easier, im not too far in and it already kinda annoying that the mouse cursor is auto set to the wrong side of the screen.

thanks to all for the mod recs, they definitely made this game playable and to the top of the list.

1.65GB is the right one. 2GB is probably the previous version (2.0), which was a pain in the arse to install. MO has a pretty good installer, which just lets you choose what you want to enable. But, well, the choice is yours.

allright!
ill get that one started if its the most up to date one then. thanks for the info.

is it possible to use it conservatively enough to not raise FPS and sys requirements?
all the minor mods ive cobbled together thus far have it running pretty sweet and it looks decent.
vanilla it was like TES meets Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time on the original N64 with no added ram expansion.

As it replaces textures and uses a graphics injector for distant land, it's impossible to use it without raising requirements. Even if you turn off all other elements, sharper textures will still take time to load and need more memory. It is, however, highly adjutable and contains a lot of 'low-spec' options.

i was hoping to get that 4gb ram utilization working to help crunch the data.
im sure its a lot more textures than ive already done due to the file size. all my mods currently were under 175mb even with rar/zip compression its no 1.65gbs though.

i guess i could always fall back if it gets too power hungry.

EDIT:
uninstall, reinstall Morrowind + Tribunal + Bloodmoon + just my current minor texture mods, and basic patches = fall back if it gets too power hungry.

my save thus far is next to useless. im sure if i were further along that would be the defining issue.

You can't, not easily. Make a back-up, just copy your Morrowind folder somewhere, before applying the overhaul. If it comes to worst, delete the 'broken' Morrowind and copy back the old one.

the only thing id be irked at losing out on is that vampire fly ability, while not being a vampire.

Glad you're enjoying this gem of a game too!!!

My gosh, I dunno how I went so many years without playing this thing. To think, all those years just sitting on my shelf and I could've been playing it...... AAARRGGGHHHH!!

And with the enhanced grraphics??? OMFG!!

I don't know who the modders are, why they do it, or if they care, but I for one am so thankful for their work I can't describe it.

Don't get me wrong, the first few times I fired this up and played it i thought I would like it and I'm sure without any mods I'd still enjoy this gem of a game, but WOW, that overhaul mods made a 2002 graphics game look like about a 2007 or 2008 graphics game IMO. No, not Skyrim compatibale AT ALL, but my gosh, the improvements were amazing.

THIS IS A GREAT GAME!

So, I tried out the overhaul mod.
And, yeah, they aren't kidding about it's requirements.
I did the very fast presets and was getting 20 fps outside with an FX-6300 and HD7950.
Jegus, this thing has high requirements.

Morrowind was an epic game, but I played it on the Xbox. No mods. I did, however, log over a thousand hours into a single character, a Mage. Other then knowing where a bunch of stuff is in the vanilla game, I don't think I can help here. Sorry, but Morrowind is still one of my favorite games, so +1 to OP.

Yeah, as I said above, an i7-3770k, 32GB 1600MGhz RAM, SSD hard drive, and two GeForce GTX 560ti's running in SLI mode, I was getting lags. And I've NEVER gotten a lag on ANYTHING yet, until that. Not even the newest releases with all bells and whistles maxed out made a dent in this thing, but Morrowind Overhauled with EVERYTHING MAXED got me a few lags. It wasn't often, but I saw FPS drop into the low 20's several times.

I went ahead and turned a couple of 'em off, and now I'm not seeing anything under 50FPS, and it still looks great.

its pretty awesome thus far, and i have oblivion and skyrim queued up after i make it though the storyline on this one. i dabbled in skyrim for a few hours but just bungled around trying to get some decent equips, i think i was halfway through the dark brotherhood quests, but barely scratched the surface of the game.

im wary of the large mod you mentioned a few times still but im still dl it (bandwidth timing constraints) but i know my video card will liquify itself if i were to even try it out.
my assorted mods have boosted the game immensely from when i first loaded it up.

my adventures recently netted me those Boots of Blinding Speed aforementioned in the thread, so now i need to figure out how to increase my vision whilst wearing them today.

now to continue to add to my cities and locations list ^_^
maybe today i can stumble into that helpless lady that needs help finding her ring. . .

pretty awesome game thus far .

IIRC, the usual solution to the Boots is to ensure that you have Resist Magic from some source (even a short-duration spell will work) while putting them on.