This is my recommended MGE XE settings for a relatively high end computer (i7-7700, gtx1060). I have over 150 plugins on top of an MGSO install, some which are pretty straining for my framerate as well, but I framelock my game to 30fps using Nvidia Inspector and it plays pretty smooth with few frame drops. A framerate of a steady 30fps all the time compared to fluctuating between 35-60 feels far smoother in my estimation, anyway.

NOTE FOR NVIDIA USERS:

	If you have an even relatively new Nvidia GPU, good chance is that you have Multisampling properties on it. Under program settings->Antialiasing - Transparency for your Morrowind install, turn it to Multisample. This is a  high quality antialiasing that can be applied over antialiasing and downsampling already provided by in-game settings. It has very little performance impact with huge results, especially for this game. 
	Also, make sure your texture filtering - quality is set to HIGH PERFORMANCE, with trilinear optimization ON. Power management should also be PREFER MAX PERFORMANCE.



Resolution: 4K downscaled, no AA, 16x Anisotropic Filtering, No Vsync. (This takes very little frames off and has huge advantages for texture detailing and natural antialiasing from downsampling- if you are using an Nvidia make sure to do this rather than trying to mess with AA. You will save alot of processing power you can put towards other things.)

Shader chain (in this order): 
SSAO medium (marked for exteriors only - do this in the editor)
SSAO high (marked for interiors only - do this in editor)
Underwater Interior effects
Underwater Effects
Sunshafts
Bloom Fine or Soft
gammavtdt (download from nexusmods- STEP shaders: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45257)
*rainbow_skd* For use with Sky Diversity (very highly recommended, best atmospheric/skys mod to date. Has a bunch of requirements and is a bit of trouble to get working sometimes, but is totally worth it and takes no frames off your game: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/44345).
*r0_qk_shaker* For use with Shattered Stones (highly recommended, immersive addition to Red Mountain landscapes: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45105).

Auto FOV, 144 FPS limiter (don't bother with the game's fps limiter, it has some issues. Use nvidia inspector if you have an nvidia to set a framerate limit at whatever you wish instead; otherwise you might wanna checkout another program like FRAPS, but I had way too much trouble with those programs and nvidia inspector worked like a charm comparatively), Depth pixel (fast) fog mode, .5 mimap LOD bias.

Menu UI scaling 2.20 for 4K.


DISTANT LAND SETTINGS
Draw Dist: 6.0
Water...
	Reflections - Sky, Nearby Statics, Landscape, Interiors
	Dynamic Ripples, height of 12
	Caustics, 35%

XE Dynamic solar shadows enabled.

I wouldn't bother with per pixel lighting shader unless you've got a wicked powerful computer or are running a very vanilla-esque install. It takes a ton of performance and has some issues (although PeterBitt had a patch for the "dark lights" somewhere on the nexus in a mod collection of his, if you want to try it).

Set other draw distances by DRAW DISTANCE, do not select AUTO.
Use Distant Statics...
		MIN SIZE  -  END DIST
	NEAR	  230		2.0 	(no more really needed)
	FAR	  271		3.0+ 	if possible without murdering framerate. Higher number here means less 							static pop in from a distance. I go with 3.0 myself to save frames, and it 						isn't that noticable unless you watch the horizon.
	VERY FAR  1154		6.0	Good as is.

DURING GENERATION, AT LEAST VERY HIGH LAND MESHES, 512 TEXTURE SIZES EACH (minimum- but I'd also recommend this value as well), 35-80% GRASS (ideally), FULL MESHES (reduce mesh errors in distant land. even 90% can cause some significant errors). USE EXCEPTION LIST (MGSO) AND GENERATE ALL STATICS AND ACTIVATOR TYPES.

FOG...
					START	  -	END
	ABOVE WATER FOG			1.0		6.0
	BELOW WATER FOG			-.3		.7
	DISTANT INTERIORS FOG		0		2
	EXPONENTIAL DIST MULTIPLIER	-		3.5
USE HIGH QUALITY (EXPONENTIAL) FOG
HIGH QUALITY ATMOSPHERE & DISTANCE COLOURING ENABLED.


In weather settings, nothing is necessary to edit but I turn all of the fog offsets to 0 because it looks better in certain weather conditions for the distant land.


Finally, in-game tab... skip opening movie checked(maybe, unless you've got N'wahgelion installed or something.), and responsive menu caching checked (unless using SLI).

Allow Yes to all load errors, show subtitles, thread loading, hit fader.

Lighting Co-efficients: quad - 2.619, linear - 0, constant - .382 (my favorite lighting values I've seen, and much preferred just vanilla lighting with these coefficients rather than trying to mess with lighting mods)

MGE status messages->display

I'd also recommend enabling screenshots personally as well! ;D

Finally, turn on the Display FPS with a checkmark, and check the framerate in game once you've stabilized a loadout. If you find yourself dropping to unreasonably low levels, move down some settings I mentioned or remove certain shaders you don't care much for. If you still have too low of FPS, the last thing I can recommend is making sure you have some of the performance enhancing utilites and patches installed such as Morrowind Code patch, MPP, optimized/better meshes that can help performance, and any parts of the newest Morrowind Optimization Patch that don't conflict with your install.