FPS drops/Freezing/Stuttering on new GPU

[AndyJP]

I have the Skyrim Legendary Edition on Steam. I upgraded from a Radeon HD 6670 to a Radeon HD 7770 (R7 200 Series) a couple of weeks ago. I have somewhat the opposite issues that I had with the 6670 since upgrading, possibly due to the fact that the 6670 had 2GB VRAM and the 7770 has 1GB VRAM. With the 6670, I could run the HD DLC, use mods that add stuff to interiors/exteriors of cities, and I would get the highest FPS within cities. With the 7770, I can actually use shadows and get great exterior FPS, but it played horribly with the HD DLC, or any other HD textures, and I get a lot of stuttering, sudden drastic drops in FPS that lasts for several seconds, and occasionally freezing for a short while. I started with unmodded Skyrim and noticed the issue, but thought it was something that ENB speedhacks, Unofficial patches, or TESVEdit cleaning would solve. So I did all of that, added the same exact mods I used before the upgrade, and found my card having difficulty with mods like JK's Whiterun, which worked excellent before.

 

My problem is not a mod issue, I'm pretty sure of that since I tried it without mods and experienced the problems. I also use Nexus to download and install/uninstall mods, LOOT to manage their order, and I know how to use TESVEdit to clean them. I also use SKSE and ENB without graphical modifications. I always make a new character when I change, add, or remove anything. I have tried using shadows at high settings and low settings and it made no difference. I ran the Ordenader Optimizer Textures through everything several times, eventually to the point where I decided to just downsize everything to under 1024x1024, and I tried every INI tweaks I saw online to no avail. Using default INI settings that the launcher sets for me seems to allow the most stability, but I'm still quite disappointed with how my card is running the game.

 

Here is a summary of my system specs:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955

OS: Windows 7 64-Bit SP1

MB: ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4N68T-M-V2 (AM3)

RAM: 4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 669MHz

Graphics: IPS224 (1920x1080@60Hz) / 1024MB ATI AMD Radeon R7 200 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner)

Storage: 931GB Hitachi HDS721010CLA SCSI Disk Device (SATA)

PSU: SeaSonic S12II Bronze, SS-620GB

 

My GPU also connects to my PSU using a PCI-E connector. I checked the power settings in my BIOS and everything seems to be functioning normally. In Skyrim Performance Monitor, I see my GPU reaching 99% every now and then, and VRAM has been reduced after optimizing textures but I still have an often laggy, unstable performance. Outside of cities I tend to average about 45-60FPS with rare issues, but nearing towns it drops to a stuttering 35-50 performance, and within it can drop as low as 10-15 but averages around 30. In caves it is a solid smooth 55-60. I also summoned 20 bandits right in front of me to fight, to see if the number of NPCs in towns was an issue. It dropped my frames a little but caused no lagging.

 

Is this all purely the result of my lower VRAM or do you think something else could be at fault here?

 

 

[camaro_69_327]

The upper graph in SPM will show it all...ya gonna have to say that was not really an UPgrade as you have less VRAM to work with now. Adding more RAM may help a little (you only have 4 GB ), But Skyrim really wants a lot of VRAM. Vanilla Skyrim with the Official HR-DLC's load in at 1295.91 , as you found out, that's over the 1 GB the new GPU has.

[Lord Garon]

I've got an ASUS HD 7770 2GB. A good card, but not great. One thing I learned quickly is that it certainly doesn't like "duplicate" video settings in-game and in the driver. I got the best performance with AA, AF turned OFF in-game and set to mid-range values in Catalyst Control Center. At least, make sure you don't have settings turned on in both places.

 

Initially, I ran this card at 1080p with Hi Res DLC and mods, but it doesn't have the throughput for responsive game play. I set it up to have good game play by setting graphics to minimum, then tweaking up what graphics settings were most important to me.

 

Try setting up minimum graphics (low preset) until you have a smooth game; reduce your screen resolution to the smallest size you can tolerate (frame buffers eat up large chunks of vram), turn off all game/driver video processing, put shadow quality at low, disable the HiRes DLC, and switch to low/medium res textures on any mods that have the option. If you don't know what is contributing to your stutter, you won't be able to "fix" it.

 

There are some counter-intuitive things at work in the perception of graphics quality, and they vary with the display hardware (dot pitch, pixel response times, etc) and with the individual. Don't get stuck number chasing. Its not necessary to run at 4k screen size or have ultra resolution texture packs. Play with increasing your settings from minimum and only crank up those which "look good" to you. In general, video driver processing is faster, ie, leave AA off in-game and use CCC for anti-aliasing.

 

After weeks of tweaking, I can run my current game with 173 mods at 1080p, a custom ENB (for shadow fixes), a little occasional stutter, smooth FPS variance from about 35-60FPS outdoors (no sudden jumps), and quick-enough game play. THE most effective thing I did was to optimize higher quality textures to 1kx1k and normals to 512x512. For instance, optimizing the HiRes DLC with DDSOpt looks better to me in-game than does optimizing vanilla textures. Now my poor little 7770 constantly runs at 99% GPU and maxed vram (which causes my remaining stutter). At 1280x1024, the game is completely smooth, looks pretty darn good, and is more responsive than vanilla. I go back and forth, depending on my mood.

 

4GB of ram might be hurting a little. Windows will page memory out to the disk normally and maxing vram will cause Windows to use system ram for video swap, further limiting ram for Windows and causing more page faults (slow). It can be a vicious circle. 8GB might help. So might eliminating any unneeded background processes.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Lord Garon

[camaro_69_327]

@ Lord G...the OP HAD a 2 GB video card and "upgraded" to a 1 GB card....gonna be tough to get a smooth experience but Optimizing Everything and checking all setting is the way to go.

 

@ OP any chance to return the card and get a 2 GB version?

[AndyJP]

@ Lord G...the OP HAD a 2 GB video card and "upgraded" to a 1 GB card....gonna be tough to get a smooth experience but Optimizing Everything and checking all setting is the way to go.

 

@ OP any chance to return the card and get a 2 GB version?

 

Strongly considering it. I think I really underestimated how important that extra gig of VRAM was.

[dennis20014]

Yes the downgrade to 1GB will definitely hurt you. Earlier this year I went from a 560ti 1GB to a r9 270x (2GB) and though it isn't a huge upgrade, it made wonders for my skyrim setup, and I haven't even maxed out the VRAM yet with all the addons I've done.

 

I'd highly recommend returning/exchanging it and if you can, get a 3GB or 4GB version of some card. If you use ENB without any graphical settings (Not sure if you did before or are being forced to now cause of the limitation) then you'll be golden to start using the graphical settings lol

 

One suggestion I always give out, and it's probably a YMMV scenario, is to enable 'WaitBusyRender' in your enblocal or in game. It generally gives me anywhere from 5-10fps loss outdoors, but it smooths out my game play tremendously. Otherwise I get a lot of stuttering, NOTICEABLE stuttering, when leaving most cities as the world loads up and renders. Alternatively, you could turn off 'Compression' in the enb local, which I believe this is why it does this. If I am wrong someone tell me lol. I have to keep it on otherwise I end up getting CTD. But this is one game I've never had a problem playing with lower fps, and considering the excellent framerate I still tend to get from my upgrade, I'd say that it's worth it.

Edited September 29, 2014 by dennis20014

[AndyJP]

Yes the downgrade to 1GB will definitely hurt you. Earlier this year I went from a 560ti 1GB to a r9 270x (2GB) and though it isn't a huge upgrade, it made wonders for my skyrim setup, and I haven't even maxed out the VRAM yet with all the addons I've done.

 

I'd highly recommend returning/exchanging it and if you can, get a 3GB or 4GB version of some card. If you use ENB without any graphical settings (Not sure if you did before or are being forced to now cause of the limitation) then you'll be golden to start using the graphical settings lol

 

One suggestion I always give out, and it's probably a YMMV scenario, is to enable 'WaitBusyRender' in your enblocal or in game. It generally gives me anywhere from 5-10fps loss outdoors, but it smooths out my game play tremendously. Otherwise I get a lot of stuttering, NOTICEABLE stuttering, when leaving most cities as the world loads up and renders. Alternatively, you could turn off 'Compression' in the enb local, which I believe this is why it does this. If I am wrong someone tell me lol. I have to keep it on otherwise I end up getting CTD. But this is one game I've never had a problem playing with lower fps, and considering the excellent framerate I still tend to get from my upgrade, I'd say that it's worth it.

 

I am going to return it and look for something equivalent or better with 2gb VRAM. I don't think I can get an equivalent card with 3gb or more VRAM for under $200. I am kinda confused with how AMD is labeling their GPU's now. My HD 7770 is also an R7 200 series. I might look at NVidia too, I have never had an NVidia GPU.

[Lord Garon]

 

I am going to return it and look for something equivalent or better with 2gb VRAM. I don't think I can get an equivalent card with 3gb or more VRAM for under $200. I am kinda confused with how AMD is labeling their GPU's now. My HD 7770 is also an R7 200 series. I might look at NVidia too, I have never had an NVidia GPU.

 

 

Better card: best idea ever. :thumbsup:

 

Try looking around here for specs only. The higher numbered R7's are an upgrade. But, any R9 is in a completely different league and will run circles around the 7770. Many are listed online < $200. Just watch out for power requirements.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Lord Garon