Vortex responsible for very long saving times in Skyrim SE

[ZoopersDE]

Game: Skyrim SE

 

Amount of mods: 203

 

Vortex Version: 0.18.9

 

I've been having problems with obscenely long save times in Skyrim SE recently. I'm talking up to 20 seconds (sometimes even longer) any time I quicksave or load a new cell (due to autosave). I tried a lot of troubleshooting, like moving my game to my SSD, disabling cloak spells in XPMSE, etc. Nothing helped. While troubleshooting it again today, I came across the following thread with the following comment:

https://forum.step-project.com/topic/10824-saving-very-slow-because-of-racemenu/

 

 

 

This thread is super old now, but if it helps anyone else--I realized this issue was happening for me whenever my mod manager was open. The restart helped at first, but after about 30 minutes the issue began again. I was able to stop the issue once I closed out of my mod manager (Vortex).

 

I was alt-tabbed out of the game at the time, so I closed Vortex, went back into the game and my quicksave saved in about 2 seconds. Alt-tabbed out and started Vortex again, and immediately the saves were back to taking obscenely long.

 

It might be worth investigating what is causing this behavior. My guess would be it has something to do with the Vortex Savegame manager. Sometimes it's convenient to have Vortex open in the background while I play, as an example when I'm busy downloading a large texture overhaul or something.

 

In case anyone else has a problem with very long save times in Skyrim SE, try closing Vortex and see if it solves your problem.

[rmm200]

If you have two monitors, it would be interesting (maybe vital) to run Task Manager and see what is happening.

On my system, Vortex averages about one percent CPU while game is running, taking about 300 MB storage. No disk or GPU activity.

I have over 200 saves (200 is all Vortex will show me), and a Fallout 4 save takes 3 seconds on my system. Note: I never recommend Quick Saves. They have a bad reputation.

There is absolutely no additional Vortex activity during save. Disk, GPU, or memory.

So clearly, this is not a problem that affects everyone. Any additional investigation you can do would be good.

Things to note: How many saves do you have total, how much memory do you have, what kind of disk is it, what cpu. And don't use QuickSave.

 

Old post but still valid:

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/489830/discussions/0/154641879464460056/

Edited June 22, 2019 by rmm200

[rmm200]

Still thinking... I claim your time delays in Skyrim save are due to engine thread locks.

This would be easy to prove / disprove.

Have Vortex running.

Before you load a save, open the console and do a "coc qasmoke".

Do a save from there and time it.

Let us know...

[ZoopersDE]

Screenshot overload incoming! I unfortunately don't have two monitors so had to rely on alt-tab, which I hope doesn't skew the results too much.

 

First things first, system specs:

 

CPU: Ryzen 5 2600 (stock speeds)

16GB RAM

HDD: Toshiba P300 3TB 64MB 7200RPM

SSD: Intenso High Performance interne SSD 240 GB SATA III, 500 MB/s

 

Important to note is that the save behavior is similar whether I'm running the game from SSD or HDD. Loading times are obviously just faster on SSD, but it takes long to save on both.

 

 

Okay, so first I tried saving on my normal game and with Vortex running, this happens:

 

So there's a long period where my disk usage spikes to 100%, but no corresponding increase in resource usage from Vortex:

 

 

Then I tried it without Vortex and this is what I got:

 

 

Finally, I tried going to qasmoke directly from the main menu before loading a game, and saving finished instantly:

 

 

So I think you're right and this is definitely related to how many mods I'm running. It's just very strange that it only happens with Vortex open, even though Vortex isn't using any extra resources while the game is saving.

 

I also gave (unmodded) Fallout 4 a try and I had no issues saving both with and without Vortex running.

 

Also, thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it. I hope these screenshots were useful and let me know if I can provide anything else that could be of help.

[rmm200]

I am suspicious of Vortex' storage utilization.

We are chewing up 350 MB in front of Skyrim. That might just be enough to push the engine over the edge.

 

One more test for you. Start Skyrim first, alt tab out and start Vortex.

Switch back to Skyrim and do a save.

 

This test only affects storage layout - not total storage used.

 

I like your screenshots! Just wish I had something useful to say based on them.

 

I do have one good rule! If you have long delays on saves, stop everything that is not Skyrim.

Browsers can be incredible memory hogs.

Edited June 23, 2019 by rmm200

[Tannin42]

In 0.18.11 there is a new option in the Settings->Workarounds section to disable Vortex monitoring the savegame directory.

 

Now usually this should not have any performance impact on the game, it's practically a nothing-operation unless Vortex is in the foreground, but maybe there is some interaction with foreign software.

 

Please try it out, let us know if it makes any difference.

[Zanderat]

I know this may not be helpful. But I have never launched any game through Vortex. It is always shut down when I play.

[ButtonSmasher]

I know this may not be helpful. But I have never launched any game through Vortex. It is always shut down when I play.

Same, i always start it through the launcher or SKSE's. I also close everything before i start playing.

[HadToRegister]

I leave Vortex open 24/7 but I don't get long save times

[AugustaCalidia]

I launch all of my managed games from Vortex. I've never had a "long save" issue.