Skyrim Bad performance

[jesusjonny]

Skyrim to put it simply is an astounding game, one of the best I have ever played, but what ever I do I can not get it to run to even a playable level on my system. It so unpredictable, sometimes its not to bad and then other times its... as I said unplayable. It can run superb for 30mins then out of nowhere start stuttering like mad. Its so bad sometimes I can not even aim an arrow.

Here's my Specs...

Specs

Win 64 (with gamebooster and no background programs running at all)

3rd Generation Intel® Core™ Ivy Bridge i5-3570K Unlocked Quad-Core Processor - Intel HD 4000 Graphics - 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory - Intel Z77 Chipset w/ SATA 6G - AMD radeon 6850 1gb ddr5

Its not a bad system but this or the system I had before seems incapable of running this game. I have tried editing the in.pref files in documents and in steam folder with all the listed tweaks. If I turn mouse smoothing off or on it makes no difference! If I add iPresentInterval=0 its runs superb but the tearing is unbearable. So to fix this I tried forcing V-sync on card with CCC or other video control tools but still tears. I tried CFF explorer to edit the exe file to allow more memory...nope nothing works.

I even bought a brand new mouse in case I had mouse lag :(

I have tried the skyrim frame rate limiter mod but again the tearing would make my stomach turn. The best solution I found was to run in Windowed mode, but then I have to play in a lower rez. I have tried turning all anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering off in options and just forcing it in CCC, that helped for a bit but it started running bad again. Playing with mods or with out makes no difference.

I have also re installed the game several times! Its not my CPU bottle necking or any mem problems as I run Farcry 3, Dishonored and BioShock Infinite on very high settings with no problems at all!

Sad thing is I love the game and am such a big fan of Bethesda, but I am at the point now were I spend more of my precious time trying to get it to run than I do actually playing it.

Edited April 4, 2013 by jesusjonny

[swmXIII]

I assume you have tested full vanilla version?(no mods,no dlc,just the game)

[jesusjonny]

Yes i have cleared all Skyrim data from PC and re installed the game, full vanilla version. No mods at all and it runs horrible.,

[psavola]

Apples, oranges, bananas and pineapples are different fruits, they taste different and the way you peel and eat them are different. that said, assuming something is okay since one or two things run fine doesn't make it so.

 

now.. your processor should be more than enough, i admit that much. however you provide little actual information.

for example:

what kind of framerate you get and at what resolution that is?

possibly also CPU and GPU usage if you think one or other is causing problems.

 

seemingly you say that while windowed, it works fine but... resolution is lower. how much lower? and what framerate you get with that?

 

wild guess is, skyrim might be stupid and force computer to use that intel HD4000 on fullscreen (and yes, that is totally crappy as far as games go) and game uses radeon on windowed (just a possibility) and thus runs lot faster there.

 

without any resolution and framerate data though, no one can say if what you are experiencing is "normal" or not.

lso, as you say, it runs fine at some times. are the slowdowns tied to something like being out in the world? (or in towns/cities or dungeons?) or when you see lot of npc's or???

also good question is, do you have any extra mods? some mods can add massive amounts of things to calculate at specific times which might make most machines cough.

[jesusjonny]

Thanks for your response, FRaps is reading as 58 - 60fps inside a cave and also outside the wild and around 52 in the likes of whiterun. But with these frames are active its still stuttering like mad. Im playing in vanilla now 1360 x 768 in high settings. If i put it to low then nothing changes it still runs like crap. I currently have no mods at all installed. As i say its really a good 58 - 60fps most places, but the stuttering happens everywhere. Its real bad :(

 

While windowed its 1270 x 720 ( I also change my desktop to match each time) and all is good, its seems my frame rate is pretty constant but runs like crap if that makes sense. Im also playing on an LCD Samsung 720 with a rez of 1360 x 768. As I say all other games run great.

 

more stats

 

 

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130104-1431)

System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

System Model: To be filled by O.E.M.

BIOS: BIOS Date: 07/10/12 15:50:37 Ver: 04.06.05

Processor: Intel® Core i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.8GHz

Memory: 8192MB RAM

Available OS Memory: 8152MB RAM

Page File: 3645MB used, 12657MB available

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

User DPI Setting: Using System DPI

System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)

DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled

Card name: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series

Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x6739)

DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6739&SUBSYS_03B41043&REV_00

Display Memory: 4095 MB

Dedicated Memory: 1010 MB

Shared Memory: 3085 MB

Current Mode: 1360 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor

Monitor Model: SAMSUNG

Monitor Id: SAM0180

Native Mode: 1360 x 768(p) (60.015Hz)

Output Type: HD15

Driver Name: aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll

Driver File Version: 8.17.0010.1172 (English)

Driver Version: 9.12.0.0

DDI Version: 11

Please help :)

[Georgiegril]

I dont have radeon, but your driver name seems really odd.

Also, it looks like you are using an old one? Have you tried updating your graphics driver?

Finally, have you tried using your native resolution and limiting your fps to 58? (There is a problem with NVidia graphics cards where stuttering is caused by a refreshrate/fps at 60, not dure if this also applies to Radeon)

[jesusjonny]

Hi Georgiegrill

 

Ive tried limiting to 58 - 59 with the limiter but the tearing really bad, they are drivers recently downloaded from the the AMD catalyst site, tho I could try to remove them and re-install.

[psavola]

well, i wouldn't put much hope on that mod based fps limiter. you see.. i use msi afterburner to limit my fps to 59 (screen refresh rate 60) and it works to remove all weird stutters. (which are due to odd water everywhere bug causing all AI actions to be recalculated multiple times/second and thus... using up whole processor causing graphic card to not get enough data.)

so.. to recap after testing fps limiter http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34 i can say:
-it doens't limit FPS in main menu
-it doesn't limit FPS ingame
-it doesn't remove my weird water everywhere bug
-it causes periodic stutters of 0 to 8 frames/sec at most. same as vanilla game.

while for me MSI afterburner limiter (well.. it's meant for nvidia but who cares? it works for my AMD cards)
-limits FPS in screens
-limits FPS ingame
-removes water bug
-removes odd stutters due to dropping FPS.

so.. my suggestion? forget the nexus mod and use real limiter that actually works.
for me that is msi afterburner with onscreen display server, where i use wrench to change limited to fps number to 59. afterburner is also good if you want to monitor Graphic card usage to some extent but that is more than i need it for.

Edited April 4, 2013 by psavola

[korun]

do you, like for each driver update, 1st, uninstall the old one, clean, install the new one?

Catalyst 13.1 are the last WHQL available, if stuttering still, after fresh install, try the new 13.3 beta they are really good.

 

@@

[jesusjonny]

Thanks Korun - I will try that :) Psavola - I have tried afterburner, seems good but hasnt changed anything. Its reading as 58fps as I set it, but still stuttering like mad.I give up