Outdoors to Indoors to Outdoors FPS drop

[SkyrimFantom]

Does anyone know this ?

 

I'm outdoors (for example: Riverwood) = 60 FPS

I go indoors (for example: Sleeping Giant) = 60 FPS

Back to outdoors = 15 FPS !!

Switch to Desktop with Alt + Tab and back to the game = 60 FPS

 

Is there a fix for this ?

 

[Reynard131]

Does anyone know this ?

 

I'm outdoors (for example: Riverwood) = 60 FPS

I go indoors (for example: Sleeping Giant) = 60 FPS

Back to outdoors = 15 FPS !!

Switch to Desktop with Alt + Tab and back to the game = 60 FPS

 

Is there a fix for this ?

 

 

 

No one here is a mindreader.....without a characterization of the issue, and your system info ... no one can help you..... a mod list is the third item

 

 

thanks

[prod80]

I know this :smile:

 

it's your VRAM. How much do you have?

 

Lets assume you have 1GB? ... YOu are outside and using 900MB, you go inside and it unloads 600MB of that and adds a new 600MB of textures, now you go outside and it unloads 400MB of the inside cell and adds the 600MB again of the outside cell...

 

so you get (example); 900 - 600 + 600 - 400 + 600 = 1100 MB... your buffer has ran out = FPS drops to the floor.

 

When you alt-tab the system purges your VRAM bringing it down to zero, you alt-tab to game again and it loads the 900MB it needs in that cell and stuff works again.

 

You can do this on any card. I was able to get into this situation with a GTX560Ti 1GB and my new GTX680 4GB using much higher res textures. The engine doesn't clear ALL your textures when you load a new area, it keeps some to reduce loading time when you go back the same way you came. So when youre running almost on max VRAM you end up in your situation. Reduce your texture resolution.

[Reynard131]

I know this :smile:

 

it's your VRAM. How much do you have?

 

Lets assume you have 1GB? ... YOu are outside and using 900MB, you go inside and it unloads 600MB of that and adds a new 600MB of textures, now you go outside and it unloads 400MB of the inside cell and adds the 600MB again of the outside cell...

 

so you get; 900 - 600 + 600 - 400 + 600 = 1100 MB... your buffer has ran out = FPS drops to the floor.

 

When you alt-tab the system purges your VRAM bringing it down to zero, you alt-tab to game again and it loads the 900MB it needs in that cell and stuff works again.

 

You can do this on any card. I was able to get into this situation with a GTX560Ti 1GB and my new GTX680 4GB using much higher res textures. The engine doesn't clear ALL your textures when you load a new area, it keeps some to reduce loading time when you go back the same way you came. So when youre running almost on max VRAM you end up in your situation. Reduce your texture resolution.

 

 

 

 

 

Actually it is simpler than that........the game is by default looking for an X-Box 360 controller.... If there is no controller... you get the lag....

 

very well documented..........http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-oH33H3sqc

 

 

I explained in prior threads that blaming "VRAM" is is really misplaced that VRAM is simply a FIFO buffer it is supposed to have 100% utilization, and unless you have something more empirical you are simply making anecdotal observations, that have no real basis in fact in how DX and a given driver act...

 

Things as simple as mouse polling speeds, and other DX inputs can also create a lag due to DX waiting for data.... Lag can have many other sources as well...VRAM failing... Input lag, System mem. Failure. and the list goes on....

 

This is why you have to ask deeper questions....

Edited June 21, 2013 by Reynard131

[prod80]

This is not lag. This is very simple out of available memory.

Go test it yourself using a high and low mem card and use monitoring software to see what is happening with your memory usage when switching zones. Its very very simple and you can easily diagnose it without any technical knowledge about the workings. I done the same, and it's fact that not everything is unloaded from memory when switching zones, so in that case you can be fine in one zone where your mem is maxed, then when you go into an indoor area in that zone and go back, you will be overloaded and your card simply wont pull it anymore.

 

About this 360 controller and that link you posted - that so old news and doesn't have a thing to do with the problem described in the OP. That only solves some problems a HANDFUL of people had with stutters in game... that is not a drop from 60 FPS to a constant 15 when switching zones.

 

@OP: disable your texture packs and see if you still have this issue - if gone it's pretty simple to solve, if not then only you should start to dig deeper.

[SkyrimFantom]

Hi guys,

thank you for reply.

 

When I play Skyrim the VRAM is busy with around 1600 MB. Here's a screen, taken with Skyrim Performance Monitor, system specs included. OS: Win7 (x64)

 

http://www.bilderhoster.net/safeforbilder/g7d4sjw4.jpg

 

I use a PS2 pad emulated to an Xbox pad with x360ce.

I also use medium resolution textures (for example: 2K HD Textures Lite)

 

The problem happens 3-5 of 10 times when I go back from indoors to outdoors. Maybe it has something to do with the .ini settings ?

Edited June 21, 2013 by SkyrimFantom

[prod80]

correct me if im mistaking, but the above graphs do not show the problem actually happening? Tho there is a steep dip at the end, is that where you alt-tabbed? The framerate doesn't seem to drop prior to that dip...

 

You have 2GB of VRAM, you should be fine up to 2K textures (shouldn't use up more than 1.8GB of VRAM from what I have experienced using 2K textures).

 

I had the exact same problem as you and going to a high VRAM card solved it... I was able to get into your situation by overloading my VRAM on purpose, and that did do the exact same behavior... but youre not running out of VRAM... or out of system resources in general, and are well within limits.

[SkyrimFantom]

Exactly, the graphs does not show the problem (you can see it on the FPS average/maximum). Just wanted to show you the workload. Well, I reduced the shadows in the .ini-files from 4096 to 2048 and it looks good so far ... Will make a test run with Fraps.

 

Edit: Wish I'd have the money left for a 4GB VRAM card.

Edit 2: The problem still exists with the shadow resolution of 2048. But, it does not happen as often as with the resolution of 4096. Now it occurs 1-2 of 10 times. (Edit: Forgot to set a parameter to 2048)

Edit 3: Let Skyrim create new .inis through the launcher solved it. No FPS drops anymore. Now I've to tweak the .inis again, because the game looks "ugly" now. Hope I can find out what parameter cause this issue.

Edit 4: No Framedrops with an overall shadow resolution of 2048 !! But the shadows look very ugly now.

Edited June 21, 2013 by SkyrimFantom

[Reynard131]

Everyone's software installation is different..... This is why it was a simple fix.... there is alot more to lag then most people understand, and until we knew your hardware the other guy was talking out his backside.... as your log showed...

 

Until the whole story is out there parroting about "VRAM" is broken, and not addressing the simple true solution...

 

He does not understand DX or how a vid driver works....

[prod80]

Everyone's software installation is different..... This is why it was a simple fix.... there is a lot more to lag then most people understand, and until we knew your hardware the other guy was talking out his backside.... as your log showed...

 

Until the whole story is out there parroting about "VRAM" is broken, and not addressing the simple true solution...

 

He does not understand DX or how a vid driver works....

 

I don't really care what you think of me, but I know a lot more about Skyrim than you think... I'm not going to argue on this point (as you also simply blame a 360 controller setting without any knowledge about the problem other than what is mentioned in the first post). I simply went for the most common cause for what he is experiencing as hardly any information to go on was given. As it turns out it's not the cause - it's something in his old ini's. Can be anything really, I'm not going to wild guess it without viewing the ini's which caused this behavior.

 

PS and I don't "parrot about VRAM" as I have actually investigated and done testing on that subject myself, not reading some website on it.

 

Tho I'd still vote for testing without texture overhaul mods like Skyrim HD since Skyrim is a DX9 application it will (partially) mirror VRAM into RAM... what the Performance Monitor displays is only the working memory. This is not the total that Skyrim is using. I don't know if it actually puts everything under the same process, but it does seem so since it will CTD using ~3.2GB RAM on a 64bit system using a 32bit app. Also RAM usage and VRAM usage go more or less in line with each other.