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[Help] Dying inside: Extreme FPS Drops with or without mods


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Good evening Forums.

So, I've been having issues with this for a bit and I cannot for the life of me figure out what I did wrong/what needs to be fixed in version 1.6.1170 (Issue appears to be version independent, so screw me).

The issue: I'll drop from say, 60+ frames, down to twenty in a flash. The FPS randomly drops. I can handle a little drop, but we're talking 50+ frame type drops. It seems to do it at all at once, the FPS dropping a ton repeatedly spiking at times. It usually starts with blips, dropping fast then going back up. Generally it has been an issue in exteriors. Before I reset everything currently, interiors even were having some issue but I haven't checked. I suspect if that issue still exists, it is related to this. I'd like to ask myself 'did I install/forget to uninstall' something that hurt my computer, but like, I've now reinstalled the game fresh in a portable instance. I care less about the game being at 60FPS than just being stable. I've tried setting up Vsync, and FPS Lock, in Display Tweaks, ENB, and also Nvidia Control panel (Not all at once) and disabled both it and FPS lock in the Game ini's.

My specs: Running on MO2, portable instance. I have an RTX 3060 and AMD Ryzen 9 5900 HS, with 24 GB of DDR5 Ram. I have run Skyrim Performance Monitor, the issue is not Vram maxing out. I can provide screenshots. I am running the game at 1080P on a 144HZ monitor. (I have a 2021 Model G14 Zephyrus laptop)

My mods *Ehem* ENB (Just the binaries), Address Library, SKSE, SSE Engine Fixes, SSE Display Tweaks, and SSE FPS Stabilizer (Which sadly has not helped me thus far). I can confirm this issue persists in pure vanilla. It might not be as horrible, but it still happens. I get this is an old game, but I know I can run this with stable FPS on this PC because I have in the past. I have also run BethINI with the 'high' setting. This FPS thing seems to happen quicker/harder with more mods of course (I have a large load order but they're not even managed by MO2 right now). I do have some CC: The free ones that come with the game, most of the alternative armors, Saints and Seducers, the Vampire House, Pets, Farming, 


What I've done: Alright so I've been messing around a bit: Tried using reshade as an alternative (Gave better frames than ENB but still drops a lot) and also installed the DLSS mod from PureDark (Which again, gives better frames but doesn't fix this). My game does this with every performance mod, regardless of if they work: EFPS, Scrambled Bugs and the like. Thing is, I've had this issue going on since the start when I first began modding. It persists between game versions: Currently on 1.6.1170, but it happened on 1.6.640 and 1.5.97. I'd like to blame the game version but this still happened in 1.5.97. At one point I thought I fixed the issue, when I unlocked my frames with Display Tweaks but alas. (VSync is currently on in Display tweaks, off everywhere else; Nvidia control panel included). 

Drivers: G-Helper says everything is up to date. Also, for redundancy, I uninstalled Skyrim SE completely. I have it on an external drive (This issue also happened when it was on C drive but not in program files FYI) along with MO2 which I also uninstalled and reinstalled.

Please help. I know this game is *checks notes* held together with duct tape and prayers to our Lord of the Brie but uh...I think it's a very reasonable belief to think my GPU (Which is at a 50 degrees Celsius at idle) and CPU (Currently 58 Celsius) should be able to handle this game in, if nothing else, Vanilla. I used to play Oldrim on a GTX 660 (Yes it still hurts when I think about it). 

Sincerely, a guy who just wants to finally play modded Skyrim 

 

 

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Find the SkyrimPrefs.ini under \Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition, check that the [Launcher] sD3DDevice value matches your video card model.  Mine looks like:  sD3DDevice="AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX".  I was thinking that there might be another location for video card information, but I can't find it.

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12 minutes ago, 7531Leonidas said:

Find the SkyrimPrefs.ini under \Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition, check that the [Launcher] sD3DDevice value matches your video card model.  Mine looks like:  sD3DDevice="AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX".  I was thinking that there might be another location for video card information, but I can't find it.

 

Good thought. I checked, and it does. An RTX 3060 Laptop edition.

Also, an update: I followed the STEP guide for System setup and SSE Display Tweaks settings, as well as putting on Ultra Low Latency mode for Nvidia. That definetly boosted frames a ton (Went from around 50-70 to 80-100). FPS dropped twice to about thirty (Starting from around 50, it didn't drop from 100 to 30 or something). I did feel it but they were small drops after running for about thirty minutes maybe or so. 

Realistically if that's all that happens it's not bad but I only performed one test. The FPS does move a lot still (Going from COC Riverwood, down to Whiterun) but I know that area can be intense for FPS, and since it is so much higher, I don't feel anything but the blips down to thirty. 

Do you think it's normal for the FPS to fluctuate that much? I know how this game can be, I think I'll be satisfied if it just stays above at least thirty. I don't feel a drop from 100 to 80 or whatever. My concern is just it dropping once I've got everything going and becoming a slog.

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I've had FPS drops like this in SE when the scene has gotten busy with many NPCs fighting me, or many trees and plants to render swaying in the breeze.  But I've blamed my less-than-spectacular hardware -- and it hasn't been random.

If you're on a laptop, are the CPU or GPU getting hot enough for it to throttle at all?  I know there are programs out there (like SpeedFan) to track temperatures and fan speeds, and for all I know Windows 10 or 11 -- or an Nvidia control program -- might have something built in too.*   And make sure your air vents aren't blocked by anything, and maybe blow the dust out of them if you can.

Othwrwise, is something briefly running in the background during these FPS drops?  Or is a mod running some resource-heavy scripts at "random" times or regular intervals?

 

* I moved from Windows 7 to Linux, haven't used 10 or 11 on my own PCs.  And I've always had AMD GPUs, so I'm not familiar with Nvidia's controls.

Edited by AaronOfMpls
revised a bit, added more
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7 hours ago, AaronOfMpls said:

I've had FPS drops like this in SE when the scene has gotten busy with many NPCs fighting me, or many trees and plants to render swaying in the breeze.  But I've blamed my less-than-spectacular hardware -- and it hasn't been random.

If you're on a laptop, are the CPU or GPU getting hot enough for it to throttle at all?  I know there are programs out there (like SpeedFan) to track temperatures and fan speeds, and for all I know Windows 10 or 11 -- or an Nvidia control program -- might have something built in too.*   And make sure your air vents aren't blocked by anything, and maybe blow the dust out of them if you can.

Othwrwise, is something briefly running in the background during these FPS drops?  Or is a mod running some resource-heavy scripts at "random" times or regular intervals?

 

* I moved from Windows 7 to Linux, haven't used 10 or 11 on my own PCs.  And I've always had AMD GPUs, so I'm not familiar with Nvidia's controls.

 
 
 

You know, I used Skyrim Performance Monitor a few times before and didn't notice anything. But now that you say it, I do notice that the game runs fine at first, then has more performance drops. Just ran a test in-game; was getting consistent FPS at first. According to the chart, the GPU experienced an increasing number of giant drops. Its idle temperate was 49° C and max was 87° Honestly the first time I saw this, I didn't think the heat was that bad. I'm assuming those could be throttling temps. Also, the performance monitor doesn't show it, but my CPU temps at peak were even higher.

I can try using speedfan to check what the fans are doing during game, but I do hear them ramp up. Given the fact I've had this laptop for a couple of years now maybe it needs a cleaning? 

According to G-Helper (My performance manager software) the fan's performance curve is set in BIOS to ramp up to 4800 RPM at max performance. 

Screenshot_5.jpeg

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One more possibility - check the size of your Windows swapfile.  If you have a HDD as the primary drive, consider a setting it to a fixed value, part of a routine to keep it from fragmenting your drive.  If you have a HDD, I can describe a sizing/defragmentation routine to help.

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2 hours ago, 7531Leonidas said:

One more possibility - check the size of your Windows swapfile.  If you have a HDD as the primary drive, consider a setting it to a fixed value, part of a routine to keep it from fragmenting your drive.  If you have a HDD, I can describe a sizing/defragmentation routine to help.

 

I have everything on an SSD, I do not own a hard drive. I have everything on an external SSD which I suppose could be some sort of issue if my transfer rates weren't good but I doubt it given the fact this issue happened when I had the entire game on C drive as well.

 

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Glad its an SSD, but I think that the size of your swapfile may still be problematic, given the amount of memory as indicated by SPM.  My system, running at 3840x2160, routinely goes over 24 GB of total memory use, so your data transfers, even at your lower resolution, could still be slowing you down.  Search out the recommended swapfile size for 24 G of system memory, and set the min and max to that value.  I don't think that dynamic sizing is your friend.  A link, but a bit dated ( https://stepmodifications.org/forum/topic/5117-windows-page-file-and-skyrim-load-times/ ).

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perhaps a bit presumptuous, but you mentioned it occurring in exteriors... IF you mean places such as outside whiterun, and say the lag spikes when rotating camera to look around, you could be suffering from... grass

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42161

generate prebuilt grass cache, so the engine isn't stressed to build it in-game every time you look around... may still be some spike, but back when I discovered it, it turned my fps canyons into post-holes

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