Syrim SE FPS Tanks After a Few Minutes of Gameplay

[bingPop]

So very recently I've started experiencing a problem regarding Skyrim SE. After about a few minutes of playing the game (a fresh save), my FPS will literally tank from a stable 50-60 FPS to around 5 FPS. This persists onto menus, even when I exit back to the main menu and load a new save. This happens literally anywhere in the game; it's not just isolated to dense areas.

Alt+Tabbing the game, waiting a few, and then switching back to the game will temporarily remedy it for a few minutes before tanking again.

In addition, if I load a save in which I left off in an interior area, like a or a dungeon, my FPS remains stable until I move to an exterior area.

This is completely unique to Skyrim SE. Other games (Final Fantasy XIV, League of Legends, Fallout 4, Oldrim, to name a few) have no problems whatsoever.

* Load Order

* System Specs:

* CPU: AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core Processor

* GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (2 GB)

* RAM: 8 GB

* OS: Windows 10

* Resolution: 1920x1080 (Borderless Windowed)

* Things I've Tried:

* Trying a fresh save with identical mods.

* Restarting the computer.

* Lowering graphics settings. Even changing the settings to the lowest setting possible and completely removing my ENB still causes FPS to tank.

* Updating drivers.

* Rolling back drivers.

* Running Malwarebytes in case of a virus.

* Exhausting every suggested optimization strategy recommended on this subreddit's wiki.

* Disabling any new mods I activated in the time between my game was stable and its current condition. The only new mods installed were Ordinator SE, Apocalypse and it's Ordinator Patch, and 3DNPCs. I disabled and uninstalled these mods in every way possible, and despite being the most likely culprits, it made no difference.

* Organizing my load order with LOOT.

* Creating a Bashed patch.

* Reverting to Vanilla. This fixed the issue so it's very likely a mod-specific issue.

* Cleaning my computer. One common denominator I found on Google was that it was a temperature issue. However, even before cleaning and replacing the thermal compounds in my computer, my CPU never went above 65-ish degrees Celsius (according to Core Temp).

I've been at this for awhile already and I've yet to individually check every activated mod (it's floating around 100 mods so I want to set aside some time for this later), and I'd love to hear any suggestions at this point. NVidia Monitor doesn't show anything unusual in its telemetry (AFAIK).

Edited June 26, 2018 by bingPop

[3aq]

* GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (2 GB)

that's your problem. the game takes up a lot of vram. I'm at 8 gb vram and I still sometime struggle.

though, If you haven't already, try optimizing your game with SSE Fixes it may just be the thing you need.

[bingPop]

 

* GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (2 GB)

that's your problem. the game takes up a lot of vram. I'm at 8 gb vram and I still sometime struggle.

though, If you haven't already, try optimizing your game with SSE Fixes it may just be the thing you need.

 

Yeah, VRAM was what I was thinking too. But I didn't immediately blame it since Skyrim SE was running perfectly fine and stable since release up until last month. It might just be the age of the GPU or something but I just wanted a second opinion. Thanks

[tomomi1922]

I think it is more than just VRAM. VRAM is directly responsible for displaying things worth displaying on the monitor. You can be carrying 100 armors but in backpack, game doesn't need rendering, VRAM is not used for those 100 armors. Now if you start dropping them 100 armors on the ground, we have 100 items to render. Despite 2Gb, 960 is rather new. Not the latest generation, but it's not that old. And if you can play FO4, you can play Skyrim.

Let's just say if your computer is this old horrible piece of junk. Then you should never get 50fps then go down to 5-10 fps. That is not normal. Especially even the menu gets like that. If it is your GPU problem, I am expecting you to deal with reproducable low FPS. Like looking into a forest of dense grass, far horizon, you get 20fps .... turn your character around to face the wall (with nothing to render but the wall) you would get 40fps. This is a sign you need to lower some texture load, resolution, or get a new computer.

You said you are running Window Borderless, why don't you try full screen? Lower the setting to lowest, 720p. I am not suggesting you have to put up with this for real game play. I just want to eliminate the possibility of simply hardware limitation. My guess is, you still WILL get 5-10fps, which will prove there is something going on in the game beside "weak hardware".

Interior running perfect, exterior problem? Expected. Interior is much more stable for a few reasons: no worry about Grid load, no horizon, distance LOD. Very few interior locations will require you to render horizon and the sky. Hmmm, why don't you go to Whiterun. Are you having this problem inside the city? How about the top of Dragonreach? That balcony overlooking the outdoor (a fake outdoor). One of the theory is that uGridLoad is messed with, and LOD is messed with as well. My beefy computer system (much stronger than yours) is pulled down to 45fps for 2 main things: very dense grass, high-res LOD and 3D trees (high polygon trees). It also doesn't help I have max ENB setting with insane DOF and SSAO. The game was very happy at 50-60fps, then High-res LOD, grass, and trees came in .... 45fps outdoor.

[bingPop]

I think it is more than just VRAM. VRAM is directly responsible for displaying things worth displaying on the monitor. You can be carrying 100 armors but in backpack, game doesn't need rendering, VRAM is not used for those 100 armors. Now if you start dropping them 100 armors on the ground, we have 100 items to render. Despite 2Gb, 960 is rather new. Not the latest generation, but it's not that old. And if you can play FO4, you can play Skyrim.

 

Let's just say if your computer is this old horrible piece of junk. Then you should never get 50fps then go down to 5-10 fps. That is not normal. Especially even the menu gets like that. If it is your GPU problem, I am expecting you to deal with reproducable low FPS. Like looking into a forest of dense grass, far horizon, you get 20fps .... turn your character around to face the wall (with nothing to render but the wall) you would get 40fps. This is a sign you need to lower some texture load, resolution, or get a new computer.

 

You said you are running Window Borderless, why don't you try full screen? Lower the setting to lowest, 720p. I am not suggesting you have to put up with this for real game play. I just want to eliminate the possibility of simply hardware limitation. My guess is, you still WILL get 5-10fps, which will prove there is something going on in the game beside "weak hardware".

 

Interior running perfect, exterior problem? Expected. Interior is much more stable for a few reasons: no worry about Grid load, no horizon, distance LOD. Very few interior locations will require you to render horizon and the sky. Hmmm, why don't you go to Whiterun. Are you having this problem inside the city? How about the top of Dragonreach? That balcony overlooking the outdoor (a fake outdoor). One of the theory is that uGridLoad is messed with, and LOD is messed with as well. My beefy computer system (much stronger than yours) is pulled down to 45fps for 2 main things: very dense grass, high-res LOD and 3D trees (high polygon trees). It also doesn't help I have max ENB setting with insane DOF and SSAO. The game was very happy at 50-60fps, then High-res LOD, grass, and trees came in .... 45fps outdoor.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I did some further testing with my graphics settings, such as playing in Full Screen, lowering graphics, etc., and as you suspected the FPS drop is still occurring.

 

I also messed around with the different Whiterun locations. I basically entered the area, restarted Skyrim, and then loaded the save, once for in the town square and another time on the balcony of Dragonsreach. Just like the original post, I was able to maintain steady FPS on the balcony while the save that loaded into the town square had the expected FPS drop.

 

That said, I'm about to start individually checking through my modlist to try and pinpoint if a specific mod is causing it, since vanilla runs fine.

Edited June 27, 2018 by bingPop