Is my hardware the issue?

[kennymcg1995]

I've had Skyrim since release. I didn't have any issue with it until the 1.5 patch. Now, I'm getting random CTDs. There's no lag, no stuttering, no warning whatsoever. The game just shuts down as if I killed the process, without an error message or anything. For a while I assumed it was caused by some mods that I have, but I really don't think that's the case anymore. The majority of my mods are either armor/weapons sets or quests, which to my knowledge should have absolutely no effect on my regular gameplay. The mods I have installed, besides the armors and quests, are (mods with a * I had successfully used well before experiencing crashes):

 

A Quality World Map*

Auto Unequip Arrows

Beautiful Whiterun

Better Horses

Casual Bow Animations

Categorized Favorites Menu*

Deadly Spell Impacts

Enhanced Blood Textures*

Expanded Winterhold Destruction- Ruins

Fhaarkas Font Replacement (SkyUI)*

Shadowmere Retexture

IMAGINATOR

Immersive Skyrim Thunder*

Improved NPC Clothing*

No More Blocky Faces*

Proper Length Arrows

Shadow Striping Fix*

SkyUI*

SMIM*

Ultra Realistic World Lighting

W.A.T.E.R. - Realistic Water and Terrain Enhancement*

 

The thing is, my video card should be able to run Skyrim extremely easily. I was playing with all setting on Ultra without any lag before Skyrim 1.5. Now, however, everything is set to medium or low, and I still get crashes. It doesn't really happen in any specific area or in any specific instance. I was messing around trying to see what the problem was, and it actually crashed while I was in 1st person, standing still, with no NPCs around. Other times, I could be fighting a couple dragons with a few guards running around, while having fire and ice and who knows what else exploding around me, with no lag or any stuttering. My only guess now is that it could just be that I need a new processor. My current specs are:

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 255, 3.1 GHz Dual Core

GPU: nVIDIA GEForce GTX 465

RAM: 4 GB

Motherboard: Biostar A770E3

 

I can play both Crysis games, Battlefield 3, and all sorts of other games on high to max settings with no problems whatsoever. Am I just unlucky? Should I just wait for the 1.6 update and see if that helps at all? Thank you to whoever decides to read this whole thing. I appreciate any advice you can give me.

[RitualBlack]

Your hardware looks just fine. I would just make sure that your load order is proper. Patch 1.5 caused me to CTD around 4 times so far. Before that I may of had once CTD so my guess would be that the problems are mostly Bethesda related and there is a small chance it could be your load order.

[Illiad86]

Run BOSS just in case. Load order can make a huge difference. Other than that, 1.5 has caused a few CTDs for me too.

[kennymcg1995]

Thanks guys. I did a clean install of Skyrim, re-added all my mods, BOSSed it, and now it runs so much better than it did before! I'm on High graphics settings, and I can even run some texture packs, as well as Lush Grasses/Trees with no issues at all. I don't know it I had old files from a mod that NMM didn't get rid of, or if BOSS really changed that much. Thanks for your responses!

[RitualBlack]

Glad it worked :happy: .