Stuttering with Skyrim 1.6

[Krendog]

There's seems to be many bugs regarding setting thread priority for multiple cores after patch 1.6. I monitored my processor core usage, and I saw that it was only using 2 cores, whereas before the patch it was using all four of my cores. Correct me if I'm wrong in this. I found a way to help alleviate this problem by using my ENB profile and setting the following parameters:

 

ForceSingleCoreCPU=false

IgnoreThreadManagement=true

IgnoreThreadPriority=true

AntiBSOD=true

FixGameBugs=true

FixParallaxBugs=true

ForceFakeVideocard=true

 

The reason for "ForceFakeVideocard" is set to true is due to my having a ATI card. I asked Boris about this and he said it works better on some ATI cards, including my laptop's 6770M. Nevertheless I get stutters only ~5% of the time now with ~38 fps, which is pretty optimal in my case.

Would there be a setting to add into Skyrimprefs that could alleviate the game only using one core?

[ZeroKing]

@ Krendog

 

To do so, you need to set ForceSingleCoreCPU to true in the enbseries.ini but this fix is not available in Skyrimprefs.ini file since there are no workable parameters that the main game engine uses. It's a good game, but I found that the Creation Engine used in Skyrim is a flawed one that was not optimized for PC gaming.

 

The game runs smoothly in better processors, since the engine's main feature is the shadow rendering, which was allocated to the CPU. To test this, I had my girlfriend's computer (which was a laptop as well, with specs: i7 ~2.2 GHz (Turbo ~3.1 GHz) and a 6670M, compared to mine: i7 ~2.0 GHz (Turbo ~2.9 GHz) and 6770M) had greatly outperformed at ~44 fps, compared to mine at ~37 fps (same settings, same ENB, same location in the game itself, and no mods were installed in either machines). I heard from people on Nexus that this shadow rendering is indeed CPU-intensive and had little relation to the GPU. To decrease stuttering, you would be better off lower the shadow quality, since it's pretty bad to begin with. No expert here, however, it's only based on experience.

[Thoragoros]

Since the patch, I am getting huge stuttering problems, and random freezes at least 2-3 times an hour. If I try to use an ENB, the game simply will not load past the main menu.

 

Before 1.6 I was running Skyrim on a mix of High and Ultra settings, with zero stuttering or lag issues, except under the most 'intense' situations, and no freezes or crashes.

 

I am running on

8 Gigs of Ram

3.40 GHz Intel Quad Core Processor

1 Gig Vram.

 

Path 1.6 is the equiviliant of malware. Skyrim is now all but unplayable.

Edited June 20, 2012 by Thoragoros

[Mastata]

I stumbled across a possible fix, that helps if you're running a lot of mods (which are running a lot of scripts) : http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/633229-less-ctds-maybe-none

 

Simply put this in your skyrim.ini.

 

It took me a whole day but I finally managed to reinstall al my mods, gonna try a fresh game with that fix.

[LenaMarie]

Is it me, or the better your PC, the WORSE the performance is? How is that even possible?

[Mastata]

Is it me, or the better your PC, the WORSE the performance is? How is that even possible?

 

All configurations are different. Even with good specs you can have problems depending on many factors, like how your game is configured (for example if you push all settings to the max you have near-indiscernible changes that do consume more), how many mods you have, how much crap is running in the background, isolated bugs happening to a minority of configurations, etc etc.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Mastata

[cujo123]

Doesnt Matter how good your computer is when the game isnt "computing" properly LOL.

 

When the game can run a scene at near 60 FPS then dives to 1 FPS just because i "turned around" , then when go to desktop and back it runs the same scene again at near 60 fps... its not hardware, its the game. Period.

 

Ive had this problem basically since the beggining, but the FPS dive seemed to happen quicker with more textures, But after the 1.6 Patch (and no added textures) its easily 10 times worse lol.

 

How these things get passed BETA??? thats what id like to know...

 

Not to even mention the fact i barley crashed before the patch, and now i crash atleast every 30 mins. :(

Edited June 21, 2012 by cujo123

[ZeroKing]

I agree, the game's engine is heavily flawed, and I don't think that keeping the settings the same, and with very little mods should suddenly cause a huge drop in framerate, after the patch. I mean, as I mentioned before, I used very little amounts of mods, and I even went ahead and removed the Skyrim 2K Textures mods (which did not slow down the game before the patch update and ENB active), and suddenly after the patch, it dropped 6 fps. I assumed the patch would be compatible with texture mods, since the patch did not add any new textures (correct me if I am in error). After I removed the texture mods, I gain only 3 fps, which goes to show people that it is not the problem. Even after ENB is removed, fps stays at 50 max, whereas before it was at 60 fps.

 

I guess the developers are in a hurry to put out Dawnguard, they forget that you should be able to play the original game before a DLC, otherwise it defeats the purpose. I dunno, maybe buying a desktop is the way to go, besides as an engineering student, it's a worthy investment and get to play games more smoothly :laugh:

[Mastata]

With 0 mods, a new save, no custom textures or meshes, no SKSE, I still get random freezes, when engaging or during combat (and also a weird bug of twitching corpses). Gonna have to rollback to 1.5 and hope all the mods will be ok with that...

 

EDIT: Still the same freeze in the same situations on 1.5. Even tried uninstalling my graphic drivers and running with the default one but nope!

 

Last resort, backing up all skyrim folder and downloading all of it again to see if I didn't forget something with testing the mods.

 

EDIT: Conclusion of the story... Kind of feel like an ass... Apparently I forgot to try the easiest thing in the world: delete skyrimprefs.ini and skyrim.ini. An no more freezes with 1.6... /sigh

If you ever have some problem, don't proceed like me, start with the easy stuff :/

Edited June 23, 2012 by Mastata

[Fulmination]

With 0 mods, a new save, no custom textures or meshes, no SKSE, I still get random freezes, when engaging or during combat (and also a weird bug of twitching corpses). Gonna have to rollback to 1.5 and hope all the mods will be ok with that...

 

EDIT: Still the same freeze in the same situations on 1.5. Even tried uninstalling my graphic drivers and running with the default one but nope!

 

Last resort, backing up all skyrim folder and downloading all of it again to see if I didn't forget something with testing the mods.

 

EDIT: Conclusion of the story... Kind of feel like an ass... Apparently I forgot to try the easiest thing in the world: delete skyrimprefs.ini and skyrim.ini. An no more freezes with 1.6... /sigh

If you ever have some problem, don't proceed like me, start with the easy stuff :/

 

 

 

You say it fixed the freezing but what of the stuttering? I never experienced freezing but major CTD issues and when I say that I mean complete game breaking. For example, loading and crashing after my character takes 20 steps repeatedly. I was able to fix that with a fresh install/save which I am slowly installing mods back on, but the stuttering is still there in full, the game is all but unplayable in first person view. Now I could roll back to 1.5 and I'm sure everything would be fine, but what of the DLC coming? I haven't been paying attention since my game has been broken since 1.6 and my 1.5 save is literally unplayable. I imagine 1.6 is required for it? I have been following this thread for about a week now hoping for an explanation/fix since my troubleshooting skills are mediocre at best. I've tried everything listed short of the texture optimizer, and that didn't seem to help much with stuttering if I recall correctly. My questions are, this what do you all still experiencing major stuttering plan to do when Dawnguard comes out? Are you content to play with the stuttering? Keep in mind I'm just curious. I am not usually one to post unless I have come up with something but this whole clusterf*** of an update has me pretty fired up. Thank you for any feedback.