Sudden and permanent drop in frame rate

[Chomerly]

Hi all,

 

I'm not sure how much this has been mentioned as i've read many different post an various forums where the issue that some people have could be attributed to various background tasks and the like.

 

This issue i think is a bit more different to descriptions i've read and as far as i know there is nothing i've seen that could be considered the cause of this issue other than when the 1.6 patch was released.

 

I've taken a small video using Fraps.

The video itself swallowed up 30 of the 60fps i was originally getting and so looks a little choppy from the outset.

When i leave the Mages College in Winterhold, the issue gets a heck of a lot worse (6 or less fps) and is permanent once it has started.

 

Just as an extra bit of info, i had Nvidia Inspector running in the background.

It shows the GPU load at 99% once the serious lag kicks in.

Previously it would go from 65% right up to 99% once the game has loaded the outdoor section and then drop down to around the 70% mark with spikes of 90% or less.

 

My setup is,

 

Intel Core i5 750 @ 2.67GHz (stock) + Corsair CAFA50 Air Series A50 Performance CPU Cooler

8GB G-Skill DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory

Nvidia 560Ti 1GB running at stock speed

Asus P7H55-M/USB3 mainboard

Creative Soundblaster Xtrememusic

Windows 7 64bit with all updates

1TB Samsung HD103SJ (boot drive with 86GB free)

250GB Western Digital WD2500KS (game installs)

250GB Lacie external USB drive (backup)

1TB Buffalo external USB (backup)

 

http://youtu.be/tZGBa0Bjn_8

 

All my drivers are up to date and the game is fully patched up to the current version.

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction in order to get this solved?

I so want to play the game without having to close the game and start it up again after every 10 or 15 minutes of play.

[Cyberlazy]

what is your load order?

[Georgiegril]

Did you follow this procedure for updating drivers? The old way can cause problems, including the driver not responding to changes made by NVidia Inspector, setting clock to max without your permission, loss accurate temp readings/control, etc.

 

Also, you can find a post that discusses the 301.42 drivers, there have been issues for some people related to the new drivers. The link I gave you also discusses proper rollback procedure (using the windows drivers functions no longer works, confirmed by both NVidia and MS.)

 

Beyond that, some of us have found that lowering your frame rate to 30 causes massively slow loads, but 60 causes stutter, so you might try playing with your fps. I use 33-35 and it runs faster for me than 60. (I don't have your card, so of course your experience will be unique to your system.)

 

Hope something there helps,!

 

Good luck!

[Chomerly]

what is your load order?

 

 

Not sure what you mean by that mate.

 

 

Did you follow this procedure for updating drivers? The old way can cause problems, including the driver not responding to changes made by NVidia Inspector, setting clock to max without your permission, loss accurate temp readings/control, etc.

 

Also, you can find a post that discusses the 301.42 drivers, there have been issues for some people related to the new drivers. The link I gave you also discusses proper rollback procedure (using the windows drivers functions no longer works, confirmed by both NVidia and MS.)

 

Beyond that, some of us have found that lowering your frame rate to 30 causes massively slow loads, but 60 causes stutter, so you might try playing with your fps. I use 33-35 and it runs faster for me than 60. (I don't have your card, so of course your experience will be unique to your system.)

 

Hope something there helps,!

 

Good luck!

 

 

If you mean uninstalling old drivers and then installing the new ones then yes.

 

I should have made the point that i haven't overclocked any of the hardware ever.

I used Nvidia Inspector to see what the load is on the graphics card when this stuttering starts.

 

I'll try limiting the fps to something like 40 and see where that leads. :thumbsup:

[Georgiegril]

If you mean uninstalling old drivers and then installing the new ones then yes.

 

Well, kinda but there are a few more steps, if you get stuck you might read through that link.

 

I hope the fps works for you!

[Chomerly]

If you mean uninstalling old drivers and then installing the new ones then yes.

 

Well, kinda but there are a few more steps, if you get stuck you might read through that link.

 

I hope the fps works for you!

 

 

Sorry but i didn't get a link.

 

 

Having just started the game up today, being the first time in a couple of days, this issue has started instantly.

I knew something was up when the game took a lot longer than normal to load and then when it did load up, the stuttered game play was immediately present.

 

I'm really beginning to get annoyed by this seemingly simple to fix bug.

It's beginning to distract the enjoyment of the game as a whole.

 

Many posts i've read seem to point towards the 1.4 patch and onwards being the culprit of this starting in the first place.

I can't ever remember having it prior to 1.6 so i may just uninstall the whole game and manually update it using a cracked update and play through the game for an hour or so and keep installing patches until i get this issue to manifest itself.

If i can do that then i can pin point the patch that causes it and then use the all but the cracked files to update to the game and stop steam from updating it any further.

 

The things we have to do to get a game working.

[Georgiegril]

click here for driver update info link

 

Load order (what cyberlazy was asking) is how your mods are loading into the game. If you use NMM there are 2 tabbed pages--- Mods and Plugins. Plugind shows the load order. However, if you have never arranged your mods then that could be the problem. You can use BOSS to sort your mods so they will load optimally.

 

Here is the link to BOSS It is not a mod, it is a stand-alone program you will need to load to a folder oor desktop manually. If you use the BOSS GUI option after you load. You can get a text file after you load them that you can copy/paste here. WHen you sort your mods, with BOSS, any that it does not recognise will be at the bottom. You will need to add them yourself by putting similar mods together (armor with armor, house mods with house mods, etc.)

 

Have you checked outSTEP? You might find some useful info there.

 

AlsoBBens blog is filled with fantastic troubleshooting, clear and concise.

 

EDIT:

I can't ever remember having it prior to 1.6 so i may just uninstall the whole game and manually update it using a cracked update and play through the game for an hour or so and keep installing patches until i get this issue to manifest itself.] Your game is legal? Not sure how you think this will help, sounds like it could make things much worse.

[Chomerly]

I should have mentioned in my first post that i don't have any mods or plugins for the game.

In fact, until i registered on this site i wasn't even aware that there were any mods. :biggrin:

 

Yes, the game is legal.

 

What i was trying to get at was if i was to uninstall the game completely and reinstall, i could use cracked updates for the game and not give Steam the chance to update it for me.

By doing this i can continually patch the game up to whichever version when this stuttering gameplay manifests itself and the jump back one patch.

I can then use Steam to verify the integrity of the game files and it will scrub any cracked files and replace them with the originals.

 

In theory, i should have a working game without this bug and perhaps i can play a good few hours without any hiccups.

[xoen]

open notepad, leave it in background, launch skyrim, when problem occurs try to alt-tab TWICE.

if it is gone, ask bethesda,

if not, and second launch of skyrim gives same very low performance,

it is gfx card driver crash(usually result of overclocking/undervolting/poor power source, or just overheat). you will not get usual performance without machine restart(or you may search for magical methods of restarting driver).

also, check dust amount on gfx card.

Edited July 12, 2012 by xoen