Skyrim On A single Core runs Awsome

[wuffser]

OK I've done absolutely EVERYTHING in my power to stop my stuttering issue. (It popped up after my update to 1.7+dawnguard from 1.6):confused:

 

Fps boosting, uGrids, Background clock control, overclocking gpu, lowering resolution on small objects, lowered settings, limit fps, force vsync, turn off vsync, enable/disable/change vertex processing, and countless others. Even did a clean install played it as vanilla with no patches or mods, Runs infinitely better, apply patch stuttering :wallbash:

 

I get very spazzy load times (Ranging from a few seconds to a raging 3 minutes on the same area with or without ALL mods disabled), stuttering framerate. From 30-40 outside, 60-50 inside (fraps isn't helping as benchmarks keep saying I should be getting 58 on average) to an abysmal 10 outside combat, 3 inside combat. (Doesn't matter outside or in combat chugs). All number of fixes only solve the problem temporarily delaying the inevitable stuttering brigade. Very rarely am I able to play for several hours with no stutters. (In fact just a week ago I managed to complete the entire main quest without any framerate hiccups, even though the ratway crapped out on me again never happened in 1.6).

 

But recently in my frustration I played with WTM open checking processor speed. And I noticed something interesting. Every fps drop is represented by a spike in processor speed, usually between 10-16% increase in cpu usage. I also noticed that not all my cores are being used. when the game is on only 2 processors show a marginal increase in speed, but the other 2 show practically nothing. I messed around with it's priorities, nothing. But then I started to mess with the number of cores. Just for giggles I set it to one core just to see how slow it would chug (And even if it crashes).

 

It didn't it ran at a solid 30-35 on medium (Inside or out) with no stuttering whatsoever :psyduck: . Of course the first core was at 100% but it ran flawlessly. Added 2 cores still ran awesome but ran into small stutters on heavy processing areas. Tried all 4 stuttering came back with a vengeance.

 

Could it be because I'm using a dual core with 2 virtual processors? Here are my specs

 

Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120503-2030)

Video card: Intel HD Graphics 3000m 2gb dynamic Video Memory 1.76gb available

System Model: Aspire 5750-6842

Default Resolution: 1366x768

BIOS: InsydeH2O Version V1.19

Processor: Intel® Core i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz overclocks to 3.0

Memory: 4096MB RAM DDR3

Available OS Memory: 3948MB RAM

Page File: 2320MB used, 5572MB available

Windows Dir: C:\Windows

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

User DPI Setting: Using System DPI

System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)

DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled

DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

 

Tried cpu-z it says I have 2 cores but 4 threads is that normal?

[Patrick2me]

I'm not very PC very knowledgeable when it comes to how the hardware works, so I can be completely wrong on this. I think Skyrim is a 32 bit program. Generally 32bit programs don't use more than 2 cores. So my guess is Skyrim wasn't designed to run on more than 2 cores which is why using 4 cores would hurt performance.

[Blu02]

The virtual cores are called Hyperthreading on Intel processors, and there are very few games that support it even slightly. This is mainly something that rendering-software make use of. So it's completely normal that they are not being used in this case, but only your two physical cores. Turning Hyperthreading off can solve a lot of performance-problems in games as well, so it doesn't really surprise me that it "fixed" your problems. I had it turned off in BIOS on my previous i7 920 CPU for 3 years too because it caused some serious stuttering in Arma2 :P

 

But it's odd that you're getting better performance with one core instead of two. Could be if Skyrim is simply badly optimized for mobile CPU's. Stuttering and crappy loadingtimes in Bethesda's games are most often caused by slow harddrives though, or ones that are in great need of defragmentation. Huge games like Skyrim are always recommended to install on an SSD or RAMDisk, if possible. Makes a huge difference.

[devilrejected]

I didn't know you could run Skyrim on a single core when minimum specs call for atleast a dual...

[Blu02]

I didn't know you could run Skyrim on a single core when minimum specs call for atleast a dual...

 

"Minimum specs" aren't necessarily exactly what you need to run the game, but what the developers can guarantee it will work on. There are always exceptions and ways around it. Wuffsers CPU is still identified as a fairly modern Sandybridge though, not a stone age single core P4 or something alike. So the architecture is still supported by the game, no matter the amount of cores activated.

[FalmerBane]

Would have to have seen if my nearly 7 year old AMD FX55 CPU (OCed to 2.9 Ghz) would have run Skyrim but the motherboard is toast and I refuse to spend nearly 200.00 on a left over socket 939 mobo...

[wuffser]

Hyperthreading? Hmm I guess I'll have to look into that. I haven't modified my bios since I reset my computer to factory settings. Maybe I should try that.

 

But I've been playing with my settings for a while and I managed to rid myself of the stuttering for a little while. At least until I go to a new location anyway.

 

Another strange thing, my load times suddenly skyrocketed, even though I've started a new game with different set (But unchanged in total number) of mods. Hmmm. :confused:

 

I might have to go in and change a few things. Particularly with my visuals and ENB settings(Recently added). As I am getting a whole host of artifacts on mountains, and my interiors are as bright as day if not brighter. :mellow:

 

I'll come back when these are properly applied.

[wuffser]

OK. First off the option was unavailable in the bios. Did a little googleing and found the msconfig method. Surprisingly it worked the game isn't spassing as much. The stuttering still percists in large areas but that I can live with.

 

Funny thing is I'm getting a steady 30 - 20 fps in large areas no matter what setting or load distance I set it on all sliders could be maxed and the frame rate neither goes up or down. Another thing load times suddenly skyrocket and sometimes loads very quickly even if I go through the same set of 3 doors (That go in a circle BTW large, medium, small). I'm going to have to mess with my settings AGAIN just to figure out the setup that worked for my last complete run through of the main quest. :wallbash:

 

Also still haven't solved the bright as day even at night buildings issue with my ENB settings. I might consider moving to a different preset. Reimagined ENB may not work for me.

 

Edit: I also seemed to have noticed that limiting to one or two cores reduced Windows.exes vram usage from 131,000kb to 30,000kb. Awsome. :dance:

 

But it also distableized core usage :pinch: skyrim STILL uses all 4 cores though with much more even consistency(Even when I told it to use one core :psyduck: ). I also disabled threading in all my features using skyconfig. Reduced stuttering severity somewhat.

Edited August 31, 2012 by wuffser

[Lord Garon]

Interesting. I ran the executable in Win98 compatibility mode (on an XP machine) for several months to reduce CTD and freezes. When I did so, only one core seemed to be doing anything (according to taskmgr) and it ran fine. I removed the compatibility flag a while back (forgot why) and both cores are used now with almost no speed improvement and many more freezes/CTDs.

 

Thanks for making this thread; gonna go back to Win98 mode and see if reliability improves on patch 1.6.

[wuffser]

ISSUE FIXED. No more stuttering!!!! :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:

 

YESYESYES!!! Finally got it fixed it runs a decent 30-40 in open areas and 50-60 in closed ones. Know all I need to do is regulate framerate.

 

I solved it by making my ENTIRE computer run on one core. Then set it to two and restarted. Know the the game runs smooth as silk. No stuttering when I change cells. Or even raise FOV. No more stuttering. No idea how changing the number of total cores in use fixed everything but whatever. :tongue:

 

Thanks for the support guys I'm going to play/test skyrim for the next 10+ hours and see if the problem is really gone.