Does hardware spec/game preformance cause CTD?

[GoodfellowGoodspring]

I have recently reinstalled Skyrim and im getting random CTD in random areas, i had a problem with this before but i thought it would have been mod related. My PC falls under the minimum spec for the game but i can play the game fine enough, however would mass Npcs attacking me at the same time and lots of rendering at once cause CTD because my system struggles with the loading? I don't think ive had a problem with any other game with this, fair enough if my system isnt up to scratch lag all you want, but the game shouldn't just crash because it doesn't have enough resources to run.. it should just lag right?

 

I also CTD when using 'psb' in the console which is a new bug, so i either have two unrelated issues or have some mods giving me grief so im torn between the two suspects and where to look first so i can actually play a character which i know won't crash!

[bben46]

If you are already below the minimum spec adding mods will just make it worse.

A bunch of NPC will cause the sys to need more ram - when it runs out it cannot keep up and yes that can cause a crash.

 

First tune up your system - a perfectly tweaked game is still going to have problems with a poorly tuned system.

 

Here is a link to my troubleshooting blog.

http://s1.zetaboards.com/bbenlibrary/topic/4751769/1/#new

This is updated often so come back later for more.

 

If you use any of this and have some success - or even if nothing works - please post back here what you did that worked or didn't work. That kind of information can be invaluable to other members having the same or similar problems - And to me in fixing any problems in the blog.

[gsmanners]

Being under spec is no big deal. Just run the game in a 1024x640 window, put the settings at low. Crank the fades all the way down and add this to Skyrim.ini:

 

[LightingShader]

fEyeEnvmapLODEnd=0.0

fRefractionLODFadeEnd=0.0

fSpecularLODFadeEnd=0.0

 

Then type in "teofis" in the console when you open the game. That should give you decent framerate.

 

Random crashing is pretty much inevitable, no matter what your specs. In my experience, this game is somehow trashing Windows, as well. I've had to reinstall Windows for the third time just recently because of this.

[GoodfellowGoodspring]

I had no problems running the game and my main concern is having the textures on high because any other setting and it makes the game look terrible, after a bit of tinkering the game was stable but this time around it seems to crash in certain locations like it did before i fixed by old install.

 

I thought i had located the problem when i only activated the official DLC as no crash happened while using the 'PSB' console command, however i still had the random crash problem. So far, i have only found crashes near the location of my own mod, where i have up to 8 npcs attacking me so this could be down to a system overload or something. However the other crash point is in Ivanstead while talking to Boti and the game crashes because she starts her first line of dialogue, in the past, i had problems with CTD in Riften which i understand is a common problem.

 

As it is, i have been trying mods together to single out the problem mods and im hoping i will sort out the problem..

[GoodfellowGoodspring]

Just to close up this topic, i found it was the 'Footprints' mod which was causing me to crash, be it because it was a dirty mod or my PC couldnt handle the scripting which seemed to be running constantly.

 

Its nice to know that it wasn't the problems i had before and that my game wasn't broken! :)