Need Help - Sudden and constant drop in FPS.

[ExecutorDill]

Hi everyone. As the topic name says, I'm having some trouble with Skyrim (Dawnguard installed, no Hi-Res Texture Packs) right now involving FPS.

 

About 4 hours ago, I could play Skyrim at around 50-60 FPS, indoors and outdoors. However, after I shut down my computer for about a half-hour and restarted Skyrim, I found that it was now playing at around 27-30 FPS constantly no matter where I go. This FPS drop affects all of my saved games, and starting a new game does not have any effect.

 

I didn't install any mods or video drivers prior to restarting my computer. However, I did edit the SkyrimPrefs file to include these settings:

 

SkyrimPrefs.ini
[Display]
bForceHighDetailGrass=0
bGrassPointLighting=0
bDrawShaderGrass=0
bForceFullDetail=0
bDoTallGrassEffect=0

 

I'm not sure if this would really do anything to cause this effect. I also tried to toggle player control (bringing up the console and typing tc while the player was selected) during an unresponsive event in redwater den, after drinking the skooma there.

 

I tried fixing this problem by restoring the old SkyrimPrefs/Skyrim .ini files, with no luck. Then I tried to re-verify the integrity of the game files via steam, which had no effect either.

 

I also note that when I bring up the SkyrimLauncher and hit the 'default" button to auto-detect appropriate video settings, it suggests that I use "medium" settings. Before this incident, it would always suggest "high" settings.

 

Does anyone know what could have caused this, or what I could do to fix this?

 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

I have a Dual-Card setup. After opening the computer to ensure that everything was connected properly, I then switched the monitor input to the second video card. This appears to have rectified the problem for now.

Edited February 16, 2013 by ExecutorDill