Game slow - with SLI GTX 690s!

[mikemorton]

Skyrim is hard to play at the moment.

 

When I go to a new area, the game takes ages to load the textures, then I can carry on as usual.

 

This happens when using fast travel and also when travelling across an open area to somewhere further away.

 

Often the on-screen action completely freezes for a few seconds before it frees up again.

 

I have an FPS counter installed, and when the game is running properly I'm hitting 58 to 62 FPS.

 

I have a 27" Dell monitor at 2560x1440 and this certainly does not help!

 

I like to play the game with the graphical setting as high as possible.

 

If I select "low" quality then I do not get the time lag problem, but the FPS counter still sticks at 58 to 62 FPS, whereas I'd expected a high jump having dropped the settings.

 

My CPU is an old i7 960 overclocked to 3.8.

 

I have Skyrim installed with a mish-mash of mods from Nexus and Steam workshop.

 

I tried taking off all the mods then reinstalling my favourites one by one, but even with all mods removed the game still has the same problem.

 

I also tried starting a new game.

 

Whenever I add or take off a mod I always use TES 5 Edit to make sure there are no load problems, so don't think this is the issue.

 

What's going wrong?

 

CPU?

 

GPU drivers? I'm using the latest (314.22), but it doesn't seem to matter as the last three drivers have not made any noticeable difference.

 

Crysis 2 plays as smooth as silk, and the only other game in my collection that feels remotely sluggish is Far Cry 3 with the graphics maxed out.

 

Any ideas to get Skyrim working properly again would be fantastic.

 

The game is not unplayable, but having everything freeze for a few seconds on a regular basis is spoiling the enjoyment.

[FiftyTifty]

Try a defrag using Auslogic's disk defrag.

 

Also, give the mod "Optimizer Textures" a shot.

 

If you have enough RAM, you can download FancyCache and set aside some RAM to be used as a cache for frequently accessed files.

[mikemorton]

Thanks for the tips - I'll report back.

[DuskDweller]

If it doesn't work, make sure your CPU isn't over-heating.

[jeruk3]

Your framerate stays the same at low and high settings because you have V-sync enabled. You obviously have a monitor with a refresh rate of 60 hertz, which means it will limit your FPS to 60 if V-sync is enabled.

 

I recommend keeping V-sync on though, because if you take it off you could easily be getting 100+ and the game physics just flip out as soon as you pass around 100 FPS.

[Georgiegril]

Unless you use a framerate limiter. I would recommend you try setting a framerate limiter to 58, which would avoid potential issues with the monitor refresh rate.

[mikemorton]

OK, thanks all.

 

I have now installed and run Auslogic disk defrag, Optimizer Textures and Fancy Cache.

 

Unfortunately none of this seems to have helped.

 

I wonder if I've messed things up with adding/taking off mods over the past few months?

 

I really don't want to scrub all my gameplay unless I have to, but would an uninstall/reinstall help?

 

I can't think what else to do - or what I did wrong in the first place.

 

The game looks spectacular when it's working properly, but these slowdowns are really getting to me :-(

[Vanadinit]

And ofc if you have a slow HDD skyrim will load textures etc pretty slow. You could play with the SkyrimPrefs.ini to get a better performance and ofc a better view range.

Edited April 19, 2013 by Vanadinit

[Georgiegril]

Well there have been problems with SLI ad Skyrim. Have you tried forcing single GPU?

Also, driver updates sometimes change settings in buggy ways--have you checked to make sure you have the correct settings in your driver game profile?