Huge Stuttering and FPS drop!

[ebg2465]

I hope some of you might have some suggestions for why my game has begun to have major fps drops and stuttering. While I do not have the HD textures installed I do have several HD mods. This behavior is about 2 months old and with a lot of testing I can't find the issue other than having a completely vanilla game.

 

 

Here is my PC setup:

 

• Processor
  Intel® Core™ i7 2600K 3.4GHz/3.8GHz Turbo
• Memory
  16GB Patriot® Division2 G2 DDR3-1600
• Motherboard
  Intel® DP67BG Extreme USB 3.0, SATA
• Graphics Card:
  2x NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 570 2.4GB (SLI)
• Soundcard
  7.1 Channel High Definition Surround Sound
• Monitor Size
  27"

I play on high setting at 1920X1080.

Here are my mods:

Skyrim.esm
Update.esm
Dawnguard.esm
HearthFires.esm
Dragonborn.esm
ApachiiHair.esm
ApachiiHairFemales.esm
ApachiiHairMales.esm
Skyrim Adventurer's Tent.esm
AmethystHollowsMaster.esm
CLARALUX - More and Brighter Lights.esm
LevelersTower.esm
SPIKE.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp
Better Dynamic Snow.esp
SkyrimURWL.esp
83Willows_101BUGS_V4_LowRes.esp
ADV HB-Style.esp
AV1Dragon_Lords.esp
Bag of Holding.esp
BagofTrash.esp
Birdsofskyrim.esp
BLESSINGS - Altar Descriptions.esp

Book Covers Skyrim.esp
CalienteVanillaArmorTweaks.esp
Catsofskyrim.esp
Chesko_WearableLantern.esp
Dead Body Collision.esp
Dogsofskyrim.esp
Legionettes.esp
UnlimitedBookshelves.esp
Mannequins.esp
morevillageanimals.esp
Radiant and Unique Potions Poisons and BOOZE.esp
skyBirds - Airborne Perching Birds.esp
Auto Unequip Ammo.esp
Footprints.esp
RaceMenu.esp
RaceMenuPlugin.esp
SkyUI.esp
iHUD.esp
aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp
1nivWICCloaksNoGuards.esp
DemonHunterArmor.esp
DemonHunterV2armor.esp
DemonHunter_Scarf.esp
Divine Aegis.esp
Divine Aegis Sword.esp
Hawke Armor.esp
HeartOfThunder.esp
Insanity's Chrysamere.esp
Insanity's Pale Blade.esp
JoOsSkyrimKnightlyArmoryCheat.esp
LPotD Armor.esp
LpotDHorse.esp
Matys Mithril armor Enhanced.esp
Nicoroshi Creations.esp
Paladin.esp
RangerArmor.esp
Redguard Shield.esp
Mithril HD v1.2.1.esp
HeroicDragonscale.esp
Black Flame Red Dragonscale.esp
mhpenis.esp
dovahkiin_weapons_shield.esp
Set Campione Nordico.esp
GildedCarvedArmor.esp
RingsOfPower.esp
SacredRingofJeebus.esp
Shining Paladin.esp
svs L&M.esp
TriRings of Powers v1.0.esp
ERSO 03 - Mighty Dragons.esp
ERSO 03.3 - Mighty Dawnguard Dragons.esp
ERSO 03.4 - Mighty Dragonborn Dragons.esp
ERSO 03.5 - New Dragon Loots.esp
ERSO 04 - Mighty Odahviing.esp
ERSO 04.2 - Mighty Durnehviir.esp
ERSO 05 - Dovah Holy Book.esp
ERSO 06 - Wait More Time Dragon Encounter x3.0.esp
ERSO 07 - Mighty Dragon Priests.esp
ERSO 09 - Vendor Trainer Quest-giver protected USKP.esp
AmethystHollowsUpdate.esp

Breezehome_Fully_Upgradable.esp

Castle Riverwood.esp
DSAMG - Greybeard Fix.esp

ElysiumEstate.esp
Als Thunder Smite (SKSE).esp
easysmith.esp
Run For Your Lives.esp
When Vampires Attack.esp
The Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp
voidLetsGetNaked.esp
FasterHorses_Sprint_x1_5.esp
Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp
Headtracking.esp
LaFemmeLycana.esp
No Helmets Required.esp
posesivecorpses.esp
lessarrows.esp
RichMerchants.esp
SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp
Skyrim Unlimited Rings And Amulets.esp
VariousGuardReplacer.esp
Waterbreathing Breathless Emerge.esp
DawnguardDelayedStart20.esp
The Dance of Death - Ultimate Edition.esp
Sundys_Male_Presets.esp
UFO - Ultimate Follower Overhaul.esp
UFO - Dawnguard AddOn.esp
UFO - Heartfire AddOn.esp
My Home Is Your Home.esp
Reduced Distance NPC Greetings.esp
SpectralHordeSpell.esp
BFFAnimalCompanions.esp
Follower Trap Safety.esp
FollowerWander2.esp
Spousetocustomhome.esp
NoNakedComments.esp
Mystical Illumination.esp
Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp

JemWM.esp
WATER.esp
WATER Plants.esp
WATER DB Waves.esp
Blacksmithforge water fix Vanilla.esp
Blacksmithforge water fix DG.esp
Blacksmithforge water fix DB.esp
NPC_Overhaul_1_3_.esp
Follower_Addon_V2_.esp
00EricsFollowers.esp

I have tried medium and light settings they are each slightly better but not as much as they should be. And frankly with my system I should be able to play at high.

I hope some of you might have some suggestions.

Thanks,

EBG2465

[MShoap13]

Monitor your FPS and when it drops, alt+tab out and back into the game to see if it temporarily fixes it. If so, you're running out of VRAM.

 

SLI doesn't do a lot for increasing VRAM as all resources that get loaded to one card get loaded to the other. The only place SLI saves on VRAM usage is the frame buffer, because each card is only drawing half the scene.

 

There's a number of things you can do to reduce VRAM usage which will at the least, allow you to play longer before the FPS drop, if not, clear up the issue entirely. You can setup the game to disable Windows Aero and Desktop Composition, or you can grab GameBooster and set it up to close explorer.exe while you play (along with a slew of other background processes). You can lower some settings (AA is a big one; and if you were to add in an SMAA injector you may actually see better quality images with lower AA settings and less resource usage). You can use optimized textures, or optimize them yourself with something like Optimizer Textures.

[ebg2465]

Monitor your FPS and when it drops, alt+tab out and back into the game to see if it temporarily fixes it. If so, you're running out of VRAM.

 

SLI doesn't do a lot for increasing VRAM as all resources that get loaded to one card get loaded to the other. The only place SLI saves on VRAM usage is the frame buffer, because each card is only drawing half the scene.

 

There's a number of things you can do to reduce VRAM usage which will at the least, allow you to play longer before the FPS drop, if not, clear up the issue entirely. You can setup the game to disable Windows Aero and Desktop Composition, or you can grab GameBooster and set it up to close explorer.exe while you play (along with a slew of other background processes). You can lower some settings (AA is a big one; and if you were to add in an SMAA injector you may actually see better quality images with lower AA settings and less resource usage). You can use optimized textures, or optimize them yourself with something like Optimizer Textures.

Thanks MShoap,

 

I will try out your solution, but alt-tab doesn't seem to make a difference as it will happen again as I walk through a city or turn 360 degrees. Do you think it could be bottlenecking as it loads the background. I just don't know why it would do this with my system which should be more than enough.

 

EBG2465

[MShoap13]

temporarily

Thanks MShoap,

 

I will try out your solution, but alt-tab doesn't seem to make a difference as it will happen again as I walk through a city or turn 360 degrees. Do you think it could be bottlenecking as it loads the background. I just don't know why it would do this with my system which should be more than enough.

 

EBG2465

SLI doesn't do a lot for increasing VRAM as all resources that get loaded to one card get loaded to the other. The only place SLI saves on VRAM usage is the frame buffer, because each card is only drawing half the scene.

You're running out of VRAM. When this happens, Windows starts allocating system memory to the video card. For some dumbass reason, nVidia cards will allow the frame buffer to get stored in System RAM which causes it to have to run through the PCI bus twice.

 

You can push close to 3GBs of VRAM usage out of a very highly modded Skyrim with crazy AA settings and such (more with multi-monitor setups). You've only got 1280MBs (give or take; see the previous quote).

Edited May 5, 2013 by MShoap13