Skyrim occasional frame freezes/skips

[leftisthominid]

I have an FX 6300 (stock speed), GTX 760 2GB, and 16 GB of DDR3-1866. I've noticed since I built my computer in March that sometimes my screen will freeze for a fraction of second. I don't know the word for it, but it is like a frame skip. This generally occurs while moving, I think it might be related to the game loading stuff in the distance, but I am not sure.

Does anyone have similar problems.

 

[Vynavill]

Are you playing with any mods? Feels like a VRAM issue

 

[leftisthominid]

In terms of visual-affecting mods, I have Bethesda's official 2K textures and CBBE bodies, but nothing too intensive.

I am away from my desktop right now, but I will try to run around in the game and figure out if there is any consistency as to where the skips occur. The only other game that I have that has the same frame skips is AC Unity, but that is a completely different story.

 

[Vynavill]

CBBE actually IS intensive...it features more complicate skeletons (more bones) and better meshes. Multiply that per each human female character that may or may not pop-in on screen (yes, it'll load each model singularly) and you have a good cause to those stutters, albeit not the only possible one.
Still, with 2 GB VRAM you should be ok, even with the official HD Texture pack.
As a little extra step, get over the Skyrim Nexus and download the unofficial patches for the game, for the HD Texture pack and for any DLC you may have.

Another cause, now that I've got more time to think, would be a fragmented disk. If the game is installed on an HDD, defragmenting it can help a lot. If it's on an SSD, however, ignore the above.

 

[leftisthominid]

I was running around relatively flat, unpopulated regions of Whiterun Hold, and I was getting the frame skips. I have CBBE, but I don't have any of the physics extensions for it, just the basic package.

If I keep the camera rotating (third person), it will generally skip once during a single rotation. It has been doing this since I first built the computer, but I've just left it alone since now. I've defrag'ed recently.

The Steam fps counter stayed pretty solidly between 50 and 60 the whole time despite the frame rate issues. I will download the Unofficial Skyrim Patches soon.

 

[Archgaull]

I don't think your GPU is the issue, I'm running a 750ti, and I have a shit ton of mods including CBBE, SMIM, and all kinds of visual overhaul (W.A.T.E.R., ELFX, etc) and I get steady FPS with no spikes or freezes.

 

[leftisthominid]

I don't think your GPU is the issue, I'm running a 750ti, and I have a shit ton of mods including CBBE, SMIM, and all kinds of visual overhaul (W.A.T.E.R., ELFX, etc) and I get steady FPS with no spikes or freezes.

What FPS are you getting? I have been reading posts, mainly from 2013, bring up this problem over and over.

Some people say I should use iFPSClamp=60, but if my FPS are in the 50-60 range, then that would probably not be the greatest idea.

Another one was to change Distant Object Detail down from Ultra to High/Medium. I am going to try this and see if it works.

 

[Jacob Bowerman]

i used to get fps issues on some games, i simply just turned off v sync. thats what fixed it. hope this works!

 

[Vynavill]

@Archagaull
Yeah, with 2 GB and those mods it's not the GPU.
I was just pointing out that CBBE (or any other full-body mod) can actually be heavier than you can imagine.

Anyways, do try lowering the distant detail setting. You may have some slight pop-ins, but nothing too noticeable. If you have an unstable, 60 fps or lower framerate, vsync may be playing a role in this too; it may be slightly jumping from 60 to 30 fps when loading stuff up, giving that frame drop feeling.

For what it's worth, I'm starting to think it could be the CPU, although at the moment it's just a hunch backed up by nothing but personal opinion...

 

[Archgaull]

I don't think your GPU is the issue, I'm running a 750ti, and I have a shit ton of mods including CBBE, SMIM, and all kinds of visual overhaul (W.A.T.E.R., ELFX, etc) and I get steady FPS with no spikes or freezes.

What FPS are you getting? I have been reading posts, mainly from 2013, bring up this problem over and over.

Some people say I should use iFPSClamp=60, but if my FPS are in the 50-60 range, then that would probably not be the greatest idea.

Another one was to change Distant Object Detail down from Ultra to High/Medium. I am going to try this and see if it works.

Depends on the area, but typically around 40-50, with everything on Ultra.

 

[leftisthominid]

i used to get fps issues on some games, i simply just turned off v sync. thats what fixed it. hope this works!

@Archagaull
Yeah, with 2 GB and those mods it's not the GPU.
I was just pointing out that CBBE (or any other full-body mod) can actually be heavier than you can imagine.

Anyways, do try lowering the distant detail setting. You may have some slight pop-ins, but nothing too noticeable. If you have an unstable, 60 fps or lower framerate, vsync may be playing a role in this too; it may be slightly jumping from 60 to 30 fps when loading stuff up, giving that frame drop feeling.

For what it's worth, I'm starting to think it could be the CPU, although at the moment it's just a hunch backed up by nothing but personal opinion...

Turning off vsync would be more annoying than the frame skips. My framerate generally varies between 50 and 60 fps. The thing is/was that the Steam FPS counter would not even register the frame skip and stay constant in the 50-60s* (and people who reported this issue on the Steam forums/elsewhere; e.g., https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/537722/fix-for-skyrim-frame-rate-drop-problem-so-called-stuttering-or-hickup-/?offset=9, http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2618437).

I turned down Distant Object Detail to High, and it does seem to help with the stutter. I had a single weird case where I had a total frame rate dip down to like 14fps (the likes of which I'd never previously seen), but that was after loading a save made while I had the "iFPSClamp=60" setting in my ini file; after that I restarted the game from an earlier save before I messed with the ini, got attacked by Blood Dragon with giants and mammoths nearby, and did not have a stutter. I will test it out some more, but for now it seems DOD was the culprit.


*If I go into the heavily populated place like Solitude, it may drop into the 40s but not for long.

 

[Archgaull]

Also, are you using ENBoost to allow more RAM to be used? If not, I highly recommend getting that ASAP.

http://wiki.step-project.com/ENBoost