Skyrim Special Edition very unusual frame rate problems.

Ritchie1988

Commendable
Jun 16, 2016
20
0
1,510
Hi everyone :)

Like a lot of people, I was looking forward to the free Skyrim upgrade, but I'm having some really weird problems frame rate wise when running it, and I can't for the life of me figure out what is causing it. Firstly here are my specs (of which exceed the recommended requirements):

GTX 960 4gb
12gb RAM
Intel i5 6500 (skylake)
Windows 10

For performance reference I can play other titles such as Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Hitman on HIGH settings with averages between 40-60fps at 1080p. And the original Skyrim at a locked 60fps in all situations. So my system seems to be performing on par for it's mid range spec.

But with Skyrim Special Edition, basically my system can run it for the most part at 60fps, with maybe a drop to the 50s in heavy combat on Ultra setting which the game suggests (with med godrays and shadows as I like some wiggle room and auto detection in games often lie!) but then out of nowhere the frame rate halves for no good reason, and also appears to stutter between high and low fps in any area it was once 60fps a few seconds before. Settings make no difference, I can putting everything to low and make the game look like Morrowind (slight exaggeration lol) and the fps still randomly halves all the same, in areas where just a second ago was 60..

The only cure that works 90% of the time (I say 90% as sometimes I reload and the frame rate has still crashed) is closing the game and restarting. At which point my genuine fps is back to what it should be. But then a few minutes later it goes awry again, forcing me again to close it to fix the issue.

I have never run into an issue like this. So if anyone could shed some light I would be most appreciative as I want to properly start my new Orc character haha!

Thanks in advance! :)
 
Solution


I basically had similar issues with...
After many hours of trawling the internet and messing about I found out it was Bethesdas own in game Vsync causing the issues. Which can't be adjusted by normal means because exceeding 60fps kills the games physics. Anyway, I disabled the games built in vsync in the SkyrimPrefs file (the one in the Skyrim game folder in "mygames" and not the identical one in the steam apps folder) but setting "VSyncPresentInterval=0" in the said file, and then turned my own vsync on using Nvidia Control Panel with a profile specifically for Skyrim Special Edition. Worked like a charm and now getting no stutter 60fps. Hope this helps someone else out there rather than keeping it to myself now I've fixed it! :)
 


I basically had similar issues with Fallout 4, the game Skyrim/FO4 engine is pretty wonky and definitely showing its age.
 
Solution