Unnecessary Skyrim lag

DaTechnoTaco

Reputable
Nov 12, 2015
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4,640
So I'm going to start off with my PC specs:

GPU: MSI R9 390
CPU: i5-4440
Motherboard: Dell XPS 8700 OEM
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600 Dell XPS 8700 OEM
HDD: 1TB 7200RPM Dell XPS 8700 OEM
PSU: EVGA SuperNova G1 650w

First off, all of the parts stay in comfortable temperature ranges(50-70 degrees Celsius). My 390 goes all the way up to 1060MHz when playing, so I don't think that there is a bottleneck anywhere. I have noticed that the GPU usage isn't constant. It jumps around a lot. I'm not sure if this is normal, but in other games it does the same thing and plays at 60 fps max settings.
I am only playing at 720p on an 22inch television through HDMI. I don't believe that this is the problem either. All of my drivers are up to date. I AM playing modded with enbs, light effects, etc. But even on the vanilla game with no mods max settings has lag. Just riding the horse carriage down to Helgen has lag. As soon as Helgen comes in to view, fps drops to 40. Same thing for Whiterun. I know that the game is buggy, so I just blamed it on the game. I installed things like SKSE and Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch, along with graphical mods like RealVision enb (performance) Realistic Lighting overhaul, Verdant for grass (I turned it down to min grass size of 85), water two, and Enhanced blood textures. The game ran better actually after installing mods, but there is some lag. It stays at 60fps with lag spikes. This is with all of the textures and shadows and such at ultra, with all of the view distance settings turned all the way down (I would really like to turn them all up). With the performane enb, I should be getting constant 60fps no lag with my hardware only running 720p! The most annoying lag spikes are in combat, when the game freezes for a second when I hit someone or use a spell. I've tried configuring the enb settings the best I can, and at this point I'm stumped. I've sorted the load order with LOOT, and cleaned all of the files that needed cleaning with TES5Edit. So I guess my question is, why can't I run the game smoothly with my hardware, and what can I do to fix it?!
 
Solution
Well, it's difficult with skyrim as it's always been so poorly optimized and CPU bound.
Give this a try, maybe you'll be in luck: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59305/?

Outside of that try these guides: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweaks-improve-graphics-disable-vsync-change-fov-and-more/
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#1

BUt, to be honest, i woudl rather play something else until the special edition comes out.
My Documents>My Games> Skyrim and look for SkyrimPrefs.ini. In that file change/add iPresentInterval=0 to the bottom of the [Display] section.
Then use Crimson's Frame Rate Target Control to limit the game at 60(this is because if it goes higher, teh phisycs in teh game go crazy)
 


Lag spikes still persist, also shouldn't I be able to max all the in game settings 60fps?
 
Well, it's difficult with skyrim as it's always been so poorly optimized and CPU bound.
Give this a try, maybe you'll be in luck: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59305/?

Outside of that try these guides: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweaks-improve-graphics-disable-vsync-change-fov-and-more/
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-tweak-guide#1

BUt, to be honest, i woudl rather play something else until the special edition comes out.
 
Solution