Game keeps drastically dropping framrate (I'm just apparently super bad at modding)

[bigglebojiggle]

So my game keeps dropping to a near freezing fps going from 60fps for quite some time, to 1 or 2 fps and never recovering.

From what I understand from my research, this says that I have far too many high quality textures and my graphics card can't handle it, I have a GeForce GTX 770 (2GB 256-Bit GDDR5) btw. But, looking at my settings, my pc is saying it has 4096mb total, 2040mb dedicated, 0mb system video memory, and 2048mb shared, should I look into increasing the total dedicated (or could I even do it)?

So I guess what I'm asking is how can I make sure that I'm not installing too much for my system to handle? Should I use Mod Organizer or Nexus Mod Manager?

 

*Additional info

Motherboard is an MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming

CPU is and Intel i5-4670 @3.4 GHz

Ram is 16Gb of DDR3 1600

 

 

Graphics card info: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=COCq9a67gMACFahj7AodAA4A4Q&Item=N82E16814133490&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Desktop+Graphics+Cards-_-N82E16814133490&ef_id=U@MUYwAABOGabEOO:20140807055339:s

 

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130692&cm_re=MSI_Z87-GD65_Gaming-_-13-130-692-_-Product

 

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116898&cm_re=i5_4670-_-19-116-898-_-Product

[lidowxxx]

First I'd check if it's caused by hardware overheating, download hwmonitor and leave it in the background and play the game for a while(preferably until your fps slows down), then check your CPU/GPU temp.

 

There is no way to increase your dedicated video card memory besides upgrading to a better one, 2gb video memory is sufficient if you don't install a lot of HD texture mods, 4k textures are overkill if you play the game at 1080p or lower, you won't notice the difference between them. Choose 2k or 1k textures when you find a mod to your liking, even then you can't install every HD texture mod you spot, if you are hitting the limit of your video memory, you will have either massive fps drops or skyrim will simply crash. You can monitor your video memory usage with GPU-Z if you are unsure.

 

There is another way to reduce video memory usage by compressing textures,  you don't lose quality of the textures doing it and it's highly recommended regardless your video memory size: Optimizer textures .  And with 2gb video memory, you might want to turn off windows aero too, it will save you a good 100-200MB video memory, leaving more headroom for your modded game.

 

About mod organizer and nexus mod manager, there is absolutely no competition, mod organizer all the way, it may appear less user-friendly when you are new to it, but it will save you a hell lot of headaches later on when you go hardcore modding.

 

[bigglebojiggle]

I've been using MO for a bit and I like it much more than NMM (NMM messed my game up).

I had a tree overhaul mod on (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3812/?) and turned it off today, I haven't had a single instance of the game stopping after close to two hours of playing.

I generally try to stick with 1k ,or on certain things 2k textures, it wouldn't make since to me to go higher since my TV is a 1080p TV. I also make sure to use stuff that isn't an ENB or at least I use a non ENB patch if the mod has one.

Heres what I have on now:

Project Reality

Realistic Landscapes 1k (Non ENB)

Ruins Clutter Improved

Skyrim HD v1 5 FULL Dungeons, Misc, Towns, and Riften (I think these are 2k)

Skyrim Ultra HD Texture Pack

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

Ultimate HD Fire Effects -Ultra Version-

Weapon Retexture Project

Vivid Landscapes - Birthsigns (Non ENB)

Vivid Landscapes Dungeons (Non ENB)

Skyrim Realistic Texture Overhaul Mountain - 1K

Enhanced Blood

and Realistic Lighting Overhaul

 

I've had no issues this last time playing the past hour and a half or so

 

On a quick note as this is the first PC I've built from the ground up, I was under the impression that a 2Gb GDDR5 card was really good (I was planning to get a second one and linking them together).

I'm not terribly sure what Windows Aero is, I'll have to give that a look.

I also made a back up of Skyrim immediately after redownloading it from Steam and copied the files back on the C drive and overwriting the files that were currently there, I remember messing around with one of the folders so I may have messed up something.

 

Oh, I also changed the allocated virtual memory to 5624mb (it's in the control panel, system, advanced settings, performance selection and that's what was listed as recommended) maybe that helped a bit?

[Rayblue]

 

Project Reality

Realistic Landscapes 1k (Non ENB)

Ruins Clutter Improved

Skyrim HD v1 5 FULL Dungeons, Misc, Towns, and Riften (I think these are 2k)

Skyrim Ultra HD Texture Pack

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

Ultimate HD Fire Effects -Ultra Version-

Weapon Retexture Project

Vivid Landscapes - Birthsigns (Non ENB)

Vivid Landscapes Dungeons (Non ENB)

Skyrim Realistic Texture Overhaul Mountain - 1K

Enhanced Blood

and Realistic Lighting Overhaul

 

 

4k everything is overkill. In most cases 2k is fine enough.

 

Also, an A8R8G8B8 .DDS file tends to consume more memory and processing than would a DXT5 or DXT1 .DDS texture.

[tenzan]

Things like duplicate light sources and emitters can drastically drop framerates. You can find these pockets if you just rotate your view in one direction or the other to check for the drop. On some custom zone mods, unoptimized or cluttered areas can cause a lot of problems. Personally, I've had issues with dumping too many crap items on the ground and crashing on load ins.

 

Make sure you don't have a hillside of watermelons spawned somewhere

[doomcat9]

your allocated memory is too little. your paging file should be at least 2X your RAM o:

also when your fps drops check gpu temperature.

GTX 770 is one of the best video cards on the market right now, even tho its a 7 series, its nearly on par with the TITAN on many levels.

you should not behaving this much trouble with your game.

1st disable a few mods and see what happens

2nd, is your cpu causing a bottleneck due to some malfunction? a lot of the times the cpu is the culprit due to over heating or other hardware issue. Intel i5-4670 @3.4 GHz is a good cpu but you never know.

3rd try doing an integrity check of the game are there any corrupt game files causing this?

4th does this happen in other games? or is it only localized to skyrim?

5th, use a software that can check your HDD health like these (https://www.google.com/search?q=SMART+tools&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb#channel=fflb&q=s.m.a.r.t.+monitoring+tools&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official), if your hdd is failing a I/O problem can cause lack of performance.

 

after that post here what you have found and we'll move on to the next steps

[LaEspada]

Most of the time I find that when you get FPS drops that are sudden and huge, it's usually a script misfiring over and over again.

Try using Save Cleaner to clean up bad scripts.

 

Your specs are better than mine and I run skyrim at 45-60 fps outdoors with an ENB.

[Shaydow]

Can I ask a question, is this happening when you move from one place to another or does it happen when your in the same world space? If it JUST happens when your out and about and what not, then ya, I have no clue tbh I didn't read that far, but I scanned through the reponses.

 

HOWEVER, if it happens directly after you load, I may know what the problem is, there is a workaround that does not require a full game shutdown and restart to fix, it does require 30 seconds of your time to apply each time it starts.

 

Alt tab the game. Make sure you have something open to alt tab to, I use task manager, but chrome or even an open folder is enough. Now try to open the game, but sometimes windows  for some people says fuck you and won't let you ( SOME people DON'T have this problem. I envy you guys, I DO, and MOST windows users do when trying to alt tab in Skyrim ). The solution to that is to HOLD alt THEN tap tab a few times to the same window you just tried opening but it wouldn't and is sitting there as a black windowed panal, and it will open again, and your FPS will be back to normal. You will have to do this every time your FPS bugs out.

 

No one knows why, it only happens to some people with Nvidia cards yet certain setups. Anyway this works for me.

 

Hope this helps.