100% CPU Usage?!

[Insane]

I have played Skyrim for over 180 hours without any performance issues whatsoever. I'm running an AMD Phenom 2 940 Black which is quad core 3 gig. Recently within the last day or two, the game starts using 100% CPU and stuttering very badly. I have all of the DLC, and the mods I am using now, I have been using for 4-6+ months. I haven't installed any new mods or patches for Skyrim, and all my other games run and perform just fine with maxed out settings. I'm wondering if anyone knows what might be causing this, or has a similar problem. Thanks.

[Crossbow]

It might be due to save "bloating" what size is your save game and how much RAM do you have? Also, run an AV scan to be safe.

[Insane]

Latest save is 14.2MB, I'm running 8 gigs of ram. And I do have an up to date AV, I doubt that is it anyway as I said, all other games seem to be running just fine D: According to my performance monitor, I'm only using on average 20-30% of my system memory while running skyrim. This is why I'm so confused that it seems to be maxing out the CPU for no reason..

[BoPacker]

Perhaps you should try another chipset driver. It may or may not be relevant, but is worth a try.

[Insane]

I'll probably try that as a last resort after I see if anyone else has this, or knows what causes it for certain :)

[Magneo]

An interesting test would be to move all your saves to a backup folder, move your Skyrim.ini & Skyrim pref ini to a backup folder, then run the 'verify integrity of game files', followed by running the launcher and select 'default' under options. Start a new game & check CPU usage.

[Crossbow]

Make sure your drivers are fine, also. 14.2MB is a pretty large save game, as you play through, it remembers where every item is in the world, so pick up stray cabbages and sell or eat them and gradually lag should decrease, (I am not talking about only cabbages, pick up and sell or use any stray items in cities like buckets or in the open world) Many people have problems because of the bloating of save games.

[Insane]

Thanks guys. I think I nailed down the problem though. It seems as though whenever I minimize the game, and then restore it, Skyrim begins running in a "windowed" mode, even though I have done nothing to make it to so (it all looks the same, full screen, etc). It seems that restarting the game to remove this state returns performance back to the normal levels I expect. I feel fairly derpy for not realizing this was the case sooner, but I very rarely minimize my games. I hope this helps anyone who maybe has the same thing going on :)

[SuggestedBowl]

I minimize my game constantly, it has a completely different issue, when I go back to the game I have to alt-tab from it to it in order for it to continue working properly. Someone should report these bugs to Bethesda so they can fix it.

[The Rock God]

Publicado originalmente por SuggestedBowl:

I minimize my game constantly, it has a completely different issue, when I go back to the game I have to alt-tab from it to it in order for it to continue working properly. Someone should report these bugs to Bethesda so they can fix it.

That's been a part of Bethesda games for years.

[Kiya]

I just use the steam overlay in-game browser rather than minimising the game whenever I can, as minimising can cause all kind of texture and performance glitches.

[Twinmold64]

What graficscard do you have?
Ps: Skyrim requires a quatcore cpu to play the Game on very high graficsdetail.

[Cptn. Black]

Try verifying the gamefile cache
Also, try loading a really early save or starting a new game - this should indicate if it is your save file or not

[Insane]

I have a Nvidia 470 GTX OC.

[Rorsen]

I see this again and agian you have an AMD *facepalm*

[Russian Hacks]

well AMD rules