Save File bloating - severe performance decrease and stutters

[sonic16]

I found out that my main level 78 character causes awful stutters especially on fauna abundant planets. The performance while playing this character is also reduced by more than 60% when the wildlife around is alive. Furthermore, there is no bottleneck anywhere that I could see. I also checked the SSD i/o. Nothing. GPU and CPU have more room but the game just runs poorly.
Old char: 60 fps with drop to 30s:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3077502748
When I go to the same planets with a fresh level 4 character I have no issues. The game runs smoothly and the performance is maxed out.
Fresh char same conditions: 140 fps, smooth and no stutters:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3078448849
As you can see the difference in the performance is huge

The old save file weights 35MB and the new one is only 2MB.
The save file folder used to contain 10GB of data. I deleted everything except some most recent saves but it did nothing.
In order to fix my old character I tried to delete the only small outpost I had, all my ships and all inventories but still nothing.
I gave my fresh character all the skills through console but that didn't change anything.
So, the issue is not caused by skills or Items.
Could be due to quests or skill magazines or maybe the old save file is too bloated.

UPDATE:
Moved my save folder onto another ssd using mklink. The game still runs poorly.
Some people claim they don't have issues with their saves after hundreds of hours of playing. I tried some of theirs save files on my PC. They all create a significant performance decrease. Not as extreme as my original save file. My guess is that people don't realise that they have an issue due to a very slow performance decrease over very long time. I tough that the game was not optimised well until I created a new character.
I'm OK with loosing my save file if the issue can't be fixed because the save file was created before all the patches. But, I'm still unable to find out if by creating a new save file the issue will not reappear.
After all optimisation patches the game received it now feels unplayable. With a new character in places where the game runs smoothly at 140+ fps may main character save file makes the game run at around 60s with drops to 30s.

This thread is the following of my previous discussion : https://steamcommunity.com/app/1716740/discussions/0/3942399078929603173/

[sonic16]

Similar issue:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/16cc73e/sudden_drop_in_fps_in_starfield_after_20_hours/

[sonic16]

Another link with similar issue :
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/16hrh47/performance_stuttering_on_a_specific_save/

[sarcastic_godot]

That's your Starfield universe history...

...be calmed: it'll all get flushed once you take the big step onwards.

[kdodds]

I'll have to look at my save when I get home, but 200+ hours in on the same character and I'm not noticing any performance issues.

[sarcastic_godot]

Also @sonic16: You can try to disable Steam Cloud. That _might_ be part of the problem.

I got close to 60MB per file by now, and only when the game autosaves (or I save manually) there is a hitch. OK, potato GPU hiccups discounted... ...I'm not the super-rigger. But those only come as to be expected in certain known environments, like e.g. forests with a lot of fauna and flora. Then all that rendering and raytracing is a bit much for my 3060 Laptop voxel-cruncher.

[ch33353]

There is an old issue going back to at least Skyrim where overwriting save files or having multiple save files could cause the file size to balloon and drastically slow load times. Always saving to a fresh file and frequently deleting old files keeps thing manageable.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

This is usually a memory bandwidth issue and/or Cache missing. Save File Bloat has SOME impact on it, indirectly. You're basically seeing a referred symptom rather than the cause itself.

The thing is, because no two silicon chips are the same, your CPU's memory controller could be absolutely fine at handling the throughput, while another identical CPU part might have issues. Bethesda's Engine is very weird on the memory pipeline, unlike any other piece of software outside of Dwarf Fortress and AIDA64.

[sonic16]

Originally posted by suicidal_godot:

Also @sonic16: You can try to disable Steam Cloud. That _might_ be part of the problem.

I got close to 60MB per file by now, and only when the game autosaves (or I save manually) there is a hitch. OK, potato GPU hiccups discounted... ...I'm not the super-rigger. But those only come as to be expected in certain known environments, like e.g. forests with a lot of fauna and flora. Then all that rendering and raytracing is a bit much for my 3060 Laptop voxel-cruncher.

I tried to disable Steam Could but to no avail.

[AbientAle]

It's an old known issue from the creation engine/saving mechanics. It happened in F03/F04/Skryim for me a few times. Mostly in skyrim tho, I had to get a mod I think it was called Marts Debloater or something like that. It helped a lot in shrinking them down, mayhaps well get a debloater soon. nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8216/ Found it! Maybe someone clever could poach that mod and make it for Starfield?

[sonic16]

Originally posted by ch33353:

There is an old issue going back to at least Skyrim where overwriting save files or having multiple save files could cause the file size to balloon and drastically slow load times. Always saving to a fresh file and frequently deleting old files keeps thing manageable.

My game loads fast. No issues there. I found some people in forums saying that their saves where 200MB large and had no issues. My gameplay is impacted. I'm getting 3 time less fps with frequent stutters especially on inhabitable planets with fauna.

[sonic16]

similar issue : https://steamcommunity.com/app/1716740/discussions/0/3883848697080272574/

[billlcarr]

I'm experiencing the exact same thing. Somehow living creatures on some planets cause serious frame drops. Killing all the ones around you temporarily brings it back to normal, until more appear.

I didn't associate this to save bloat, but after reading your post, I remember not noticing this early game, but at the time, I chalked it up to being caused by the last update.

My character is level 134, and my save files are over 90MB each...

I've also notice I'm getting occasional CTDs on load screens now, after over 500 hours of no crashes at all.

I'm having a blast in the sandbox and honestly don't plan on doing NG+, so this is really concerning.

[AbientAle]

Could also try reading up on Fallout/Skryim bloat solutions, you may end up finding something on Reddit maybe? nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52363 This was also used to clean up save files with infinite loops/script issues, etc etc I forgot to mention, you can try the old dirty 'PCB' (Purge Cell Buffers) in console to manually clear cells, might work lol. Console will disable playtime & achiev. tho.

[kdodds]

Checked my saves, shy of 20MB. These are not large saves. Also, not noticing any issues.

[tokinkosh65]

Sad with modern machines that a 60 MB file would be an issue! I have 64 gigs of memory and PCIE4 SSD lol. Good thing Bethesda is not in charge of the Wow engine I guess.