If you have an AMD card and freesync monitor.......

[NilSatis]

2500k @4.6ghz Sapphire Nitro r9 390 slightly overclocked; 144hz monitor at 120hz with freesync on. 1920 x 1080p
Horrible stuttering in external environments with default settings: Solution (everything on Ultra in game) is to turn Freesync off globally via Crimsonand then keep the vsync option in the Skyrimprefs ini file on. Game is now locked to 60fps with no screen tearing and runs great. Hope this helps. Seems the default freesync does not work too well on this game and causes problems. Without it on it runs perfectly. Just remember to turn it back on for every other game that runs great with freesync.....sigh. :D
If you leave freesync on (with vsync off in skyrimprefs) and try to cap the fps using rivatuner or anything like this (at least with my experience) you will get horrible screentearing. This method seems to be the best solution. Let me know if this is the same for you. Monitor is 2770 g4 aoc on displayport.

[BuzzFahra]

R9 390 and 144HZ freesync display here. Don't need to turn off freesync in crimson. Just set the frame rate target control in your crimson skyrim-profile to 63 fps. this works well. disabling and enabling freesync is very inconvenient.

[NilSatis]

Changing the frame rate target control has nothing to do with Freesync and does NOT work at all. I tested this on my rig. It literally does not affect Skyrim at all for me. Latest version of Crimson. Thats why I posted this information, not sure why you are finding it any different but if you have left the ingame vsync in the ini file alone the game will be capped at 60fps anyway, so your "fix" does nothing.
The reason I suggested doing this was to stop microstuttering when freesync fights the double buffered vsync implemented. Test your way out by going into skyrimprefs.ini and turning vsync off. You will find that AMDs frame rate target control does not work. This is the same with many games, its pretty much absolutely useless.

[NilSatis]

Enabling and disabling freesync is done with a toggle in Crimson and is very simple. One toggle.....how is that inconvenient also?

[INSTG8R™]

Fallout 4 all over again...Freesync on locks FPS to 30...maybe worse than this but not surprised this has Freesync issues...kinda glad I missed the window on this one( short 2 DLC)

[NilSatis]

Yup ^^ Im not sure what this does with freesync on but its a mixture of frame timings going to hell and maybe fighting with the double buffered vsync so freesync gets confused as to what fps to put out therefore creating a stutterfest (which only seems to happen outside). Its amazing Bethesda has been making pc games badly on a technical point for so long. It really is.

With freesync off and rig that has the specs to run this, the game runs much better than the original with the in game vsync on so Im happy with that; and stays at a solid 60fps on ultra for me.

[BuzzFahra]

@NilSatis first of all it is inconvenient because you have to enable freesync every time you want to play a different game. VERY inconvenient. Not?
FRTC works very well on my system in the case of skyrim. Of course the algorithm used by freesync contradicts the algorithm of FRTC, this is obvious and the reason why you should not use freesync and FRTC at the same time. BUT for Skyrim capping the FPS reduces the Freesync-Flickering which many people are experiencing. Furthermore Skyrim is not optimized for more than 60FPS. No cap will cause problems for 144HZ users. And using VSYNC introduces nice input lag. So Vsync off, freesync on, FRTC set to 63 gives the best result atm.

[NilSatis]

Not every different game.....just skyrim. I.e. leave it on unless you play this. Its slightly inconvenient, but it works fine.

As for your solution; frame rate target control simply didnt work for me on this game (and I would say a large proportion of others either), with freesync set to off which is strange. This was certainly the case when I just tested it.

**This is obviously with vsync off in the ini file yeh?** --- otherwise you get a 60fps double buffered vsync anyway.....

Let me test with a reboot after checking this as although I dont find input lag to be a problem; it is there, so this would be good for me too, and would save turning freesync off as you say which isnt ideal.

[NilSatis]

Nope, this doesnt work. As I told you before, the game doesnt respond to any frame rate target control in AMD crimson inside the skyrim profile. I was pretty sure on this but just doubled checked by turning vsync off in skrimprefs.ini and activated freesync and frame rate target control. This resulted in fps of over 2000 in the main menu (so ftc isnt working) and horrible microstutter as before. Its not a working solution.

If you didnt alter the ini file then you arent affecting the double buffered vsync which is on by default mate. I cant see that this is working for you and noone else. (there are several other threads on here explaining that ftc doesnt work)

Are you doing anything differently?

Im not sure what you mean about freesync flickering...also (and this is a big point you dont seem to understand....) frame rate target control is designed to WORK with freesync. All it is designed for is a way to reduce power and heat draw by limiting fps. If you dont understand that, go and read up on what freesync does. The problem here is freesync is incompatible with this game. That fact remains.
The problem freesync causes in this game is microstuttering....not flickering!?

[BuzzFahra]

You know I can only tell you that:

iVSyncPresentInterval=1
freesync ON (range from 35-144HZ)
FRTC set to 63
(Vsync in crimson allways off)
gives me constant 60 FPS with no freesync-flickering, no tearing etc. Just nice and smooth performance. My display says 144HZ(freesync) in the OSD while playing. This is how things are for me at the moment. Honestly I dont care about the causes, I just want to have a stutter free gaming experience, which I get now.

[PR*DUCT]

G-Sync doesn't work either. Horrible stuttering with G-Sync on. I'm not going to bother testing the game with G-Sync off.

[INSTG8R™]

I am downloading it on a buddies account I will report back with my findings(Fury X/ MG279Q 1440 IPS 144 Freesync)

[NilSatis]

Originally posted by PR*DUCT:

G-Sync doesn't work either. Horrible stuttering with G-Sync on. I'm not going to bother testing the game with G-Sync off.

You will find that there is no screentearing with the included vsync option on, and no gsync/freesync. Since the game can only run at 60fps without physics going to hell above this, you may as well play it with no stuttering and good performance. Which you can. Unless of course you have a 60hz gsync monitor and leaving it as it is with no gsync gives you screentearing; which it shouldnt. Why not test it without it activated? Lol....no helping some people it seems. Should you have to do it? No....but unfortunately sometimes pc gaming requires tweaking...unfortunately.

Buzz Fahra im glad all that works for you; but i dont see how it can. Vsync in crimson will do nothing either way as is reserved for opengl games. FRTC also does nothing, you can test this yourself. Freesync simply messes the frametimes up...so you get 60fps and horrible stuttering, at least outside. Did you get that far? Anyway, Im glad it works for you. For me the solution is simply turning freesync off, but as we all just want no stuttering, am happy that works for you man.

Possibly capping the fps using something other than Crimsons frtc and freesync together may also work; as the original suffered badly from microstuttering until you picked a locked fps in something like rivatuner.

[BuzzFahra]

FRTC and locked FPS via RTSS gives the same result. And FRTC is working very well for me, in every single game. It locks the framerate at the number I put in, so my GPU stops producing 1000fps in some "low-level graphics" games. Or even in ♥♥♥♥♥♥ optimized game menus....

[NilSatis]

Go to skyrimprefs.ini. Edit it and set the vsync to off. Then try your FRTC. It does NOT work......it also does not work in many games. In theory it does what you suggested, but unfortunately does not work for many games. You are seeing 60fps as you havent altered the ini file. If you do alter this then I guarantee it will not work. What it also does not do is sync the frames to your monitors refresh rate like vsync (or freesync does if it worked in this game). For that reason its completely useless in this situation as it cannot and will not eliminate microstutter and the like. You are aware of vsync and what it does yeh?

Please test and come back as there is nothing possible that can be different to make your rig work in this way with this game. Simple as that really.

As another note, If you lock framerate via rtss to 60fps on this game and try to use freesync there is screen tearing. I cant believe you have actually tried this on this version of the game as you will see exactly the same results. There are a number of threads about it. Your machine will be no different.

[BuzzFahra]

If i set FRTC to 80 fps, I will get 80 fps, if I set FRTC to 90 fps I will get 90 fps (as long as my gpu has enough power). If I disable FRTC and CHANGE NOTHING else my fps fluctuate between 60 (sometimes lower) and about 100 fps. Again, freesync is working fine. And I use a 144Hz monitor, so VSync will limit at 144 fps, not 60. The game runs ♥♥♥♥♥♥ smooooth and I am very sensitive about this.

I just started the game with iVSyncPresentInterval=0. Freesync is NOT working. But FRTC IS working. I get constant smooth 62-63 FPS (that is my frtc setting) outside with absolutely no tearing or microstutter. Thats how it is. I cant tell you more