Spontaneous (permanent) FPS Drop?

[Nyrolian]

Hello everyone.

So, I have a modlist and a current playthrough based on Legacy of the Dragonborn. Everything was working fine up until now, when I quit the game this afternoon to go do dishes. I was gone for, like, twenty minutes. And when I came back, BOOM, sudden frame rate drop. Interior FPS was noticeably decreased, and exterior FPS was downright unplayable, despite it working perfectly before. I went back to a previous hard save to see if it was a script or something, but now the game was lagging in places it wasn't before. I changed nothing between sessions. No computer settings, no mods, nothing.

The weird thing is this happened a few weeks ago. I lost my mind trying to figure out what was going wrong. In the end I deleted my mods, did a clean reinstall, re-downloaded everything, meticulously tested my load order, and finally thought that whatever it was had been resolved.

If anyone has any advice or something, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm not including my modlist yet, since it isn't too intense (no ENB, only physics running is for Cloaks of Skyrim) and it wouldn't make sense for something that my computer had been handling fine to suddenly be too much after a twenty minute break, so I don't know that it's necessarily a mod problem.

Computer specs;
Windows 10 Pro
11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.80 GHz
64.0 GB RAM (63.7 GB usable)


Thank you!

[Quevik]

From what it sounds like, I'd say it's not a problem with the game itself but with some background process. Many anti-virus programs will start scanning the computer if you are gone for 15+ minutes. And the 10/11th of the month is when i get windows updates.

I always keep windows task manage open 24/7. I'd say next time this happens you should check the task manager and see if anything else is using a bunch of ram, cpu, or gpu.

[4K_240hz_MLED]

no offence but without a dedicated GPU you're not gonna be able to run Skyrim that well even at lower settings. the only integrated graphics that even comes close to meeting the requirements are high end ones like Iris XE or RDNA2, and even then, you'd have to have very fast SDRAM and/or won the silicon lottery to get just barely decent performance out of those for newer games.

[arrak]

I have Low end patato with HDD's still. (Ultra - 4K monitor - 60fps with SSE)

As @Quevic said is probably the reason.

I have rules:
-No antivirus
-No updates
-Other Steam games updates turned of during gaming
-Steam Cloud turned Off
-Have a kill program that ... closes 20 active windows functions (not necesary) at
windows computer start
... that clears RAM and VR befor gamestart
... that kills "outside interference" - monitoring for that
-being "visable" on steam, causes heavy fps drop while "in game (not only steam
has cloud) ... so i took all measures to make me "invisable" ... Unfortunately even to
my buddies. But it works [those with "High en machines" are Not aflicted by visable]

Now my really low end machine runs at 100% Stable FPS. all games
With new games that has Fps drop on my old machine, but 100% stable fps

[SpeedFreak1972]

No AV ... ok that might be the issue I would suggest at least once in a while an AV scan

[arrak]

Originally posted by SpeedFreak1972:

No AV ... ok that might be the issue I would suggest at least once in a while an AV scan

When you are on Desktop only.
On your "pop up" bar on right hand side where your clock is. Next to your clock and
others, you will see a "triangle icon" (arrow)
Klik on it and a window of icons will show. Right klick on your AV icon there and
deactivate from there.
You might find some other functions there you do not need while gaming :)

[☂]

GL with your issue! Hope its fixed.

[Nyrolian]

Okay, so I've checked my background processes and nothing is running that's taking up a huge chunk of RAM, GPU, etc. I have Norton antivirus and ran that, which said nothing bad was detected. My Steam updates are turned off, but I always have Steam running in the background when I start up the program through MO2 because you have to. I went to my pop up bar and disabled everything I could, leaving only Bluetooth, Meet Now (whatever that is, I can't get rid of it), Windows security, Norton, and Steam.

Do you think it could do with low memory? Like, I make so much progress in the game and it saves that much information, and suddenly it hits a point where it's too much? Starting new saves doesn't help. My computer is at maximum performance, and doing things to increase FPS like taking graphic settings down doesn't seem to have an effect.

Any other ideas?

[SpeedFreak1972]

Low memory bloody unlikely I mean have have only 16 GB and almost never run out (at least not with SSE) unless you have a gazillion browser tabs open I doubt that's the issue.

[sdack]

Could also be over-heating. When the game only runs on the CPU and internal graphics then the chip might just get too hot. Especially when it does not happen right away but only after a while.

I would watch the temperatures and the clock speeds. When the temperatures get very high and the clock frequencies suddenly drop then the system is throttling.

Should this be the case then there are a few things one can do and check for. If it is a PC then keep it away from any heating. Do not run the heating too high, keep enough space around the PC so the air can flow through it without problems. If any changes were made to the PC then one should check the directions of the fans and airflows inside the PC so the airflows support each other and do not combat each other. Getting rid of any dust inside the PC is something that should be done once a year, especially in buildings with carpets. A robot vacuum that runs every two days through the house makes a significant impact on the dust building up inside a PC. When it is a laptop then keep it on a cool surface like stone or metal, and away from plastic, wood and textiles.

But it could also still be mods. Especially when playing with physics mods on a low-end machine just to have a cape blowing in the wind would this be the first I would get rid of.

[Nyrolian]

Overheating isn't the problem, because I turned off my computer last night and only booted it up this morning, stone cold, and my game still had horrendous FPS.

This afternoon I tried playing the regular vanilla game through steam, and THAT was running just as bad, too. None of my other games are affected. Just SSE.

Anyway, before I forget I want to thank everybody for trying to help and troubleshoot. I might just have to do another clean reinstall and try again. If it happens for a THIRD time, I think I'm just gonna chuck my computer out the window and run away to live in the woods as a crazy person, eating raw squirrels and mumbling strange nonsense words to terrified passers-by like 'bashed patches' and 'load orders' and 'it just works'.

[smr1957]

Originally posted by Nyrolian:

- snip - If it happens for a THIRD time, I think I'm just gonna chuck my computer out the window and run away to live in the woods as a crazy person, eating raw squirrels and mumbling strange nonsense words to terrified passers-by like 'bashed patches' and 'load orders' and 'it just works'.

And don't forget the shouting!

I was thinking the same as Quevik when I saw your post - a Windows update. I had one last week, and while it didn't effect the game, it effected some other things (I did a recovery restore to the date prior to the update, and whatever was causing the issue was gone - so it was something in the update). Anyway, good luck!

[sdack]

Originally posted by Nyrolian:

... to live in the woods as a crazy person, eating raw squirrels and mumbling strange nonsense words to terrified passers-by ...

Pro tip: you just have to move deeper into the woods when you still have terrified people passing by.

[Kal]

Is this using the Elysium mod pack? If so, I have the exact same issue. Otherwise, it could be a problem with one of the same mods you are using and that is also in the mod pack. The game plays fine for hours after a new game but eventually seems to get bogged down with major FPS drops.

[sdack]

Possibly because your reinstall was not as clean as you thought it might be? Make sure the entire directory is empty or does not exist before you reinstall the game.

[4K_240hz_MLED]

your problem is using mods for a laptop lacking dedicated graphics, and even if you do, Iris XE is pathetic even with you winning the silicon lottery. laptops with such a CPU typically don't even have dedicated graphics, and integrated is generally not reliable for gaming. Skyrim SE is a mainly GPU bound game, so that CPU is wasted lol. go ahead and ignore me then, you're just screwing yourself over with such weak hardware.

even if we were to assume you won the silicon lottery (top 10% btw) and/or have ultra fast SDRAM such as LP-DDR4X or DDR5, Iris XE Graphics at most would rival the GTX 1050 MaxQ or RX 550 2GB. that's pretty embarrassing considering that low end dGPUs like the GTX 1630 and RX 6400 are much faster than that, not to mention RDNA2 and M2 iGPU being just as or even faster than those dGPUs. without winning silicon lottery and considering the fact that your i7 is usually only with DDR4, you'd be lucky for the iGPU to even rival the GT 1030 GDDR5 or RX 540 lmao.

so you can reinstall the game as much as you want, but your system with a potato GPU is starving the game. since it's not CPU bound, you're just wasting the i7's potential sorry. and then you have the audacity to use mods, which would make the performance even worse for a system that doesn't meet the recommended GPU requirements smh. i know someone with a decent CPU similar to yours and also have 64GB RAM, but they have RTX 2060 MaxQ so they can run Skyrim SE no problem maxed out with mods.