How to play Skyrim at 120+ fps

How to fix the 120+ fps physics bug and disable the new 60 fps limit.

Find and open Skyrim's configuration files.

The configuration files are located in My Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition. Open Skyrim.ini and SkyrimPrefs.ini with notepad or your favourite text editor.

Adjust fMaxTime to fix the physics glitches

Add the following two settings to Skyrim.ini under [HAVOK]. This section likely won't exist by default, so you'll have to add it to the end of the file or inbetween two other sections.

The value for fMaxTime should be 1.0 divided by your target frame rate. I don't know if adjusting fMaxTimeComplex is really necessary, I didn't notice much of a difference while testing. It's set to 1/30 by default, so if you were to change it, set it twice as large as fMaxTime.

Make sure your target frame rate is realistic. If you have a 144hz monitor but your machine can only handle about 90 fps max, pick 90 as your target. The physics engine works properly as long as your frame rate stays within fMaxTime / 2 and fMaxTime * 2. If you pick your target too high, the game physics will feel rather floaty (and if it's way too high; gravity will stop working altogether).

[HAVOK]
# fMaxTime=(1.0 / fps)
# fMaxTimeComplex=(2.0 / fps)

# Default for 60 fps:
# fMaxTime=0.0167
# fMaxTimeComplex=0.0333

# Example for 144 fps:
fMaxTime=0.00694
fMaxTimeComplex=0.01389

Note that lines starting with # are comment lines, these have no effect on the game. You don't have to add these to your ini file, but they may be helpful for future reference.

Disable the 60 fps limit

Update 1.3 for Skyrim Special Edition introduced a frame rate limit at 60 fps, which is now enabled by default. You can disable it by adding the following option under [Display]:

[Display]
bLockFramerate=0

[optional] Enable v-sync

Skyrim's engine depends on a stable frame rate, and v-sync helps with that. Therefore I would recommend keeping v-sync enabled. If you do wish to change it, find the following line in SkyrimPrefs.ini:

[Display]
iVSyncPresentInterval=1

This controls the game's "present interval", the number of v-sync cycles to wait before presenting a new frame. A value of 1 is the default to enable v-sync (double buffering). A higher value means the game will wait longer before presenting each frame, effectively limiting the frame rate to a fraction of your monitor's refresh rate. To disable v-sync, change this value to 0.

Personally I like to disable the v-sync setting in-game, and force adaptive v-sync with triple buffering in the Nvidia control panel.

Troubleshooting

Still 60fps after disabling the frame rate limit.

Some players report that the bLockFramerate option only works when placed in SkyrimPrefs.ini.
Also confirm that your monitor is set to use a refresh rate above 60Hz. You can check this in the monitor's OSD menu. Skyrim may inadvertently change your refresh rate to 60Hz when launching. Try using exclusive fullscreen mode instead of borderless windowed, or vice versa. You could also try disabling the 60Hz mode in your graphics card driver's control panel, thereby forcing Skyrim to use the higher refresh rate mode.

The game physics are still glitchy

You may still run into some glitchy physics while playing, even using this workaround. There's simply no way to fix the entire game engine design by changing some values in an ini file. Still this workaround resolves most game-breaking frame rate related bugs.
Some players still report objects violently flailing around on certain quests (eg. the Civil War battles). If this hinders your progress or otherwise bothers you, a workaround is to temporarily re-enable the 60fps cap during these quests.

Issues with G-sync or Freesync monitors

I don't have any experience with these monitors. If you had trouble playing Skyrim with a G-sync monitor and found a way to resolve it, let me know in the comments and I'll add your solution to this guide.

[Dovahkiin]

Holy moly this worked perfectly! Started only playing Skyrim on my Steam Deck because 60fps just isn’t great on a 144hz OLED TV.

Set the values for 102-117fps and disabled V-Sync so my G-Sync works properly. It looks extremely fluid now and didn’t even have to use mods. Thanks for this!

[Casbob2]

I would add that the files are only .ini files, but they are located in different places. Either use Everything to search for them, or check the save folders and the main directory (important)

[Casbob2]

For everyone who, despite the SSE Display Tweaks mod and tweaking the skyrim.ini file, are still capped at 60 FPS, here's what I did: in ALL files containing 'skyrim ini' (Skyrim_Default, SkyrimPrefs...), add or modify under [Display]:
bLockFramerate=0 and iVSyncPresentInterval=0.
And it works! I don’t even try to understand why the mod alone isn’t enough

[rednael]

For 90FPS
[HAVOK]
# For 90 FPS target:
# fMaxTime = 1/90 = 0.01111
# fMaxTimeComplex = 2/90 = 0.02222

fMaxTime=0.01111
fMaxTimeComplex=0.02222

[Zontor]

I just want to mention if you want the game to always boot up with the higher refresh and not need you to alt tab change this in SkyrimPrefs.ini

Find this in that file and change it from 1 to 0
[Display]
bFull Screen=0


I did the math for 164 fps if someone didn't pay attention in school:

# Example for 164 fps:
[HAVOK]
fMaxTime=0.00609
fMaxTimeComplex=0.01219

[Niqquie]

@GD You guys are simply genius. Worked 100% Thank you so much.

[Zero-Fox]

I do not quite understand on 2 fronts. First, the math isn't mathing to me cause I just don't get it. And second, will this fix the frame stutter I've been having?

[Cody Green]

i GOT THE FRAME RATE TO GO TO 300 BUTTER SMOOD but now the npcs move like snails or turtles.

[Grand Vezir of Al Bahr al Ahmar]

@Pumanator maybe you have set the desired framerate too high ?

[Grand Vezir of Al Bahr al Ahmar]

@Epoh_ what happens ?