Skyrim M15x Discussion

I just got Skyrim and have been enjoying great textures and video quality. However, I am also experiencing FPS dips that I would say are more routine than reactionary events. I'd say out of every minute of gameplay I experience 5-15s of FPS dipping. I noticed that the dips are more inclined to occur when an NPC enters the FOV even when the NPC is not in LOS. However, even if I focus my camera on a wall I can see that the FPS dips occur periodically. To a certain extent it makes the game unenjoyable for me but it seems like there are my good sessions and bad sessions.

For troubleshooting I have attempted the following:

-Installed BETA Nvidia Geforce drivers 285.79 11/10/11
-Allowing TESV.exe to use <2GB ram
-Setting different OC settings for 460m
-Running Game with affinity settings...
**0123only
**01
**(All Processors)

It seems that the FPS drops are marginally less frequent with only processors 0,1,2 and 3 enabled. Also the FPS dip is not as low.

I run the game on either MED/HIGH settings however, I noticed that the symptoms are unaffected by any GPU Presetting. Anyone have any ideas?

I should also mention that this was also an issue for me with Battlefield 3, however I was able to correct it by changing the affinity of bf3.exe; there was of course a marginal sacrifice in avg FPS




M15x | Core i7-720QM | GTX 460m 1.5gb | 8GB DDR3 1333| 7200RPM 720GB

 

I really need another's input on this...
I feel like I've tried everything

 

have you checked to see if it's thermal throttling?
also if it seems periodic, i would check for viruses/malware.
also check to ensure virus scanner is not doing a background scan while playing.

 

I'll double check for viruses, guess it's not impossible.

I've been playing through it (sigh) and it seems to be affected by fire effects, and of course when there's a lot of activity on the screen. What seemed like a periodic occurrence might be brought upon by the frequent interaction with objects that glow or are on fire in skyrim's environment. However, using the Low, Medium or High preset for video does not help.

Still have the issue. More detail:

The FPS drop is not changed by the following video settings:

Lower Resolutions (lowest possible)
Shadows LOW, shadow-type features turned OFF
CPU Priority set to HIGH
using setFSB (or as i like to call "heartstopper")
OCing GPU clocks
Thermal Throttling
Malware Attacks
All of Nvidia's most recent beta drivers

Also, from my searches online I see that many people are having this issue. I think its due to the games improper use of newer technology resources (i.e. i7 processors) as reported by many players. I am hoping for a patch or something. Has anyone else experienced these issues and found a workaround?

I know that if i were to experience

Also,

More detail on the FPS drops:

Seem to happen more in underground areas, house, tunnels. Seems to happen when there are more things glowing. Does not matter what video settings are used. Seems to happen when there are NPCs deciding to attack. The volume of npc seems to be irrelevant. There are times when i have 4 or more npcs in LoS and the FPS is normal, and other times when it drops.

 

There's a lot of AI running in the background, your CPU is holding you back in those situations. I just checked with mine by locking the cpu at 2GHz, it runs a lot choppier.

 

hmmm maybe i should buy the 920xm

920xm should arrive tomorrow

 

I have an 820QM w/ Geforce 460M. Similar setup and results as you. Even in LOW graphics mode at 1080p I can barely pull 30fps in interiors. My wife's dual core Sony laptop with some crappy Geforce 1xx card runs about as well..

The game just appears to be optimized for crap. GPU usage sits at 100% consistently. I do occasionally see some throttling even with the A09 bios, but I can avoid that by locking the game's affinity to 6 or less CPUs.

Thousands of other people claim they are seeing GPU utilization in the 40% range with similar speed cards (desktop 260s) ... so I wonder if our 460's are missing an optimization somewhere.

 

I dont think so Juason because I had the 260m when i first tried skyrim and had the exact same problem.

OK -

I am just going to give the problem description and my specs. For both BF3 and Skyrim I have the same issue with FPS occur. Whatever triggers the FPS drop is unknown to me, but the symptoms between games are almost the same.

When I am playing either BF3 or Skyrim eventually my screen will flicker, like a black screen flicker, and then my FPS will drop down to like 20ish; it will remain like this for about 10-20seconds.

NOTE: This issue occurs on any video setting, any resolution. This has also occurred when I was using a 260m and an i7 720qm. Exact same symptom, different hardware and video settings.

Skyrim: The issue in skyrim is not as dramatic as BF3, the FPS drop is not as low and the duration does not seem as long. It has gotten me killed from time to time however.

BF3: The issue causes the game to be unplayable as my skill is seriously diminished when I am stuck in these FPS drop periods.

My m15x specs: i7 920xm; Nvidia GTX 460m, win7 64bit home, 720gb hdd, 8gb ram ddr3 1333

I have tried SO MANY THINGS, but I will just remain silent about my attempts. I want to hear some fresh opinions.

 

Completely remove video drivers then re-install latest drivers. Also. Make sure the game is white listed.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

 

sorry for sounding newb but... White listed? I don't know what this means

 

Run Throttlestop and GPU-Z in the background with logging active while gaming to see what is throttling.

 

yup its throttling because of the chipset clock modulation. >.> don't really know what to do about that - trying to find solutions from this link:

Throttlestop Guide

back in my day, games ran fine with the recommended requirements from the box!

After tweaking my multiplier to 13 everything is running fine, no FPS drops. However, atm i can only test skyrim. I am waiting to download the bf3 update; bf3 presented the worst problem. It will be interesting to see if it actually is suffering from throttling in the exact same way.

Just played through a few games on BF3, 64 player maps i might add.... Problem solved. I am a very happy user right now.

Thanks JohnnyFlash; your suggestion was key to me finding the root cause. I owe you a beer.

 

Happy to see that the problem was solved

 

Hey Bgreen! Good thread here. I am having issues with Skyrim as well. After about 30 minutes of gameplay, I start having frame rate issues. My fans are clean and I see no signs of overheating.

I have the 460m as well and am running the 740-qm processor. Is my processor holding back performance? Should I considering using the throttle stop program to increase multipliers?

 

Gertman, as JohnnyFlash suggests to me earlier; download GPU-Z and Throttlestop to use their logging features. I started with throttlestop, activated logging and then played skyrim, i waited until after 4 to 5 events of FPS drop and then opened the txt log to review the results. I could see that there were periodic segments of timestamps where the CHIPM% drops from 100.0 to 80.0-50.0; this was directly related to the FPS drop events. Once I read the throttlestop guide thread i used the 13x multiplier setting as the author recommends (for a i7-720qm) - I am not sure if a higher multiplier would be better for my 920xm but after experimenting it seems to be best to leave the multiplier at 13. Now after a week of playing both skyrim and bf3 i still experience the FPS drops but at a dramatically lower rate. I am still curious as to what is happening internally during the FPS events, so I continued reviewing the logs. I notice that the Throttlestop logs (basically the CPU logs) are fine. I don't really like GPU-Z logger, it seems buggy. So I simply leave the program open while running a game and then when I experience the events i'll alt-tab to GPU-Z and check the sensor tab since the performance history is reflected as a bar graph i can see visual representations of the performance on the fly. I am seeing that now when the GPU tends to run past the 78C mark, the card GPU% load goes over 100%, resulting in the collapse of my GPU clocks for about 4-10seconds during which time the GPU temperature temp begins to decrease. However, once I reached this temperature range the FPS events will began to happen more systematically. I am contemplating a thermal repaste. However, before I rip things open I have been surfing the web for more information on the GPU and its normal operating temperatures.

 

Wow, thank you very much. I will definitely do that then. I really would hate having a to re paste, but maybe temperature is the issue. Would dell do an in home thermal paste if still under warranty? If it could be proven that the gpu is indeed having temperature issues, perhaps they would do it for little to no cost. A little bargaining over the phone

 

I have the same issue, my friend with a Core 2 Duoo and a GT 220M runs better than mine. What gives?

 

REally? Even with the 2nd gen i7?!

 

Download gpu-z or HWiNFO and make a log while playing Skyrim and post it here so we can see what's really happening.

Applying thermal paste is a very simple process, but you might be able to get them to do it under warranty. I got a replacement card about 3 months after getting my system because my temps were in the 80's I knew it was time to repaste but didnt feel like it and they wanted to give me a new card... it saved me ~$10 at the time. Call Dell and just tell them that your card is overheating. When I did this they did some screen sharing thing... I don't know what its called. Anyways, they did that, ran furmark (LOL) and saw that my temps were somewhat high and ordered a new card for me. If they tell you that your temps are in normal range put the laptop on the couch or bed so that you're temps get higher and make them run another benchmark. I wouldn't even mention thermal paste unless they didn't want to do anything about the card.

 

Ok a couple of things.....

Anyone have recommendations on gpu loggers?

I am not too impressed with GPU-Z's logger...

I still experience the fps drops but not nearly as frequent. However, funny thing is when the first fps drop event occurs I will then begin to experience more events more frequently. So once again, I am back on the web sniffing out solutions...

For a second I thought it was due to high GPU load% avg at around 92%, with high temperatures acting as catalyst. However, I noticed that the events continue to occur even at low temperature range. For example, I start my laptop at around 49c, which elevates to 76-78C during gameplay. After 30-40mins the first even will occur. The temperature remains at a plateau 76-78C. Starting my laptop from 23C, gamplay 61-68C, 30-40mins and 61-68c with the first event occurring. After the first fps drop they will begin to occur about every 4-6mins. They always last about 4-10seconds. Not as bad as when i first started, but i am still encouraged to find more solutions.

I see other users on this thread experiencing similar issues. If you are not finding your answers directly here at the forums or other forums, then I encourage you to start logging your gpu and cpu performance with any of the suggested apps seen everywhere on this forum. Isolate the cause of throttling and explain your progress here - especially users using Skyrim as a baseline game to cause load.

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I just had a couple of questions for all of you M15x Wizs out there. I recently upgraded my original stock M15x, with an i3 dual core 370 @ 2.4ghz and an ATI Mobility 5730m to an i7 940xm @ 2.13ghz and ATI 6970M, courtesy of slv7's guide and my machine is working great I just have some minor discrepensies. I am running the 4gb mod, I use the console and type pcb, purge cell buffers, supposdely gives a couple frames when the PC is doing many computations and I did the gamepad from 1 to 0 mod. I get about 35-45 FPS outside, sometimes it goes down to even 30 running at 1920x 1080p, outside, but inside, I get about 50-60, which is great. Skyrim UESP says with my card I should be able to run it at max at 1080p no problems, but occasionally my FPS gets down to 30, so obviously this is not the case. Is my processor a little too slow? Could it be too slow? I tried OCing my 6970m with 12.1 CCC, and it was to no avail, I did not receive anymore FPS than my previous 680mhz speed. Also, my card is running at intense gaming, about 75-80C, is this safe? Should I repaste? I am using a bad laptop cooler, and two external fans, but should I repaste, or is safe? It idles at about 45-55C. In the process of getting a new cooler though. Thanks for your help!

Kazalor

 

The game isn't really optmized for towns, where you'll get around 20 to 30 FPS with Med/High settings.

What you can do is use this:
TESV Acceleration Layer at Skyrim Nexus - Skyrim Mods and community
and turn OFF the external shadows

With that, I get around 50 FPS in towns and a smooth 60 FPS everywhere else.

I hope this helps. Enjoy Skryim!

 

I haven a strange issue with this model and the game. For quite a while Skyrim was running great, no dips in FPS no glitches, no problems.

Then a little bit ago the game started running terribly, even noticeable at the title screen trying to move the pointer around. Getting into the game the FPS drops so bad that its unplayable. Updated all drivers and so on, cleared out cache and such and the game worked fine a little bit again. Alas a few days later the issue continued.

I have found a sure fire way to make it happen. If im playing the game and its working perfectly, but disconnect from AC to reconnect in a different location that will effectively cause the issue. Im un sure how to entirely shift it back to working normal as things ive tried in the past that seemed to do the trick arent doing it now.

Any thoughts from anyone would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like Stealth Mode activating. Press the Stealth Mode button twice, and the problem will probably go away. Freakin Stealth Mode(tm) often just activates randomly for me (i swear to god that it happens when the computer was booted with the PSU connected, and I didn't touch the button). So I've made it a habbit to press it twice before I start gaming.