Quote from bethesdas ps3 faq


PS3 TESV requires ~4.5GB for stored Game Data and an additional minimum of 8MB of HDD space free for Save Data.

Bethesda knows that that a big save file is normal. I think the issue lays somewhere else.

What? My save is approaching 9 MB.

It says a minimum of 8MB, so above that is normal I guess.

Don't quote me as I might be wrong. I have a alot of framerate issues too, I'm just trying to suggest some ideas to why this is happening

I really think some disks are faulty...

My friends save file exceeds 7mb and he has no problems whatsoever.
My save is at 3.5mb and i have no lag... BUT, the left side of the map is broken for me.
I cannot access it in any way.
If i use a carriage from Whiterun to any of the Northwestern Cities i will arrive, but as soon as i start moving the world is gone...
Like really missing, unfinished u know... And if i try to run across the line where there's no world anymore i get a message"U can't go there" and i'm stuck. Have to reset PS at this point.
If i travel on foot from Whiterun going west everything goes fine, until i reach the point of Fort Greymoor, past that point the game starts to stutter like mad, then the world will dissapear and same stuff happens.
Tried completing the Dark Brotherhood questline, everything goes superb, untill i exit the Abandoned Shack, which lies in the western part of the world, gameworld goes missing, game starts stuttering till it hangs and have to reset PS.
Whenever i wanna go to the western parts of the map this happens, game keeps running superb as long as i don't cross the line past Fort Greymoor (vertical line across map from that point).

Tried 3 different times, 3 different new games... same stuff happens all over again past same points...
No matter how far into the game i am, no matter how large my save file is, no matter which level i am...
Nothing matters, just when i go to the western side of the map game crashes...
I even tried at the start of the game, get to Whiterun ASAP, do nothing else, and take a carriage to Soltitude or Morthal or Markarth...
Same stuff...

Interesting, but what causes the framerate drops and stutter then if not save file? Overheating perhaps? Since the game runs perfectly (for me atleast) for a few hours before the performance starts coming down. Any ideas?

I have no idea, and the only thing that helps for me is to reset the PS3 every 3 hours or so. So that rules out overheating for me.

Just couldn't imagine what resetting the PS3 does to help :/

Memory consumption. There appears to be a memory leak which consumes all of your system's RAM. After a few hours this bucket fills and performance takes a dive. When you shut the PS down for a few minutes it clears the RAM.

^ It clears the Memory Cache. In fact just exiting Skyrim and loading a different XMB app, Browser, Vidzone or TV App will do the same job.

I said this in the first lag thread and I got trolled to hell, just switch off your PS3 for awhile and it will be ok.

I don't think anyone flamed you for saying this seems to work to address the problem. It was your insinuation that this framerate problem is caused by people who play too much and should go outside more. Shutting the PS3 down every few hours isn't a fix, it's a Band-Aid.

Good to know. But can you explain what a memory leak is? Or what could be causing it or how to fix it?

I'd like to know all I can.

Also is there maybe a way to stop your PS3 from caching memory in the first place? Or would this make the game unplayable?

There is absolutely nothing you can do to fix it. It would require fixing from Bethesda. In layman's terms, a memory leak is a "hole" in the code where data is being written to RAM unnecessarily. The issue is it could be very had to identify because the problem doesn't happen to everyone and it could be caused by something as obscure as a combination of carrying a specific item in inventory while using Whirlwind Shout.

On the PS3 there can't be a 'memory leak' in it's true sense, at least not like a leak on a PC. The consoles finite resources sees that this can't happen.

What is actually happening (although unproven and only a 'best guess' at the moment) is that the Cache the game uses, which is made up of 256mb GDDR ram, 256mb XDR ram, 512kb of L1 cache and 256kb of L2 cache on each SPE, is eventually becoming full as the game continually writes and overwrites the information stored in the combined cache.

In layman terms, the game fills and empties the cache continually as you move through the game, the problem is that a portion of data never gets deleted/overwritten and this remains resident in the memory, unfortunately as the process continues (as you play on) more data 'gets stuck' in the cache, eventually filling it completely thus preventing new data being written, which COULD be why the lag/stuttering is evident after prolonged periods of play.....for some people.

If this is the true issue, then the save file size, while it is a good indication of the data that's required to be streamed though the cache (i.e the larger the save file the more data being tracked by the game) it is actually not the cause of the problem.

Sorry for the boring tech-babble.

I did notice that some bodies of fallen foes remain in the terain even if you leave that place, go somewhere else and come back.
Maybe that's an indication that your theory is correct!
However why doesn't it happen to everybody since we are all using the exact same hardware and buffers?

Yep, i'd like to know too. It has been stated many times that differences between slim and fat PS3 are minimal. Only "better" thing the slim has is the "new" (read:smaller) CPU, but it still has the same clock speed i think, so the problem should occur on all models. So, the question is: is it possíble to fix this by patch? Because i know that the game runs smooth, it would be f*cking terrible if Bethesda didn't address this. Are memory leaks fixable?

I don't know know how long dead bodies lay around before they finally disappear. In my game 2 guys died about 40 minutes into the game and when I checked at 19 hours they were still laying there. When I went back at 25 hours they were finally gone.

I've heard that cells reset themselves at the In-Game month, so unless people are resting/sleeping a lot, quite a few bodies and items can be littered about. It'd be probably wise for Bethesda to separate the reset and the cleaning action... have bodies and items disappear after a couple in-game days. Have things respawn and reset at a longer interval.