Hey fellow elders scrollers

I am just trying to figure out as to why there are so many people having issues with PS3 and Skyrim.

File size sure sounds like it is the problem but why do some not have any issues with file sizes and some do? Something else is interupting the game and causing it to lag or else everyone would be having the exact same issue which is not the case.

SOURCE! I am 36 hours into the game. My file size exeeds 9000kb, I had lagging issues only when autosave was running. Auto save is now off and my game runs as smooth as ever, even when it was on the only time I would lag would be when I enetered a city and the autosave was well saving. I dont have any framerate drops. Only minor bugs, very minor bugs like some small textures taking a little long to load and pop ups, but that is an easy fix.

Another save option that Skyrim has is the multiple autosave features, so it saves automatically every 15 min, or whatever time you set it too. I think this is causing alot of issues. It will cause the game to lag at any point when autosaves are not expected by the user. You could just be wondering around in the forest and it lags, your not expecting the autosave, so it may just seem like lag from something else?

In theory this makes sense to me. As the save file increases the PS3 needs to work harder to save bigger files and in turn causes increased lagging.

This is just my theory, I dont not know alot about computers and how things work but this makes sense to me. All I am trying to do is help out some fellow gamers who at the end of the day have the same goal. To play Skyrim how it is meant to be played and enjoy thier time immersing themselves into the greatest game ever.

" A good theory is one that can stand up to other theory's trying to prove it wrong"

So what do you guys think?

Even after turning off the autosave every couple hours it has been dropping frames pretty hard. I've got to the point now that if it drops below 20 fps for a period of over 10 minutes I turn it off and wait a while before playing again.

How can you tell what your fps is? Do you run a program that shows you or are you just going by feel? Im just curious because I would like to know what mine is.

Also there is still another factor leading to this problem, maybe more. Why dont I have these problems, If it were just save file sizes everyone would have it, maybe in the production of the game itself? There is more to it than save file size I just know it.

It's likely that file size is a necessary but not sufficient condition to run into the problem.

What's likely is that after you've done enough "stuff" the in-memory representation of the world will get into some kind of state that either results in a memory leak or some kind of recursive and/or infinite processing that grinds the system to a halt.

While impossible to tell for sure I kind of suspect the "Radiant A.I.". I'd love to be able to see the difference in people/factions interacted with between people who experience the problem and those that don't. I'd imagine that it would be possible to have a fairly large save file size and still run the game fine until you hit that sweet spot of people/faction interactions the games trying to keep track of.

The processors in a PS3 are powerful enough to launch a thousand rockets to the moon and back. No problem on processing power. This sounds like a memory leak issue. You do something in game that ends up creating some bad/useless arrays in memory. Gets worse over time. Game autosaves or you save and when your PS3 reloads the save file, the computations restart using the bad data. Probably goes into a loop calc that gets out of hand and you see it as lag. If PS3 could not handle a ~9MB game save file from local disk, how would it be able to handle a ~15GB game being transferred from a BluRay?

If its a memory leak like that, then the best way to avoid it would be to:

• start new character
  
• only save manually (disable autosave, this is optional and has nothing to do with anything other than usually less processes happening = more stable)
  
• on the hour, save game and shut off the PS3 for a few mins to let RAM clear
  
• restart game and repeat on the hour save process

When they release patch to fix this, then resume your main character. This is just theory, take it with a grain of salt. Feel free to point out any and all errors, as I am no expert. I just know enough to be dangerous sometimes and make really idiotic comments at other times.

My brothers computer runs LoL at around 15 fps so I base it off of that. Anything under 20 starts to feel choppy. Anything under 10 is unplayable. Anything under 5 is like a slideshow. I still think it has to do with how much stuff the game is trying to keep track of and the cache that eventually builds up over a couple hours of gameplay.

Just a question, don't flame if totally dumb, but what is your firmware version? I remember the latest firmware 3.73 was not mandatory, so I'm guessing not everyone has it. Could the new firmware cause any trouble that an older one probably wouldn't?

I am having the lag issues like so many others. I'm only level 11 with about a 6mb save file size. Autosave is currently on.

I started the game on my 120 GB Slim last week but moved to my 500 GB Fat two days ago. My save file was much smaller when I was playing on the Slim but I do not remember any significant lag/frame drops while playing. The Fat, on the other hand, is extremely laggy and has gotten worse with time. I will move back to the Slim tonight and see if I am having the same issues.

Also, someone else mentioned this in another post, the world map is where the majority of the issues occur. In dungeons or buildings it doesn't seem to be as bad.

I'd say it was an issue with the PS3s RAM limitations but if From Software can pull off Dark Souls with NO glitches, lag, etc. certainly Bethesda can do the same...

Guys (Bethesda), pick up the phone and call Naughty Dog, Santa Monica Studios, Polyphony Digital, Insomniac, From, etc., anyone really, and figure out what YOU did wrong. You guys (and gals) have made one of the best games I have ever played. Please let us see it through to the end and be able to fully enjoy it.

you know that is another possibility. there might be a fundamental flaw with the PS3's ability to manage memory. I noticed lag playing Dragon Age Origins after long time. I would play the game for couple of hours, then friend called to meet up for lunch. I left the game running but didn't get back for 8 hours (we ended up drinking, ha). Game was laggy as hell. Same thing with Gran Turismo 5. Running the b-spec 24-hr endurance races, I would leave the system to on while I did whatever else. Afterwards, the game felt sluggish through the menus.

If the issue is with PS3, then it would take more than a patch to solve the lag problem and Sony would have to be the ones presenting a solution. We'll see what they find...

...hopefully the solution is not "buy the xbox version."

memory leaks are the issue. The more you play the more memory leaks pile on.