So, I am desperately looking for some advice here. I thought switching to all 1024px retexes (vs 4096px or 2048px versions) would help my situation, but it hasn't. Sometimes, for apparently no reason, my game just slowly loses the ability to continue. I'll get stuck basically and can't move anywhere, with looooong periods in between where I try to wait to let the game sort itself. Often I end up loading to a previous save because it gets ridiculous. I've tried closing all background operations, but this still will randomly occur - and it can be outside wandering or in a town. It starts initially looking like lag from an MMO on dial-up. Sigh. I also have the Win 7 3GB switch enabled properly using the IncreaseUserVA function for bcdedit; and yes, I rebooted after I set it.

BLEH. This is so very frustrating. Is this a common issue or is it just me?

My custom system specs:

AMD Phenom II X4 925 2.8GHz
4 GB DDR4 SDRAM
Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1GB DDR5 VRAM
1400x900 Display Mode
HDI ASUS Flat Screen, 19"

Am I just asking for too much from this card? Any and all serious advice about how I can improve my play experience appreciated. Thank you!

Your GPU is fine. So when you load a game, the lag stops, correct?

Try running the game in windowed mode, that has helped quite a few.

Yes, when I load a game, the lag stops. Although I may get herky jerkies sometimes. Usually I figure this is the landscape loading. But sometimes that doesn't seem to be the case because I'll be in a very fluidly moving location, like a dungeon, and suddenly bam! It usually happens when a combat is started by an NPC or mob, if I think about it, but can happen when I'm just walking along minding my own business. maybe I shouldn't run so much? maybe I should avoid trees? LOL. I'm just stumped here (pun intended - lol). When the lag hits, I just won't be able to interact at all and game will slow to 5 minutes between a portion of any action. For instance if I jump while it's having that problem, I may get to see a 1/4 of each part of the jump up every 5 minutes, and a 1/4 on the way down, 5 min between segments. It's nuts. usually i load a new game when this starts because I know it's hopeless. It really stinks when your last save was 5 -10 min ago. Have others been reporting this issue? Is it a known problem?

Also, a little side question... should my setup be able to support 2048x2048 textures or should I stick to the 1024x1024?

Thanks you guys. I'm just having a rough time here of it.

HI,...

Are you sure this is correct??...cant find a single card like this..

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 2.3GB DDR5 VRAM

That could be A Shared Memory Number. Not the actual RAM on the card.

I will venture a guess you have 1024 Ram and the game is filling the avaliable RAM up on your card ...

I watched this last night.. 99% GPU used and 97 % Mem used on my EVGA GTX 560ti when the Card is maxed like this is goes into serious lag . Doesent crash but you have to wait it out..lol

Get "SystemInternals" from Microsoft. Great suite of tools , the replacement "Task Manager" (process Explorer) is great. It will show you how much Ram is in use on your GPU and How much of the GPU is in Use. There is another Number you can look at and that is Shared Memory. When my card filled up, It actually BORROWED 244 meg of system Ram... and continued...without crashing.

Yes I put a 600 meg HD texture pack in to see just how much I could Stress my system....60 FPS and was stalled in place..?? Stutter fest.

Oops, you're right... 1GB of VRAM. Sorry. I'll update the first post.

Both your RAM (System Memory) and VRAM (Video Memory) are low. I had the same problem with the "Skyrim HD - 2K Textures" mod, the "Full" version of the mod, my VRAM was getting exhausted and Skyrim's engine likes to freeze / CTD when that happens. I use a mixture of 1024p textures for outside and >1024 for inside.

Also, if you're using Skyrim's Anti-Aliasing, try disabling it and switching over to FXAA and see how you like it. This will reduce your VRAM usage considerably. You can try using this in combination with "Adaptive Anti-Aliasing" found in the Catalyst Control Panel.

Well there's not much I can do about my system memory - 32-bit Win 7 can only let me play with 3GB max of my 4GB, with the switch enabled. I have thought about upgrading to 64-bit and getting more memory, however. Sigh. But yeah the VRAM is low... Too bad I can't upgrade the amount it without getting a new card. What would be a good card to play this game with? The 5770 is no performance increase. Would I have more luck if I got another 4890 and crossfired them? Also, does crossfire require the cards be by the same manufacturer - i.e. XFX with XFX, Sapphire with Sapphire, Diamond with Diamond, etc?