So I have had many of the stuttering/framerate/freezing issues than many others have been having, and I have put up with it all game and just learned to deal with it, but now I'm I am seriously irritated.

After spending most of the game so far doing quests within the walls of Whiterun and surrounding areas, I decided it was time to leave and try something new. So I grabbed a horse from the stables and started heading towards Rorikstead to the west, and I swear, I can literally only go 5 seconds before the game freezes up for 10 seconds to, presumably, load. Ride for 5 seconds...freeze for 10 seconds. Ride for 5 seconds...freeze for 10 seconds. Rinse/Repeat/so on and so forth. My game save is only 3mb, I am playing on a PS3 120gb slim that has never had any issues playing any other game. Why the hell is this happening?

I have tried deleting/re-installing the game about three times now. Nothing. I have given ample rest time to my PS3 hoping it was just an overheating issue. Nothing. Anyone else experiencing this issue? Aside from all of the other stuttering/framerate issues, this one in particular is making travel/gameplay unbearable.

Mine doesn't stop for that long, but it does it just as often. I'm constantly stuttering now, 24 hours in around 4mb. My bet is the game has a memory leak.

Update: So I was wrong about the file size. It was just under 4mb, and now it is just a little over 4mb. I am having this issue everywhere I go now, making the game almost completely unplayable at this point.

Shame

My game stutters occasionally but I haven't had any bad issues at all.

This doesn't help anyone at all. Go away.

Same here, but I'm at 6 mb. When I use a shout, it stops for around 5-6 seconds. When running around, every 5 seconds or so it stutters. I can't believe the save game issue is STILL a problem.

I haven't either.

Nor do posts like this.
Can we all maybe try to stop misplacing anger for a moment and try to as a community to come up with some work-arounds until Bethesda fixes some of the reported issues?

We are aware that many people aren't having issues with the game, and that's great, but what is the point of informing us if it adds nothing of significance to the topic?

I have spent a lot of time going through topics hopefully similar to my problem on this forum trying to seek answers - only to find myself trying to filter out all of the people responding with "MY GAME WORKS FINE LOL" from the people who are actually having problems or are offering solutions to the problem. I am glad that many are playing this game with complete ease, but please, quit responding if you have nothing to offer in relation to the topic.

You're partially right. In many cases, especially when responding to specific situations, "Mine works fine" is a very valid post. Especially when it pertains to "Patched/Unpatched, File Size, Game session lenghts without breaks" etc. All the answers we can get are better than everyone just coming here to complain, no?

Try these things if you have not already. The all capital letter words in parentheses is the setting. Follow step by step. Settings can be found in the XMB menu second from the left. This is the main menu before you start playing your game. I appologize if I have made this more complicated then it needs to be. Anything that has (HDMI) by the setting should be adjusted accordingly. Meaning if you are not using an HDMI cable to connect your playstation to your tv choose (OFF) or the most simple option. If you are connected using an HDMI Cable follow these select what I have. I am running this game very smoothly right now. Good luck and I hope I made even a slight difference in someones gameplay.

-Settings-Game Settings-PS Upscaler (OFF) PS Smoothing (OFF)
-Settings-Video Settings-BD/DVD Upscaler (OFF) BD/DVD Video Output Format (Y Pb/Cb /Pr/Cr) 1080p 24 Hz Output (OFF) BD/DVD Dynamic Range Control (OFF)
-Settings-System Settings-Display [What's New] (OFF) Notification Messages (DO NOT DISPLAY)
-Settings-Display Settings-Cross Color Reduction Filter (OFF) RGB Full Range (Limited) Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr Super-White (OFF) Deep Color Output (OFF)

Got this advice off another thread. Credits go to Yackpah

This really improved mine. I only get a bit of lagg after 4+ hours of constant gameplay but very little if any before hand. My save file is 7mb too

Those settings also improved my game. Hope they help anyone elses to. Please let us know if they do help.

It's important for people to speak up when things ARE working for them that way we know how large an issue is. It will also help to see what might people be doing to create issues and what might people be doing that is enabling to not have issues.

Grunza, those are some interesting ideas. I'm not sure how they affect lag. Were you experiencing significant lag before the changes?

I'm a little over 40 hours in and have experienced very little lag. When I did experience lag, it was entering cities and fast traveling to certain destinations. I turned off auto-save and that seemed to help some.

Before I optimized those settings I was experiencing alot of stuttering and fps issues. I did that and it seemed to drastically improve my games performance. I guess the playstation used more resources than i thought with those settings enabled.

Have you also tried disabling all the autosave features in the settings. I have done that and deleted those autosave files and it sure helped a lot. It keeps the game from freezing for taking 4-5secs to save every min.

Display Notifications Off?

I am going to test out these settings for a few hours, see how much it affects the issue. I have been experiencing a LOT of framerate drops/stutters and have been looking for a solution until they (hopefully) patch it.

I had the same lag issue many of the people on the PS3 subforum have had. My solution to this problem was just to tick all the autosave options off. That killed all my lag issues. My frame rate feels so much smoother. No more powerpoint! My files are sitting at just about 7 MB. The only issue is that I have to remember to save often.

The lag is probably caused by fragmented files on the harddrive and/or broken sectors. Try formatting harddrive or replace it. If you don't know what you are doing give playstation support a call. They will help you out on the phone. Or read the online manual. It solve the problem for me.

I didn't start to really notice lag until my file was near 8mb and i'd been playing for at least 60 hours. It's still not too bad presently, but since I can typically devote hundreds of hours to a single playthrough in ES games i'm aware that it could become much worse.

So i have a solution for the fps drops i play for 5 to 7 hours in one sitting and after 2 hours or so the game becomes unplayable i simply reboot ps3 and fps problem is gone my save file is now over 8mb and this is working great hope it helps.

I haven't had time to test these settings for longer than about 30 minutes, but my immediate impression is HUGE improvement. After experiencing framerate drops after fast travels and while loading big cities, and really just a few during general gameplay, I loaded up my save in Whiterun and ran around town without a single noticeable dip. Gameplay felt as smooth as Oblivion's best moments. I ventured out into the wilderness with my horse (toward Markarth) and the only dips were the typical split-second stutters with loading a new area. Did a bit of fast-traveling, nothing. Totally smoothed.

I don't know how the hell these settings affect the game, but it's like magic. I have also disabled all autosave options. Will definitely be using this configuration until Bethesda does some patching - the game is in a perfect state for me right now.

HUGE thanks to Grunza and Yackpah for this info. I owe you my sincere thanks.

By saying their game doesn't have this problem they are helping us understand who this happens to and why.

The more feedback for Bethesda to see the better.

Edit: Typo.

Yep, this is what I do.

I'm just glad there's a way to fix this... Even if it does mean restarting all the time lol.

Hey, Maybe this is their way of trying to inspire us to get off our butts for a few minutes every now and then.

I said this in another thread and I got destroyed.