So, I've been playing Skyrim on my awful, ancient computer on low-medium for some time. The other day I finally upgraded to a major extent with a new system. From 1 gig of ram to 8, new video card, Windows 7, enough of an upgrade that Skyrim automatically detects my settings as High. My issue is an odd one to describe. I get no real lag in the game. Animations don't lag, voices don't lag, everything moves incredibly fluidly, except when I walk or run in first person, there seems to be an odd stutter, as if my character is slowing down every other step to catch his footing. It's very jerking and disorienting, yet even while that is happening, the NPCs around me are not lagging in the slightest.

Even if I set the settings down to medium it still happens. The only way to stop the problem is by setting every graphical setting to the very lowest.

What the heck could be causing this?

I have already tried reinstalling.

Here are my system specs.

Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard Company

Model: p6741f

Processor: AMD Phenom™II X4 955 Processor 3.20HZ

RAM: 8.00GB

System Type: 64-bit Operating System

AMD Radeon HD 6570

You could try this Alt/Tab "solution" mentioned in the thread, maybe it works for you 2? See http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1316417-extreme-fps-drop-when-exiting-indoor-area-is-there-a-fix/

Sadly that does not help. I even just tried lowering my graphics settings below that of what I used to use on my far inferior rig and that strange running lag is still there. The odd thing is, it is not there in third person view. It seems exclusive to walking and running in first person view, but like I said, nothing else lags. So while I'm walking, my walking seems to be jerky and lagge dslightly, but flags, npcs, fire, etc moving around me are still moving fluidly...

-- Also, from a couple tests I jus tran, it seems to happen far worse inside small interior cells... What the heck is going on? :S

Does it do it when you hold SPRINT while running?

If not, than it has to do with object loading issues... (Grass, tree's, and/or shadows.) You see more of them in first person, because they are tied to your camera-view, not your actual person. In third person, more of your view is reduced, seeing more ground.

Reduce your shadow size to MED or HIGH... Reduce your far object distance to MED or HIGH...

Reduce people-view to about 8 (Which is the max distance you can even hit with an arrow.)

If you edited the INI, to draw shadows on LAND and TREES... remove those settings. They were removed for a reason by bethesda. (Not made into a selectable option, possibly due to the erratic over-processing and shuddering.)

If you edited your FOV above 65, you will also get this. You are loading more side-objects than bethesda intended for first-person. In third-person, it is not as big of an issue, again, because a majority of your view is down, and behind you. I play with 75, as 85-95 causes other issues. Though that is more comfortable for my eyes.

Interior cells have more light sources, so they tend to cause for FPS issues than outdoor cells do.

However, are you running the latest 11.11c drivers for your card? Those helped with my Skyrim. Also, I don't think this is needed anymore with 1.3, but the ENB Series Mod can help. Try the drivers first.

Yes. Walking, running and sprinting. The best way to describe it without recording some kind of video is imagine if when you run, you stumble a bit on every third step. It's really bizarre and is only happening now after my upgrade.

Re-installing drivers just to be sure.

I have been told that Skyrim does not use more than 2GB of ram? Would downloading the Large Address Aware mod I kept hearing about possibly resolve my issue? I know little about it and don't want to bugger things up anymore if that won't solve the issue in any way, haha.

The game doesn't even use 1GB of RAM... 685MB to be exact... But that doesn't include Steam's wastefull resources, the helper DLL's the SOUND, and DX9 and Windows, and background processes...

LAA has other unseen advantages, it handles memory resources better... However, that is still just a band-aid to the actual issue. Has nothing to do with using more memory. It has to do with memory management that comes with large address awareness. (Removed it from my system because 1.3 fixed my issues, and LAA just caused more errors and crashing and glitches once the game progressed, in addition to the games actual issues. I would say it is a 50/50 shot in the dark, but everyone eventually comes back saying LAA is no longer functioning, and posts more "bugs" that seem to be caused by LAA, or LAA influenced. It is a bigger cup for a leaking dam. Just delaying the inevitable, by hacks. Without the game actually being programmed for LAA, turning it on, does not actually help the game, just the user's psychological being, for a few more days.)

Try the LAA, but keep track of your saves... Removing it will surely corrupt the save-games that you created while using it. Since you are recording LARGE ADDRESS ID's in the save-games. ID's that will not exist when you remove LAA afterwords.

Updated drivers, problem persists.

Tried the 4GB Skyrim mod, problem persists.

Even if I set everything at the lowest setting it is still slightly noticable. I'm not really sure what this is because it doesn't feel like normal lag. Like I said, if I'm walking next to an NPC who is walking, they do not appear to lag at all, it's just my own movement that seems to stutter. I can stand in one place and fight 10 enemies at once without a single moment of any noticable lag on high settings, but the moment I walk, even on low settings, it jerks around...

I had that "tripping" feeling before... Not sure exactly what fixed it. (Just running through my settings now, to see if they help. Since I no longer trip. However, my trips did not happen when sprinting.)

Do you have FXAA enabled, or in your video card settings... TRIPLE-BUFFERING off, or "Render ahead 3 frames"... could be buffering or overbuffering... Try lowering or increasing the values. (No two computers are the same here. Some it helps, others it does not.)

Do you have FADE-IN on in the advanced settings?

Glad I am not the only one who has experienced it! I really appreciate the help.

I have tried enabling and disabling FXAA with no avail. As for Triple-Buffering or Render ahead 3 frames, I can't seem to find those settings anywhere, same for FADE-IN, I don't seem to see that option anywhere. I'm running of fto work but will check back on the thread when I return. I thank you for all your help in advance!

@ OP

Try downloading Dxtory and cap ur framerates at 40, that helped for me. I had indoor stutter when I have 60 fps but when i capped it on 40 my stutter was completly gone.

Same thing happens to me, but I also see it on Xbox, but mostly in third person.

The object fade is in your games advanced settings...

The other settings will be in your graphics cards settings in windows advanced tab for your card, (Possibly hidden again, in advanced settings for the control-panel in NVIDIA or ATI settings.)

You SHOULD be using v-sync. (Triple-buffer will help reduce mouse-lag and screen-lag, but on rare instances, it can cause it too.) Using a frame-limiter will cause lag and jitter, because you are attempting to stall windows, poorly, from an external program that has NO IDEA what your game is doing under the hood. As opposed to v-sync, which the game itself is using to control the game directly from within the game. Between monitor TICK's or pulses.)

Rendering ahead... there is no such thing... lol. It is actually holding frames hostage, between renderings. It can not predict your next-frame. What it does is hold X frames hostage, displaying them when the CPU stops responding, so you don't notice that your CPU stopped responding. Hopefully, by the time your CPU is un-stuck, the X + 1 frame is ready to display. Again, this can cause unwanted LAG, or it can resolve lag... but it always seems to help smooth-out game-play, at the cost of odd jittering if set too high. EG, at 30FPS, if you set it to 10, your game will beel lagged by 1/6th of a second, as that is 10 frames being held hostage, released at spaced intervals. Then POOF, no rendering while it steals the next 10 frames, and does not display them... Or Tripping feeling.

In some situations, 0 frames is best, as you get what your CPU is doing, as it is doing it. In other situations 3 frames is best for acceptable micro-lag. I have never run into a situation where anything above 3 was "good", without making the game feel like the mouse was drunk, or without inducing tripping.

I dont experience lag nor jitter tho.. Better to rephrase and say it "might" cause lag and jitter. Besides the advantage of using a frame limiter is that when going into areas from 40 to 20 fps u notice less lag instead of going from 60- 20 fps

Alright, so just gave it another go. I enabled Tripple Buffering, but that seemed to make the issue work. As for V-Sync, I probably sound like a fool but I honestly can't seem to find an option for V-Sync anywhere. I will give the frame-limiter a try.. It's such a bizarre problem, because as I said, nothing in the game appears to be lagging in any way. It just feels like my movement is being hindered by cement blocks being tied to my characters feet. I just put my characte rin Potema's Chamber and stood perfectly still. Fighting 10 - 12 enemies, along with Potema being a big spectral ball of light zapping everywhere, I did not get a moment of lag during all this action, on high settings. Yet if I put myself in an entirely empty cell and walk a few feet, I stumble... It's so odd, and really jarring.

Tried the frame locker thing. No dice...

Alright, so to condense everything tried...

1. Reinstalled multiple times
2. Updated video drivers
3. Tried on the lowest settings possible
4. Removed Triple Buffering
5. .Limited FPS
6. Disabled FXAA
7. Tried the 4GB Skyrim mod

Have you tried the http://enbdev.com/? It didn't solve it 100% for me, but it helped a lot. I've gone from constant stuttering to occasional.

I had something similar for a few hours (sprinting would only work in 3rd person view) and I messed around a bit..not sure if the cure was the audio settings in windows, but somehow it was set on 24bit (probably I did it before accidentally). I set it back to 16bit, then I completely reverted to the stock skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini (delete both, let the launcher write a new one) and then the problem seems like it's gone.

Set my audio back to 16bit, tried again this time with Fraps. I think I confirmed whatever this issue is, it isn't 'lag'.

At high settings I maintain approximately 50 FPS. When the walking stutter kicks in, the fps does not change. Also, when I go third person, where there is no movement stutter, the fps is the same as when first person... Reset the .ini's as well, no luck. This is so very disheartening. I just played Mirror's Edge on high settings with a consistantly fluid framerate, yet I can't run Skyrim on the absolute lowest settings due to this bug.

I guess I've pretty much hit the wall on this one then? I just can't for the life of me figure out where this issue is coming from.