So I've had my copy of skyrim preinstalled since before launch, and have played it over 200hours since then Love the game, it was great, don't know when i'll do a 2nd play through, but the BIGGEST issue i have with this game, with ALL the series' produced by Bethesda...

There is NO WAY to get a SMOOTH 60 FPS 100% of the time. Even when my FPS counter (dxtory) indicates 60 FPS, the indoor stutter while moving the camera is unnerving, and completely ruins any possibility of replay for me. Thats my last gripe. I can live with the shadows... I've fixed every other obvious graphic anomaly that was intruding on my play. But this "microstutter" while indoors and staring at a table of Items or even a blank WALL is so jarring now.

Simple Borderless Window has been suggested, but i like my solid 60FPS (when its there), while in SWB mode i lose an average of about 5 frames from normal. Unacceptable. I wish my eyes weren't sensitive to these kinds of things, but they are, thats why im not a console gamer

I'm currently playing DXTory limiting my frames to 60. This method has givin me the most gain all around for skyrim performance, but with or without it, indoor enviroments make my display feel like im losing about 1/4 of my FPS every now and then, although my FPS is still 59-60, sometimes fluctuating quickly between. I wouldn't expect a 1 frame difference to feel as muddy as it currently does..

I have tried many if not most of the tips suggested here. Granted, the performance is nearly double of what we got in Vanilla, but still, i do NOT understand what the problem is! Especially when its limited to indoor areas...

I know this horse has been beat, but i wanted to express my concern. Not many other games would survive their fans with a problem like this.....

You are trying to tell me you can visually see the difference between a steady 60 and a steady 55 fps? Think it may be time for a Pepsi challenge.

I upgraded to a GTX 570 from an AMD 6870 and my stutter went away completely.

If it wasn't just my new card, try a clean driver install.

Uninstall your video driver, reboot and go straight into safe mode. Use Driver Sweeper to remove any left over display drivers. Reboot, install latest driver.

Worth a shot.

No, probably not. But this is NOT a difference between a "steady 60 and a steady 55 fps". This is a steady 60 FPS that gets stutter indoors without actually affecting the FPS. When frames drop from 60 to 50ish i can tell, yes. You don't have to beleive me, but its why i poured the money into my GTX 580 and other parts for my PC. It's why i do not play on an Xbox or PS3, because the low framerates are uncomfortable for me.

Skyrim runs at 60FPS the entire time now, with the exception of the indoor stutter (which still shows 60-59FPS on my readout). In release, vanilla version of skyrim, the FPS dips all over the game were EXTREMELY hard for me to deal with. Call me picky, but i prefer "enthusiast"

Perhaps is the 580's, i don't know. Every driver install i perform a clean install, with driver sweeper and CCleaner, following directions from the nvidia thread about a clean install.
I thought my stutter had been solved, but i was watching a friend play on my PC last night, and noticed stutters (not frame drops, had my counter on!) in caves and while they were inspecting stuff indoors. They didn't see it, but i sure did. It was pretty bad. And it annoyed me greatly

Perhaps i should try NO frame limiter now?? i don't know, I'm just getting tired of troubleshooting this game!

I did what was in post, including uninstalling PhysX.

Then when I was installing my Nvidia driver, I didn't select the 3D stuff

And my Nvidia control panel is all default, apart from Single Display Performance, and Power setting to Maximum.

Dont use the limiter. Don't use MSI or d3doverrider. Just install Nvidia drivers. And delete your ini files and make fresh ones with no changes.

Oh and I'm a bit of an enthus to, just didn't want to spend an extra ￡200 for 5-8 fps

Just out of curiousity, have you tried limiting your FPS to just beneath 60? In my own experience, limiting FPS to 59 or 58 has helped reduce input lag for Skyrim. It's also solved stuttering issues for other games. I use a GeForce 560, so this could be a driver or hardware thing. Anyway, give it a try if you haven't already.

Ah you still get stutter....even with SBW? It cuts mine down to 0 I do lose a few fps overall but it is very smooth and to me(at least) smooth at a bit lower FPS is better than chop etc. at a bit higher. Skyrim is a very random animal.

I can give it a shot, but i'll also give BigDaddy's advice a try.
Maybe I'm just expecting it to run bad and none of my fixes are needed anymore

@Thoth: agreed, it has been a random animal since launch, and was the primary reason my computer's parts got major upgrades over the past few months, lol. In the end, I think my other games benefitted more then Skyrim did haha.

Let me know if my advice helps you. It's always been a solid fix for me, but it's not mentioned by others often.

Well, before trying anything new with SBW mod or Frame limiters, i completely disabled all my "tweaks", cleared my ini's, turned off dxtory and msi, no d3doveride, etc. Just gameboosted and played.

Stutter is pretty much non-existant even inside. Played for a few hours and it was fine. Thanks for the advice Bigdaddy! I guess all my fixes were actually breaking it more now

i still notice frame loss (not near as sever as it was back at release) when i'm looking over whiterun from dragonsreach, and in Markarth. But eh, its all good. I dont stare in those directions anyway

Congrats

all this complaining... AT LEAST YOU CAN PLAY THE GAME WITHOUT CTDs. FOR HEAVENS SAKE. GET OVER IT, [censored]!

Calm down sir this is a difficult time for Skyrim....

and it is the tech forum...troll elsewhere if you dont want to read threads about tech issues