Anyone else lagging in the PC version? This has just started,as I hit my hundreth hour.Its happening inside dungeons and caves.Especially in areas with either fire or light.I drop from 60 to around 30,and there is noticable lag.anyone else?

core i5 2500k @3.3
8 gb ddr3
GTX460 1gb

I get the same when a lot of magic FX are on the screen at the same time. GF GTX 580.

Lowering the graphical settings helps a lot.

It's just the reality of video gaming, mate. The more graphical effects your GPU need to process on the fly, the lower your FPS will be. There's no way to avoid it other than by doing what Komodo Saurian said. Obviously, the higher your system specs, the less you'll notice it.

lag, lol

Dropped frames, more likely

Almost all of the younger game players have been into more MMOs than we who have been in gaming since it started ever have much interest in, and learned to use the word "Lag" very indiscriminately.

From the first time more than one computer was connected to another over any appreciable distance, the computer definition of LAG has differed from the common one. Most youngsters think it means slowing down, same as away from the computer environment, but factually, it's used to describe delays in transmitting signals across nets, which is a very different thing. Skyrim being a single player game, can't ever have the real type of "Lag" at all.

Yes indeed, Spiff

What may be happening in the OP's issue is the FPS limiter, or a GPU that's trying to support more than it is capable of, and so FPS drops below what's rerquired for a smooth display of the game. Could even be a memory leak or a program running in the background, or the 'save game bloat' issue.

Are you really going complain about 60 to 30? I run at 13 if im lucky, I'll trade you any day....I am content with how it runs though, It doesnt bother me really. But its probably from loading more in a single area.

It's more the drop than the frames. 30fps itself isn't bad. But if you drop from 60fps to 30fps then the fluidness is completely different and it is really annoying because it feels "laggy". If you play at a constant 30, everything feels fine.

if fps jumps strictly between 60 and 30 thats the side effect of Vsync. So is mouse lag.

I had the same problems but even worse because I use a 120hz monitor, so with vsync on I'd get 120fps max. Before Skyboost, I'd get drops as low as 12fps so going form 120fps to 12fps and back and forth like that made controling camera movement impossible. I solved this by using this frame limiter: http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34. I set the max FPS to 35 in the .ini file. It has worked wonders! Now eith Skyboost, my frame rate never fluxerates between 25-35 fps making camera movement smooth. This is with vsync forced on in nvidia control panel, because the frame limiter makes vsync off no matter if the iPresetInterval=1.

You could also try lowering this variable in SkyrimPrefs.ini from whatever it's set to something lower like this:

[Particles]
iMaxDesired=250

It makes caves and dungeons not stutter so much and increases FPS a bit by making less particle effects on screen (smoke and fire).

Yep this....drastic FPS drop in a game with Vsync on by default is pretty fail. I also love how when someone has a 1gb GPU they are told their GPU is not strong enough or if you have something along my lines then its drivers...etc. To be clear both my CPU and GPU at normal stock speeds eat this game for breakfast. I laugh when I hear people talking about how intensive it is on processors.....they forget they are running mods to increase the visuals. Vanilla on Ultra everything jacked to max this game uses a total of 70% of my GPU....lol fail(albeit this is maybe somewhat due to drivers but def not exclusively) at 66 degrees. Anything else that came out this year runs at 99% full barrel at 72 degrees with no issues....so not the GPU but we could have suspected that already. Now on to the CPU...uses all 4 of my cores(some say their quad cores not all are being used so there is that) maxes total CPU capability to around 60-70% based on whats going on and that is max like siege on fort w/e with tons of stuff spawning over and over. Temp is even lower than GPU running just a good old stock fan that the i2500k came with. If a game is pushing your card too hard the game shouldn't just crash with no error log....I guess my point is Skyrim is a joke and in no way close to the beast that people will claim it is. Out of all games out this year the only one that gives my hardware any kind of run for its money is Deus Ex jacked to max minus Stereoscopic 3D(obv don't have the monitor) and Shogun Total War 2(which I really don't play). When Skyrim CTD randomly after running smooth as a babies butt for hours its not hardware...its not drivers...its terrible coding. If you disagree fine but where is the error log? Ohhhh ya they didn't put one in....wonder why.

Erm, 60% is not using all your cores. There are many threads that can jump around different cores, but that doesn't make them run simultaneously. Take a program that runs 100% single core, now run it 25% of the time on core 0, jump to core 1 for another 25%, jump to core 2 for another 25% and then run the final 25% on core 3. Wow - you've got 25% across four cores! But it's still not using quad core any more than a single core. Add in your background processes and it's easy for a game that doesn't take advantage of more than two cores to create 60% usage across four cores.

It does seem that some small factors are multi-threaded, like physics perhaps. But this doesn't change the fact that most of the time single-threaded performance is vital for Skyrim.

Quite.

Then how come that exact same code works fine on the vast majority of computers. The code is the same, so that can't be at fault - the difference is your computer.

After your savegame reaches a certain size you'll be complaining about exactly the same issue, believe me.

What size is that?

I don't think there's a definitive size - or even if it's actually related to file size - but it's a genuine and serious problem that has now effectively banned me from playing.

^This....I love these casuals....I probably had more total time in game in Skyrim a week after release than most of the people posting on here.
Game is a time bomb the longer you play a character and the more you do to alter the world the closer you are to a brick wall. I don't care if its save file size(which grows and grows and grows and shouldn't if garbage collection was handled correctly(thank god for a few mods already that can help cut that down)....or after some event taking place or multiple events taking place the issue is there. Its not the rig because it is an issue happening on all types of systems. Personally I can only speak for mine. As far as the multi CPU post I understand what you are saying but what my point was is that while this game needs a stronger CPU than most games the i5 2500k at stock 3.3GHz hardly has an issue with Skyrim along with my GPU. The game will crash if it hasn't yet for you it will just keep playing. I don't use autosave, I don't stack saves in my game directory(I back them up and only leave a few). I use no mods to enhance the performance only two to reduce save game bloat. Stock Ugrids to load. I also have my settings dialed a bit back from what my computer can run the game on just as to not push it when there are lots of things going on. I understand that Skyrim isn't using more than two of my cores at any time and it is just transferring between all 4 of my cores. So in short my CPU is not the issue, my GPU is not the issue, I have 16 gigs of Corsair Vengeance running at stock speed so that isn't the issue. Clean boot no extra processes....I am getting enough power and my PSU is in perfect working order. No driver errors or issues and they are the 12.1 preview. For the most part the game runs and looks amazing but having random CTD's and having no error log to explain why the game crashed is at the least annoying.

bd79:

Your issue is the GPU when it attempts to render the "indoor" lighting effects... it also happens with fire pits and flames etc. I have the same GPU and you'll notice that when you get around those areas (Sky Haven Temple!!), the GPU usage sky rockets and performance falls flat.

Now, there are two things you can do:

1) make sure you have those Nvidia 290.53 installed and if you do, hope they do something for you as they didn't help me.
2) Go get more hardware (gfx card) because Skyrim is poorly optimized --> SLI or a better GPU

Now, Thoth, I don't think anyone is arguing against the fact that Skyrim runs like dooky. I mean, 30 fps in some areas with a GTX 580 (Vanilla Ultra)???!!! Are you f'in kidding me? The game doesn't look ~that~ great.

"PC lag" lol tell us something we don't know. Might wanna turn off aa and see if it changes anything. Also there's a mod that will help 10-20fps, check the mod section.

Yes...This is why I stopped playing half-way through. Whenever I looked at light sources, or, other random effects my fps would dip severely..what was it, from 60 to 30...made things, milky, impossible to be immersed in. I can get used to tweaking settings, which is what I was doing with all those mods, but when a bug like this basically shuts down any kind of stability, just... Sigh. Install, install mods, tweak mods, have fun, you run into a severe performance issue, you uninstall, run vanilla, find it's not the mods...What do you do? I just gave up. Maybe Bethesda will get their [censored] together eventually. Until they do all future purchases are going to be below msrp, maybe even just steam sales. Tired of this [censored].

What ruffles my feathers is people(Beth Fan boys) will hop on your hardware drivers CPU just about anything before they will admit that the game is an un- optimized piece of junk. I mean to say that my rig runs in fine. No FPS dives no intense strain on my system etc....

This should be added to the Hardware guide OP. You explinaion is perfect