Even before I post my system info, I'm going to say that, though it's been a few months, the last time I played Skyrim with decently high display settings, it rolled along fine, glitches aside.

Windows 7 64-bit
Intel Core i7 Q740
8GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M
DirectX 11

The problem I am having: the game is basically unplayable. Popped open Steam, updates happened, loaded the game. Swell. I tried to start a new game, and then spent about five minutes staring at a dragon, fog, and tips and trivia before I got fed up (and discovered I couldn't alt-tab out). I adjusted settings, waited two minutes for a new game to load, then sat through choppy, unsynced video in hopes that things would smooth out once I got control. No dice. I feel like I'm playing pinata with a foam pool noodle.

Drivers are up to date, and the HD textures are disabled. HD is healthy, game files backed up, clean install, system restarted. Pretty sure I shouldn't need to have the graphics settings so low looks like I'm playing Myst, only it ain't as smooth. What am I missing? I await your assistance in pointing out the obvious to me.

The 240 is a weak GPU, the 240M is even weaker.

That's probably part of your problem.

Did you even read his post?


Clearly the game worked ok, and now it does not. Card may be weak but is obviously not the issue here.

Yes, I read it.


It could still be the issue. Skyrim has had updates since then, which could be putting more load on the GPU here, and there's the fact that one may not remember things as well a few months down the road.

stick too the issue at hand he said it was running alright before....pointing out his gpu is weak is basically stating the obvious and is probably not what is making the game unplayable.

how well did the game work before ? it may be the buggy grass shadows that are giving everyone a problem

I am sticking to the issue at hand.

A weak GPU will not fare too well here.

And there have been updates and changes since he last played, as I stated...

Game played very well, not fine, before, to clarify.

I figured I would get "weak GPU," which is distinctly unhelpful. I would like to try to figure out if there's something less expensive I can deal with first. I know other people playing on similar systems who aren't having the same issues.

It's not unhelpful. It's part of your problem. Your GPU cannot handle the higher settings well.

Lowering the settings is the less expensive solution.

I figured that as a possibility already. The reason I'm posting is because it is unplayably slow at the lowest settings---like I said.

You didn't say that you were at the lowest settings and having the issues. That helps a lot.

I take it you're running a completely vanilla game?

Apologies; "adjusted my settings" and the snark about Myst was my shorthand for saying I dropped the settings all the way down. That adjustment was the first thing I tried.

No mods at this time.

Nothing wrong with Myst, it's an awesome game.

Anyways:

First try refreshing your INI files by deleting them in (My )Documents/(My )Games/Skyrim. They'll show up as "Configuration Files" with "Show File Extensions" turned off. And check your Data folder for any INI files. If there are any in that folder, delete them as well. Then launch the game and let it regenerate things and see how the game runs. Do not change any settings at this time, let's see how it runs at the default configuration.

Not arguing with that point.


Done; it retained the lowest settings and played... marginally better? Still bumpy and slow, still "and then I will turn---oh, looks like I already ran into that wall." Of course, Hadvar got stuck pulling the chain to let us into the first room with Stormcloaks, so I ran in and killed them while they stood there, watching me. Hadvar did not stop pulling the chain to open the door until both Stormcloaks were dead.

Could you be a bit more concise? Your way of explaining things is making it a bit hard for me to follow exactly what you are experiencing (a video won't be much use, I can never tell much from a video >_>).

Sorry. Lit Ph.D. End of semester. Word vomit.

The video is still behind the sound and still choppy. It's sufficiently slow that if I am running and have to turn quickly to avoid a wall, I am likely to run into the wall rather than avoid it. It is, perhaps, slightly better than it was last night, though still a far cry from the smooth playing experience I had several months ago.

Have you made sure you've got few programs running in the background?

Sorry if I seem a bit detached, I'm working on some file parsing stuff here. >_>

You're helping me and tolerating my convoluted, I-have-been-reading-Wroth speech patterns. No worries.

I have indeed.

The game could be using your integrated graphics card instead of the 240m. Make sure that's not the case in the nVidia control panel.

e:The new 295.something drivers also improve performance a lot so get those too if you haven't already.

With some additional fiddling, resolved. Thanks for your help, folks!

296.10

Also, you disable it via the Device Manager if memory serves (I last had an integrated graphics chip at least 10 years ago, so I could be mistaken on this one >.>).


Good to hear that. Sorry I just got back here, but I got a bit side-tracked.