I'm trying to figure out why my computer can run Skryim at 40-60fps most of the time and then drop to 0fps for 30-40 seconds, only to bounce right back.

Specs:

Windows 7 64bit
AMD Radeon 6870 HD Sapphire II 1-gig
6-gigs DDR III RAM
AMD Athlon 630 Quad-core
700w Power Supply

I play on High/Ultra (everything ultra except for shadows) with no FXAA. AA is set at 8x and the other one (I forget what the name is haha but it's right below AA on the Skyrim video settings area in Steam) is at 16x. Resolution is one step up from 1600x900 and I play on a 43in Samsung Plasma connected via HDMI.

My mods include several texture and visual enhancements, such as:

Realistic Lighting
Lush Grass/Trees
Dynamic Snow
Water/Ice/Weather Mods
Enhanced Distant Terrain

And other potentially FPS-destructive mods, such as:

Wars in Skyrim
Monster Mod

My mods are all downloaded through NMM and managed through Bash and Boss (I love these programs!)

From what I've experienced with my FPS rate jumping up and down, it seems to happen when a new area or enemy/group of enemies first loads. For example, I'll be running through the woods, looking at the beautiful visuals, and enjoying 40-60fps. All of a sudden, a single Hagraven will pop up and then for a period of 30-40 seconds, my FPS will crash to 0-10, until recovering to it's previous state.

This will happen with major battles as well.

When I first come upon them, I'll have a huge lag and drop in FPS, but once it loads, it runs smooth as silk. It doesn't seem to be the actual graphics that cause the lag, but some sort of loading situation where the game is trying to "catch up"? At least that's what my very humble and inexperienced opinion suggests.

I thought that it may be the Enhanced Distant Terrain mod, but I'll also get lag in outdoor situations when I don't have a view of anything father than a few feet in front of me.

Also of note is the long loading time entering or exiting dungeons/houses/shops etc.

Lastly, I don't believe I ever get lag inside dungeons or houses. In fact, my FPS is almost a constant 60fps in these locations.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Could possibly be all those scripts loading causing your fps to take a dump. I of course do not know for sure, but MAYBE this thread will help you. See if messing with these .ini edits help any. Also, enabling the Papyrus logs may help you find out what is causing this decrease in fps.

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/633229-less-ctds-maybe-none/

Be careful with these. I suggest backing up wahtever .ini edits you have before messing with these. I would backup my .ini edits, revert to the game's original .ini settings, mess with these values and see what you get. If it is successful, then see if they work with your modified .ini settings. Good luck, I hope this helps somewhat!

Interesting, I'll have to try that out when I get home. Thanks!