Stutter when exiting the game menu

[Tivec]

I have a fairly beefy system, I won't lie about that. I run an i7-4770K CPU with 16gb ram, and a GeForce GTX 980 Ti with 6gb vram. So, to stress test this system a bit, I installed STEP Extended with all options to maximum where available. When I had it installed, I noticed stutter when leaving the game menu (escape menu).

 

To be certain that everything was running according to plan, I loaded the game using Skyrim Performance Monitor (STEP configured so I run Mod Organizer through this). On top of the install, I have only installed the Alternate Start mod so that I can test things without doing the intro every time.

 

Take a look at the graph from 6 minutes of gameplay (starting the game, loading up a character using the Alternate Start mod):

https://i.imgur.com/5jAGFs1.png

 

Notice the fps drops at 200, 260, 320, 360 This is when I exit the escape menu. I get serious drops for a few seconds, then all is good. As you can probably see, I am not maxing out anything anywhere. Once this stutter settles, frame rate is again up to 60fps with only the occasional stutter.

 

Has anyone had something similar happen to them? Would appreciate some assistance and tips to what could solve the issue.

[Greg]

I also see a correlation with drops in CPU and GPU usage and VRAM usage. Look at 200, 330, and 365, and you'll see a cliff in VRAM usage that correlates to the FPS drop off. Leading up to these cliffs you'll see a significant drop off in CPU and GPU usage when the menu is open.

 

It looks as if Skyrim is offloading a bunch of stuff in VRAM when you open the menu and then has to spend time bring it all back into VRAM when you close the menu.

 

Have you verified the VRAM settings in enblocal.ini to make sure ReserveMemorySizeMb and VideoMemorySizeMb are set appropriately for your card? It almost looks as the VRAM is being capped at 3GB in the chart... although this may be a placebo (or my imagination).

[Tivec]

VideoMemorySizeMb is 13962 according to the formula (Total Available Graphics Memory âˆ’ [170 (for Win7) or 350 (for Win8+)]). This should be right since my Windows 8 reports 14312 total available graphics memory. I read somewhere that 10240 is the cap though, but there hasn't been any issues with it running out :)

 

On setting ReserveMemorySizeMb to 768, it feels like everything is a bit smoother. The stutter persists should I switch out of the game (I run borderless windowed mode), but it is a lot more playable now.

 

By the way, the game looks beautiful with all these settings at high: https://i.imgur.com/NLWKVsq.png