How to interpret Skyrim Performance Monitor results

[maleister]

Hello, Everyone!

This is my first deep dive into modding Skyrim to extreme levels and I just wanted to say how this site has helped me really push the limits of what my system can do.

 

Unfortunately, It's not all sunshine and roses, though.

I'm getting random CTDs and I think it's because I've hit the wall of what my system can do.

 

I've used the guide on this site to make sure that the following are correct.

SKSE memory settings 

ENB settings 

INI settings

proper LOOT order 

proper Bashed patch

proper FNIS 

 

I have the logs from Memory Blocks, Papyrus, and SKSE if it comes down to needing those to get help but I don't think that's the problem.

 

I'm running 300+ mods and from the looks of it, I've hit the wall.

The problem is that I don't know how to use the results from Skyrim Performance Monitor to confirm this.

To me, it looks like the crash happened when the GPU % hit 99% usage.

I just don't understand if this is the problem or symptom of the real problem.

 

If my assumptions are correct, I might need help deciding which mods to cut or PC upgrade advice (if that would even make a difference).

 

If these results are the symptom of the real problem, I will need guidance as well.

 

Here is the link to the results from my Google Drive since it seems the .jpeg was just a little too big to post in the forum.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0LdH-fKpAKeWkpubVhMVHNHd0U

 

Thanks in Advance!

 

EDIT:

 

Added direct link to imgur

Edited January 14, 2016 by maleister

[Greg]

According to the ENBLocal.ini/Memory guide, it should be just the opposite:

This parameter sets the size of a buffer used for swapping geometry and textures between VRAM and system memory. The buffer will be set in VRAM and this portion of VRAM will not be used for ENBoost's dynamic memory allocation; however, it will also be duplicated in the system memory used by TESV.exe as well. This means that increasing this parameter's value will result in equal increases in both VRAM and system RAM usage. The values here are measured in megabytes. For video cards with 1GB or more VRAM, start with 128 as a baseline. If stuttering persists, increase the value in increments of 128 ( 256, 384, 512, etc ) until the stuttering has ceased or is as minimal as possible with the lowest possible value. The maximum value that can be used is 1024, but be aware that whatever value is used is how much VRAM will be reserved for the swap space. This is the reason the lowest value possible without experiencing issues is recommended. Because of this parameter being system dependent, users will need to test different values to find the one which works best for their specific setup.

I hit 99% on my GPU as well and this isn't anything to worry about. Looking through your skyrim.ini, I see the following that stand out:

• uExterior Cell Buffer=36 is in the Camera section but should be in the General section.
• You have bEnableLogging=1 in the Papyrus section. Set this to 0 because papyrus logging is known to cause issues and hiccups.
• You have bEnableTrace=1 in the Papyrus section. Set this to 0 unless you want stuttering/lagging.
• You have bLoadDebugInformation=1 in the Papyrus section. Set this to 0.
• You have two Water sections at the end. This is mostly harmless, but I recommend removing the last one to avoid confusion and mistaken edits.

Papyrus logging is the root of all evil stuttering/hiccups and often causes Sheogorath to take over all Skyrim. The reason I say this is because the Papyrus engine requires a significant amount of time to load the debug information, trace the script calls, and an infinite amount of time to log everything to disk. In fact, it takes so much time that there isn't enough time remaining to actually run the scripts after each frame is rendered.

[Greg]

Skyrim Performance Monitor is used to benchmark Skyrim's performance and anything in the charts usually has no correlation with crashes. The one exception may be when VRAM hits maximum, but this obviously is not the case in the charts you posted.

 

Memory Blocks Log is usually the most helpful in diagnosing issues related to crashes, but you need to keep Memory Blocks Log enabled and play until the game crashes. Once you've managed to crash Skyrim, examine the log to see if the last line hits the maximum allocation limit (DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB-256). If it has, you need to increase DefaultHeapInitialAllocMB and try again. Also keep in mind that the memory allocated in this block bounces around quite a bit depending on the area, the number of objects and NPCs/creatures in the area, etc.

 

I'm not say this is the issue, but it's always the first place I look since this is generally the most common issue.

[maleister]

Thanks for the answer.

The crashes happen randomly so I'll post the results on the next one.

[maleister]

I got to play for a couple hours without a CTD and thought I was good.

No such luck, though.

I got one while the menu was paused.

I got one walking to Winterhold from Windhelm on the road near Angie's Mill.

I've checked my load order in LOOT

I've checked all my config files

I'm really at a loss to what the problem could be.

 

Here is my Memory Log results

 

 

 

logging of blocks enabled

logging max values only

Timer disabled

Block1 Block2

512MB 256MB

85 8

85 8

85 9

[...edited for easier reading..]

302 155

 

Here is my ENB settings

 

[PROXY]

EnableProxyLibrary=true

InitProxyFunctions=true

ProxyLibrary=d3d9_smaa.dll

 

[GLOBAL]

UsePatchSpeedhackWithoutGraphics=false

UseDefferedRendering=true

IgnoreCreationKit=true

 

[PERFORMANCE]

SpeedHack=true

EnableOcclusionCulling=true

 

[MULTIHEAD]

ForceVideoAdapterIndex=false

VideoAdapterIndex=0

 

[MEMORY]

ExpandSystemMemoryX64=false

ReduceSystemMemoryUsage=true

DisableDriverMemoryManager=false

DisablePreloadToVRAM=false

EnableUnsafeMemoryHacks=false

ReservedMemorySizeMb=512

VideoMemorySizeMb=3714

EnableCompression=false

AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false

 

[WINDOW]

ForceBorderless=false

ForceBorderlessFullscreen=false

 

[ENGINE]

ForceAnisotropicFiltering=true

MaxAnisotropy=16

ForceLodBias=false

LodBias=0.0

AddDisplaySuperSamplingResolutions=false

EnableVSync=true

VSyncSkipNumFrames=0

 

[LIMITER]

WaitBusyRenderer=false

EnableFPSLimit=false

FPSLimit=60.0

 

[iNPUT]

//shift

KeyCombination=16

//f12

KeyUseEffect=123

//home

KeyFPSLimit=106

//num /       106

KeyShowFPS=36

//print screen

KeyScreenshot=44

//enter

KeyEditor=13

//f4

KeyFreeVRAM=115

KeyBruteForce=66

 

[ADAPTIVEQUALITY]

Enable=false

Quality=1

DesiredFPS=30.0

 

[ANTIALIASING]

EnableEdgeAA=true

EnableTemporalAA=false

EnableSubPixelAA=true

EnableTransparencyAA=false

 

[FIX]

FixGameBugs=true

FixParallaxBugs=true

FixParallaxTerrain=false

FixAliasedTextures=true

IgnoreInventory=true

FixTintGamma=false

RemoveBlur=false

FixSubSurfaceScattering=true

FixSkyReflection=true

FixCursorVisibility=true

FixLag=false

 

[LONGEXPOSURE]

EnableLongExposureMode=false

Time=1.0

BlendMax=0.0

 

I have my Papyrus log but I'm not sure what to look for here.

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0LdH-fKpAKeaFk2YTM0bVAtMkk

 

Here are my INI from my mod organizer profile folder

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0LdH-fKpAKeX3g5RDBvb19GUG8

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0LdH-fKpAKeaTR1c2VvSVF1WFU

 

I have a copy of my load order as well

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1C3isiZf9xmKLN8cyCAiWdW3p56CF3bJVJcOp7Wgh85I

 

I'm more than willing to upgrade my PC to run everything but I'm not sure if it would help with my current issue

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2016 by Greg
Added spoiler tags

[Greg]

You should disable Papyrus logging because it has been known to cause issues when playing and I've never seen anything in the Papyrus log that helps troubleshoothing issues related to crashes.

 

Is the log you posted from when the game crashed? The reason I ask is because I expected to see somewhat more than 302 peak based on some of the additional mods in your load order.

[maleister]

Yes, 

I took the log with latest modified date which was seconds before the CTD.

I've turned off the papyrus logging.

Yesterday I was able to play for 6 hours without any CTD.

I did get slowdown coming out of buildings and walking into new areas though.

Would upgrading the GPU to the 980 TI help this at all?

[Greg]

Which video card are you currently using?

[maleister]

980 GTX

16 GB ram

2600K CPU

256 SSD drive for OS and game

[Greg]

The 980 TI is a bit faster than than 980 but I'm not convinced it's a sufficient speed increase to justify the cost and I doubt it will have any effect on your specific issue. Offhand, your hardware specs look really good so you theoretically shouldn't have any slowdowns when crossing into new territories or exiting buildings. How would you describe these slowdowns? Is it like a stuttering effect or does the game just seem sluggish for a while?

 

If I go back to look at the original Skyrim Performance Monitor chart you posted, you have very little disk activity and the CPU isn't heavily loaded either. I wonder what this looks like when the game slows down for you?

 

It might help if you could post your skyrim.ini and skyrimprefs.ini here in spoiler tags as well to see if something odd is going on here. Your enblocal.ini settings are very close to mine. The only significant differences I can see is that you have EnableEdgeAA=true and EnableSubPixelAA=true and I have both these set to false. Offhand, I don't think these two settings have much of an impact on performance and certainly wouldn't cause a lag crossing zones.

[maleister]

It seems like my character is frozen in place for a split second and then everything goes back to normal.

That's the best way to describe it, I think. Like hitting a pothole on the road, over quick but jarring.

I did notice I hit 99% on the GPU but I'm not sure if that's a warning sign or not.

I've heard that lowering ReservedMemorySizeMb can sometimes help performance but  I'm not sure if that is true or not.

I have it set like this currently.

 

ReservedMemorySizeMb=512

 

 

 

[spoiler=Skyrim.ini][General]
sLanguage=ENGLISH
fFlickeringLightDistance=8192

[Camera]
fMouseWheelZoomSpeed=10

uExterior Cell Buffer=36

[Display]
fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0
fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0
fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
bAllowScreenshot=0
fSunShadowUpdateTime=0.25
fSunUpdateThreshold=1.5

[Audio]
fMusicDuckingSeconds=6.0
fMusicUnDuckingSeconds=8.0
fMenuModeFadeOutTime=3.0
fMenuModeFadeInTime=1.0

[Grass]
bAllowCreateGrass=1
bAllowLoadGrass=0
fGrassFadeRange=10000
iMaxGrassTypesPerTexure=7
iMinGrassSize=100

[GeneralWarnings]
SGeneralMasterMismatchWarning=One or more plugins could not find the correct versions of the master files they depend on. Errors may occur during load or game play. Check the "Warnings.txt" file for more information.

[Archive]
sResourceArchiveList=Skyrim - Invalidation.bsa, Skyrim - Misc.bsa, Skyrim - Shaders.bsa, Skyrim - Textures.bsa, Skyrim - Interface.bsa, Skyrim - Animations.bsa, Skyrim - Meshes.bsa, Skyrim - Sounds.bsa, Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa
sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim - Voices.bsa, Skyrim - VoicesExtra.bsa
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
SInvalidationFile=

[Actor]
fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000

[Combat]
fMagnetismStrafeHeadingMult=0.0
fMagnetismLookingMult=0.0
f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.5
f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=1.0
f1PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.3
f3PBoltTiltUpAngle=0.4

[Papyrus]
fPostLoadUpdateTimeMS=500.0
bEnableLogging=1
bEnableTrace=1
bLoadDebugInformation=1
[Water]
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectSky=1
bReflectLODTrees=1

[Water]
bReflectLODLand=1
bReflectLODObjects=1
bReflectLODTrees=1

 

 

[spoiler=SkyrimPrefs.Ini][General]
fBrightLightColorB=1.0000
fBrightLightColorG=1.0000
fBrightLightColorR=1.0000
iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1
bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0

[imagespace]
bDoDepthOfField=1
iRadialBlurLevel=2

[Display]
iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3
fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000
fShadowDistance=8000.0000
iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024
iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048
iShadowSplitCount=2
iMaxAnisotropy=0
fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000
fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000
fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=8192.0000
fGamma=1.2400
fDecalLOD2=1500.0000
fDecalLOD1=1000.0000
fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000
fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000
fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000
iTexMipMapMinimum=0
iTexMipMapSkip=0
iWaterMultiSamples=0
iMultiSample=0
iShadowMode=3
bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1
bDeferredShadows=1
iShadowFilter=3
bFull Screen=1
iSize H=1080
iSize W=1920
fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000
fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=6144.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=4096.0000
fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000
fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000
iScreenShotIndex=2
bShadowMaskZPrepass=0
bMainZPrepass=0
iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=250
iMaxDecalsPerFrame=800
bFloatPointRenderTarget=1
bShadowsOnGrass=1
sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980"
bFXAAEnabled=0
iShadowMapResolution=4096
fShadowBiasScale=0.1500
iShadowMaskQuarter=4
iAdapter=0
iPresentInterval=1
bTransparencyMultisampling=0
bDrawShadows=1

[Grass]
b30GrassVS=0
fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000
fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000

[MAIN]
bGamepadEnable=1
bCrosshairEnabled=1
fHUDOpacity=1.0000
bSaveOnPause=0
bSaveOnTravel=0
bSaveOnWait=0
bSaveOnRest=0
fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000

[GamePlay]
bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1
bShowQuestMarkers=1
iDifficulty=2

[interface]
bDialogueSubtitles=1
bGeneralSubtitles=0
fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000
bShowCompass=1

[Controls]
fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000
fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0125
bAlwaysRunByDefault=1
bInvertYValues=0
bGamePadRumble=1
bMouseAcceleration=1
bUseKinect=0

[Particles]
iMaxDesired=750

[saveGame]
fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000

[AudioMenu]
fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000
fVal7=1.0000
uID7=1594040501
fVal6=1.0000
uID6=1594040498
fVal5=1.0000
uID5=1594041880
fVal4=1.0000
uID4=1594040502
fVal3=1.0000
uID3=94881
fVal2=0.4000
uID2=466532
fVal1=1.0000
uID1=554685
fVal0=0.8000
uID0=1007612

[Clouds]
fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000
fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000
fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000
fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000

[TerrainManager]
fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000
fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000
fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000
fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000
fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000
bShowLODInEditor=0

[NavMesh]
fObstacleAlpha=0.5000
fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000
fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500
fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000
fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500
fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000
fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000
fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500
fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000
fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000
fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000
fEdgeThickness=10.0000
fPointSize=2.5000

[Trees]
bRenderSkinnedTrees=1
uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=200
[Water]
iWaterReflectHeight=1024
iWaterReflectWidth=1024
bUseWaterDisplacements=1
bUseWaterRefractions=1
bUseWaterReflections=1
bUseWaterDepth=1

[Decals]
uMaxDecals=1000
bDecals=1
bSkinnedDecals=1
uMaxSkinDecals=100
uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60

[LOD]
fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000
fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000

[Launcher]
bEnableFileSelection=1
bShowAllResolutions=1
uLastAspectRatio=3
[blurShaderHDR]
bDoHighDynamicRange=1

[blurShader]
bUseBlurShader=0

 

Edited January 22, 2016 by maleister

[maleister]

I thought I removed the logging before.

I must have made a mistake and didn't save it.

I'll make the corrections and report back after play testing for a while.

Edited January 23, 2016 by maleister

[maleister]

I'm not sure which changes were the ones that helped but now it seems I can play as long as I like without issues.

 

Thanks for all the help.

Edited January 24, 2016 by maleister

[HypestHypeBoo]

I hope OP wont mind me posting my results and a question here so i don't create a new thread just for the sake of me and my problems. I have recently started modding skyrim and i reached step 2.H. Characters & Creatures in the step:core guide and i decided to give skyrim a start up and a test and see how its holding. Now i do know that in the guide itself it claims that the minimum recommendation are 2gb vram but ive read that it can be pulled of with 1GB Vram nonetheless. However after reaching not even half of the step guide it seems im hitting the cap on my vram and i wonder is there any point for me to continue the modding? Will all the mods that come after just overflood it and make my game crash so i better just wait with modding till i get a better rig with a stronger graph card or just install a handfull of mods like the fixes and a dozen or so other?

Here is the screenshot to the test skyrim performance tester gave me playing for some 20 mins in Helgen: https://postimg.org/image/qxvdt0un1/

Edited February 1, 2016 by HypestHypeBoo