The most significant issue particular to the PlayStation 3 version of Skyrim is one of a drastically decreased framerate, often reported as PlayStation 3 lag or PlayStation 3 slowdown. User reports and online videos confirm that the framerate drops dramatically, often as low as zero frames per second at later stages in the game. The framerate of Skyrim is typically steady at 30 frames per second when users first start the game.
The framerate issues are largely attributed to the size of the save file created for the PlayStation 3 version of the game. When users make a save, the PS3 menus specify the size of the save file. As the save file gets over 6MB large, users report noticeable slowdown.
Fixes, Solutions, and how to deal with PS3 "Lag"
On December 7, 2011, Bethesda issued the 1.3 Patch for Skyrim with some intention of addressing the PlayStation 3 performance issues, but the problems persist. Since then, there is no official fix yet issued for Skyrim's framerate issues on PlayStation 3, as Bethesda has yet to address the issue. However, users report some speculative, short term "fixes" to the problem that may or may not actually help.- Disable auto-saves. Some users report that disabling auto-saving has a positive impact on the framerate issue with the PlayStation 3 game.
- Delete extraneous file saves. Speculatively, deleting extraneous save files may help alleviate framerate issues. Instead of having a log of 20 Skyrim save files, some users suggest keeping the save file count to under three.
- Keep the file size low. The file size of the Skyrim save appears to be affected by things like opened doors and items left behind, as the game remembers every changed position of such items. By closing doors (or leaving them in their original positions) and not leaving items like dropped weapons behind, some users report that the size of the save file is kept lower.
- Turn off the PlayStation 3. Some users speculate that the framerate issues are exacerbated by long play sessions, stretching multiple hours, and that by avoiding long play sessions the framerate issues can be minimized.