i have a 12 mb save file with 220 hours of gameplay, i just learned that such a save file causes framerate issues and lag, the only thing i notice is a slight framerate drop every 10sec in the wild of skyrim but what i don't know is wether or not these symptoms were present when my save file was 6mb for example, so does a save file of 12mb affect the framerate and fluidity of the gameplay or is it fixed with the 1.9 patch ? what are your experiences regarding this ?

This isn't much of a problem if you're running Skyrim on a decent PC. I had several 12-14MB save files on my old laptop and they were still very much playable (load times were maybe a bit longer, but nothing noticeable). This might be more of a problem if playing on a console like the PS3.

If you're on console, you will notice VERY long loading times.

My saves get to 16+ MB or more and there are no issues from that.

I believe it is more of an issues on the consoles due to hardware limits on the consoles.

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It might be an issue on older computers that just have the minimum specs.

I've had save files grow as large as 18 MB, and they haven't given me any trouble.

10-18 minutes in fact

In all my time with Skyrim, I've never had a loading screen that long. 5 minutes at the max, any longer and I restart the PS3.

On my old Xbox I got loading screens like that all the time. (I play PC now)

My current save file is 16 mb, and I'm having no issues at all.

And wow, five minute load times? Even fifteen minutes?! That is just insane. I honestly had no idea that was the situation for console gamers. That's terrible. I feel really bad for you guys (I mean that seriously, and not in some patronizing pc-snob sort of way). That sounds like it would be incredibly frustrating. Even with all my mods and HD textures, It'll take my comp between 10 and 30 seconds to load, maybe a whole minute on rare occasion. When I first played it pure vanilla, the load times were so fast that I couldn't even read those little loading screen messages because it would be done in two or three seconds. And it's not like I have some monster gaming rig. My computer and graphics card are about 3 years old and were pretty modest even for their time. It's definitely on the low-to-mid tier of gaming systems. I just can't understand why the consoles would take so long to load. That seems crazy to me.

It definitely affects Gameplay as well.
My main character's file with 530 hours going at 19 MB, really any magical effect cast on someone is delayed for like 3 seconds before it actually affects them, such as Unrelenting Force, they'll stand there a little bit and then go flying.

I love Skyrim, but honestly I don't think I'd play if I had to deal with loading times like that.

i am on ps3, does anyone playing on ps3 with a save file of around 12mb experience slight framerate issues ?

Regardless of platform, 12MB after 220h of gameplay is surprisingly small.

It's normal.