Hasn't BGS said multiple times that they knew there would be potential memory woes with the PS3 version and tried to prepare for them? Of course it's a memory issue. There just isn't enough of it. In a game where every single attack you make or every item you move or drop are left permanently there in the game world, you're going to have issues when you have a limited amount of memory to work with.

Wrong, utterly and completely wrong. 256MB of RAM is more than enough for a 720p render.

If you were correct, then this thread wouldn't exist as Bethesda would just decrease the texture resolution through a patch, or lower the rendering resolution. That would be unprecendented but considering the problems they are having it would be a most appropriate solution - IF that were the problem - which it isn't.

Incorrect. "Huge open worlds" take massive amounts of system memory, NOT GPU memory. Tricks are employed so that only visible data is rendered and lower resolution textures are used in distance etc. I can assure you right now 256MB for a render of ANY game at 720p is plenty, if you bolt on anti-aliasing then that will increase the amount required but that is something that can be tweaked after release.

The prequels to Skyrim also took massive amounts of memory, I remember Morrowind on the PC, it needed 1GB to be completely smooth without long pauses when going between invisible cut off points. That was from 20012002 ish. Then Oblivion, also needed a relatively high amount of system memory to run smoothly.

This is obviously a system memory issue. As the poster before me has mentioned, Skyrim is EXACTLY the type of game that needs large amounts of system memory. If you read between the lines and think it through it's the only logical answer. The real proof in the pudding is that if it were video memory limitations that were causing the hitching and slowdown - they could be fixed easily enough by employing industry standard tricks, draw distancefogging, lower res textures for distant objects, even close ones if it was really neeeded.

When there is a system memory shortage and the game has already been finished, it's very hard to do anything about it. When DLC comes that only adds to that burden....what can you do? Answer - not much!

Bethesda has been known to make some of the most ridiculous mistakes in games, which have often been corrected by modders long before being semi-corrected by bethesda.

So that line of thinking isn't the most accurate. 256 MB RAM is enough for 720p render and yeah, they could have reduced the texture resolution and all that to fit in the game - but are they willing?

They did something similar during the lauch of the game. Reduced the graphics so that the game could be playable. They could have done that from the beginning itself.

guess your out of luck then. 

Your understanding is thoroughly wrong of the whole concept and ares that benefit from a cache on the hard drive. For example, a full install of data that is uncompressed negates the benefits of using the hard drive as a cache - completely. Those large mandatory installs on the PS3 are effectively the game caching data.

The bolded highlights my point, that is an invalid statement, a full install of uncompressed data to the hard drive makes the use of the cache entirely redundant.

GTA 4, Red Dead redemption, Just Cause 2, Fallouts  all of them, etc. All have ran well, with the exception of Fallout on some PS3s.

And out of them, just cause 2, and red dead redemption look great as well, probably better than PS3 skyrim anyway.

So if GPU isn't the one to blame, then all these games should technically require a lot of system RAM and should have been as bad as skyrim on PS3, and yet all of these only have one thing in common, they look worse than their 360 counterparts with fallouts also performing a tad worse.

I don't see how skyrim specifically requires more RAM.

And Red Dead Redemption added in a DLC too- along with the likes of fallout 3 and New Vegas ; which had a ton of problems on PS3 as well.

:/ Confused

I meant in reference to people who complain about wanting the DLC but not wanting to just get the PC version or Xbox version. Didn't mean you personally.