improving graphics with Gforce 9400 Gt videocard

[zamora77]

Hello folks!!

 

I am pretty new to PC gaming and absolutely love Fallout 3. I have a 2.8 Ghz Core 2 Duo system on an Asrock motherboard, a 250 HDD, 4 gigs of ram and a XFX Gforce 9400 GT videocard. The videocard has a 550 Mhz core clock and 1 gig of video memory. At first this sounded like a pretty decent set of features, but once I started playing I realized that the best graphics setting I can comfortably play the the game in is medium, with no anti-aliasing.

 

Could any pc veterans suggest ways I could tweak my videocard or FO3 launcher settings to improve in-game graphics without hurting the performance aspect of the game too much?

 

thanks again guys!! :biggrin:

[Hateful_kat]

Read here, pal.

Great guide, easy to follow.

 

http://www.tweakguides.com/Fallout3_1.html

[overload1977]

dont do everthing in this guide do a bit of testing yourself first

 

by the specs of your pc i would say you can run the game on high settings

[Vitz]

dont do everthing in this guide do a bit of testing yourself first

 

by the specs of your pc i would say you can run the game on high settings

 

No.

 

 

The video card is killing it. The 9400GT was never designed for gaming. It's a card for multimedia display, which really doesn't require a lot of power. It simply doesn't have the strength to run a game like Fallout 3 without a hitch.

[minutegold]

I'm with Vitz, there is not much you can do with a 9400 as far as gaming is concerned.

 

BUT, Nvidia's 9800gt costs only about as much as two full price games, and plays FO3 at 1680x1050 with ultra high settings and 4x AA. Find a deal that comes with a game and your relative costs are even lower, and if you just play some more FO3 you can finance the whole thing through your game budget and get it essentially for free.

[Lucidx]

I have a NVidea Geforce (looks at box)

nvidia GeForce Verto 8600 GT Graphics Card

512mb

 

Thats all the information I can find on the box but your card sounds better than mine.

My PC is a Dell Inspiron 518 (Intel Pentium) Dual Core

 

But anyways your system is better than mine but I can play fallout 3 at 'high' settings with a stable 45fps

[Vitz]

I'm with Vitz, there is not much you can do with a 9400 as far as gaming is concerned.

 

BUT, Nvidia's 9800gt costs only about as much as two full price games, and plays FO3 at 1680x1050 with ultra high settings and 4x AA. Find a deal that comes with a game and your relative costs are even lower, and if you just play some more FO3 you can finance the whole thing through your game budget and get it essentially for free.

 

Currently ATi is beating Nvidia though. A Radeon 4850 is cheaper and faster than a 9800GT.

[zamora77]

I'm with Vitz, there is not much you can do with a 9400 as far as gaming is concerned.

 

BUT, Nvidia's 9800gt costs only about as much as two full price games, and plays FO3 at 1680x1050 with ultra high settings and 4x AA. Find a deal that comes with a game and your relative costs are even lower, and if you just play some more FO3 you can finance the whole thing through your game budget and get it essentially for free.

 

Currently ATi is beating Nvidia though. A Radeon 4850 is cheaper and faster than a 9800GT.

 

Thanks for all of your comments guys. I guess I'll have to start saving for a new card. I feel like a complete dumbass that I didn't do better research on a card like this one. On the other hand, I have to confess that the card itself was thrown into the PC combo I bought as a "nice extra". Guess it's really not all that nice after all, but you know the saying about looking at gift horses in the mouth.

 

Anyway, I'll do the best I can until I have enough dough to buy a new card. I'll read the FO3 tweaking guide and see what can be done to improve my gaming experience until then.

 

Gracias to all of you again :thanks: