Horrible frames per second

[Wanderer1911]

I've been having problems with Fallout 3 performance, even if I set my graphic presets to Default I would get horrible FPS 15-20, I've tried everything, drivers, patches, cleaning my computer, modifying INI files, you name it, but I'm still having problems. My configuration is: Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz, 2.0 GB of RAM, GeForce 8600 GT with 512MB RAM. According to the readme file I have the recommended system to run it. Is there anything else I can do to improve my game, WITHOUT upgrading my system.

[Alastair91]

Have you tried turning off anti virus while playing?

 

At the nVidia panel, setting maximum pre-rendered frames to 6 helped my game smooth out a lot.

[minutegold]

...GeForce 8600 GT...

 

I found your problem. Don't worry though, you can still get decent FPS with custom settings, it's just going to look a bit ugly.

 

Here is what got me playable frame rates with a 7600gs:

 

- Lower the resolution. I suggest 1024x768, 1200x800 or 1280x720 depending on your monitor's aspect ratio.

 

- Start with the Medium preset.

 

- Keep the "View Distance" and "Distance LOD" settings.

 

- Chose Medium "Texture Quality" (Your card has enough memory to support "High" without a significant performance impact, but start with Medium to be on the safe side.)

 

- Disable everything else or use the smallest possible value. (Don't forget to use the "Advanced..." button.)

[evilneko]

What OS? The 8600 GT, according to http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php is actually (somewhat) superior to the HD 2600 XT I recently upgraded from. Your Intel dual core should also be fairly comparable in gaming terms to my Phenom 9750, though your particular one ranked slightly lower, IIRC.

 

...and I ran the game at somewhere between Medium and High, 1600x900 resolution, sometimes with HDR on sometimes not (it's both beautiful and ugly at the same time, however that works).

 

The biggest thing you can do is turn off Anti-Aliasing anf AAF, they do a number on video cards (with my 2600XT, I had both of these turned off, though I think I may have tried 2x once). Kill the grass too, it's ugly anyway (I don't even turn it on now that I've upgraded). Turn down shadows and water quality, turn down or turn off reflections.

 

And like a previous poster said: what else is running in the background? You've got 2GB of RAM, I've currently got 4 but also ran with 2 fairly well.

 

All that said I never actually checked my FPS explicitly. (still haven't, come to think of it) If it "felt" smooth, I was satisfied with it. That probably means I was in the range of 25-32.

 

Oh, my laptop also runs Fallout 3 at similar settings and perhaps actually smoother than my desktop did with the 2600XT. It's an Intel T3200 (2GHz dual core) with a 9600M GT. 1280x800 resolution, since the screen is smaller. SOMETHING is going on to make your system lag.

 

Both run Windows XP, 64-bit edition on the desktop.

[Wanderer1911]

I am using Windows XP Professional, and I am going to list you what did I do with graphics:

-resolution 1024x768

-antialiasing 4

-anisotropic filtering 10

-mode windowed on, vsync on

-screen effects HDR

-texture and radial blur high

-depth of field and transparency multisampling on

-decal cap 99 (because of a mod)

-water refractions and depth fog on

-water multisampling high

-shadows off

-object fade 10, actor fade 10, grass 0, specularity 5, light 25, item 10, and shadow 1(because it doesn't go lower)

-tree LOD 10

-object LOD 35

-land quality 85

 

Now, I turned down the AA because it gave me performance boost and it's still somewhat nice to look at. And no I cleaned my computer, running nothing in background and even downloaded d3d overrider( it gives an AMAZING performance boost, before it I couldn't have more than 20 FPS, but now when I turn down the AA i get 25-30)

[evilneko]

XP Pro. Good choice. ;)

 

Turn down Anisotropic as well. With that level of video card you're not gonna get very far with it. Play full screen as well, windowed will reduce your FPS. This is your main problem. 10 is just too high for your card.

 

Transparency multisampling gives, IMO, very little to the game's appearance. I say kill it. Water multisampling doesn't really add that much either, you should probably turn it down.

 

I see you have shadows turned off. According to the tweakguide, Fallout 3 doesn't use shadows much at all. You can safely turn those back on if you want.

 

I played with AA/AF at 2 on my desktop, off on the laptop, and it still looked good, probably because the other settings were turned up still.

 

See also the tweakguide, which can help you decide what to sacrifice. Just bear in mind that even though the game will look better with higher AF settings, the performance hit just may not be worth it.

 

I think I'll go take comparison screenshots for AF, actually.

 

Edit: Screenshot 1; Screenshot 2. Bet it'll take you a bit of looking to figure out which is which. ;) Compare AA/AF at 8/8 and 2/2.

[minutegold]

Damn, I wish I would have known about d3d overrider earlier. It not only removed the last frame rate drops (Like around flaming barrels or when looking at the Super-Duper Mart ceiling.), but it also cured the micro-stutter when looking around.

 

:D My game is now 100% stutter and slowdown free, thanks to Riva Tuner, "iFPSclamp=60", "Large Address Aware Enabler for FO3" and some "Memory, Loading & Multi-threading"-tweaks.