Restoring an old save file

[dubiousintent]

Hardware problems either fail completely all at once, or degrade over time (usually due to heat). Sounds like you are having the latter problem. And the graphics rendering slowness points to either a memory or video card problem.

 

Given what you say about "technophobia", I would suggest you just bite the bullet and take it into a shop so a technician can look it over. Swapping the video cards was just a relatively easy way to confirm it is indeed the card without a trip to the shop. A basic diagnosis shouldn't cost you more than an hour of basic bench time, and some places (usually independents) will perform diagnosis for free.

 

-Dubious-

[Dubik123]

I am so sorry, but this whole ordeal is getting a bit out of hand for me. I really don't want to nag, but this treatment is a bit too expensive. I dont think my GTX 970 is still in warranty so if your theory proves right, it's another 1000 euros thrown out of the window.

 

Something tells me it is not the graphics card though. Remember, the slow rendering in Fallout New Vegas started with my old card. And I know that GTA IV had the same issue with the old card as well. Is there anything else it could be?

 

To clarify, my old GPU was an AMD Radeon R9 200 and I only had 8GB of RAM, as opposed to the 16GB I have now.

[dubiousintent]

Adding more RAM when you already exceed 4GB will not affect a 32-bit game. Their code only allows them to address up to 4GB. We have been through the steps to let you utilize the maximum memory (FNV4GB, heap size adjustments, possibly ENBoost). Considering you say the slow rendering started with the old card, which implies it actually was fine before that point in time, tells me you had the problem develop over time. That the problem continues with a new video card, and occurs with multiple games, screams "hardware" to me. Software is not going to fix a hardware problem. It might be a weak memory chip, or something else with the motherboard. (If your system is more than 3 years old, you are living on borrowed time. 5 years is about as much as you can reasonably expect, even if it might last longer. Electronics age, and eventually fail. They never do so at convenient times.)

 

If your motherboard came with a built-in video chip, that should have been disabled by the technician who installed your new nVida card. The VRamSizeTest from the ENBSeries site would give you a clue if that chip was the one being used if the size VRamSizeTest reports does not match your nvida card VRAM. Have you tried updating your video driver since then? I doubt it will make difference to this issue, but it's worth a try.

 

Given you are not comfortable even swapping a video card, a trip to the shop is your only option other than "living with it". Sorry; no likes to hear that the fix is going to cost money, but no one can fix a hardware problem across the internet. And I'm out of other things to suggest.

 

-Dubious-

Edited November 23, 2016 by dubiousintent

[Dubik123]

I don't remember anything about the technician disabling a video chip. My PC will only be three years old by this Christmas.

 

I'm thinking, since I have never seen such issues in Fallout 4 before, maybe it has something to do with the latest Nvidia driver? That would be a huge relief. I might let you know when a new driver is available and I have installed it and tested if I was right. If not, I guess there won't be much Christmas shopping this year...

[dubiousintent]

The "New Vegas Anti-Crash" (NVAC) mod as of v7.5.0.0 (released 25 Oct 2016) has been reported to fix the conflict with the latest video drivers from nVidia and AMD.

 

Most modern motherboards (certainly on a 3 year old one) have a built-in "video chip" which is connected to a port on the back of the chassis box in the general area where the printer and USB ports are located (label "9" in this image is merely representative). An "add-on" video card like your nVidia GTX 970 goes into a "PCIe" card slot where the long thin vertical metal strips close up the back of the case to help with the air circulation. (See the label "1" in this image.)

 

When an "add-on" video card is installed, the "on-board" video chip needs to be disabled in the system BIOS in order for the "add-on" to be used instead. The technician should have done this when installing. (It's not hard, but not something for a "technophobe" and the BIOS is somewhere you can really turn your PC into something only suitable as a "boat anchor".) If you open your "Control Panel" | "Hardware and Sound" | "Device Manager" | "Display adapters" you should see which video device is active. If it doesn't show your nVidia as active, then you are still using the on-board chip, which probably will be identified as Intel or AMD.

 

The last resort (which is all too commonly people's first thought) is that this is a malware problem. Assuming you already have some form of Anti-Virus, it will have gotten past it so you need to try checking through several (more than one) "free online malware scan" sites. Just remember, most such sites are trying to sell you their product, so telling you there are "many" is a common tactic. You want to use more than one to check that they at least report one specific cause in common. Start with known commercial names like:

Microsoft

Kaspersky

F-Secure

Trend Micro

 

The best method is by booting from a "known to be clean" system disk and running the scan from there, but that is what computer shops are for if you didn't have the foresight to prepare one for yourself. (Which, to be fair, is most people.)

 

-Dubious- [Edit to add malware scan site links.]

Edited November 27, 2016 by dubiousintent

[Dubik123]

Hoo boy, malware. I shudder every time I see that word. It is true that a malicious program has gotten into my PC this October, but I have since then removed it using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. The program was not intended to harm video memory, it was just an adware program. To be assured though, I still scanned my PC with the F-Secure program. No harmful programs were found. I suppose, no, hope, that this is not a problem. You can probably imagine how mentally scarred a "technophobe" like me can get after a malware attack.

 

Is it safe to keep F-Secure around? It gave me a rather strange offer at the end of the scan, and I already have an anti-virus program, Avast. I am just paranoid ever since that particular malware attack.

 

Now that you have cleared it up a bit for me, I recall the technician snooping around the BIOS doing something, so I suppose it was this. The active display adapter is my current Nvidia card.

[Dubik123]

Yep, it's official. The render issue is present in all games at the moment. I can't quite make out why New Vegas was broken even before, but most games I have played lately have suffered from the render distance bug.

[dubiousintent]

Large organizations often use multiple AV scanners, under the theory that at any given moment none of them cover all the latest malware. Just for October 2016 Symantec reported a jump in unique variants from 50.1 million to 96.1 million. With more than a million new variants a day in one month, no one vendor is going to be able to provide 100% protection every day. The "old norm" was thousands per day, and it was still true then.

 

The good news is that most malware still relies upon either unprotected access to your system (i.e. routers without strong password protection, especially open WiFi connections) and "human engineering" in tricking people into clicking on attachments. The former means you are vulnerable to "botnets" which ceaselessly probe for open systems, 24/7. They will find you within a half-hour of connecting to the internet.

 

As long as you are behind a properly set up router and don't get tricked into infecting yourself, you are "fairly" safe simply because you are not worth the concerted effort to break in when there are easier targets out there. Your best defense generally is to keep the system software updated and using an updated, well regarded AV product. Check product reviews annually. Not all AV products are equal, and not all are as good this year as they were last year. You don't need the "Best" but at least "good enough".

 

As your active display is your nVidia card, and the problem is now in all games, better plan on at least taking your box into a shop and probably having to replace the video card, or possibly a weak memory chip. Or just "live with it".

 

-Dubious-

Edited November 28, 2016 by dubiousintent