Random FPS Drops

[HobosinSpace]

So playing Fallout 3 again, and I get these random FPS drops every so often while walking around. It runs fine, then slows for a couple of seconds, then runs fine again. Now not the worst situation, but it's really pretty annoying. Anyone knows why this happens or any possible way to fix it?

 

My PC

 

Windows Vista 64-Bit

4 GB System Ram

Intel® Core2 Duo CPU P7350 @ 2.00GHz

GeForce GTX 260M

 

(note; I don't do a lot of stuff with specs, so I'm probably missing stuff)

[MichikoUnknownFox]

What are your Fallout.ini settings for these values:

 

uGridsToLoad

iPreloadSizeLimit

uExterior Cell Buffer

uInterior Cell Buffer

 

 

There are more, but those are the main settings that determine how much data your game will be reading from the HDD (versus pre-loading it into RAM for faster access). That HDD chugging while reading data to load whenever you switch to a different outdoor cell is one of the main causes of FPS drops especially when you're outdoors, which is likely to be where you're experiencing it. In fact, you probably don't experience any FPS drops at all when indoors except maybe when you're nearing a door to another area.

 

For a good-ish system like yours you may want to keep uGridsToLoad=5, then increase the other values depending on what they're set to right now. There are various ideas on the formulae for the other three values, but I personally follow the ones suggested in Japanese modders forums, where if you have more than 3 GB system RAM, you can upgrade iPreloadSizeLimit to 512 MB (iPreloadSizeLimit=536870912), and uInterior Cell Buffer=12 (uExterior Cell Buffer was suggested to be at uInteriorCellBuffer's value squared, so 144) I had these settings before on my older machine (Phenom x4 2.2 GHz, 3.5 GB RAM, NVIDIA 8600 GTS) and my game ran fairly smoothly outdoors, save for microstutter that I don't really mind.

[BlackRampage]

I'd actually recommend a much easier solution (which can also fix the microstutter issues): Fallout Stutter Remover

 

Be aware that Fallout Stutter Remover is a FOSE plugin and therefore you to have FOSE to run it.

Edited May 26, 2012 by BlackRampage

[MichikoUnknownFox]

Fallout Stutter Remover doesn't work for everybody, and actually works against people with faster computers like mine.

 

But, considering his CPU is a Core2Duo @ 2.00 GHz, it may actually work well. I just avoid recommending it outright because of my bad experiences with it.

[BlackRampage]

Try editing the sr_Fallout_Stutter_Remover.ini and change the max fps setting to something higher. (like 60 instead of the rather low 30)

[MichikoUnknownFox]

Come to think of it, FSR might not help as much as we think. His problem isn't stutter. It really sounds like loading lag based on:

 

It runs fine, then slows for a couple of seconds, then runs fine again.

 

Of course, it doesn't hurt to try FSR anyway though. But I'm very doubtful it'll do anything for that kind of lag. It may fix his stutter, but it might not help with the sudden FPS drops at times.

[davycrockett]

your cpu doesnt meet minimum reqs 2.4ghz is the minimum for fallout3 id suggest an upgrade go on treat yourself hardware is dirt cheap at the moment

[quicksilverva]

GeForce GTX 260M

 

 

some performance issues should be expected running Fallout 3 on a laptop

 

might also try making the fallout 3's .exe large address aware. that might help some too