Fallout 3 on a Socket 478 P4 2.4 GHZ

[MansturNurlman]

I appreciate the suggestions.

 

My issue right now is figuring out how to actually get this version of NMM to load these mods people are suggesting.

[Mktavish]

Hmmm , maybe it's a problem with your install location ? Assuming you are saying NMM cannot find the game folder ?

So try to Get both Fallout 3 and NMM outside of program files , if it isn't already ?

 

But also ... you can just drop the contents of those mods into the data folder , then check them from the FalloutLauncher.exe ,Data , option there I believe ? Sorry can't remember exactly ... it's been so long since I launched with the launcher , and I can't find my disk presently to check what it says there.

 

If you are only running those mods , doesn't really need a load order sorting , just check the files you want to load from the launcher.

[MansturNurlman]

It turns out this was the most help piece of advice of all. I didn't need a mod manager at all. Thank You.

 

 

Hmmm , maybe it's a problem with your install location ? Assuming you are saying NMM cannot find the game folder ?

So try to Get both Fallout 3 and NMM outside of program files , if it isn't already ?

 

But also ... you can just drop the contents of those mods into the data folder , then check them from the FalloutLauncher.exe ,Data , option there I believe ? Sorry can't remember exactly ... it's been so long since I launched with the launcher , and I can't find my disk presently to check what it says there.

 

If you are only running those mods , doesn't really need a load order sorting , just check the files you want to load from the launcher.

Edited December 6, 2018 by MansturNurlman

[MansturNurlman]

 

I don't know if I should be using a load order or a mod manager but i got the game to be playable to one degree or another.

 

I still get frame rate drops during vram spikes but I get a consistent 25-40 FPS outdoors and up to 60 inside with all the graphics on the lowest setting at 800x600 and the textures on medium. I find myself forgetting what I am playing the game on and just playing it. Thanks for the advice. I have never played Fallout 3 before. I thought this would be an interesting way to do it. I need some power armor now.

[Mktavish]

Well glad that helped out. But you should give that tweak guide a thorough read I first linked.

Maybe the section on triple buffering could give you a good boost ? It's been a long while since I read it so can't remember what specifics to point out.

 

Just seems you should have been able to get playable render without those mod fixes.

My first time running Fo3 was on an xp machine with 1.5 gigs ram , a video card about half of what your's is. But I had a 3.0 ghz dual core processor. So maybe your processor is the weak link problem here ? And tweaking your temp memory (On hard drive) can't remember what it is called exactly. But it is covered in that Tweak guide. That may help out a bit.

Plus I would make sure next to nothing else is running while playing the game ... so your processor and ram doesn't have to share.

I think it's called doing a clean boot , to have it running only the bare minimum ?

[MansturNurlman]

Hey guys. Thanks again for your help. I thought I'd give you guys an update. I managed to get my hands on a SATA 1 PCI card for $7 new in the box at the recycling center. It took a lot of trial and error but now this old 478 P4 boots off of a SSD I installed. I went with a fresh version of XP SP2 I found, added SP3 and just the other bare essential drivers, (including updating the SATA controller driver and doing a clean boot), reinstalled FO 3 and based on my previous experience modding the game and playing around I was easily able to get all the performance enhancing mods I had accumulated previously and get the game to boot using FOSE. I just exited the vault (the game defaulted to medium quality this time) and all the DLCs just registered fine. The V-RAM spikes that were so prominent when I was used the IDE hard drive (5 FPS loading churns) are now barely noticeable micro stutters. I think this owes to the lack of a physical seek time inherent to a SSD. I just left the vault and will make my way to Megaton and play the game though again from the beginning to finish it this time. The only upgrade I have left on this computer would be to get a P4 3.06 with Hyper-Threading. It's $13 with shipping. The opening cinematic still lagged but from my limited observation the hardware limitations are no longer an issue. I am going to put FRAPS on it and try it on low and with a few other settings changes. I am going to give New Vegas another try. it was struggling with the menus before. My pc is overclocked to about 2.9k and with a Hyper-Threaded P4 is should run fine.

 

As far as overclocking goes, are there things I could change in the BIOS to coax more performance out of it besides increasing the FSB frequency? I have it up to 165 from 133 I believe. There are a bunch of other RAM timing ratios and voltages I was wary of messing with.

 

All and all this has been a great learning experience. Thank you guys again.

Edited March 18, 2019 by MansturNurlman

[Mktavish]

Sounds like you have a good handle on it. You the user will know better than any of us on the other end of this exchange.

We just be poking in the dark from this end really :/

 

Thank you for following up on the forum . Posterity is king around here :smile: ,,, Don't hesitate to post up anything else you want :wink:

 

PS: I would not even attempt to advise you about over clocking , even if I was more informed about it. Except keep that processor cooled .

That's a venture subject at your own peril imo .