Huge FPS drop after a few minutes gameplay.

[mikehammond]

Okay the game runs great at all times INDOORS, and has not crashed once, so those aspects are fine.

 

However, when I'm outdoors roaming around, my FPS is aobut 40-60 for about 20 minutes. Then it suddenly drops to <20fps at times. When it drops and I quicksave, then quit to menu and load again, my FPS is what it is, pre-drop. About 50fps. Again, thsoe few minutes later and the FPS drops WAAAAY down once again. No matter whats drawn on teh screen, the fps stays lwo until i relaod again. Looking at the ground or sky doesn't even raise the FPS.

 

This happens on most configurations, only on the lowest settings does it NOT happen.

 

My temps stay in the acceptable range. under 45c for my CPU, under 70c for my video card. Undoing overclocks does not help.

 

Specs:

 

C2D e6750 [email protected]

2GB DDR2 801mhz

8800gts 512mb, about 17% OC all-around - latest official drivers

7200.11rpm sata2

P35 mobo, latest firmware (DFI P35-T2RL)

Xp Pro Sp3

 

running at 1680x1050, 2xaa, 8af, settings to high/ultra

 

I went through Tweakguides' tweak guide adn it helped the look and reduced stutter, but didn't help THIS issue.

 

Oh adn i'm running patched game. Also all my other recoent games liek Far Cry2 and Dead Space run well, with consistant FPS.

 

ANY help or ideas woudl be great.

[fallout3enthusiast]

I have a similar problem. I think quite a few people do, good performance overall but then these sudden drops in certain areas of the game or at certain times. i think it could have something to do with how the game loads, you know, as you explore. This is just a feeling though, I'm upgrading to 3gb ram from 2, doubt it'll do much apart from alliviate small stuttering.

[bben46]

As with graphics cards, your CPU can slow down when it gets hot. Check for dust blocking your air channels in both the CPU heat sink and the video card heat sink. Clean the dust out of the case fans too. (be sure to unplug it first)

 

A weak power supply can also cause sudden FPS drops along with weird video anomalies. Clean the dust out of it too.

 

Also check to be sure there is nothing running in the background, such as an antivirus prog, automatic defrag prog, or an indexing service that thinks the computer is idle and starts trying to do something.

 

try running at a reduced video setting to see if that makes any difference.

[mikehammond]

My CPU tops out at about 42c and my GPU at 70c, so that's not an issue. MY PSU is more tahn i need, and is of high quality. I keep my computer pretty clean...

 

Actually a combination of revisting the tweakguide and the new 180.xx-whatever nvidia drivers made it a lot better. It still happens now, but the drop is less severe.

 

Only about 6 main-quest missions into the game so far but I've logged about 40 hours just doing side quests i find while exploring. I Looooove this game.

[general_failure]

Hey Mike, I'm an nvidia user, 2 8800GT 512's and I was poking around with stuff and found out for myself at least when HDR was turned on I would get those slowdowns like the game was teetering on 5fps and wouldn't fix itself even after teleporting to another area and even going back to my house in game where it's just a room, well, I turned HDR off and I haven't had this problem since. Doesn't look as good obviously, but meh, still get my rocks off killing things

[toffke]

I have the same Problem (gforce 7950 gt). Good FPS but after a few minutes it slows down... With textures on medium this problem doesnt occur, but i want to play with high detail :(.

I red about a vram-bug (texture memory overload). Hope they fix it! Or maybe somebody can help us out. =)