Random Slowdown

[praetorian815]

I just installed Fallout 3 last night. As I was playing through the intro, I noticed that occasionally I would start moving a lot slower than normal, and the game itself also slowed down considerably. I looked around for reports of similar issues, but they all talked about slowdown in outdoor areas, often with new texture packs installed. Well, I'm playing the game without a single mod right now and I'm having problems before I even leave Vault 101. I've tried turning off antialiasing and lowering the resolution, but it didn't make any difference. I have no idea why this is happening, as my computer should be more than enough to run an older game without these problems. If it makes any difference, I'm using the GOTY version, and I installed the game and all of the DLCs from Disc 2 before I started playing.

 

Here are my specs, in case that helps:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33 Ghz

8 GB RAM

GTX 570 EVGA superclocked version

 

This PC can run Skyrim just fine with a ton of mods installed, so I don't see why I should be having any problems with a 5-year-old game. I'd really appreciate some help. Thanks.

[prensa]

praetorian815 - Hello!

 

Big textures can cause stuttering but that tends to be markedly different to micro stutter, the game will lag as the bigger textures load up. Since you don't have any texture packs that's unlikely to be your issue though a few places like Rivet City are very graphics intensive areas even in the vanilla game & it's not unusual to notice a slight slow down there for many.

 

If your hard drive is thrashing during the slow downs, it may need defragging. The further apart Fallout files are the slower they will be to load when needed.

 

Could be micro stutter, affects many newer computers running games with the gamebryo engine.

 

Tends to feel like a slow down then speed back up as moving along, an effect a bit like a messed film.

 

I use Fallout Stutter Remover to fix this & that smoothes the game right out:

 

http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/8886

 

You tend to have to play with the FPS cap in the settings .ini that comes with that to get the perfect results for your specific rig but once you get it right you just leave it alone & all is well. :)

 

My main experience is with the FSR_4-0-7 version, which I've used for some time.

 

It's even got a very nice "Fas Exit" setting that makes Fallout 3 exit cleanly & quicker than normal.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Prensa