Soldato
Background
A few of us still play some of the old Creation Engine based games such as Fallout 4. Annoyingly a lot of reviewers don't seem to test older games anymore,and these generally benefit the most from better single threaded performance,faster memory speeds,etc.
Fallout 4 tends to be primarily limited by its graphics rendering thread,so higher drawcalls can collapse performance. Many reviews didn't bother testing the game properly in areas with higher drawcalls,which are usually the built up areas. Since Fallout 4 has user built settlements,it can cause very high drawcalls which can even cause performance dips on modern CPUs.
Another limitation is NPC AI which hogs another thread too,and built up areas and player settlements have another performance limitation.
However,a few years ago MajinCry on Anandtech forums did start a Fallout4 test thread:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/draw-call-performance-in-fallout-4.2501467/
This involved testing drawcall performance on different CPUs and dGPUs.Basically it involves using something called an ENB profiler,and it enables you to look at many stats including drawcalls and FPS.
The two tests,aim for 11700 and 8000 drawcalls respectively. This might sound like a lot,but I have seen something like 20000 in player built settlements,and it tanks CPU performance.
Since there is no real comparative reviews of the game on newer hardware,I would appreciate if anyone with the time,can run some of the benchmarks which were detailed in this thread. It will involve a bit of faff,but I will describe what you will need to do. If even a few data points can be provided,I would really appreciate it.
In my case it would certainly influence whether I upgrade to Zen3,or just hold off for a new platform in the future. So Intel benchmarks would be appreciated too!
Preparation
Open up the two directories which Fallout 4 uses
1.)C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Fallout4
2.)steamapps\common\Fallout4
1.)Fresh Install of Fallout 4 with no mods
If you already have Fallout 4 installed,and don't want to muck it up,you can force a fresh install by renaming the two Fallout 4 directories to Fallout4Old.
Then you will find you cannot launch the game from Steam. If you click repair installation,the game will be re-downloaded into a new Fallout 4 directory.
2.)Launch Fallout 4
This will create the relevant ini files. Close the launcher down.
Now look in C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Fallout4 for the Fallout4Prefs file. Open it and look for sD3DDevice. Note down what the name is. Mine was sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti".
3.)Download the relevant test files from the thread over on Anandtech.
In my case I replaced it with "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti".
As with any file check it with your antivirus and antispyware before opening.
The 4.) step links to an old ENB version which is not listed anymore,so get the latest one:
http://enbdev.com/mod_fallout4_v0468.htm
4.)Unlock the FPS.
In the Nvidia drivers,you can search for Fallout4 and make sure instead of VSync being on it is turned off.
Now in the C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Fallout4 folder find the Fallout4.ini and Fallout4Pref.ini and change iPresentInterval=0 and save it. Now in the steamapps\common\Fallout 4 folder find Fallout4_Default.ini and do the same. In the steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Fallout4 folder the other copy of Fallout4Pref.ini and do the same.
The profiler window runs at a very low 640X480 resolution,so it maybe ideal to set the desktop resolution to something like 1280X800 just for the test tuns so its easier to see things.
Once you have done all that start up Fallout4. There will be two saves - the Corvega Plant and Diamond City.
For the Corvega save pan the camera around until you get 11700 draw calls and note the FPS. In Diamond City pan the camera around until you get 8000 draw calls and note the FPS.
Current leaderboard(18/04/2023)
A few of us still play some of the old Creation Engine based games such as Fallout 4. Annoyingly a lot of reviewers don't seem to test older games anymore,and these generally benefit the most from better single threaded performance,faster memory speeds,etc.
Fallout 4 tends to be primarily limited by its graphics rendering thread,so higher drawcalls can collapse performance. Many reviews didn't bother testing the game properly in areas with higher drawcalls,which are usually the built up areas. Since Fallout 4 has user built settlements,it can cause very high drawcalls which can even cause performance dips on modern CPUs.
Another limitation is NPC AI which hogs another thread too,and built up areas and player settlements have another performance limitation.
However,a few years ago MajinCry on Anandtech forums did start a Fallout4 test thread:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/draw-call-performance-in-fallout-4.2501467/
This involved testing drawcall performance on different CPUs and dGPUs.Basically it involves using something called an ENB profiler,and it enables you to look at many stats including drawcalls and FPS.
The two tests,aim for 11700 and 8000 drawcalls respectively. This might sound like a lot,but I have seen something like 20000 in player built settlements,and it tanks CPU performance.
Since there is no real comparative reviews of the game on newer hardware,I would appreciate if anyone with the time,can run some of the benchmarks which were detailed in this thread. It will involve a bit of faff,but I will describe what you will need to do. If even a few data points can be provided,I would really appreciate it.
In my case it would certainly influence whether I upgrade to Zen3,or just hold off for a new platform in the future. So Intel benchmarks would be appreciated too!
Preparation
Open up the two directories which Fallout 4 uses
1.)C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Fallout4
2.)steamapps\common\Fallout4
1.)Fresh Install of Fallout 4 with no mods
If you already have Fallout 4 installed,and don't want to muck it up,you can force a fresh install by renaming the two Fallout 4 directories to Fallout4Old.
Then you will find you cannot launch the game from Steam. If you click repair installation,the game will be re-downloaded into a new Fallout 4 directory.
2.)Launch Fallout 4
This will create the relevant ini files. Close the launcher down.
Now look in C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Fallout4 for the Fallout4Prefs file. Open it and look for sD3DDevice. Note down what the name is. Mine was sD3DDevice="NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti".
3.)Download the relevant test files from the thread over on Anandtech.
MajinCry in Anandtech thread said:
In my case I replaced it with "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti".
As with any file check it with your antivirus and antispyware before opening.
The 4.) step links to an old ENB version which is not listed anymore,so get the latest one:
http://enbdev.com/mod_fallout4_v0468.htm
4.)Unlock the FPS.
In the Nvidia drivers,you can search for Fallout4 and make sure instead of VSync being on it is turned off.
Now in the C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Fallout4 folder find the Fallout4.ini and Fallout4Pref.ini and change iPresentInterval=0 and save it. Now in the steamapps\common\Fallout 4 folder find Fallout4_Default.ini and do the same. In the steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Fallout4 folder the other copy of Fallout4Pref.ini and do the same.
The profiler window runs at a very low 640X480 resolution,so it maybe ideal to set the desktop resolution to something like 1280X800 just for the test tuns so its easier to see things.
Once you have done all that start up Fallout4. There will be two saves - the Corvega Plant and Diamond City.
MajinCry in Anandtech thread said:
For the Corvega save pan the camera around until you get 11700 draw calls and note the FPS. In Diamond City pan the camera around until you get 8000 draw calls and note the FPS.
Current leaderboard(18/04/2023)
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