4870x2 and Fallout 3

[metalmackey]

Hi Guys,

I've gone from 2 8800's in SLI to a 4870x2 and I'm happy with the performance increase I have in most games. Apart from Fallout 3 that is, The game runs at 60fps at max with 4xAA but it drops for no reason if I turn using the mouse or it will be at 60fps and drop to 30s. I run at 1080p and most other games run fine.

1 thing I've noticed going from Nvidia To ATI is my framerates seem a lot more non-constant, eg. UT3 can go from 50s to over 100.

Can anybody help with Fallout 3? What framerate are others getting?
Thanks

 

[arc@css]

I would have expected your card to run this game very, very well - up there with a 295 in all honesty. The frames change you mentioned when you turn the mouse is also on Fear2 and some others I think. I never ran Fraps when playing but I found it very smooth after upgrading from a 512mb 4870 to my X2.
I think, though, in all fairness, at least in my opinion, nvidia do generally provide more consistent frames and better minimum frames per second, the 200 series certainly. However, since your card is soooo powerful it really shouldn't be so much of an issue. Regardless of the frame rate change / dip, is the gameplay smooth in Fallout 3? Does the frame dip make that much difference here? In most games, bearing in mind the horse power your card has..it really shouldn't negatively affect gameplay much.

 

[kylew]

I don't think you're alone, I've been having the same issue and it's been getting progressively worse.

For the most part the game will be at a nice steady 60FPS, but now it's been dropping heavily into the 30s and even into single digits.

I'm actually in the process of going back to the 9.7 drivers to see if that changes anything for me. I was on the 9.8s previously.

I'll make an update to let you know if any thing has changed for me.

 

[kylew]

Going back to 9.7 does nothing. I'm considering just re-installing windows to be honest.

 

[arc@css]

Changing the drivers probably won't work, maybe the future ones will fix this but the current ones don't seem to address it. For me its not a major issue anyway.

 

[metalmackey]

Thanks for the replies guys With my SLI setup I could make a game profile for new games to enable SLI. Can I do this with the catalyst drivers, or are both GPU's used automatically on the x2 in every game (even if the game is newer than the drivers)?

Thanks again

 

[Winnter]

Going back to 9.7 does nothing. I'm considering just re-installing windows to be honest.

re-installing windows should be your last resort.

 

[kylew]

re-installing windows should be your last resort.

Re-installing windows takes me an hour max from starting the install process to having it back to the wait I like it.

Trouble shooting is just a waste of my time if it's going to take me over an hour to do.

I re-install windows on a regular basis anyway as it's so quick for me to do so. I have anything essential stored on my server or other hard drives in my PC.

 

[JonnyG1982]

Had same prob with Fallout3 and DIRT. Its a virtual memory leak issue from what i can tell. Its a dam nuisance. Both games run great then something happens, for DIRT it use to be the end of the race when camaera would pan to the driver that the fps would drop from its constant 60+ to 30 area, and it stays here. For Fallout 3 it was when i used the..whats it called, the little computer thingy u have, usually that would cause it as soon as i went back into game. Very annoying and made me stop playing the games (although already completed DIRT on my 8800gtx)

 

[kylew]

Had same prob with Fallout3 and DIRT. Its a virtual memory leak issue from what i can tell. Its a dam nuisance. Both games run great then something happens, for DIRT it use to be the end of the race when camaera would pan to the driver that the fps would drop from its constant 60+ to 30 area, and it stays here. For Fallout 3 it was when i used the..whats it called, the little computer thingy u have, usually that would cause it as soon as i went back into game. Very annoying and made me stop playing the games (although already completed DIRT on my 8800gtx)

That's what's annoying me. I've played 70 hours of fallout 3 in a week and I'm not even half way through (yes I like it that much), and this issue is now making it extremely hard to play for me.

 

[Mal X]

dont reinstall windows.... it's a total waste of time, Fallout 3 is *****d it's as simple as that...........

mine used to crash every 5 mins, i've fixed this and it hasn't crashed once in 2 weeks.... but the frame rates drop about once every half an hour, this game is a disaster, but at least it doesn't crash any more...

crashes stopped after i defragmented, downloaded SP3 and updated graphics drivers, deleted Nero ...............after doing this i defragmented yet again.........and it bloody worked i was so shocked and pleased, because my F3 was a total nightmare to play..

 

[kylew]

dont reinstall windows.... it's a total waste of time, Fallout 3 is *****d it's as simple as that...........

mine used to crash every 5 mins, i've fixed this and it hasn't crashed once in 2 weeks.... but the frame rates drop about once every half an hour, this game is a disaster, but at least it doesn't crash any more...

As I've said, it takes me so little time to do it that it's a non-issue to me.

I've reinstalled windows countless times in the last year. With the different builds of win7 being leaked, I was regularly re-installing.

The reason I'm considering it is because this issue has been progressive. I'm figuring a fresh installation of windows will show me if it fixes the issue, if it doesn't, I've only lost an hour instead of say 4-5 hours of trouble shooting and tinkering.

 

[kylew]

dont reinstall windows.... it's a total waste of time, Fallout 3 is *****d it's as simple as that...........

mine used to crash every 5 mins, i've fixed this and it hasn't crashed once in 2 weeks.... but the frame rates drop about once every half an hour, this game is a disaster, but at least it doesn't crash any more...

crashes stopped after i defragmented, downloaded SP3 and updated graphics drivers, deleted Nero ...............after doing this i defragmented yet again.........and it bloody worked i was so shocked and pleased, because my F3 was a total nightmare to play..

Do you by any chance have a quadcore CPU?

 

[Mal X]

Do you by any chance have a quadcore CPU?

no, i have Athlon FX 6400......QUADCORE next year...i have Win XP, 8800gt..

interestingly, the first files defragmenting moved were F3 files, it took 1/2 an hour to do only 1% and then a further 1/2 to move all the rest...so the F3 files were all over the place....since then it's been fine, i can even play with ``Dogmeat plus the radio on``, which was impossible before!

and before this i was tinkering with everything mentioned on Google to get this game working, it might also be the graphic drivers, but i suspect most of all that it was due to the files being all over the place..

frame rates slow down most of all.....below ground in the subways/ sewers, i simply double back out of the subways and it stops.... most odd!

 

[mmj_uk]

If it's a memory leak then a quick reboot should fix it (albeit temporarily).

 

[Tom|Nbk]

Guys this is a problem with the ATi drivers and partly needs patching by Besthesda. This is what I was told by Terry Makedon.

Something is yet to happen about this which is highly annoying since Fallout 3 is one of the only decent things to happen to the PC in recent times.

I had it and I avoided the game for months it was only resolved when I went back to a single 48701GB which as it happens doesn't really have the right horsepower for the game at 1920x1200 with 4xAA anyway