CPU bound in FO4

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My trusty old rig is really starting to struggle with fallout 4 and is murdered by a lot of the outdoor sections. All the advice for turning down settings seems to be based around GPU bound systems. Any advice on which settings to change for my rig to get the prettiest consistent (min 25fps?) playable experience would be much appreciated.


Playing at 1080
e6400 at 3.2
4 Gig of ram
r9 290
Crucial M4 ssd

Thanks
 
The cheapest and easiest option would be to throw a used quadcore, a Q6600 or Q9650 in there (they are both listed in the cpu support of your motherboard but you may need to update the bios).

You will also find that the E6400 has been limiting your 290 on EVERY game not just FO4,
expect improvements across the board.
 
CPU is almost 10 years old, and at 3.2 it's quite low clocked for what is considered normal these days. It is definitely the weak link in that system.
 
Thanks,

290 was a recent upgrade from a 4890 for fallout, I hadn't appreciated just how far behind the curve the e6400 is now even for gaming! I know one of the i5 4690k bundles is probably the answer tbh but just wondering what setting to drop to make the best of it now. I could go and find my old spreadsheet of settings and OC upto about 3.7ish but would rather not for the noise.

How well is fallout 4 optimised for quads?

I thought a 290 was about the sweetspot for 1080p gaming?

Thanks
 
The cheapest and easiest option would be to throw a used quadcore, a Q6600 or Q9650 in there (they are both listed in the cpu support of your motherboard but you may need to update the bios).

You will also find that the E6400 has been limiting your 290 on EVERY game not just FO4,
expect improvements across the board.

This.

A Q6600 will make a huge change.

Your 290 is fine for FO4 at 1080p.

I had to cap FO4 to 60fps using Riva Tuner to avoid the "stuck Terminal" bug.
 
Oh WOW q6600's go for £20ish now? Thats a no brainer then if it'll let me eak out a bit more time on this rig at 1080p for a bit. Is 4gig of ram likely to be limiting me for FO4?
 
Thanks,

290 was a recent upgrade from a 4890 for fallout, I hadn't appreciated just how far behind the curve the e6400 is now even for gaming! I know one of the i5 4690k bundles is probably the answer tbh but just wondering what setting to drop to make the best of it now. I could go and find my old spreadsheet of settings and OC upto about 3.7ish but would rather not for the noise.

How well is fallout 4 optimised for quads?

I thought a 290 was about the sweetspot for 1080p gaming?

Thanks

It will make a laaaaarge difference, a Q6600 can be had for 20quid on a certain auction site, and the 290 is perfect for 1080p.

Although I can't guarantee it, I've had 5-6 Q6600's and not one has done less than 3.6ghz (all G0 SLACR's mind).
 
guys what are you opinions on an Intel i5 750 at 4Ghz, just bought a 980ti to go with it but wondering if its become a weak link yet? definitely still feels quick.
 
guys what are you opinions on an Intel i5 750 at 4Ghz, just bought a 980ti to go with it but wondering if its become a weak link yet? definitely still feels quick.

Running 2x 780's in SLI on my 750 @ 4ghz.
Never missed a beat yet and certainly don't feel the need to upgrade.
 
Not to take away from the e6400, was a great chip, mine would run at 3.8ghz 24/7, but you really do need at least a quad core cpu nowadays (unless the newer intel cpu's with hyper threading?)
 
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I'm running a Q9550 at 3.4GHz, 4Gb RAM with 2x 6970. I'm very CPU limited. Cards hardly go over 50% usage. First game in a long time that's been a struggle to run. The settings make little difference. I get stutters and it grinds down to a halt at times. But it is playable. I haven't visted any of the major locations mind you.

Tis 6 years old now sadly. Wish I could afford to bring my system upto date. Frustrating as I have an i7 MacBook but obviously no gfx grunt.
 
You need 2gb gpu ram atleast (maybe more)
1gb ram just wont work.
This is my experience from a 5850 1gb, it does work ok in the wilderness but it just isnt enough for the city area's and stuff

But peeps reckon the game is cpu bound not gpu
Just get a Q6600 or Q9650 and see how it goes
 
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Q6600 won't be much better either to be honest, I had that back in the day (was a fantastic chip back then) with a 560Ti and it was bottlenecking it in a lot of games.

Time to upgrade and get a new mobo+cpu op ;)
 
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