Nagisan Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 It seems to run fine in terms of FPS for the most part, but half the time I spend moving around the game is loading data off my HDD. The issue is when its loading data it is giving terrible performance.....often times (lets take the end battle for example) every second or two I am moving forward the game is completely stopping for half a second or so as its loading data....when its not loading data off my HDD it is running smooth, when it is (which is like 80% of the time) it runs like crap (worse than GTA IV). During this time I have over a gig of free ram, is there any way to force prefetching so it loads everything it needs to at the beginning? I already have write caching enabled and write-cache buffer flushing disabled (both of which are suppose to improve HDD performance). I run Windows 7 RC on a Q6700 @ 3.6Ghz, an HD 4850 TOXIC and 4GB of ram. I run other games like GTA IV, Crysis (not maxed but at my resolution of 1920x1200) and TF2 with no problem whatsoever. I run FO3 at my native res (1920x1200) on even medium settings, and I read reviews with similar settings running the game maxed out without a problem. Due to its caching (or whatever the issue is) I am lucky to get an average of 20 FPS.....if I try maxing the settings I get crappy performance (no more than 20-30FPS average) despite the review showing the same settings getting almost 40 FPS average. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneKnee Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Are you running x64 version of Windows? Also, if you are running x64 version of Windows, does fallout have an x64 executable that you can use? The reason I ask is because 32bit applications are limited to 2GB's of memory, so putting everything into memory wouldn't actually work. Also, limiting your page file might be an option. While switching it off might force everything into memory, limiting it will try and make it use the memory without causing any problems with your system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin.B Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 Have you patched the game? Are your drivers up to date? (I'm sure they are...You seem to know what you're talking about but I thought I'd ask just in case.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagisan Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 Are you running x64 version of Windows? Also, if you are running x64 version of Windows, does fallout have an x64 executable that you can use? The reason I ask is because 32bit applications are limited to 2GB's of memory, so putting everything into memory wouldn't actually work.Also, limiting your page file might be an option. While switching it off might force everything into memory, limiting it will try and make it use the memory without causing any problems with your system. I am running x64 version of Windows 7 RC......and I do not believe FO3 has a 64-bit exe.....are you sure the limit for 32bit apps is 2GB? I had a 32-bit version of Catia running on a 64-bit OS with 12GB of ram, and it would crash if I tried doing a process that took more than 3-4 GB of ram.....the crash was solved as soon as I got a hold of a 64-bit version. Beyond that, every now and then FO3 does crash (hard lock up) but typically before the crash it had been loading data off the HDD......I noticed when it crashes (and I have to force quit it) the highest its memory usage has been was ~1.1GB, so not even up to the 2GB limit you mention. I will try limiting the page file, I think I am letting the system handle that currently which has a pagefile size of 4GB. Whats a good amount for a comp with 4GB of ram? Also, I have FO3 installed on a separate partition than the OS itself. I (sadly) only have 1 HDD, my OS is on the main partition (obviously, C:) and FO3 (along with all my other games) are on my E: partition. I doubt this would cause the performance issues though because all the other games I mentioned that I have no problem with I have also ran off my E: partition. Have you patched the game? Are your drivers up to date? (I'm sure they are...You seem to know what you're talking about but I thought I'd ask just in case.) Yes and yes, I am running the 1.5 patch with all the DLC installed. All my drivers are up to date (or as much as they can be with Windows 7) to the point I am anticipating the 9.5 Catalyst drivers scheduled for Friday. :p One thing I was thinking, I have my OS and FO3 on different partitions of the same HDD......looking at the system-managed page file, C: is the only HDD with a pagefile, my E: drive has no page file, could this cause an issue? Like my OS paging the data to C: then looking (and unable to find) the data on the E: pagefile? Would allowing a pagefile on E: do anything to help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToneKnee Posted May 14, 2009 Share Posted May 14, 2009 I am running x64 version of Windows 7 RC......and I do not believe FO3 has a 64-bit exe.....are you sure the limit for 32bit apps is 2GB? I had a 32-bit version of Catia running on a 64-bit OS with 12GB of ram, and it would crash if I tried doing a process that took more than 3-4 GB of ram.....the crash was solved as soon as I got a hold of a 64-bit version.Beyond that, every now and then FO3 does crash (hard lock up) but typically before the crash it had been loading data off the HDD......I noticed when it crashes (and I have to force quit it) the highest its memory usage has been was ~1.1GB, so not even up to the 2GB limit you mention. I will try limiting the page file, I think I am letting the system handle that currently which has a pagefile size of 4GB. Whats a good amount for a comp with 4GB of ram? Also, I have FO3 installed on a separate partition than the OS itself. I (sadly) only have 1 HDD, my OS is on the main partition (obviously, C:) and FO3 (along with all my other games) are on my E: partition. I doubt this would cause the performance issues though because all the other games I mentioned that I have no problem with I have also ran off my E: partition. Yes and yes, I am running the 1.5 patch with all the DLC installed. All my drivers are up to date (or as much as they can be with Windows 7) to the point I am anticipating the 9.5 Catalyst drivers scheduled for Friday. :p One thing I was thinking, I have my OS and FO3 on different partitions of the same HDD......looking at the system-managed page file, C: is the only HDD with a pagefile, my E: drive has no page file, could this cause an issue? Like my OS paging the data to C: then looking (and unable to find) the data on the E: pagefile? Would allowing a pagefile on E: do anything to help? Yes, I am sure, some 32bit applications can be made to use more memory with a command switch (if it's supported), but like you said, it causes problems and crashes so most developers decided not to go down that route. Putting your page file on another hard drive (not partitions) would be beneficial, though, putting it on a different partition on the same drive will have the same performance as it has now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagisan Posted May 14, 2009 Author Share Posted May 14, 2009 Yes, I am sure, some 32bit applications can be made to use more memory with a command switch (if it's supported), but like you said, it causes problems and crashes so most developers decided not to go down that route.Putting your page file on another hard drive (not partitions) would be beneficial, though, putting it on a different partition on the same drive will have the same performance as it has now. Kinda figured it would but I never really bothered messing with the page file so I wasn't sure.....any suggestions on what I should limit the page file to? Everything I can find on it suggests 1.5 x Ram, but that would increase it over what its using right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ContrastDesigns Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 on this topic i feel your pain i recently got a quad core system and this baby will make all my apps and games scream BUT fallout 3 and for some reason on other games i can run them to there highest of high settings and get 30 to 60 frames BUT with fallout 3 i can average 15 and 51 if im inside my megaton house!!!!!!!! im not sure what the problem is with this game but its really making me want to reinstall 7. but im not sure that would remedy the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViperAFK Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 I get meh fps in fallout 3 as well (X2 5600+, 9600gt) Its just not a very well optimized game. I get better fps in far cry 2 than fallout 3 lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deletedxyz Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 @OP I got 21-35 fps at 1920x1200. Did you manage to solve the problem or is it still lagging? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dashel Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 What kind of 'private' memory use are you seeing on the F3 application? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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