The post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 3 makes the current state of the worldwide economy look about as pleasant as apple pie. Bethesda rendered the bleakness of a nuclear bomb-ravaged Washington DC with the perfect amount of despair and, given the nature of the franchise, humor. From the moment you step out of Vault 101, you want to explore every single bombed-out shack and collapsed building. The radioactive wasteland is filled with incredible detail, and the long draw distances practically beg you to wander around by giving you so many landmarks to march towards. Fallout 3 is based on the Oblivion graphics engine, but runs much better than Oblivion and with greater detail. However, even with the engine performance improvements, you'll most likely need to upgrade a system component or two if you want the game to run at maximum quality settings.
We tested Fallout 3 by running through the area outside of the Jefferson Memorial and Rivet City. The region has long draw distances, nearby water reflections, and plenty of action from supermutants. Our final result was the average of three 40-second runs.
Settings
Fallout 3 has a ton of settings but none that single-handedly destroy performance. Each setting takes an almost imperceptible bite, but when combined the game slows to a crawl. Think of it as the death by a thousand pixels.
Video Cards
Long draw distances, copious amounts of antialiasing, and high resolutions make Fallout 3 look amazing. Of course, you're going to need a decent amount of pixel-pushing power to get Fallout 3 running maxed out. We went through almost 20 video cards to help you determine what's enough.
CPU
To put Fallout 3 to the test, we pulled out all our chips, ranging from quad cores down to Pentium 4s, to see how the game scales. As it turns out, as long as you have any Core 2-based CPU, you're going to be fine. Anything less and you might want to consider upgrading.
Memory
Fallout 3 requires 1GB of RAM to run in Windows XP and 2GB to run in Windows Vista. We loaded up our system with 1, 2, and 3GB of RAM to determine the sweet spot.
Systems
Fallout 3's minimum requirements call for a 2.4GHz Pentium 4, 1GBof RAM, and a GeForce 6800-class video card. We were able to get the game to run on the aforementioned system, but performance wasn't great. The game becomes unplayable as soon as you venture outside of the lowest image-quality and resolution settings. If you want to actually play the game, you might want to get something a bit more powerful. The recommended system, a Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz CPU with a GeForce 8800 GT and 2GB of RAM, ran the game perfectly at high resolutions and with high image-quality settings. Our custom high-end system packed with a 3.2GHz quad core and a Radeon 4870X2 didn't have any problems at all either.
System Performance
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
System Setup:
High-End System: Intel Core2 QX9650, eVGA 780i, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GBx2), 750GB Seagate 7200.11 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista 32-bit SP1. Graphics Card: Radeon 4870X2, beta Catalyst HotFix 70517.
Recommended System: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz, eVGA 680i, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GBx2), 750GB Seagate 7200.11 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista 32-bit SP1. Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 GT, beta Nvidia ForceWare 180.42.
Minimum System: Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz, Asus P4C800, 1GB Corsair XMS Memory, Seagate 160GB 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows XP Professional SP2. Graphics Card: GeForce 6800, Nvidia Forceware 180.42.
Great was looking for this, ran in some trouble with finetuning this game. Thkz. :D
I can run Cod4 on high setting on my laptop. Anyone think I can run this?
would it work on my la[top, SPECS: intel celeron,intel graphics media accelerater 4500m,4gb memory plz reply
Try having the game set to ultra, but having the game stiff you and give you no water reflections, despite ultra being what the game auto set itself to based on your hardware..
it009x9281 : since obvlivion indoors usses even higher details than activated. im sure nu patch suchs too, but the game is great
Strange thing is for me i had this running at max settings but after the final patch the game is just horrible to play now and indoor areas crash now
@game_overdose54 At low settings, there is no water reflection and no HDR. Distant objects are also disabled which will pose an gameplay disadvantage, i.e. people shooting at you but you can't see them or missing loot. The textures are muddier and there is no vegetation. The water does not blend with the environment, but is instead cut off sharply.
GTA IV still beats crysis when it comes to minimum system requirements!
Running this on AMD Athlon 5600+, 2GB RAM, Geforce 9800GTX+ and Windows XP, and the game runs ok at high settings with decent fps, however sometimes the fps does sometimes drop and theres occational stuttering. This is most likely due to my AMD processor. Its a shame that games these days are requiring expensive Intel core 2 duos
My laptop is 2.26Ghz dual-core, 3Gb RAM and GeforceM 9300 with 512Mb Mb RAM. It runs Fallout 3 at all high settings pretty well.
What's the difference betweenLow and other settings? Low is EXACTLY the same as High and Medium, but the lighting is lower.
Looks like crysis still request better hardware than other games
can we have a tweak guide like the one for Oblivion now???
why does no games run good on phenoms? (jumps off a cliff) P.S I have two 4830s crossfired so graphics isn't the bottolneck
thanks will952
Devil may Cry is not a very graphically demanding game- most GPU's could run that. But a 8500gt is very outdated, and it is not a gaming card. You might be able to play it on low settings at 1024x768 but I would recommend something a little more powerful, say, a 9600gt or ATI 4670 if you're strapped for cash.
i think my computer will be able to run this game on low or medium because i ran devil may cry 4 on high settings and got 40-45fps. intel core 2 duo 2.0 Ghz,1 gb ram(hope so i will get it 2gb before i buy) and nvidia geforce 8500GT 512MB and my resolution is only 1024x768 any idea???
for people wondering if they could play it well: I could play it fine on medium @ 1280 x 800 with a P4 3.0, ATI X 1650, and 1.25 gigs of RAM
wow never knew how old the fallout series was
stupid ati 9200 :[
Anyone here with a X2 6000+, 3GB DDR2 800, 8800GT 512MB and Vista Ultimate x64 suffering from constant stutters and hiccups from time to time playing on any setting? Low and Ultra have the same effect, only happening in Fallout 3 :/ If anyone has a solution, would be awesome to hear it :D
Evil Assasin- Yeah u should be able to play it with med/high settings if you lower the resolution to around 1280*1024. Possibly lower but you should be able to play it smoothly
Hey guys, im just wondering, would i be able to play Fallout 3? my current rig is : Processor = AMD athlon 64 3700+, Memory = 1gb, and my Graphics card = ati radeon hd 3650 with 1gb of memory
yeah you should be able to play it on mid to high
I just got a new laptop and im thinking about getting this game to play on it but I dont know if it can play it. Here are the specs message me if you know if i can play it: Intel 2 Duo with 2.50 ghz, 4gb DDR, and a 256MB Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT.
I just got a fairly powerful custom rig: a Core2Quad Q6600, 3Gb DDR2, a 500Gb Samsung HDD, a Biostar P35 (the weakest link...), a 580W Eurotech PSU, a ATI Radeon HD4850 1Gb DDR3, a Creative X-Fi sound card, a Trust 5.1 speakers kit and all those small details (SATA DVD-RW drive, a wi-fi usb pen, wireless keyboard+mouse, memory card reader, a Toshiba MCE Remote Control, TV card, etc...), and I got it all for about \\$600... I tried several games, like GTA IV, Tomb Raider Underworld, COD 4 and 5, Civ 4, among others, and I can play them all with no problems... Well, for that amount, I can only get a PS3, a spare sixaxis and a couple of games... So, it's not that expensive to get a good gaming rig. I admit consoles might have some advantages (most games don't require installation and there's no minimum hardware requirements), but, besides that, if you don't have $600 or so to get a decent computer, don't blame it on software houses... I usually don't spend much money on computers, but the prices for components are so low now that if you can't buy some to build your own computer and play, stick to firefox and excel...
lol
I wonder how it runs with 512 RAM
Hey don't know why people can't run this game.....works fine on my P4 3.2 GHz, with 2 GB ram and x1600 Radeon GPU (It's 4 years old with a 3 yo gfx), I can enable HDR, texture maxed and rest on medium (no AA).....worst fps I get is 19-20 So people shoúld run it well with much more new computers!
I just bought Fallout 3 today. But I haven't played it yet. My laptop has 1.9GHz AMD TURION and GeForce 8400GS but I'm not sure it can handle this game. I believe I can play it fine with low system.
This is definitely one heck of a great game. The only problem im facing is that my in game performance keeps dropping... (i read somewhere its due to a memory leak). I have to alt tab the game every minute or so to improve my performance..... Really dont understand, im running this game on a 8800gt with 2 gigs of ram and an e6300... shouldn't have much of a trouble running it... anyways, anyone here knows how i can rectify this problem? its really getting on my nerves...
i have a e 6550 with 4 gigs ram and 8600 gt, on an evga 650 i ultra. It took a while to piece it together ( as I could afford it) it runs most games, at a decent res. I'm looking forward to playing fallout 3. I have tried to play console games, but have trouble with the game pads and cut down version of ports. I also like to upgrade piece meal and one cant do that with a console. But, if someone just likes to play and is not interested in upgrading rigs, i say consoles are great for them.
this game is awesome. i've quad Q6600,2*2 GB RAM ,550w smps , 500 gb Harddisk,8800 GT,CRT Game runs per fect @ 1280x1024
This game is awsome, i have a dell xps 1530 with and intel core 2 duo T9300 @ 2.5 ghz 4 gigs of ram and a Nvidia 8600m gt graphics card. I play the game at high settings with AA x4 on 1280x800 res. I average about 45-55 fps inside cities and 35-50 when outside. This game is not as demanding as I thought It would be.
Mine would probably run it... but with huge amounts of performance issues... It runs Oblivion on Ultra High no problem though. Iranon: It could be your RAM or your processor. I used to have the same problem with Oblivion when I had 512 mb RAM then I brought 2 gb of it and the problem stopped. I know it's nothing to with your sound card because I have crappy on board sound, lol.
@ dogmavskarma you are a genuine retarded primate. How about you put orange juice in your car's gas tank then blame the manufacturer for not making the car explode because it was not "compatible" enough. Not anybody's fault but yours if you 1950 calculator can't run a 21st century game...
I have some issues with the game. Whenever a new music track starts the game freezes for about 10 to 20 seconds. For example If am sneaking around somewhere and an enemy suddenly detects me this problem occurs. It runs smoothly before and after that however. I had the same problem with Oblivion but it stopped when I uppgraded my videocard. For this game I uppgraded the videocard once more and also the soundcard, but still....
The game runs great on my comp, at ultra settings. Fallout 3 rocks!
@ dogmavskarma How can you blame Bethesda for that? Why should they keep making games for super low end systems? You can outperform the 360 version of this game on a PC that only costs only slightly more than a Premium 360; it is a complete myth that you need to spend loads in order to play games on your PC.
i have two computers in my household that qualify on the "low end" and this game plays on neither. the game won't even boot a big capital F and two middle fingers to bethesda...
Will it work on an Asus@#*( i dont know but heres the link http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=9&l3=18&l4=0&model=288&modelmenu=1
Does any one know if fallout 3 live for the pc, will play stand alone, or is it a completely internet based game. Or if there are different versions for the pc, that will play stand alone..
See, this is why I stick with console gaming. No fannying around with loads of components that cost ya a bucket and make ya feel like you're dismantling the megaton bomb itself. PC gaming will end up costing you ridiculous amounts if you want to play new games every year. Why not stick with Captain Convenience - a console that lets you boot up a game in 30 seconds, as opposed to a PC's total boot-up time, modding time and install time of around an hour.
not working on xp 64... any solution..??
i have 8800 gts 320 mb intel quad core 2.4 ghz and 2x2 gb kingston 667 mhz RAM 500 GB hard disk 500 WATT cooler master i want to play it in 1650x1200 at ultra high quality can i play? wat fps will i get? OR i will play it on high quality? wat fps?????? plz smart computer ppl help
The graphics are fine when I play it. It's just the gameplay and movement is staggering and jumpy.
I know that my comp has more than the required to run Fallout 3 on the highest setting ( Very High i think ) but it still seems to be slightly jumpy and not so smooth. Is there anything I have to do to get the max settings on my omputer to work or something ? :S plz help lol
Will a WinFast A180 work for this? OR a Asus A9550ge/td?
i just played the game running fine
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