Fallout 4 Performance Issues

[Gamingnut1005]

Hello everyone, I am in need of some help. I will apologize for the long post so bare with me, I wanted to put in as much as I could to help you guys and weed out some things I've tried and done. I just want to make sure what i think the problem is is right.

I just purchased fallout 4 last night and i am suspecting my issue is do to an insufficient video card and maybe RAM, ill explain. First off when the game first loads it detects my hardware it puts it on High Quality Ultra being the next and final option. I click PLAY from the launch menu and all runs fine, I click NEW game and it plays the intro cinema and still all good. Then it loads up to the character creation and as the npc starts to fade in to edit it crashes my entire system making it reboot.

I tried all the fixes i could find, i verified the game cache, I even went to the launcher and exe file itself and ran it as administrator and checked the compatibility box and chose Windows 7, I updated my video drivers.

What I did find out is if i put my game quality from high to low and reduce my resolution. My regular res is 1920x1080 and first i reduced it to 600x800 and now its at 1440x900 and it seems to run fine at those in windowed mode.If i keep it at low and raise it to max res it crashes again.

I do know my card is a little under its requirement but I didn't think id have this much of an issue. I might even need more RAM to. I even read a post of a guy having the same problem with a GTX 970

Items in red Differ

My system specs are as follows:
GPU: Nvidia GTX 680 Driver: 361.43
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
RAM: 4 GB I believe DDR3
Resolution: 1920x1080, 60 Hz
OS: Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

Fallout 4 Requirements:
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent

 

[Mussels]

not meeting the requirements cannot cause a system crash, sounds to me like your power supply cant keep up.

 

[Gamingnut1005]

not meeting the requirements cannot cause a system crash, sounds to me like your power supply cant keep up.

its a 750 Watt corsair modular and i dont think its failing because its only with fallout 4 i run new vegas and Fo3 on ultra

 

[Mussels]

Corsair is a quality brand, but it could be failing. Older games will not use anywhere near the wattage of modern games.
DX11 titles like Fo4 are a lot better at multi threading so even if your GPU was at 100%, the CPU can certainly use a lot more power.

Please fill out your complete system specs here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/account/specs

 

[Gamingnut1005]

Corsair is a quality brand, but it could be failing. Older games will not use anywhere near the wattage of modern games.
DX11 titles like Fo4 are a lot better at multi threading so even if your GPU was at 100%, the CPU can certainly use a lot more power.

Please fill out your complete system specs here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/account/specs

what could i do to tell if its failing would a power supply tester work of would it only tell me if its already failed?

what could i do to tell if its failing would a power supply tester work of would it only tell me if its already failed?

I just used the furmark GPU stress test and while doing the test i was only on youtube and the pc crashed and i tested the power supply with a tester and it passed so i think my problem is my gpu is failing

 

[AlienIsGOD]

a 680 is more then enough to play fallout 4, i agree with you that your card is failing. I run high settings on my 680 w/ mods

 

[Devon68]

It works on my system medium settings, 1920x1080 res, mostly 60 fps.
It's not your gpu.

 

[Mussels]

I just used the furmark GPU stress test and while doing the test i was only on youtube and the pc crashed and i tested the power supply with a tester and it passed so i think my problem is my gpu is failing

those tests are tough on the GPU and PSU, so it could be either. If it was the GPU you should see problems in windows and such as well, since they are also 3D

 

[Gamingnut1005]

those tests are tough on the GPU and PSU, so it could be either. If it was the GPU you should see problems in windows and such as well, since they are also 3D

is there another way to test just the psu? because at this point it looks like i need a new gpu and psu and a upgrade to my ram

as a side note i was thinking about doing 4 channel 16 gb ram, comments?

 

[Devon68]

I took a look after you mentioned at ram and saw that my game uses sometimes over 6 gb of ram. I used msi afterburner to view this. I the game uses about 1.8 GB max from my gpu but mostly in the 1.3-1.4 gb range.

 

[Gamingnut1005]

I took a look after you mentioned at ram and saw that my game uses sometimes over 6 gb of ram. I used msi afterburner to view this. I the game uses about 1.8 GB max from my gpu but mostly in the 1.3-1.4 gb range.

I'm not sure how much ram my video card has maybe 2 or 3, but the ram I'm talking about is the pc physical memory. My pc now has 4gb dual channel, was thinking of doing 16 gb quad channel

 

[AlwaysHope]

Increase your system ram capacity, 4GB is not going to cut it in a game like FO4. its pretty cheap these days to buy extra ram anyway. Not sure how your going to get 16GB quad channel on a sandy bridge platform (i5-2500K)?.... I would recommend without a mobo and cpu upgrade, at least 8 or 16GB, but honestly, is it worth doing for a soon to be 5yr old platform?? depends on your budget I suppose.

 

[yotano211]

Your computer only supports dual channel memory.

 

[Devon68]

Even if you put in 4x4gb it will be 16 gb total but dual channel and not quad, not that it would make any difference. Your GPU should have 2 GB or ram and that is enough for fallout 4.
Just as others suggested it probably is the power supply. Could you borrow a psu from a friend or maybe have a spare psu.

 

[newtekie1]

It very well could be bad system RAM as well. With only 4GB, FO4 might be finally filling all 4GB, and causing the system RAM error to finally happen and crashing the system. What leads me to suspect this is that it seems to crash as the NPC players are loading in, which is filling the system RAM.

My first suggestion would be to run Memtest86 on the system overnight(I know, but it can take a long time for the error to pop up). Or you can just order an 8GB(2x4GB) kit and replace the RAM, since a RAM upgrade wouldn't be a bad thing anyway. Wort case scenario with just buying new RAM is that your old RAM wasn't the problem, in that case you put the old RAM in with the new, and then you'll have 12GB. That will have you set RAM wise for a good while.

 

[alucasa]

I'm not sure how much ram my video card has maybe 2 or 3, but the ram I'm talking about is the pc physical memory. My pc now has 4gb dual channel, was thinking of doing 16 gb quad channel

When it crashed, how did it crash? A quick reset or did you see artifacts on screen?

Either way, you need more RAM. At least 4gb more.

 

[Gamingnut1005]

When it crashed, how did it crash? A quick reset or did you see artifacts on screen?

Either way, you need more RAM. At least 4gb more.

all it did was just a hard reset like u hit the power switch it would be off for a couple secs and then reboot itself

all it did was just a hard reset like u hit the power switch it would be off for a couple secs and then reboot itself

also is there a program I can install to tell me how much wattage I'm using so I know if my psu is sufficient? Because I don't remember all the wattage of my components I built two Christmases ago

 

[alucasa]

all it did was just a hard reset like u hit the power switch it would be off for a couple secs and then reboot itself

In that case, I am leaning toward PSU issue.

also is there a program I can install to tell me how much wattage I'm using so I know if my psu is sufficient? Because I don't remember all the wattage of my components I built two Christmases ago

Your current PSU should be enough. Unless you go SLI and massively OC CPU and GPU, no ordinary PC can reach 750w. If it is dying somehow, it makes sense though.

 

[Gamingnut1005]

Your computer only supports dual channel memory.

but my mobo has 4 memory banks

 

[Mussels]

but my mobo has 4 memory banks

that doesnt mean anything. its still dual channel.

 

[Gamingnut1005]

Well i did some of the fixes and after getting a geforce gtx 970 played the game it after a little longer period crashed, then tried new 8gb of RAM it again failed so i think it maybe a PSU problem. I also noticed that since its a modular PSU when i move lets say the plug string from one port to another port on the PSU those drives that previously worked now don't so this tells me that certain parts of it have failed.

Thank you all for your help and input much appreciated. If anyone could i was thinking round tax time to upgrade my CPU and Mobo what would one suggest my budget will be between 400 and 500 bucks.

Im looking at a corsair 850 watt platinum PSU now (only because its the same price as the 750).

Increase your system ram capacity, 4GB is not going to cut it in a game like FO4. its pretty cheap these days to buy extra ram anyway. Not sure how your going to get 16GB quad channel on a sandy bridge platform (i5-2500K)?.... I would recommend without a mobo and cpu upgrade, at least 8 or 16GB, but honestly, is it worth doing for a soon to be 5yr old platform?? depends on your budget I suppose.

what do you think of this build out and just add i just bought a GTX 970 GPU and corsair 850 watt PSU(same price as 750), the rest is in a png file below.

Just found this mobo as well:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132568

 

[Countryside]

In my case Fo4 no mods at Ultra 1080p(no sunrays its buggy waiting for patch) does not use more than 2,5gb ram and 1,6 vram

Fo4 is not a demanding game you can easely play it at ultra 1080p with system like

i3-6100
8ram
gtx 960 or R7 370
500w Psu

and this is a cheap system if you can spend more i can give you a more detailed recommendation.

 

[Flow]

what do you think of this build out and just add i just bought a GTX 970 GPU and corsair 850 watt PSU(same price as 750), the rest is in a png file below.

Just found this mobo as well:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132568

Just get a quality psu. Fallout 4 runs stable on my system with a 4 year old 700w psu. So make sure that corsair is a good one.

 

[Mussels]

his previous one was good, it just seems to have failed. not sure why he's upgrading the rest of his system without figuring that part out first.

 

[Devon68]

I was having a similar issue with my system except when I accidentally hit my table the pc would restart, or when putting a higher load on it it would restart. I fixed it by changing my thermaltake 500w psu to a cooler master 460w psu that I got cheap from a friend, and now I have no issues at all.