Fallout 3 performance issues

I recently bought Fallout 3 for PC, I have a decent rig and I was wondering why im having issues with the game. I will be playing with a constant 60fps on ultra high setting then bam! drop to about 24fps and never goes back up again, until I restart the game. I think its the game, not my cards. Any suggestions?
System specs:
Core 2 Extreme Qaud core 3.0ghz
Two Radeon HD 3870x2's in Crossfire
Intel DX8BT motherboard
4gb of DDR3 Sdram (Corsair XMS3 1033)
750w Pc power and cooling Powersupply
20x cdrom/dvd rom burner
Windows Vista 32bit

Standard answers that you have probably already thought of...


1. Update your video card drivers
2. Reinstall the game
3. Is it at the same spot each time? Maybe that part is bugged?
4. Have you checked your memory usage? Yes you have 4gb but maybe fo3 has a huge memory leak...
5. Defrag lately? Silly but it helps
6. Is it only this game? How does your rig handle a resource hog like crysis?
7. Have you checked your temps? two 3870x2's can get kinda toasty, dont want to overheat them.

Anyway, im sure youve checked most of that already but a second look never hurts.

Yes, recently updated to 8.12 drivers, Reinstalled the game, Anywhere in the wasteland, My Ram ussage is about 60%, My computer defrags every monday, Crysis is a RAM hog goes up to about 85% (barely uses my CPU), and my cooling is fine. I vacum out my computer every time I vacum my house.

Could it be that the 3870x2 is a considered a Dual GPU card? And that the Game isnt taking full advanage of the that? or Crossfire for that matter?

Not quite sure what else you can do man. Definatly not something youve done. I would say maybe Fallout 3 doesnt like ATI but ive got a 4830 in my rig that runs it at ultra high with great FPS.

zaniaac wrote:

Could it be that the 3870x2 is a considered a Dual GPU card? And that the Game isnt taking full advanage of the that? or Crossfire for that matter?

Might be. Do you have two 3870x2's or two 3870's in crossfire or one 3870x2?

I have 2 3870X2's in Crossfire. Everygame runs fanstastic, except for Fallout 3, hell I get better fPS in crysis then I do Fallout 3 lol.

That IS strange. Not sure what to tell you man.

I guess wait until Bethsenda comes out with a fix for it. I can play Supreme Commander Forged Allaince with my Core 2 extreme lol

Honestly, Id mark it up to heat since you are running crossfire however, if you are saying that it runs crysis fine, then im not entirely sure. Id say invest in a program such as everest, Speedfan or Rivatuner and monitor your card and ambient temperatures.
If you think its the Crossfire set up messing with it and try running it on a single card to determine if that's the problem or not.

Zan just give your comp some lovin... it will have to submit to the wang and allow you to play your game in peace. with that said a good fondle wouldn't do any harm either.

To further add to the above post and one of the reasons I personally dislike SLI and Crossfire systems is because the GPU's are so close together that the heat rising from the bottom card tends to rise and effect the upper level card causing stability issues, which is why I say check your temps.

Yes you are correct, my two cards in crossfire are about an inch apart. I do Riva tuner. My ATI CCC says they run about 70c when Idoling. when playing a game like Crysis hower, they run about 83c. I think that Fallout 3 does not support Crossfire because if it did, my cards would be kicking the living *%$ out of Fallout3.