Many years ago when I had even less knowledge about computer science than I have now, I developed the habit of periodically copy-pasting save files from the directory to a "backup" folder at the same level. I seem to recall I first developed this habit with Oblivion, but then carried it over to other studio's products and do it for all Bethesda games (and others too). For example, move files

From:

C:\Users\Anthropoid\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\Saves

To

C:\Users\Anthropoid\Documents\My Games\Fallout4\Elsa Randolph

When I developed this habit, I was convinced it helped game performance and helped reduce CTDs or other issues. Now that I have a year or so of IT coursework under my belt and I am prepping to take the MCSE certification exam, I have to say, it doesn't make any sense to me that the number of files in the directory would have _any_ impact on game performance.

Can someone with greater expertise than me clarify if this is just voodoo I'm engaging in or if there is an empirical reason it might impact game performance?

Copy those save files to another location more for backup purpose in case they are corrupted or something happens and you need an earlier save. For NTFS, you can have 2^32-1 files in a folder ...

@Anthropoid

I agree with you.

One logical explanation would be: Thre shouldn't be any lag from having too much saves, since you (and the game) only have one save loaded at any given time.

Another explanation would be: That somehow if you have too many saves in your (default) save directory, the game tries to read all your available savegame infos. (and stores them to VRAM ?!?)

It might store them into RAM not VRAM.

And what's about the picture included on each save file?

To be honest, i don't know what kind of storage the game uses. (if the second explanation is true... )

I have noticed initial lag at the main menu with too many saves in the saves folder. THe saves are much larger than previous games (5-10MB). So 50 saves can be half a gig of data to load.

I haven't noticed lag upon subsequent access to the load menu though. They will load/cache into RAM or be put in the pagefile. Mind you my drive is a Hard disk and it doesn't handle multiple access very well.

Mileage will vary with other drives probably.

I can't imagine it affects overall performance though. I haven't noticed any. Once loaded into RAM it doesn't need to load it again.

The picture isn't rendered so, its not VRAM

I agree that the number of saves will effect performance due to the computer having to load all of them. Its either a disk issue or RAM.

I think he means virtual ram. The pagefile.

The picture isn't rendered so, its not VRAM

Normally that should be happen ONLY: When your system runs low on RAM. (on a correct working system)

Page file may be used for pageable data, even when RAM is available. Certain application require Page File like Photoshop. Low priority data may be stored in page file versus taking RAM. You don't necessarily want background processes to use RAM when Fallout 4 is running. Plus stuff in RAM data needs to be processed or written to page file before it can be reused, so writing everything to RAM will waste CPU cycles.

NOt at all. Your pagefile can be used and is likely in use during normal operation.

I did hear one report of serious lagging when the save directory was synched to Steam. It was given as a reason for playing offline.

I have noticed a slight delay when I try to select the save option from main menu which has gradually appeared when I've got to about 200 saves. Another user in this forum reported up to minute delay (had over 880 saves) which was resolved by relocating them away from the saves folder. So conclusion is that at least at the times the game has to populate the saves list (saving or loading through the menu) the save amount can cause some notable delays. However I have not noticed any other negative effects of it.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1572334-fallout-4-in-game-save-menu-freeze/?fromsearch=1

That's a Windows OS behavior. Even if the page file is not necessarily required (sometimes), Windows creates it anyway and programs use it.

That's an OS - Applications "workmanship" and that's how applications have been coded to operate with...

You could disable the page-file easily with a huge amount of Ram. Applications could easily use the existing Ram in the same way they using the page-file. (and having the advantage of the faster system ram)

BUT THEN, funny things can happen on Windows. So, (IMHO) that's an Windows whim and not necessarily a necessity !!!

I don't thing they impact performances, besides that silly lag at the main menu. game runs the same whether I have 1 save file or 1000

Correct. WIth the page file enabled, committed pages are either in RAM or the page file. That is up to windows to decide. Whether or not the page file is a necessity depends on the amount of RAM installed and the amount of processes/services/background tasks that consume commit. With 32GB of RAM it's likely safe to turn off. If WIndows starts complaining about low memory, you either turn it on, get more memory, or start removing background tasks, running programs etc.

> If WIndows starts complaining about low memory, you either turn it on, get more memory, or start removing background tasks, running programs etc. <

YES - YES that's Windows...

So other than load times for save files (not load screens in game) it shouldn't have any impact. Still, that seems reason enough to cache them outside the Save file.

I had my first CTD with the game (well I've had a couple but this one just stood out as 'out of the blue' nothing was happening that I would imagine would cause exceptions or the like (in contrast, I had CTD since then which I think reflects the amount of stuff that was going on in game: I was getting mobbed by like 10 feral ghouls, mines were blowing up, I was going into VATS, popping pills, attacking, getting crits which were replacing my Action Points (because of a weapon), high on UltraJet and PsychoJet, these three glowing nasty fellows were right on top of me and I was blasting them with an incendiary shotgun at very close range in VATS, game just froze up and became unresponsive.

In that kind of situation, I can easily chalk that up to "game just got overwhelmed with a [censored] ton of processes, modifying processes, etc. and somehow one of the calls between these multiple functions got stuck calling another one and it was hung, probably an infinite loop. Task Manager said FO4 was unresponsive.

I've seen these type of "explicable" hardware/data volume type of issues twice, MAYBE three times now and can easily dismiss them as being "pushing the game engine envelop" not a distinct flaw in the code that runs the game, i.e., a "bug" which can be reliably replicated and thus troubleshooted and fixed.

But this other CTD was just a normal situation, no combat, I think I was running along with my dog and maybe opened a door: bang game froze up and never recovered. This happened when i had been playing for like 225 hours and had probalby 600 or 700 save siles in the \Save directory. Cleared it out down to only two saves and performance seems better gain: and no CTDs of lockups.

I have got few CTD and like you say, I can usually associate them with just queuing too much load for the game to do at the same time. One unexpliable I had but then realised I propably hit Quicksave right when it was still autosaving due timed pipboy autosaves. Or tried to travel (load) through door right after getting it to autosave with timed pipboy use.

There's no reason to have them all really. You won't use most of them.

Keep in mind it's ~10 MB a save maybe more. Multiplied by 700 that is 7GB of data.