» Sat Oct 23, 2010 7:08 pm First off, running Windows 7 64-bit with 8 GB or RAM, nvidia geforce gtx 460, Intel core i7 870
Many users not just here but all over the internet claim that modding executables to be large address aware will allow allow for better performance, the assumption being that on a 64-bit OS the app can now address up to 4GB instead of 2GB (up to 3GB on 32-bit Vista/Win 7 with a line at startup). Now this is definitely true, I tested this at my place of employment while rendering a file to be printed. Instead of running out of memory and the 2gb mark it continued rendering (although crashed around 4gb) and even though it didn't finish the large address aware mod obviously did something.
But does it work for Fallout NV? Many users claim this worked for Oblivion and Fallout 3 (even I thought it was doing something, turned out to be only because I limited my hardware thread count to 2 and had nothing to do with large address aware) without any proof except their word and that it 'reduces stuttering' or 'it eliminates CTDs'. In my testing, with and without it the normal background load stuttering is unchanged as it should be since it is still loading the same amount of assets. In 5 hours of gameplay I did experience one CTD and task manager showed the game using over 900 MB RAM. A quick check of task manager after a two hour stable session showed 800 MB in use. This is in line with memory usage using the unmodified non-large address aware file. The game never uses over 1GB of RAM so making it large address aware won't change anything... unless you can modify how much data is loaded in RAM.
There are several lines in the .ini related to buffering and caching. There is an audio cache, a preloadsize limit, and two cell buffer settings. I raised each of these to 8x their current value and ran the game again. I haven't played long enough to CTD but memory usage is unchanged. I'm not sure that altering these settings has any effect whatsoever. I notice a strange audio pop when cutting off a talking NPC that might be related to raising the audio buffer for whatever reason and interestingly if you run the .exe through a dissassembler it says this setting can't be set below 4MB even though in the .ini it is 2MB by default.
My conclusion, after using the largeaddressaware / 4GB enabler and adjusting the buffer/cache although I thought something was different here and in Fallout 3, memory usage is identical and random CTDs will occur just as they would before. Unless somebody can prove otherwise, it looks like the game is hard-locked to use a 1GB memory space and enabled it to use large addresses will no change this
The other settings I tried were the so-called multi-threading 'fixes'. I've heard elsewhere they do nothing and performance difference is placebo and I can definitely say that is the case. I not only noticed no difference in performance, task manager's resource monitor shows 41 threads whether I use them all or not. The multi treaded audio line causes the game to freeze upon exit and needs to be off. Additonal Havok threads have no effect. The ones that are set to 1 by default are set to 1 even if running a single core CPU, so I am going to leave these at default since the game devs probably left them that way for a reason
Finally, the .ini settings pertaining to background loading.. Some are off by default. Setting them all to 1 will INCREASE stutter from my testing. Because the game is loading more in the background and the video will hitch because of it. Turning them all off decrease stuttering but I don't think they're supposed to be off because NPC faces start to glow and look strange.
So in conlcusion, I highly recommend placing the d3d9.dll in the game folder until that is fixed. But don't mess with the .ini or worry about the exe being largeaddressaware. I know there are those that will disagree and claim that it is working, and that's great if you think it does. I just don't see any reason why and how that's possible
