If there are people who can play this with no problems, then the FPS slow downs have to be related to either hardware or style of play.

SYMPTOMS. In my case, the symptomatic behavior I see is a cumulative slowdown whenever transitioning into a busy area or interacting with merchants. That is, with each transition the game gets slower and in fact I can intentionally crash by transitioning between the strip and a casino several times in a row. If I leave my character standing in the strip for a long time (overnight real time), it will crash, I believe because of the dancers and other NPCs that cycle in and out of the area. Once it starts to noticeably slow, you might get only 2 or 3 more transitions before it will become unresponsive. The disk thrashes when it slows. Similar to Fallout 3, it seems to have gotten much worse with the DLCs.

POSSIBLE CAUSE. The degrading performance behavior of the game can be fitted to a memory leak model, one of the most common software bugs. When you leave an area or as NPCs may cycle in and out of range around you, the game does not release memory properly. The slowing down and disk thrashing may be one in the same and can be explained by the fact that many systems and applications, and surely New Vegas and PS3 OS do, make use of memory swap files. Swap files are just portions of disk that appear as extra RAM to the game, managed by the OS or low level software layer, so the game thinks it has a huge amount of RAM available. As the memory leak(s) gradually rob the system of physical RAM, all that is left is the swap file, so the game/app/OS will begin to thrash the disk as it frantically moves memory data between the swap file and the tiny amount of RAM left. Hard disks are much slower than RAM so this would in effect slow the game to "hard disk speed" from RAM speed. Of course, once the RAM is depleted it freezes. This would also explain why people who put the graphics on 480p and other low res options report better mean time between slow-ups, but ultimately still had them. The lower res saved more memory but the leak is still there, it just took longer to deplete the bigger pool of the RAM. Just a theory.

WHY NOT FIXED? Bethesda never fixed it in Fallout 3 so I don't see this one getting fixed. While memory leaks can be tricky to find, they can be found 100% of the time and corrected. Since Bethesda is able to and does make software changes and patches, I would guess this issue is in code they do not have rights or ability to modify (like in a purchased physics or graphics engine.... ). Or perhaps it is a lower level code they wrote that they feel is too risky or expensive to modify.

WHY HAPPENING TO SOME BUT NOT OTHERS? That is the big question. I have a PS3 160Gb model (maybe 3 yrs old), playing on 1080p, using optic audio out. All DLCs, 1.7 Patch, latest PS3 update, 6Mb file. My playing styles that could be considered suspect for causing glitching would be: I hoard, especially with weapons, ammo and upgrades and I do the casino chip caps glitch at some point (no time to grind). So one theory might be that having lots of inventory, several million caps, or just having bought a lot of stuff causes it. I stopped hoarding and put most of what I had into storage, but it did not reverse the FPS slowdowns. I have another play through on the system currently at level 10, no glitching, small inventory and few saves. So far not much problem, although that one just made the Strip. We'll see what happens. That is when the trouble started for my other characters. You can do a simple test, just repeatedly transition from a casino to strip and back again and see if it slows down. Mine will go maybe 10 transitions before unresponsive. If some people can do that without adverse affects, that would be interesting to know.

WORKAROUND: When the FPS is less than 1 every second or so, save, quit game, restart, and continue. It doesn't take nearly as much time as a hard freeze where you have to reset or power cycle the PS3.

It will be disappointing if I can't finish the DLCs but I have had a lot of fun so far. With Fallout 3, I had to give up on a couple of the DLCs. The one thing I am concerned about is Skyrim. I hope whatever disease is in this game, it did not go into Skyrim.

Disclosure: I code for a living (not games).

I use said technique constantly as NV is all I play anymore. svcks I know but it does work. Hopefully F4 will be better on the consoles and that I am still around to play it. I miss PC gaming simply for the community made patches and mods. Makes these issues irrelevant. Good deduction on your part, just wish gaming companies took patching console games more seriously. From what I have seen over the years its just mainly double talk or pass the buck.

I really feel for people and understand their frustration in getting a product that proves nearly unplayable but have no recourse to get a refund since "mostly working for most" seems to justify them saying "FU, its not our problem, we got your money and are working on something else". The devs seem a little more helpful and responsive around here compared to others (Bioshock 2 anyone?) but the industry as a whole needs serious help in regards to these issues.

It's not a nice thing to do to your customers. It does open the door for more competition. There is obviously such a demand for these games that even ones that half work still sell strong. Competition will mean choice and hopefully quality improvements.

It seems like the only hope for this one is to discover if/why the FPS slowdown doesn't occur with some PS3 users.

My completely glitch-free, do it all the hard way player has had no luck escaping the freeze-ups. It all starts to go bad when you start the strip quests. Can people confirm they can go and do all the strip quests and never have an FPS slowdown?

hi, read your post. in my case i have the same ps3 unit as you and like most am dealing with the same bs. in the games i've played i have noticed that from 6000 kb to 10 mb the game will start acting up.. more so if you have a follower..
in this current game i'm playing,.. i save the game just about every 2-3 minutes.. new file every time.. don't have any explanations for why the game runs the way it does,.. but i think you and i are on the right track,.. i hoard to,. but it will effect the game data size... so in this past game i continually save new files,.. just keep piling them up,.. save after save,..
my game is currently 12mb,.. and is running 80% better,.. don't have any answers why,.. except that it is a memory issue.. give it a try,.. save new file everytime,.. when the fps gets choppy,.. hold start button till you can save and see if what i have suggested works,.. also.. i took the perk lessons learned.. wanted to hit level 50 and enjoy the game before it completely becomes unplayable.. these 2 things may or may not have effected the results of game play,.. all i know is it is running much better and solid. even the congested areas are running better,.. with only an occasional slow down.

So are you saying you see the game improve after 10Mb? And when you save you save new each time, do you mean the "create new data" option? I'm not sure I understand the benefit of that? And when you hit the max number of saves do you go and delete them? I am saving like that but I don't notice any benefit.

Here is one thing that improves it, just murder every single person on the strip and all the casinos, then you can pop in and out all over that place with no lag! He he! Actually I am thinking of strategically doing this, just leave the required NPCs like Yes Man and Victor, maybe a skeleton crew in the casinos. I can hardly enjoy the strip anyway! Every door you go through you know you might be restarting.

A minor tip, 1st person view makes it a little more tolerable since it does not have to render your person.

yes,.. my 13 mb game is still running much better. i have turned off all auto saves as i noticd ed at times it seem to trip over itself.,.. ie back to back door travel. i am really stoked that this seems to be working . also noticed that the first moment of fps slow down,,.. stop save,.. my games have been able to continue rather undisturbded,. killing on the strip,.. i do believe it may work slighty. many characters ive had have had few enemies,.. till the last minute. i considered the game was getting clustered and confused. i believe the amount of quest also contributes to cluster. when switch to the sole quest screen.. at some point it started stalling. roughly 5 games played. troubled fps areas .. always hard save. i still have lonesome road and to side with a faction.. wish me luck.. lol

oh,. and yes new save data every time. have not reached a limit. maybe 50 right now. when i clean up the files and start a new day of play,.. i noticed its like an uncomfortable pair of shoes,.. u just kinda hope it breaks in enough to make it a smoother ride

from 6000kb + the game fps gets glitchy,.. save data more frequently has allowed my current 13mb game to run smoother. sorry for the misunderstanding

I'm not touching Skyrim for the foreseeable future because of the handling of New Vegas and its myriad problems.


The memory leak scenario sounds like it matches a lot of the symptoms, and the harddrive memory swap sounds like the sort of genius programming that would be used to make a system perform (apparently) beyond its actual capabilities.

If that is what's up, they should be aware of it (it sounds like something experienced programmers would know about), they should fix it, and if they are unable to fix it due to the problem being part of a proprietary program they're working with, then they have a grievance with with the engine's maker that they need to take up with them and pursue fixing.

I mean, this is straight up unacceptable. I will never trust my having a good time, with my money, to Bethesda's hands again. New Vegas has been a horrible experience. Great art design, great characters (well ... some of the companions blew hard, there's what - just Boone, Veronica, Cass, and ED-E? And Rex's perk just svcks? Lily is obnoxious? Arcade's okay?), great plot, all wrapped up around an absolute monster of a game. Awful. I feel totally boned by Bethesda/Obsidian with a Collector's Edition and a full load of the DLC that I cannot play.

Thanks. That was your one time to fool me.