Has anyone come up with a definitive source of the instability in FO3 game of the year edition?
I really like FO3, I do, it's a great game and well scripted with great environments, a great escape from the tedious world. But I'd love to be able to play it without worrying about it crashing. I tried all the tips and patches and updates I could find, and they made no difference.
Sometimes I can play for a couple hours without crashes, sometimes it starts freezing or crashing within minutes of starting. I've discovered that the liklihood of early crashing is reduced if I reboot my computer before trying to play again. This is the first game I've ever had that is so freaking unbelievably unstable, I'm surprised it was even released like this, as if there was no beta testing or game testing AT ALL. Anything else I've had that didn't work properly was a one-item fix, such as upgrading the video driver, or a patch was almost instantly released by the company addressing the issue. Now I know two things to look for when buying a game so I don't pull my hair out: Never get a Steam Powered game, and never get a Bethesda game. Steam Powered because you never own the game; you cannot sell it to another person if you don't like it, and Bethesda because the bugs are so bad and the company is so slow (or unable) to offer a solution patch.

Anyway, not that anyone ever reads and responds to these specs, which are all well within the minimum requirements:
XP
AMD 4600 dual core
4gb ram
Nvidia 7950
Audigy 2 ZS
600gb and 150gb hard drives

This should be in the PC issues subforum, but can you can post your full dxdiag please

How to post a Dxdiag:
XP: Go to Start->run, type “dxdiag” and hit enter. Click the Save All Information button near the bottom right. This will save a Dxdiag.txt in C:\ by default. Then open the dxdiag.txt and copy/paste the information into your post (UP TO sound devices as the Posting Guidelines and Information sticky state).

VISTA: Go to Start->Search, type “dxdiag” and hit enter, click the Save All Information button near the bottom right. This will save a Dxdiag.txt in C:\ by default. Then open the dxdiag.txt and copy/paste the information into your post (UP TO sound devices as the Posting Guidelines and Information sticky state).

I was having a similar problem. When I researched I found out it was because of my quad core. I found instructions on how to setup the .ini file so that the game only uses one core. From then on I didn't have any lockups and I could just play the game.

Never think that just because you meet minimum requirements, it's good enough. The minimum will let you just barely run it with all settings as low as they will go, and even then you get choppy game play. The bottom line is that your system, both your processor and video card, is very weak for this game. If you want better performance out of it, you're going to have to do some upgrading. This is a fairly demanding game system wise, and if your computer doesn't quite cut it you're going to have problems. And yours doesn't quite cut it. Your video card alone is 4 generations behind current technology.

In furtherance of the comments added about the mere fact that the Geforce 7950 is "getting old", the fact is that prior to the 8n00 generation, all Geforces were very weak in handling shader functions, with the ATI Radeons being far better equipped for everything that the Gamebryo engine offers, all the way back to Oblivion, on which NotTheKing rated that card quite low compared to the Radeon X800 XT PE, a card that is still older:

o Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition
o GeForce 230
o GeForce 8600GTS
o GeForce 7900GTO
o GeForce 7800GTX 512
o GeForce 7950GT

None of those can aspire to Mainline class these days, and the X800 didn't even have the full Dx9.0"c" functionality (and it was dropped from AMD's current grpahics driver coverage before Fallout 3 was released. requiring Omega Drivers to run this game).

P.S. I disagree that the AMD X2 4600 is anywhere close to the Pentium P4 class's so-low minimum performance that is FO-3's official requirement. I've been using that CPU for the past two years, but with an HD 3870, running this game very, very well.

While for the most part that processor will be fine, if you get into an area where there are lots of NPCs like in Megaton it's going to be under pressure to keep track of all the AI routines. Battle may also be a problem if there is more than one enemy involved. The weakest link here though is definitely the video card.

One thing I was suspicious of was the videocard overheating due to demands, and I haven't investigated that. I run the game at the highest setting for my monitor, 1920x1080, but tried lowering the resolution to see if that helped, and it didn't. I have quality settings set to medium, but also have tweaked with the custom settings in every manner for trial-and-error testing, and get the same results no matter what. When the game is playing, it plays fine with no stuttering of glitches. When it starts crashing it crashes often unless I reboot, and then it's stable for a little bit longer than if I didn't reboot. I was able to screw around on the game for 2 hours this morning with no issues, and I didn't change a thing from yesterday when it was crashing every 5 minutes.

And yes, I need to upgrade my equipment, I think my stuff is 3-4 years old except for the ram and hard drive and dvd burner, which are all less than a year old. I usually select an equipment build at Cyberpower or BuyXG or iBuyPower (all the same company) because their cost of delivering a built, loaded and tested PC is less than I can buy the parts for alone. I usually get stuff that is 1-2 steps down from top of the line, because it's half the price and 90% of the performance.

Note for the person requesting my system info: I've read the threads where people are asked to post their system info, and no one ever responds.

Hi

I've also read those threads, i posted mine up front and no one responded Well, actually one person did. It seems nobody cares :'( I especially like the threads where some dude says it's because the op only has 2 gigs of ram. That makes me giggle. Have you contacted gamesas support? I did that as well and they said "Your sound card drivers are a little old." Oh how I lolled

I have a similar problem, though diffrent hardware. Mine is a quad core and i read that I could convince the game I only had two cores using msconfig. It's in the advanced section of the boot.ini part. It didn't do anything for me, but it might help you if you convince it you only have one core *shrug*. Not likely though.

Good luck

What's there to giggle about? 2 gig isn't alot of RAM, especially if you happen to be using Vista. The more RAM you have, the better the game will run. You want to have enough that the game can use up to 2 gig on it's own, plus there's still enough left over for your OS and all your background processes. With Vista, that would be at least 3 gig, XP 2.5 and I'm not sure how much Windows 7 will eat up. If you happen to run out of RAM while the game is playing then it will crash.

Well that would certainly indicate that your video card is causing the problems. It could be that it's on it's last legs and may soon die on you. One thing you should check is that your cooling fan isn't clogged with dust and dirt.

On that note, when I get a new rig, what connectivity should I be looking for in the motherboard? I already know that USB-3 is the sixy new kid, and I THINK that PCIexpress-2 is going to be the videocard standard for a while, but are there any other connectivity issues I should get so my motherboard isn't obsolete 6 months after I get it? I currently have an ASUS M2N32-SLI deluxe board with 4gb ram.

I don't know if I should piecemeal it together and get a new videocard now and a motherboard/CPU when able, or to bite the bullet and get a whole new rig. My case, drives and soundcard (audigy 2 ZS) are all fine. I think that the new version of Windows is stable enough, unlike Vista, which I'm glad I leapfrogged over. Also I'm not sure about getting a top of the line AMD CPU or a lower Pentium like an i920; does anyone have any opinions as to what route to take, and the longevity of any particular form factor, so I could get a different CPU later and it would actually fit in the motherboard?

PCIe 3 is coming out soon, according to Engadget. As to the CPU, it depends between AMD and Intel. (The Core I7 920 is not based on Pentium architecture by the way). I prefer AMD generally because they are cheaper. But it depends on your budget.

GEEZ! How did that pass my fingertips? I was thinking Intel and wrote Pentium. Getting old svcks. I don't know how those guys over 40 even remember to put their pants on.

I'll do a little homework, since it's time to upgrade or replace.

DDR3 is going to be the standard for RAM soon, and it will be tri channel not dual channel. And you should make sure your new board has at least 6 RAM slots if you go for a 64 Bit OS. It probably won't be too long before we start seeing some 64 Bit games that use more than just the standard 2 gigs of RAM that today's games use.

It looks like $1200 buys an i7 875, radeon 6850, 1tb 64mb cache drive, DVD burner, bluray burner, USB-3 Pci express-2, e-sata, 1394, audigy extreme system with a utilitarian case and Win7 home.

Passmark software is a great site for comparing CPU and videocard power.

Here's a wierd thing; I played a "borrowed" version of Fallout New Vegas yesterday for several hours with no crashes, video set to medium. More proof that GOTY is buggy and unstable, and should never have been released without fixing it or providing automatic patches and settings to accomodate specific hardware.