Find a copy of d3d9.dll and put it in your directory. This will increase performance, it sounds to good and easy to be true, but fortunately for all of us it is true. I have to let people know because my beast of a system was playing this game choppily. When I did this, performance was back on par with Fallout 3.

I tried this and it trashed my settings and detects my video card as the wrong one. So i'll deal with the choppiness I guess.

The one online causes fallout to misidentify my ati card as an nvidia causing all sorts of weird graphical issues while the larger older one on my computer doesn't seem to do anything. Granted my card is sort of old but it ran fallout 3 as smoothly as a girl's bottom and tbh this game doesn't look like anything that deserves to hog more resources.

Thats because thats what it does. I have a GTX260 and thanks to the DLL i run if smoother then Fallout 3 on maxed settings even around NPCs

Well that might be what it does but it does not detect my video card as the right one so therefor I won't use it.

That's cause thats what its SUPPOSE to do. it detects every card as a 7600 GTS. Though it doesn't even fix everyones problem me being included.

This is how it works--it forces the game to see a GTS7900 (a DX9-only card) and makes it use proper DX9 rather than DX10 or 11 in DX9 compatibility mode. This does fix the NPC slowdown problem for Nvidia users, but i'm not sure if it works with ATI cards.

Its interesting that this fix didnt work correctly until I found a download of it on another thread. Using the one on my system didnt work at all.... Anyway, its working now and is smooth as Fallout 3. No idea how QA let this get through, or the quicksave bug... I work in QA and would be booted out the door if this was allowed. Has anyone also noticed that when you move it feels like you are on rails? Instead of a fluid movement, its like the character is moved then stuck instantly when stopped. Hard to explain. Movement just isnt fluid at all. I must say the wind is out of my sails now after experiencing all the crap with this expansion... errr game... So much for the joining of development forces... Was anyone here a Beta tester?? Would love to know if this was caught (performance, saving, etc.)??

No this does NOT work for everyone... I wish you guys would stop making new threads about this silver bullet fix all for everything including cancer. Yes is fixes the problem for MOST everyone but some of us are still stuck with horrible stutters and low GPU usage.

Because that one was not tweaked with the "fix" like the download is. The one on our systems is the problem. It's using DX9 emulation (poorly) from DX10/11 cards rather than true DX9. (As I understand it.)

I really think the fact that other threads posting links to this file have been removed is pure and utter BS.

The file I downloaded from these forums yesterday (before the thread was locked and the link removed) fixed the NPC framerate issue, plain and simple.

It did NOT have a virus or was NOT infected or malicious as apparently some have complained (which is laughable).

Yes it changed my card from a 9800gtx+ to a 7900gs, it ALSO allowed me to actually play and enjoy the game with ZERO framerate issues around NPC's. Who cares what it does as long as it works (my opinion anyways).
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The thing I find sad is that while removing the helpful links forum members have posted, I still do not see a patch or fix for this problem from the game developers.

Not to mention that a problem this widespread and basically game breaking must have been known well before release. The fact that this is also the THIRD game on this engine just makes me wonder why it wasn't fixed or addressed.

And it really makes me wonder why a community based fix for this very problem would be not only ignored, but CENSORED - instead of welcomed.

Its really a sad state of affairs when the user community comes up with a fix before the actual development team... but thats the world of big business... I often wonder how this game would look and perform using Valve Source.

@ hideyoshi

The links removed were to MegaUpload, and their site was infecting people, not the file itself.

A new link was added to Nexus, a safe site to visit!

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1123822-potential-fix-for-npc-slowdown/

P.S.

@ Fallout3 Expansion

This is quite common for TES/Fallout games on the Gambryo engine. Personally I love the fact it can be done! Why wait on others when one can do it for themselves?

I was skeptical at first but it works great on my ATI 4890. Installed the fix and the laucher automatically redected settings (as an Nvidia 7900) and set things to medium. I immediately set things back to ultra and the difference was amazing. 50-60 FPS, even in areas with lots of NPCs like the NRCCF.

I'm also using the FO launcher to set vsync to on + D3Doverider to force triple buffering. Works like a charm...no tearing or performance degradation due to vsync. And I can verify that the DLL fix didn't mess anything up on this front.

Really bad. Source isnt optimized for open world, so it would need a major overhaul to be able to have open worlds and do them well.

Also, source is just begging for more Steam involvement which most people do not want. Me included.

IMO, before Beth would go with the Source engine they may try going with Id Software first since they are a sisters under Zenimax, while the current idtech engine may not be a good match for Beth's needs I figure the next one or the one after (idtech 6 or 7) just maybe is what Beth will need*

@Echonite: I agree, I would love Beth not to be so dependent on Steam

*wild speculation

Well it's better than nothing, which is what Bethesda is giving us, so you really should be complaining to them to be honest, but I understand your concern.