I have an NVidia Geforce 9800 graphics card, 3.5 GB of RAM and I got a decent motherboard and processor. I run the game on medium quality settings. 4x Antianoliasing or whatever and 12x for the other. I use the High quality textures, but I have a short view distance, so I get the game to look better. My graphics card gets loud when it starts getting strained. It sounds like a vaccuum cleaner, which tells me

"YOU BETTER PAUSE THE GAME AND WAIT FOR ME TO SHUT UP BEFORE YOU START PLAYING AGAIN OR I'LL CRASH!"

That. Also, sometimes, it gets choppy, but not very often.

Modwise, I use FWE, Broken Steel, Point Lookout, and some other small mods. Altogether, I only have 12 mods. I used a recommended program to enable 32-bit Fallout 3 to handle more than 2GB of RAM.

Can someone help? Because I hate using terrible graphics, but I know my graphics card is good! I need to improve performance.

Also, my graphics card's fan is kinda small, but it's constantly making noise, how can I fix that? I have all the latest drivers, so that's not it.

You've not got an overclock on have you? Those are hot little cards with loud fans, I used to have one. It sounds like you might need to open up check your pc case for decent airflow. Cables should be tidily arranged so air can move in and out easily. Check the fans and components for dust buildup and remove it. It sounds like a dust buildup making your fans work harder than they need to to be honest since I could play on high with my 9800 and the fans never bothered me

And what cpu is it? Probably not relevant but it's nice to know.

CPU? Got no idea. I don't remember what it was, bought it a while back, and never changed it.

Thanks for the tip! I think I'll do that.

EDIT: Nope, nothing is in the way, but the fan is facing the bottom of the casing. HOWEVER! I can tell you I just remembered, this graphics card I have, it has no settings, it's just at one setting the whole time, can't turn it down. That's why it's always making noise. But I can't find out why it's having trouble with the game...It runs fine with Oblivion, Borderlands, and GTA San Andreas, although this one isn't that much work for it...

My friend suggested that I get a new graphics card. Might consider this, as it isn't doing that good for me. At the start it was a huge improvement as my original was a GeForce 6000...

Not sure if I sould get a new one. I guess I can check the XFX boards, maybe I'll find some help.

EDIT EDIT: Just checked the box. Not a 9800 GT, but a GeForce 9600 GSO... a big differance right?

Can anyone help? I read in a lot of places that using a lube on the pinwheel will make it quieter, but that isn't what i want, if my computer is humming quietly, so be it. If it doesn't roar to warn me it is about to crash, that would kinda svck. I'd rather it run better.

UPDATE! I can't find a utility for my XFX NVidia GeForce 9600 GSO graphics card. It's a 768MB DDR2.

It used to work great, and it's a great card, but it just isn't working like it used to.

Oooo. Well the 9600 GSO is barely a gaming capable card.

If it's *always* making fan noise that's usually because you've no drivers installed. Be sure to get the latest drivers.

It could just be that your card is going to give up sometime soon. If you can afford a new computer that time may be coming soon, sorry to tell ya. Let us know if you're going to get one and we'll help.

A dxdiag would provide us with all the technical specs about your computer.

Nevermind, I got Fallout 3 working great again, and I don't really care about the fan, it's not as loud anymore...

That's good, but I would still look into it. If your fan is overworking, it means there could be something seriously wrong with the computer that needs attention.

EDIT: Does it only run loud when you're doing something intensive? Or is it all the time?

In that case, you don't want to be using any hi-res textures. Stick to the stock one, that card can't handle anything more.