Find ways to stabilize the game's performance for smoother play.
Find ways to stabilize the game's performance for smoother play.
I recently purchased FO4 for PC since my existing copy on disk for Xbox was damaged. I’m switching to a fresh setup for improved modding capabilities. Despite having an old card, the game launches with errors when I use the launcher, assuming it doesn’t recognize my GPU and defaulting to a low setting. According to the Fallout4Pref.ini file, I adjusted a setting to remove the 30 FPS cap, which works as a temporary fix.
My PC’s specs are listed in my usual notes. The game saves to an NVMe drive for faster loading and quicker saves. While playing, my FPS fluctuates between 24 and 72, depending on the monitor’s refresh rate of 144 Hz. I usually see rates stuck at 60, 36, or even 24 FPS. The only times it runs smoothly are on the title screen and main menu. My GPU usage stays under 50%, even at full settings, and VRAM usage never exceeds 40%.
I’ve started modding with high-res versions to boost confidence in VRAM management, but I suspect the game caps at 3 GB of VRAM usage. Would a tool like GPU-Z help track the allocated VRAM for the game? Since it doesn’t report actual usage, it might only reflect OS allocation. I’m considering editing the .ini file or adjusting settings to lock the game at 60 FPS, avoiding any dips below 30% GPU usage.
I increased the number of hardware threads from 4 to 6 in the settings, but the engine still only handles up to 3 cores. I’m unsure if changing thread count will help, as the spikes remain limited to cores 0–3. There might be mods or third-party settings that could stabilize performance, or I could edit the .ini file after backing up my changes.
I’m on an unknown card from Radeon, so I don’t have high-res textures installed. Keeping my 6 GB of mods saves more space than Bethesda’s packs, which I’m trying to justify.
I'm focused on this region. There are some faulty precombines around downtown Boston that really slow things down, but there are mods available to try and improve it—though results may vary. At 1080p resolution, the game uses minimal VRAM, so you should consider texture mods or accept a tougher situation. If I remember correctly, I'll attempt to launch it again tonight and review around 400 downloaded mods to identify which ones actually help performance. Usually I keep the .ini file unchanged unless I need specific changes, as Nexus' Vortex mod manager already handles most issues.
Fallout 4 is an older title, likely less refined than modern games. Depending on the environment, you may encounter slower frame rates due to numerous objects. That’s typical.
You may use an FPS cap from other programs or NVIDIA Control Panel. Adjust the "ipresentinterval" value in the ini file to 0 to turn off in-game Vsync. For a more advanced approach, consider installing ENBoost, which can resolve stuttering and performance issues while letting you define a custom FPS cap.
Thank you. Yeah I know on XB1S I would sometimes get 20 FPS in boston. But then there was a mod that made it raise to like 24 FPS, but had the side affect of making some particles look literally broken. I was playing along with the railraod at the time, and Desdemona is always holding a cigarette, and the smoke off her cigarette were like 6 3 inch cubes with the smoke textures. Like so bad it looked like a serious serious bug. Anyway this is a brand new install, brand new save, im on like level 4 and my last save (I'm not playing now) was either in Sanctuary or Lexington, haven't even gotten close to Boston or Diamond City yet. Thank you for the offer to look through your mods. Yeah I downloaded probably 50 last night. Which is insane to me because you are allowed a maximum of 2GB of mods on console and even with a mix of small and large mods that was like 30 for me. I would totally download the High Res texture pack if I didn't have only 100GB of SSD space left. I have already downloaded a couple of performance mods such as the unofficial patch, and a partial high resolution texture pack. And it did fix something because there were broken textures on some of the rock wall faces in a quary I forgot about. I saved, downloaded some patches, and upon reload it looked noticeably better. And can you elaborate on what this means: Oh and is it possible to easily change the load order in Nexus? And is Vortex a piece of shit software to you too? It is constantly freezing on me whenever it is simultaneously downloading something and when I drag and drop a .rar/.zip file from a source outside Nexus (you can probably guess which site, but don't say it), or even if I have it open in the background for like an hour and then return to it, it has become frozen and I need to kill it in task manager. Thank you Mr. Obvious, this is Bethesda we are talking about, we should all know this. Bethesda, of course it is unoptimized. But the problem is that with more objects I would expect my GPU usage to increase accordingly. But it doesn't, it sometimes even drops. I have good reason to believe this is a software issue (which sucks because I am a hardware engineering student and can't code to save my life) Again, I already stated I made this change to the vsync. And if I hadn't I would have no clue that I had to go to Fallout4Prefs.ini since you didn't provide that information. Good thing I had already done it. I'll look into ENBoost when I get home tonight.
It was extremely disrespectful. I had no idea the ippresentinterval setting had been changed. Thankfully, I’m finished assisting you now.
I actually included it in the second paragraph. I wasn't sure about the variable name, but I remember it limited me to 30 FPS. Changing it off removed that restriction. It seems this was a VSync-related setting, not just a standard FPS cap.
It's possible to install up to 255 .esp plugins on a PC. If texture packs simply swap in stock images, they don't count toward the limit and many mods support .esl files as well. I've managed around 372 active mods, including a Bethesda title that runs smoothly with that level of content. Of course, the unofficial patch is the best starting point. There seems to be a newer Boston FPS fix available on Nexus, which addresses precombine issues in that area. Adjusting the load order can be tricky in Vortex, but the LOOT API usually handles it automatically—just a few tweaks might be needed for complex sequences. I haven't encountered performance problems with Vortex when downloading from Nexus or manually importing files. If you're installing large animation or framework updates, I've only made minor fixes and improved walk animations, so those could be more challenging to manage. High-resolution textures are uncompressed and look poor at lower resolutions, possibly around 1440p or less. I mainly tested them to gauge performance; they consume over 20GB of RAM and reach about 7.5GB on my 2060 Super, which is close to its full capacity. They're only worthwhile if you play at high resolutions and your graphics card can handle them. Many modders have improved texture packs to balance performance and visual quality across standard resolutions.