Fallout 3 fps issue

[Mr. Lennon]

So the game was running smooth as butter until I updated to the WHQL 180.43 (was running betas) and updated the game with the newest patch. Ever since then, every time I either take damage or activate VATS, my fps slows down to the 0-2 range.

Is anyone else having this problem? I tried a bunch of other drivers as well and just cant seem to get the smooth fps back. Its hard to believe that upgrading from the 180.43 betas to WHQL would cause problems. Maybe the game patch itself is causing this problem?

 

[TidusZ]

I occasionally have low fps starting up vats, or it takes longer than usual for vats to do anything after it stops the action. Always had it, wasn't that bad really imo.

edit: I should add that it is unchararacteristically slow fps. I usually stay at a solid 60 fps, but the odd time going to vats it will stutter badly and/or take 3-5 seconds to do anything at all. Most of the time it is fine however. I use 180.48 whql drivers, and before that used some other drivers, and the problem remained the same either way. This was with the install version of Fallout 3 as well.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Well I just lowered AA from 4x to 2x and now everything is smooth again. I'm guessing 4x and 1900 reso must require more than the 512 vram on my 8800GTS.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282
Well I just lowered AA from 4x to 2x and now everything is smooth again. I'm guessing 4x and 1900 reso must require more than the 512 vram on my 8800GTS.

Not sure on that one. I dont have that issue at 4x AA 1920x1080 on my 512mb HD4870.

 

[40Hands]

I had this happen for a while. I also have a 8800GTS 512. I couldn't tell you what I did to fix it though.

 

[Martimus]

I have set everything to low, and I still have huge slowdown issues at random times throughout the game; especially when I am in a conversation or in some sort of menu where I need to make a choice. The game is somewhat unplayable for me, but I can't seem to find another thread that describes this problem to the point where this is the closest one I have found. Any ideas what the issue is?

I am running the game in XP, and I have set the settings to low in the option menu with no AA or AF. My hardware specs are in my signature. The problems are that it will freeze for minutes at a time, and become completely unplayable often. I don't know what to do to make it work. It runs fine even at the highest settings when it isn't freezing up, so I really don't know what the issue is.

EDIT: I think I figured it out. I installed a driver for my processor, and it seems alright now, although it still crashes on a semi-regular basis.