Fallout 4 System Requirements Announced

[SPBHM]

A 7870 (rebranded as 270X in this chart) is 30% faster than the GTX 580 in the modern era at 1080:

http://www.computerbase.de/2015-05/.../#diagramm-rating-1920-1080-normale-qualitaet

At the launch of the 550 Ti, the GTX 580 was 2.25 times faster than a 550 Ti at 1920x1200!
http://www.computerbase.de/2011-03/test-3x-nvidia-geforce-gtx-550-ti-sli/24/

In what universe are these cards even remotely equalized? Minimum requirements can be complete rubbish sometimes and this is a shining example.

yes, the 550 ti is normally slower than the 7770 (which is half a 7870)

the min CPUs is also BS, i5 2300 is much faster than the 945
it could beat the 975 (600MHz more) by a good margin
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0

 

[werepossum]

yes, the 550 ti is normally slower than the 7770 (which is half a 7870)

the min CPUs is also BS, i5 2300 is much faster than the 945
it could beat the 975 (600MHz more) by a good margin
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i5-2500-2400-2300_7.html#sect0

I can't remember a game ever coming out and people then saying "Oh, THAT'S why the hardware requirements seemed so bizarre, but now they make perfect sense." Makes me wonder if they select these points using market share (assuming they aren't just random projections made by monkeys tracking headless chickens) with the lower recommendation invariably set to accommodate 95+% of the potential market within each brand (even if the minimum hardware produces a slideshow) and the higher recommendation invariably set to make the game appear cutting edge as perceived by console-concentric developers. Tom's hardware's GPU hierarchy chart shows the HD7870 a whopping five tiers above the GTX550ti, yet the recommended GTX780 and HD 290X are ranked equally. I don't think it's possible to have a technical issue that has such a disparate level at the minimum requirement level yet vanishes at the recommended level. Same with CPUs; the i5-2300 is ranked at the bottom of the very highest tier, faster (for gaming) than anything AMD makes. Even the AMD FX-9590 probably isn't as fast as the i5-2300 unless there is something specific happening that greatly benefits AMD processors, which for DX11 seems unlikely. And the requirements don't even address SSDs, which it seems to me would have an enormous performance impact for a massive seamless open world.

I'm just really, really glad the current consoles are so similar to PCs. This should drastically reduce the cost and complexity of porting to PC, which should make cheapo ports more tolerable and better ports even better. Last gen, programming a game for the PS3, XBox 360, and PC was essentially programming three completely different games. This gen, the task should be immeasurably easier and cheaper, and that should translate to more profitable games (and thus more companies making games) as well as better games with more content, polish, and debugging. This should be especially relevant under DX12. Hopefully, this similarity will soon make such nonsensical hardware requirements a thing of the past. Frankly I'm surprised and disappointed that Bethesda would release these without some sort of clarification as to why the apparent gross disparities, or what level of performance is intended to be represented by minimum and recommended. Knowing whether the minimum represents a 640x480 slideshow or 30 fps @1080p is much more germane to the question of whether to update than is two seemingly nonsensical lists.

 

[Canun]

Dang, have a AMD Radeon HD 7850.

 

[Blitzvogel]

Dang, have a AMD Radeon HD 7850.

Don't trust the requirements. Time and time again the past few years, the stated requirements by devs are excessive compared to real world tests, like CoD Advanced Warfare running completely acceptably on Pentium Dual Cores and i3s even though the requirements specifically stated originally that a quad core CPU was required. There are of course blatant exceptions or cases of dubious intent and performance like Batman Arkham Knight and Assassin's Creed Unity.

 

[Majcric]

I for one am glad to see the higher requirements. This of course means I hope the game delivers from both a graphical and gameplay standpoint.

 

[Mopetar]

Even more bizarre that they'd say the AMD card has higher requirements considering that both major consoles are using AMD graphics. If anything, you'd think the game would be more tuned to run better on AMD hardware if anything.

 

[shortylickens]

Even more bizarre that they'd say the AMD card has higher requirements considering that both major consoles are using AMD graphics. If anything, you'd think the game would be more tuned to run better on AMD hardware if anything.

This thing is NOT going to look as good on the consoles. But they probably won't crash quite as much either.

 

[Stuka87]

I am extremely surprised at the CPU requirements. Previous Bethesda games have had very poor CPU threading.

The GPU side is a bit surprising as well as the game (from screenshots and video) does not look that good in comparison to a game like The Witcher 3.

Will be interesting to see just how well (or poorly) the game runs.

 

[werepossum]

Even more bizarre that they'd say the AMD card has higher requirements considering that both major consoles are using AMD graphics. If anything, you'd think the game would be more tuned to run better on AMD hardware if anything.

That's a good point, but in the PC world we're talking DX11 and nVidia pretty much owns DX11. Might change under Win10/DX12, but under DX11 there's just no way to program as close to the hardware as with a console.

 

[werepossum]

I am extremely surprised at the CPU requirements. Previous Bethesda games have had very poor CPU threading.

The GPU side is a bit surprising as well as the game (from screenshots and video) does not look that good in comparison to a game like The Witcher 3.

Will be interesting to see just how well (or poorly) the game runs.

Don't the current gen consoles demand good multithreading to get good graphics with good performance? Hopefully their common similarity to PC hardware will translate to good PC multithreading as well - though it's worth pointing out that is completely based on my notion that porting to PC is much simpler with current gen consoles, which may not be accurate.

 

[BSim500]

"Min CPU requirements" have never made any consistent sense. I think they put in stuff like "i7 required" purely to insure against complaints from those with earlier chips (eg, i5-750) saying "Well you DID say an i5!" In reality, some of the newer i3's can run games faster than some of the older i5's. And Intel's can be from parity to as much as 70% faster than AMD FX-8xxx chips depending on how well or badly it's threaded.

In theory everything should be perfectly threaded and wonderfully ported if they're written for 6 (usable) core consoles. In reality, not everything in theory works out in practice, and being a Bethesda game it's virtually guaranteed you're better off waiting until modders have at least finished off the PC version's UI (Darnified / SkyUI, etc), patched the worst "blocker" quest bugs, etc. If you've played Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, etc, you know what I mean when I say they're the kind of games where waiting for the GOTY version is generally the best way to play...

 

[Mopetar]

This thing is NOT going to look as good on the consoles. But they probably won't crash quite as much either.

Nothing ever looks as good on consoles. The PS4 has an equivalent of a 7870, which isn't bad considering the age of the console at this point, but even when it was launched it was a mid-range PC card.

Even with heavy optimizations, it isn't going to beat something like a 390 which has twice the shader count and isn't even a top of the line GPU.

My point is that because both the Sony and Microsoft consoles are using AMD GPUs, I would expect that there are some performance optimizations done as a part of getting the game to look and run well on the consoles that would carry over to the PC as a natural consequence of that.

 

[Blue_Max]

The Fallout Shelter app is leaking out a few more hints about the coming game.

The new Piper character, the stronger presence of the Mysterious Stranger, etc.

 

[Red Hawk]

Nothing ever looks as good on consoles. The PS4 has an equivalent of a 7870, which isn't bad considering the age of the console at this point, but even when it was launched it was a mid-range PC card.

Even with heavy optimizations, it isn't going to beat something like a 390 which has twice the shader count and isn't even a top of the line GPU.

My point is that because both the Sony and Microsoft consoles are using AMD GPUs, I would expect that there are some performance optimizations done as a part of getting the game to look and run well on the consoles that would carry over to the PC as a natural consequence of that.

The PS4's chip is closer to a 7850, really, with less shaders and a lower clock speed. Its theoretical teraFLOPS performance sits somewhere between the 7850 and a 7790, IIRC.

The recommended requirements aren't notably uneven. The performance advantage from being in consoles never really materialized for AMD with DirectX 11 (we'll have to see if DirectX 12 changes that), and the GK110 and Hawaii chips were more or less in the same tier of performance, and from roughly the same generation. It's the minimum requirements, where the Nvidia card is several tiers below the AMD card, not to mention a generation older, that make no sense.

 

[DefDC]

Tragedy! I have to work the day after Thanksgiving. My wife wants to take our daughter to see family for the long weekend and asked if I mind if she took our daughter and went without me. I'm going to be stuck playing FO4 and eating pizza for 3 1/2 days straight. The horror!

 

[Borealis7]

Tragedy! I have to work the day after Thanksgiving. My wife wants to take our daughter to see family for the long weekend and asked if I mind if she took our daughter and went without me. I'm going to be stuck playing FO4 and eating pizza for 3 1/2 days straight. The horror!

save time, don't eat. optimal temporal utilization is important.