Fallout 3 (2008): PC Performance Benchmarks for Graphics Cards and Processors

BASIC INFORMATION ON THE GAME

 

Genre : RPG / 3D / 1st Person / 3rd Person
Released : 2008
Developer : Bethesda Softworks
Publisher : Bethesda Softworks

War... War is always war, and never changes. At the end of the twenty-first century, the struggle for oil fields provoked a conflict between the US and China. The diplomatic dispute soon escalated into an armed confrontation between the two superpowers, which lasted a matter of hours. 

Who launched the rockets first remains a mystery. The earth has turned into a scorched desert. There were no losers, no winners. Only a few managed to escape from the destructive radiation in special shelters built shortly before the catastrophe broke out. A new era has begun in human history...

THE GRAFICAL PART

In this subsection of our review, the main graphical aspects of this game are revealed. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphics settings and the quality of the development of the main visual aspects.

Supported OS and graphics API

Fallout 3 is supported on major Windows operating systems, which include WindowsXP/Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. Other operating systems are currently not supported by the developers.

 

The priority and primary graphics API for Fallout 3 is  DirectX 9 . 

Game engine

Fallout 3 is based on the Gamebryo game engine. GameBryo Element is a game engine created by Numerical Design Limited that is the successor to the NetImmerse engine. Before NDL was taken over by Emergent Game Technologies, the engine was simply called GameBryo.

Like many similar products, the Gamebryo license provides access to the full source code of the engine, so developers are free to customize it to suit their specific needs. Additionally, Gamebryo comes with documentation that includes search tools.

 

EGT also offers a trial version of the GameBryo kit, which includes the engine and tools for importing assets. This bundle does not contain source texts, which are available only in the licensed version. Despite this, EGT only distributes this product after an interview with one of their representatives.

 

Advanced game settings

 

Fallout 3 has the same game structure and the same graphic settings layout as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion . We have the widest range of all aspects of the game at our disposal.

  

Below we have provided screenshots of the game at various graphics settings, where our readers can see the difference between the minimum, medium and maximum graphics quality settings. 

Various quality modes

The quality of the picture between different settings in Fallout 3 is visible to the naked eye.

Comparison of FullHD and 4K

In 4K, Fallout 3 looks great, despite its age.

Comparison of anti-aliasing modes

Activating full-screen anti-aliasing gives a very tangible result.

General visual design and game physics

Fallout 3 essentially has the same graphics as  The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion , so as of 2008, the game had just gorgeous optimization, thanks to which many PC gamers could enjoy the gameplay.

 

 

Next, we will go directly to the gaming tests and determine what impact this game has on modern computer hardware. 

TEST PART

GPU test

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality by MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The average and minimum FPS were taken as the performance indicator. Below is a video of the test segment of the in-game benchmark:    

Our video cards were tested at 3840x2160 resolutions, because even in this case the processor could not display all the graphic solutions. SLI and AMD CrossFireX are seamlessly supported by the game.

Testing at 3840x2160 resolution

    

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840x2160

 

With these settings,  video cards of the Radeon R7 260X or GeForce GTX 660 level showed an acceptable FPS.

Testing of the video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the  MSI Afterburner program. The results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA were taken as an indicator at resolutions of  1920x1080 and 2560x1600 with various anti-aliasing settings.

Testing at maximum memory GPU quality settings

 

The recommended amount of video memory usage for a resolution of 1920x1080 will be 768 MB of video memory, for a resolution of 2560x1600 - 1024 MB of video memory and for a resolution of 3840x2160 about 1280 MB of video memory. 

CPU test

  

We tested processor dependence on 16 models of basic configurations that are relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of the video card for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1920x1080 with maximum graphics quality settings. 

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080

 

The CPU performance in the game is quite adequate at the moment.

Loading of processor cores at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 Intel % 

 

Loading of processor cores  at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 AMD % 

 

Fallout 3 is capable of supporting no more than 4 processing cores.

RAM test

The test was carried out on the base configuration Core i 7 5960X @ 4.6 GHz with 16GB DDR4 2400 MGz pre-installed memory. All used RAM was taken as an indicator. The RAM test on the entire system was carried out on various test benches without running extraneous applications (browsers, etc.).

Testing the game's RAM consumption at various quality settings 

 

As we can see, with various quality settings, the amount of RAM consumed in Fallout 3 is at the level of 500 megabytes.

Testing system RAM consumption  

 

On a 6 GB system, Fallout 3 consumes about 2.2 GB of RAM. In the presence of a system with 8 gigabytes, the RAM consumption of all RAM was 2.4 gigabytes. With a 16 GB system, total memory consumption was almost 2.4 GB. And with 32 gigabytes of RAM, the system consumes 2.6 gigabytes of RAM.