By: Sarju Shah - Posted on November 14, 2008
The post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 3 makes the current state of the worldwide economy look about as pleasant as apple pie. Bethesda rendered the bleakness of a nuclear bomb-ravaged Washington DC with the perfect amount of despair and, given the nature of the franchise, humor. From the moment you step out of Vault 101, you want to explore every single bombed-out shack and collapsed building. The radioactive wasteland is filled with incredible detail, and the long draw distances practically beg you to wander around by giving you so many landmarks to march towards. Fallout 3 is based on the Oblivion graphics engine, but runs much better than Oblivion and with greater detail. However, even with the engine performance improvements, you'll most likely need to upgrade a system component or two if you want the game to run at maximum quality settings.
We tested Fallout 3 by running through the area outside of the Jefferson Memorial and Rivet City. The region has long draw distances, nearby water reflections, and plenty of action from supermutants. Our final result was the average of three 40-second runs.
System Setup: High-End System: Intel Core2 QX9650, eVGA 780i, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GBx2), 750GB Seagate 7200.11 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista 32-bit SP1. Graphics Card: Radeon 4870X2, beta Catalyst HotFix 70517.
Recommended System: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz, eVGA 680i, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GBx2), 750GB Seagate 7200.11 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista 32-bit SP1. Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 GT, beta Nvidia ForceWare 180.42.
Minimum System: Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz, Asus P4C800, 1GB Corsair XMS Memory, Seagate 160GB 7200.7 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows XP Professional SP2. Graphics Card: GeForce 6800, Nvidia Forceware 180.42.
We've provided image-quality comparisons on the following page to help you determine which settings you can live without. However, if at all possible, try to keep transparency multisampling enabled. Fallout 3 has a tremendous number of wires, trees, shrubs, and broken piping that need to be cleaned up. Even distant buildings look better with the setting enabled.
System Setup: Intel Core 2 QX9770, eVGA 680i, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GB x 2), 750GB Seagate 7200.11 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista SP1. Graphics Card: GeForce 9800 GTX, Nvidia ForceWare 180.42.
Ultra High Medium Low
High Medium Low
High Medium Low
Enabled Disabled
100% 75% 50% 25% 0%
100% 50% 0%
W.R. Max W.R. Disabled Full Detail Reflec. Disabled Full Scene Reflec. Disabled Soft Reflec. Disabled W.R. Low
System Setup: Intel Core2 QX9770, eVGA 680i SLI, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GBx2), 750GB Seagate 7200.11 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista 32-bit SP1. Graphics Cards: GeForce 280 GTX, GeForce 260 GTX, GeForce 260 GTX Core 216, GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB, GeForce 9600 GT 256MB, GeForce 8800 GT 512MB, GeForce 8600 GTS 256MB, GeForce 7900 GS 256MB, GeForce 7600 GT 256MB, Radeon HD 4870 X2, Radeon HD 4870, Radeon HD 4850, Radeon HD 4670, Radeon HD 3870 X2, Radeon HD 3870 512MB, Radeon HD 3850 512MB, Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB, Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB, Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB. Graphics Drivers: beta Nvidia ForceWare 180.42, beta ATI Catalyst 70517.
System Setup: Intel Core 2 QX9770, Intel Core 2 X6800, Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Intel Core2 E6320, Intel Pentium 4 3.8GHz, AMD Phenom X4 9600, AMD Phenom X3 8750, eVGA 680I, Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H, 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GB x 2), 750GB Seagate 7200.11 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista 32-bit SP1. Graphics Card: GeForce 9800 GTX, Nvidia ForceWare 180.42
System Setup: Intel Core 2 QX9770, eVGA 680i SLI, 3GB Corsair XMS Memory (2GBx2), 2GB Corsair XMS Memory (1GBx2), 1GB Corsair XMS Memory (512MBx2), 750GB Seagate 7200.11 SATA Hard Disk Drive, Windows Vista 32-bit SP1. Graphics Card: GeForce 9800 GTX, Nvidia ForceWare 180.42.