Think I need to upgrade for Fallout 4?

D

dudewth

[H]|G Minecraft Division Leader
Joined
Jul 13, 2002
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I've seen the recommended specs for Fallout 4 but I have a Dell U3011 (2560x1600) so I'm wondering if I need to upgrade my video card. Obviously nobody knows exactly what performance will be like, but based on other "modern" games (I haven't played a new release in over a year) I'd appreciate some speculation.

Here is what I currently have. I'd probably only look to upgrade the graphics card if necessary to a 980ti.

EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Classified 4 GB DDR5 Graphics Card

Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory
(yes that's 32GB)
ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Corsair Professional Series AX 1200 Watt Digital ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Platinum
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

No overclock currently but willing to try.
 
It will probably depend on the settings you want to play at.

Why not wait for the game to come out, install, give it a try before you decide to put down the money?
 
at 1080p I don't see a 980Ti being necessary...a 970 will probably be more then enough...at 1600p a 980 will probably be fine
 
mda said:
It will probably depend on the settings you want to play at.

Why not wait for the game to come out, install, give it a try before you decide to put down the money?
Click to expand...

Are you suggesting I wait a whole day or two for a good gaming experience?! ;) :p

Yes that's the logical way to approach it. Just thought maybe someone that normally plays at 2560x1600 with decent settings could give me a heads up that it may not fair too well.
 
i highly doubt you'll have any problems maintaining 60 fps even at 1600p with a 680. the only graphics feature i've seen that will probably kill framerates is god rays. the game really doesn't look that impressive, but it is bethesda, so who knows how it'll run...
 
Assuming a GPU bottleneck I would predict your 680 gets 30 FPS, a 970 would get 50FPS and a 980ti 75FPS. If it's worth it is up to you. :). I also have no clue on the baseline 680 FPS... But I would expect scaling like that.
 
The game isn't even out yet, why making decisions based on things you know nothing about?

It's not as if next week when FO4 gets released, all unsold GPUs will spontaneously disappear and you will be stuck with whatever you have for the rest of your life, so I'd wait until Fallout 4 actually gets released, see reviews on how it performs before even entertaining that decision.
 
Play it first. From Ultra screenshots the game won't be much better visually than New Vegas. If you have an upgrade itch then go for it, otherwise you should wait.

You're much more likely to be bottlenecked by your CPU, so look into OCing that first of all. Skyrim was notorious for high CPU usage, especially with mods, so... Can Skyrim get 60FPS stable on your system?
 
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space


RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Processor: Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space
 
double

I have a bad habit of upgrading like I had my 970gtx for about 9 months only then upgraded to a 980ti.
 
Why not upgrade to a 980ti and not have to worry about it. I did and haven't regretted a minute of it. Frugality shmoogality.
 
williacm said:
Why not upgrade to a 980ti and not have to worry about it. I did and haven't regretted a minute of it. Frugality shmoogality.
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That's definitely not me. I play against my own mentality and purposely get just slightly less than I 100% need, so I'll have that tiny flaw to pick at for a while. I found that when I had more than enough performance, I would still just get bored after a while and get the upgrade bug all the sooner.
 
Odellus said:
i highly doubt you'll have any problems maintaining 60 fps even at 1600p with a 680. the only graphics feature i've seen that will probably kill framerates is god rays. the game really doesn't look that impressive, but it is bethesda, so who knows how it'll run...
Click to expand...
Given it is Bethesda and running on the Creation engine, the game will be very CPU-limited. They have added DirectX 11 features, though. We plainly won't know until the embargo is lifted, either way.
 
Odellus said:
i highly doubt you'll have any problems maintaining 60 fps even at 1600p with a 680. the only graphics feature i've seen that will probably kill framerates is god rays. the game really doesn't look that impressive, but it is bethesda, so who knows how it'll run...
Click to expand...
Based on the few leaked screenshots I was hoping for this.


trandoanhung1991 said:
Play it first. From Ultra screenshots the game won't be much better visually than New Vegas. If you have an upgrade itch then go for it, otherwise you should wait.

You're much more likely to be bottlenecked by your CPU, so look into OCing that first of all. Skyrim was notorious for high CPU usage, especially with mods, so... Can Skyrim get 60FPS stable on your system?
Click to expand...
I do have a slight upgrade itch. The problem is that I don't really game enough to justify it. I'm almost due to a full rebuild and something like this (new game) usually helps me get over that hump.


chenw said:
The game isn't even out yet, why making decisions based on things you know nothing about?

It's not as if next week when FO4 gets released, all unsold GPUs will spontaneously disappear and you will be stuck with whatever you have for the rest of your life, so I'd wait until Fallout 4 actually gets released, see reviews on how it performs before even entertaining that decision.
Click to expand...
uaF0aKv.jpg
 
Nice one, but being [H]ard still requires making informed decisions, unless, of course, your itch is so bad you can't wait for another few days.
 
I don't know why people keep dogging the graphics of FO4. They're all based on videos and screenshots and not a single one of those people have seen the game in person. I personally think it looks really good aside from some low res textures and odd animations, which will be easily fixed by modding.

Consider that too, do you plan to mod?

I think your 680 4gb will run the game at 60fps with medium to high settings, possibly reduced draw distances. It depends on what you want to get out of it. I would also recommend playing it with your card and see how it performs before you make a decision.

I play a ton of games so a 980ti was a no brainer for me.
 
w35t said:
I don't know why people keep dogging the graphics of FO4. They're all based on videos and screenshots and not a single one of those people have seen the game in person. I personally think it looks really good aside from some low res textures and odd animations, which will be easily fixed by modding.

Consider that too, do you plan to mod?

I think your 680 4gb will run the game at 60fps with medium to high settings, possibly reduced draw distances. It depends on what you want to get out of it. I would also recommend playing it with your card and see how it performs before you make a decision.

I play a ton of games so a 980ti was a no brainer for me.
Click to expand...

It looks like Borderlands had a lovechild with Bioshock Infinite.

Considering how post-apocalyptic gritty graphics mods are very popular I can't believe Bethesda didn't go the Metro 2033 route. Would've been much more appreciated.
 
trandoanhung1991 said:
Considering how post-apocalyptic gritty graphics mods are very popular I can't believe Bethesda didn't go the Metro 2033 route. Would've been much more appreciated.
Click to expand...

Nope, that would be too dark. Game doesn't take itself too seriously. The ton of pop culture easter eggs shows that. I think it is just fine where it is.
 
trandoanhung1991 said:
It looks like Borderlands had a lovechild with Bioshock Infinite.

Considering how post-apocalyptic gritty graphics mods are very popular I can't believe Bethesda didn't go the Metro 2033 route. Would've been much more appreciated.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by this. It looks absolutely nothing like Borderlands or Bioshock Infinite, not cel shaded, not even close.

Metro games are linear, closed world, and have really small draw distances. Not to mention difficult to run.

Also, objects in the Fallout world have physics tied to them, unlike Metro and even The Witcher 3.

Don't understand this comparison at all.
 
dudewth said:
I've seen the recommended specs for Fallout 4 but I have a Dell U3011 (2560x1600) so I'm wondering if I need to upgrade my video card. Obviously nobody knows exactly what performance will be like, but based on other "modern" games (I haven't played a new release in over a year) I'd appreciate some speculation.

Here is what I currently have. I'd probably only look to upgrade the graphics card if necessary to a 980ti.

EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Classified 4 GB DDR5 Graphics Card

Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory
Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1866 MHZ (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory
(yes that's 32GB)
ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Corsair Professional Series AX 1200 Watt Digital ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Platinum
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit

No overclock currently but willing to try.
Click to expand...

I recently went from R9 290X > GTX 980 Ti, no regrets :)

I have similar setup as you, just less RAM :)
 
w35t said:
I don't know what you mean by this. It looks absolutely nothing like Borderlands or Bioshock Infinite, not cel shaded, not even close.

Metro games are linear, closed world, and have really small draw distances. Not to mention difficult to run.

Also, objects in the Fallout world have physics tied to them, unlike Metro and even The Witcher 3.

Don't understand this comparison at all.
Click to expand...

I meant graphics-wise.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/screenshots-of-fallout-4-for-pc-on-ultra-settings/

These screenshots really remind me of Bioshock Infinite. Too bright and cheery and too optimistic for a post-apocalyptic scenario.

Perhaps a more apt comparison would not be Metro 2033, but STALKER Call of Pripyat.

I've played through 3 and NV and to be honest they didn't get the atmosphere right at all. Everything's too bright and cheery for no reason, too colourful. After some graphics mods though, the game looks absolutely wonderful.
 
dudewth said:
Based on the few leaked screenshots I was hoping for this.


I do have a slight upgrade itch. The problem is that I don't really game enough to justify it. I'm almost due to a full rebuild and something like this (new game) usually helps me get over that hump.



uaF0aKv.jpg
Click to expand...

I don't think you're authorized to use that pic since you're not overclocking.

This weekend would be a perfect time to do some overclocking and benchmarking to see what performance gains you can get. I would guesstimate that if you can get up to even 4.2GHz that you'll gain 10fps on your minimum framerates. I would think 4.4GHz should be doable. Might as well maximize free performance before spending money on upgrades. In addition, the overclock would help any new video card perform better as well, helping remove the CPU as the bottleneck on CPU intensive games like Fallout 4 is almost certainly going to be.
 
Astral Abyss said:
I don't think you're authorized to use that pic since you're not overclocking.

This weekend would be a perfect time to do some overclocking and benchmarking to see what performance gains you can get. I would guesstimate that if you can get up to even 4.2GHz that you'll gain 10fps on your minimum framerates. I would think 4.4GHz should be doable. Might as well maximize free performance before spending money on upgrades. In addition, the overclock would help any new video card perform better as well, helping remove the CPU as the bottleneck on CPU intensive games like Fallout 4 is almost certainly going to be.
Click to expand...

Fair enough but I actually was overclocked :eek: Turns out you forget stuff when you don't mess with it for 2 years.

It was only a mild overclock at 4.1GHz. I bumped it to 4.5GHz along with higher vcore (temps were pretty crappy under prime95 but only 50-60C in game) and performance was still lacking. Input was still slightly laggy with only high graphics. As a result and due to my laziness cooling wise:

980ti_zpswtv41l7f.jpg


If performance is still lacking then I'll wait a bit for some optimization before upgrading the cpu/ram/mobo. Thanks everyone for your input.
 
Not sure if anyone cares, but I backed the overclock down to 4.2GHz to keep max temps in the 72C range and installed the 980Ti. Gameplay is silky smooth at 2560x1600 with everything turned up. Haven't had any noticeable framerate drops in about 5 hours of gameplay. I'll probably eventually overclock the video card (temps really low) but no need for just fallout 4.
 
dudewth said:
Not sure if anyone cares, but I backed the overclock down to 4.2GHz to keep max temps in the 72C range and installed the 980Ti. Gameplay is silky smooth at 2560x1600 with everything turned up. Haven't had any noticeable framerate drops in about 5 hours of gameplay. I'll probably eventually overclock the video card (temps really low) but no need for just fallout 4.
Click to expand...

Very cool. Nice card.
 
Astral Abyss said:
Very cool. Nice card.
Click to expand...

I got a 980 Ti arriving today and I can't wait. The overclocked 290x and system in my signature just isn't getting the job done. Frame rate drops to the mid-20's in dense areas.
 
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