Fallout 3 (2008) - retro test GPU

BASIC GAME INFORMATION

 

Genre: RPG / 3D / 1st Person / 3rd Person
release year: 2008
developer: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

War... War always remains war, and never changes. At the end of the twenty-first century, the struggle for oil fields provoked a conflict between the United States 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 turned into a scorched desert. There were no losers or winners. Only a few managed to escape the destructive radiation in special shelters built shortly before the disaster. A new era in human history has begun...

THE GRAFICAL PART

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

Supported OS and graphics API

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

 

The priority and main 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, which became the successor to the NetImmerse engine. Before NDL was acquired by Emergent Game Technologies, the engine was simply called GameBryo.

Like many similar products, the Gamebryo license provides access to the engine's full source code, 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 kit does not contain source code, which is only available 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 graphics settings layout as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. We have the widest range of all aspects of the game.

  

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

Comparison of FullHD and 4K

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

Comparison of anti-aliasing modes

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

General visual design and game physics

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

 

 

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

TEST PART

Test GPU

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using 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 performance indicators. Below is a video of the test segment of the in-game benchmark:    

Our video cards were tested at separate screen resolutions of 3840x2160, since even in this case the processor could not reveal all the graphics solutions. SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported by the game without any problems.

Testing at resolution 3840x2160

    

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840x2160

 

With these settings An acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon R7 260X or GeForce GTX 660 level.

Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920x1080 and 2560x1600 with different anti-aliasing settings.

Testing at maximum memory quality settings GPU

 

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 video card value 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 sufficient at the moment.

Loading of processor coresat maximum quality settings 1920x1080 Intel% 

 

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

 

Fallout 3 can support no more than 4 cores.

RAM test

The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 7 5960X@4.6 GHz with 16GB DDR4 2400 MGz pre-installed memory. The entire used operational memory was taken as an indicator. The RAM test on the entire system was carried out on various test benches without launching third-party 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 6GB system, Fallout 3 consumes about 2.2GB 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, the total memory consumption was almost 2.4 gigabytes. And with 32 gigabytes of RAM, the system consumes 2.6 gigabytes of RAM.