Will My Video Card Show Me Where The Critters Are?

January 12, 2009 4:57 PM

Will My Video Card Show Me Where All The Mutants Are?

I have an HP laptop with an nVidia 8400 M GS video card installed. I also have 3 Gigs RAM and a duo-core processor with each running at 1.66 Ghz.

Please tell me that this is enough for me to go kill mutants!

posted by Lipstick Thespian to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Response by poster: Duh, I meant for Fallout 3! I want to play Fallout 3. That one - that game. I want to. Yes.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:58 PM on January 12, 2009 [2 favorites]

That sounds like a decent enough rig. You might not be able to pump the graphics settings all the way up, but it should play with reasonable settings.

According to this site, your gear falls under "Recommended". So, I imagine you'll be fine.
posted by Netzapper at 5:01 PM on January 12, 2009

According to this you more than meet the minimum requirements.
posted by damn dirty ape at 5:01 PM on January 12, 2009

Dont forget to visit the website after install and install the newest patch. It resolves some crash issues.
posted by damn dirty ape at 5:02 PM on January 12, 2009

Likely have the same laptop, haven't tried Fallout 3, last new game i tried to play was the first STALKER, it was playable - before that I tried Bioshock, it was too jittery. You will likely be playing at a low resolution, perhaps even turning off dynamic lighting, just depends on how smooth you like it. I've always been behind the curve on graphics cards, so less than 30fps never really bothers me that much. I'm interested to hear how it goes as I too have wanted to play Fallout 3.
posted by thylacine at 8:01 PM on January 12, 2009

You are fine, and Fallout 3 does not have a lot of high-motion 3D anyway. There are seldom more than 2 or 3 enemies onscreen at once, and most of the "action" happens in a freeze-frame sort of bullet-time.
posted by rokusan at 9:42 PM on January 12, 2009

Here's my system:
8600M GT video card w/256mb RAM
Core Duo 2.40 GHz processor
3 gb RAM

I can run Fallout 3 at 1280x800, high quality settings with decent performance. I get about 25fps normally, with dips down to 15fps during combat or occasionally while traveling (I think the 256mb video RAM causes it to swap textures in and out of memory more often). My processor usage is generally between 60-80%, so I'd think yours will be mostly ok, with an occasional annoying slowdown.
posted by TungstenChef at 11:48 PM on January 12, 2009

You'll probably have to play at a low resolution with lower quality to get playable FPS (25+) outdoors. Alternatively, you can reduce the draw distance.
posted by dragontail at 5:32 AM on January 13, 2009