Hi folks, :tops:
I don't normally hang around forums, but I had experienced the annoying Frame Skip and incredible lag in the presence of more than a couple NPCs. I have noticed a ton of you who have also complained about these issues. I found the "hacked" DXD9.DLL file** to solve the NPC lag problem, but it left the Frame Skip problem and made the game look like crap -- I'm used to playing on "high" setting. Well, I've have successfully been playing the game for over 4 hours now WITHOUT any frame skip or NPC lag <30FPS (even with 6 Legions attacking me).

Here is how I have been able to play the game with smooth frame rates on a sub-system-requirements machine on HIGH graphics settings (almost--minus the lights/specular LOD). I will provide a little background first:

----Machine Specs-----
P4 3.0GHz HT (pseudo-multicore for the illiterate)
1.5GB RAM
Radeon HD 3650 (overclocked to 750MHz GPU, 465MHz VRAM)
Creative Audigy 2 (sound card)
WinXP SP3

----First things First----
I'm not sure if this will be an issue for higher spec CPUs, but I found I had to disable the Steam In-Game Overlay by right clicking on the game in the Library->Uncheck the option. Also, I had to disable the Steam Cloud as it was bugging my save game numbering. Disabling both these earned me a good bit of FPS.

----The Frame Skip Issue FIX----
To resolve the frame skip issue using the RETAIL DirectX DLL file, you simply need to force the game to run at a higher refresh rate. Currently the engine runs at 64 ticks per second, but the engine forced the rendering to 60Hz. This means you will possibly miss 4 frames every second, and if there is lag it could be extremely noticeable and annoying.
To have the game engine render every world tic and FIX THE FRAME SKIP, go into: Catalyst Control Centry --> Display Options (under Welcome) --> 3D Refresh Rate Override: Set this value to your monitors natural refresh rate. (My desktop refresh rate is 100Hz, so I set it to 100Hz.) If your monitor isn't capable of anything above 60Hz, I'm sorry but this fix isn't going to work.

----The NPC Lag Issue FIX----
As you can tell, my machine is under the system requirements, but my video card is well above it. Regardless, this fix should work for anyone running an ATI card. This requires changing 2 catalyst control center options.
(1) Go to Catalyst Control Center --> "3D" option (under Graphics Settings Tab) --> Catalyst A.I. --> Advanced (move the slider all the way to the right, and make sure "Disable Cat. AI" is NOT checked).
(2) Cat Control Center --> "Mipmap Detail Level" --> Move the slider to "Quality" setting (and NOT "High Quality").
(3) (optional) I also found incredible performance boost by overclocking my video card using the Catalyst Control Center, but that is another topic entirely and you can cause the game to have weird graphical glitches if you overlock the card just a wee too much. If you have my card, the settings mentioned in the Background setion above should help you.


Hope this has helped. I know I love the game now. :fallout:

---------------------
** The hacked DXD9.DLL file is just a skinny wrapper to trick the game into thinking you have a lesser video card. I found it made the game look unacceptable.

(Shameless Bump for Sanity)

Wow 100hz huh... You still using a CRT?

Unfortunately, this did not help with my 5770. I even went back to overclocking it like I used to and that didn't really help either.

I find that the d3d9.dll fix made specifically for ATI cards works wonders with the NPC slowdowns though. As well as this 4GB patch I recently got. I basically have little to no stutters with that thing.

Btw, which .dll fix were you using at first? I know when I used the one made for NVIDIA cards at first, it made my game look a bit worse too. But with the one I switched to that's made for ATI cards, I notice no visual difference.

THIS WILL FIX YOUR FRAMESKIPPING , Whatever HZ you run !. All you are doing by running at 100hz is speeding up the frameskipping so it's not noticable , i remember setting my old monitor to 75hz and the frameskipping is still there

Anyway use this fix works for me 100%!

Read below UPDATE AS OF 24/10/10

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=330970

Yes indeed the Stutter Remover works wonders (I use it in Oblivion), but as it is right now, it's not compatible with the latest version of New Vegas. Not even the latest version meant for the newest patch, preliminary 3b, is working because of some odd reason. If that one was working, I'd spam it across all threads that mention frame skipping issues by now.

I think I'm going to hold off on it until NVSE is released and SkyRanger-1 (the creator of the Stutter Remover) gets a copy of New Vegas and makes the actual Stutter Remover for it. That version will be much more reliable and have much more features to help with performance.

They have LCD's with 100HZ now. However judging from his specs hes using a CRT.

Well, scratch my post on saying the Stutter Remover doesn't work. SkyRanger-1 just released a new preliminary version and it works quite well. I'd definitely recommend it for a fix for the 64 hertz issue.

You can find it http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34832.

Just know this. You have to go through some "unethical" means in order to get it to work.

It works with the original version of fallout 3 and the original nocd exe just fine !

I should know i got it to work perfectly lol

EDIT : Thanks for the update , both versions work for me so that's cool

Nothing wrong with a CRT, except for size. I still use for my gaming rig (work box gets a LCD). No affordable LCD or LED (under $1000) has the same image quality as a good CRT, yet. Eventually, the technology will improve equalize or exceed. But for now, I game on a CRT.

That's the reason why I haven't made the switch yet. I'll spend my money on an LCD when my CRT dies or when the technology is there that puts them on par with a CRT.

This is getting on my F*** nerves , i'm putting across the frameskip reason to people and they go off of a tanget putting their freeze ups and stuttering as the same thing!. So nvidia or beth thinking they've fixed are far away from the issue at hand!

This will be the last bethesda game i ever buy

Try this out and report back ( fixes stuttering/frameskipping and 4GB memory tweak )

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35262

Unpack into your vegas directory then run FNV4GB.exe

Sorry no one would at least give my suggestions a try before replying. Yes, I know of the stutter remover, but it is a flaky hack right now from previous games. Sorry you guys can't get your game to work, but with my sub-par system I'm running at HIGH settings with no lag or frame skip and thought I would share my success with you. I just assumed if I could get a flawlessly running game using sub-system requirements you could too.

The main problem I see is that ATI hasn't updated their drivers with a profile for New Vegas yet, and these might be some of the settings included in the future profile. Give it a try and see, just make sure you follow the directions above and:

LOWER YOUR "HIGH" GAME SETTINGS A LITTLE: If your CPU isn't up to par, make sure you set Light Fade at or below "10" and the Specularity Fade at or below "6". I have my light fade at 10 and spec fade at 5.

On a side note: Yes, I only use CRTs for gaming, and there are NO LCDs on the market to match the quality and performance of my 22.5" (viewable) CRT. Perfect image at 1600x1200 at 100Hz with absolutely no ghosting and amazing contrast. I couldn't tell the difference between the background of this text window and a dark room. It's just beautiful and not to metnion cheap these days.

I forgot to mention to turn Antialiasing (AA) OFF!! AA is set to 4 by default in "High" settings mode. You also need to turn Shadows and Shadow Filtering both on LOW (unless you have a quad core). I might be forgetting even more, but ask if you have a question.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/5835/displayoptions.jpg

Maybe I am in the wrong place, but I don't see anything besides that under Display Options...

No. Go to http://www.ati.com for support with catalyst. You need to enable "Advancved View" from the View menu.

Blame Rex, it always works.