OK. I bought this game when it was released. At the time I had just build this PC. Specs are:

CPU: AMD 555 dual core unlocked to B55 quad core with Cooler Master Hyper 212+ Cooler
MOBO: ASUS M4A88TD-M
PSU: KinWin 610Watt
GFX: EVGA 9500GT 1 Gb
HDD: Seagate 500Gb
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

at the time the launcher would crash sometimes and when I would get in to the game I could play for about 30-40 minutes and the would crash. I played about 50 hours and the bought a new graphics card. An ASUS GTX460 768Mb TOP edition.Every thing else on my system stayed the same. After upgrading my graphics card I could launch the game but when I tried to load a save or new game it would crash on the loading screen every time. I had about a months worth of back and forth e mails with Bethesda tech support to no avail. I had tried uninstalling/ reinstalling, using different graphics drivers, editing files and pretty much everything else you can think of. Yesterday I started messing with the game again in an effort to fix it as I had been unable to play the game since around November when I upgraded graphics cards. I uninstalled the game and then used Revo Uninstaller to remove ASUS Smartdoctor, ASUS GamerOSD, and a bunch of ARCsoft programs I never used. Now I didnt even use ASUS smartdoctor or gamerOSD but I did have them installed. After removing them from my HDD with Revo I then reinstalled Fallout New Vegas and patched it through Steam. I launched the game and loaded a new game with no problem for the 1st time since November. The only thing I can conclude is that somehow the ASUS programs were keeping me from loading games even though they were only installed on my HDD and I didnt use them. I have been able to load and play now with out the game crashing once I am in. The launcher itself still crashes sometimes (only twice since yesterday when I did all this) but at least once I get in the game is stable. On ultra settings I am staying between 60-70FPS never dropping below 60FPS. If you have had the same problem as I have try uninstalling the ASUS programs I mentioned and see if it works for you. I was very surprised when I loaded a new game after4 months of not being able to play this game. Good luck!

Yup, it's been known a while (edit: though not really common knowledge) that the Asus programs such as smartdoctor can cause problems especially with Bethesda games like New Vegas and Fallout 3.

Always good to get the info back to the fore again as I don't believe its mentioned in the stickys.

I found a post yesterday on page 5 or 6 and 1 reply in that post mentioned something about ASUS programs and that was the 1st I had heard of it. As I had tried everything else I figured "why not?". Didn't really think it would help because I never actually run those programs they were just installed. Maybe I'll even buy the dlc now.Just glad after all these months I got it straightened out. Sad to see such a good game plagued by such a variety of problems.

LOL i dont want to buy a new g-card only for this buggy game, they should code the game only for 2 types of cards, ATI and NVIDIA, if this is too much for the devs of Fallout, they shouldnt produce any games and write system-requirements who didnt be right.

I didn't buy a new graphics card just for Fallout New Vegas. It was just time for an upgrade.

i think so too, an upgrade for Fallout xD