Fallout 3 System Requirements

The Fallout 3 system requirements include a minimum RAM requirement of 1 GB, but 2 GB of RAM is recommended. An Intel Pentium 4 2.40GHz CPU is required at a minimum to run Fallout 3, but the developers recommend a CPU greater or equal to an Intel Core 2 Duo U7600. The cheapest graphics card you can play it on is an NVIDIA GeForce 6800, but a GPU equivalent to an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX is recommended. The Fallout 3 PC requirements also state that you need at least 7 GB free storage space.

Bethesda and Steam make it clear that 'Fallout 3 is not optimised for Windows 7 and later', and users have reported crashes to desktop running the game. However Fallout 3 Windows 10 is still possible by adjusting some of the following settings:

• Enter the properties for the Fallout 3 application and enable 'Run this program as an administrator'
• In addition, under properties try running the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3.

Fallout 3 Performance Guide

Fallout 3 is an old game now so you shouldn't run into any performance issues unless you're trying to run the game on a very low end PC. Here are some tips for improving FPS.

• You can reduce the graphics further than the game allows as standard through mods. There are mods for reducing view distance, removing dust particles, and a low resolution texture mod which can be downloaded from the internet.
• Ensure you have the latest NVIDIA/AMD drivers for your graphics card.
• Run the game in fullscreen mode, not windowed, otherwise you will see an loss in FPS.

Looking for the latest Fallout game? Check the Fallout 4 system requirements.

Alternatively, if you're looking to take your Bethesda experience into space, see if you can run the Starfield system requirements.

Fallout 3 will run on PC system with Windows XP and upwards.

Looking for an upgrade? Try our easy to use Fallout 3 set up guides to find the best cards. Filter for Fallout 3 graphics card comparison and CPU compare. We'll help you find the best deal for the right gear to run the game.

Fallout 3 FPS - what frame rate can you expect?

How many FPS will I get on Fallout 3? We reference thousands of reports from PCGameBenchmark users running our FPS tracking app to tell you exactly how Fallout 3 performs across a range of different settings and resolutions on the most popular PC gaming setups.

What frame rate does Fallout 3 run at?

Here are the typical frame rate samples

Avg FPS	CPU	GPU	RAM
53	Intel Core i5-9400F	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti	8 GB
51	Intel Core i5-10300H	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	16 GB
49	Intel Core i7-8850H	Intel UHD 630	32 GB
46	Intel Core i7-3770K	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670	24 GB
44	Intel Core i5-2540M	Intel HD 3000	4 GB

What frame rate does Fallout 3 run at? Check our FPS Calculator

Are you experiencing Fallout 3 FPS drops and stutters? Want to know exactly how the game performs on your system? You can get a free easy FPS test for all your games using the PCGameBenchmark FPS monitor tool - your first step to understanding how the parts in your gaming PC are actually performing in real-world conditions.