Fallout 4 Low FPS: How to Fix FPS Drops and Improve Performance

Are you experiencing low FPS, FPS drops, stuttering, or lag in Fallout 4 on PC? This issue bothers a lot of gamers. To get the game in a workable state, many people mod Fallout 4 on PC.

Fortunately, you can improve Fallout 4 performance by adjusting game settings, changing configuration files, updating drivers, and optimizing your PC.

This guide explains why Fallout 4 FPS drops and how to increase FPS effectively.

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What Causes Fallout 4 Low FPS

Before troubleshooting, you should be aware of the potential causes:

• “God Rays” quality set too high: Consumes significant GPU resources
• Shadow distance set too high: Places a heavy load on the CPU
• V-Sync limitations: May lock the frame rate (FPS)
• Outdated GPU drivers: Can cause performance issues
• Excessive mods: Increase rendering load
• Storage on an HDD: Causes stuttering during loading
• Background applications: Consume CPU and memory resources

Now, try the following 6 proven solutions to improve FPS in Fallout 4.

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Solution 1. Check Your System Hardware

Before you start trying other fixes, we recommend you check if your computer meets the basic system requirements of Fallout 4. If you don’t know how to check PC specs, this post provides a full guide.

• Operating System: Windows 10/8/7 (64-bit required)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 2.8GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz or equivalent
• Memory: 8 GB
• Hard disk: at least 30 GB of free space
• Video: NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB / AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent
• Graphics Memory: 2 GB

To know more details on how to upgrade the hardware, you can refer to the following guides:

• How to Upgrade to a Larger Hard Drive Without Data Loss
• How to Get More RAM on Laptop—Free up RAM or Upgrade RAM
• How to Get more Dedicated Video RAM in Windows 10
• How to install a video card on your computer

Solution 2. Turn off the Vibration and Controller Settings

Many players reported that the Fallout 4 random FPS drops when they turned on the Vibration for the game as well as the controller. In this case, disabling the Vibration settings may help you fix the problem.

Step 1. Launch your Fallout 4 game and load the main menu. Once you are inside the game, go to the Pause Menu and select Settings.

Step 2. Go to the Gameplay tab and scroll down the list of settings to the Vibration and Controller sections. Once you find them, simply turn them Off.

Step 3. Exit the Pause menu and restart the game to check if the Fallout 4 framerate drop issue is fixed.

Solution 3. Turn off the Built-in VSync

VSync is a built-in feature in Fallout 4 that can be used to regulate the game’s frame rate and the refresh rate of the monitor. However, VSync was designed for 30fps on consoles. If you turn on the VSync or sync higher, the Fallout 4 framerate drop issue can occur. Here you can try disabling this feature and see if it works.

Step 1. Exit the game completely by ending it via Task Manager.

Step 2. Press Win + E keys to open the File Explorer, and then navigate to the following Fallout 4 installation directory path.

This PC/Documents/My Games/Fallout4

Step 3. Inside the Fallout 4 folder, right-click the Fallout4Prefs.ini file and select Open with Notepad.

Step 4. In the Notepad window, locate the iPresentInterval=1 line and replace 1 with 0. Then press Ctrl + S keys to save the change. If it is not here, you can add the line and set its value to 0.

Step 5. If there is a file name Fallout 4.ini or Fallout4_Default.ini, you need to do the same procedure as Step 4 to set the iPresentInterval value to 0.

Once done, restart the game and check if the Fallout 4 low FPS issue disappears.

Solution 4. Turn the God Rays to Low

Another possible reason for Fallout 4 random FPS drops is the high value of the God Rays. In this case, you can try lowering the God Rays. For that:

Step 1. Repeat Step 1 and Step 2 in # 1 to locate the Fallout 4 path.

Step 2. Under the directory, find a file named Fallout4Custom.ini, right-click it and select Open with Notepad.

Step 3. In the pop-up window, add the following lines and save the change.

[General]

sStartingConsoleCommand=gr off

Solution 5. Close All Unnecessary Processes

If there are too many CPU or GPU-hogging processes running in the background, it may trigger the Fallout 4 frame rate drops issue. In this case, closing them can help you fix the problem.

Step 1. Press Ctrl + Shift + ESC keys to open Task Manager and click on More details.

Step 2. In the Processes tab, right-click the unnecessary programs and select End task. Then repeat this progress to close other tasks.

Solution 6. Install Fallout 4 on an SSD

If Fallout 4 is installed on an HDD, you may experience:

• Long loading times
• Texture loading delays
• Stuttering

Moving the game to an SSD can improve loading performance.

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Bottom Line

Fallout 4 low FPS is usually caused by graphics settings, configuration files, drivers, or system resource limitations.

By applying these solutions, most players can achieve smoother gameplay and fewer FPS drops.