Conclusion

NVIDIA’s GeForce 9800 GTX delivered the best overall performance in our mainstream Fallout 3 performance testing, outrunning the Radeon 4850 by up to 19% under 4xAA, although the margin narrows to just 3% by 1920x1200 with 8xAA. ATI’s cards have consistently outperformed their NVIDIA counterparts under 8xAA, but we were honestly surprised to see how far they fell behind under 4xAA in Fallout 3. Again, we think this is likely partly attributable to immature drivers on ATI’s part, as the 4000 series cards are generally more competitive with competing GeForce cards in other games under 4xAA.

Because of this, the Radeon 4830 finished behind the GeForce 8800/9800 GT under 4xAA, but managed to pull ahead of the GeForce GT boards under 8xAA.

The GeForce 9600 GT really surprised us with its performance in Fallout 3. Not only did the card outperform the GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB, it nearly matched the 9800 GT in performance, running just 4-9% slower than the 9800 GT overall. The Radeon 3850 and 3870 also put up a stronger showing than we expected.

Moving further down the totem pole, the Radeon 4670 struggled against the 9600 GSO under 4xAA, although the tables turned with 8xAA, with the newer Radeon card pulling ahead of the 9600 GSO by 19% at 1600x1200. Our GeForce 9600 GSO board shipped with just 384MB of memory, which certainly put it at a disadvantage at such a high AA level. A 768MB GSO board would have fared better, but these cards generally sell for $20-$30 more than 384MB cards. At that point you’re better off going with a 9600 GT.

We tested the GeForce 9500 GT DDR2 and GDDR3 under 4xAA, although honestly we feel that hardware enthusiasts in this price bracket would be best served by holding onto their cash until they can afford to spend another $30 or so for a Radeon 4670 or GeForce 9600 GSO. Both of these GPUs deliver much better performance than the GeForce 9500 series, as well as ATI’s own Radeon 4500s.

Fallout 3 doesn’t push GPUs like Crysis or STALKER: Clear Sky, but it is an enjoyable experience nonetheless. Because it isn’t as graphically demanding as some of the other games on the market, you don’t have to fork over $400 or more on a new graphics card for the best Fallout 3 experience if you don’t want too, in fact the cards we tested today are more than capable of handling the game.

This is probably a refreshing change if you’re tired of hearing the hype around DX10 graphics and Vista; Fallout 3 requires neither to deliver its best graphics. In fact the game is surprisingly tame on hardware and loads quicker than any game we’ve tested in quite some time. When combined with the game’s solid gameplay and storyline, Fallout 3 should appeal to a large audience of RPG fans as well as FPS gamers looking for an alternative to the linear style of most shooters.