If your FPS is too high, your game might feel like it is moving around too fast whenever you perform an action. If your FPS is too low, everything will feel like it is stuttering when you move the camera. For open world games like Fallout 4, having a proper FPS that keeps your movements and camera perfectly balanced is extremely important.
The default settings of Fallout 4 does have an FPS cap, typically at 60 FPS. However, you can always cap your FPS or remove the FPS cap entirely depending on your preferences while you are gaming.
Fiddling with FPS can be frustrating when you would rather be spending time simply playing the game. Read on to learn what the FPS cap is in Fallout 4, how to cap your FPS, and how to remove the FPS cap.
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What is the FPS Cap in Fallout 4?
Fallout 4’s default settings will cap your FPS at 60. The game’s FPS cap is determined by your monitor’s refresh rate, which is typically 60 Hz or 120 Hz, divided by the “iPresentInterval” value. For monitor’s set to 60 Hz, the iPresentInterval value in your .INI file should be 1. If your monitor is set to 120 Hz, the iPresentInterval value should be 2.
Monitors that are set above 120 Hz are advised to set the refresh rate to 120 Hz instead while playing the game. You can always change the iPresentInterval value but that can potentially cause issues, which will result in your game moving too fast or too slow.
How to Cap FPS in Fallout 4
If your FPS is too high for your monitor, then you may want to cap your FPS to improve gameplay. There are multiple ways to do this depending on your setup, such as your graphics card.
Bethesda suggests playing the game in borderless mode to help with FPS. You can also enable V-Sync in the main screen of the game launcher. However, if your game is still having issues and you want to cap your FPS, you may need to dig deeper.
You can change your iPresentInterval back to 1 in your .INI file to cap your FPS. You can find your .INI file in the Documents folder. Navigate to the folder labeled “mygames” and click on the “fallout4” folder.
If you have an Nvidia graphics card, you can right click the Nvidia logo on your desktop and go to “System Settings”. Once there, go to “3D Settings” and add Fallout.exe to your programs. After that, change “Triple Bugger” to on, “Max Frames Render Ahead” to 1, and “V-Sync” to on.
Other ways to cap FPS include the following:
How to Remove FPS Cap in Fallout 4
If your FPS is too low, then your game experience will feel laggy and clunky. However, you can remove the FPS cap entirely if you so desire. One of the easiest ways to do so is if you are using an Nvidia graphics card.
Be sure to download the latest drivers for your Nvidia graphics card and that the Fallout4Prefs.ini file is not set to read-only. From there, you can start the Fallout 4 launcher and go to Options. Set the motion blur to off, god rays to low, and max out everything else. Close the launcher and navigate back to the INI file.
Change the iPresentInterval to 0, save the file, close it, and make it read-only again. Open the Nvidia control panel, go to “Manage 3D Settings”, go to the “Program Settings” tab, and find Fallout4.exe. Set the V-Sync to use the application setting. Repeat these steps for the Fallout4launcher.exe. After this, the FPS cap should be removed.
There are always mods you can download and install that will remove the FPS cap without you having to take all of those steps previously mentioned. Oftentimes, mods will have physics and syncing fixes included as well. Nexus Mods has a mod for this called Fallout 4 High FPS Physics Fix.
The Drawbacks of Removing the FPS Cap
Removing the FPS cap can cause other issues while you are playing Fallout 4. Players have experienced changes in game speed that have made tasks like lockpicking extremely difficult. Additionally, issues with running speed and physics have occurred.
One of the most common issues with removing the FPS cap is that the frame rate will drop to 60 or lower whenever you enter the third-person view. Some have found that removing the FPS cap has not been worth the other issues that can arise.
Conclusion
Fallout 4’s default game settings are set at 60 FPS with the goal of giving you the best possible gaming experience without stuttering or strange physics. However, should you need to cap your FPS or remove the cap entirely, it is possible. Just remember, removing the FPS cap entirely can come with its own set of issues that might not be worth tampering with.