Is Fallout 4 CPU Or GPU Intensive?

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If you are interested in playing Fallout 4 you might be wondering if your computer can run it? And if you are playing the game and can’t seem to get a consistent FPS you might wonder, is Fallout 4 CPU or GPU intensive?

In this post, we will be going over that question in detail as well as looking at what’s needed to run Fallout 4 with and without mods as well as our recommendations for both CPUs and GPUs. Let’s get into it.

Is Fallout 4 CPU Or GPU Intensive?

Is Fallout 4 CPU Or GPU Intensive

Fallout 4 is considered to be a GPU intensive game for the most part. The graphics card is the most important component for running Fallout 4 smoothly and at high settings. Benchmarks for the game suggest that an Intel Core i3 is more than enough to handle Fallout 4 without any bottlenecking. The CPU is still an important part of how a PC will run Fallout 4, but just not as much as the GPU.

Most games tend to be GPU intensive and Fallout 4 is no exception especially if you play to run mods. Mods will put an extra strain on the game depending on what mods you are using. If you are using one of the most popular Fallout 4 high-resolution texture packs you can expect the graphical requirements from your GPU to up significantly.

Don’t forget about the CPU entirely though. You could go ahead and get a budget CPU and put that extra money towards the GPU though. Benchmarks suggest you won’t notice a huge improvement in performance in Fallout 4 with a high-end CPU. However, if you plan on running mods you should consider the extra strain it might put on the CPU.

Can You Play Fallout 4 Without A Dedicated Graphics Card?

You can play Fallout 4 without a dedicated graphics card, but you will need a high-end integrated GPU. With a good integrated GPU like the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G, you can expect 60+ FPS at a 1080P resolution. This FPS is considered playable for most people and if you are on a tight budget it can work.

While we wouldn’t suggest trying to play Fallout 4 without a dedicated graphics card, we know that not everyone can afford a good graphics card. Even the CPU we suggest above would barely be able to run the game at below 60 FPS so completely forget about adding any mods.

If you want to play Fallout 4 at 1080P or higher at 60 FPS you are going to need a dedicated graphics card. An APU could work in a pinch if you are really desperate to play Fallout 4.

Is Fallout 4 RAM Intensive?

Fallout 4 is not an overly RAM-intensive game and can be run at the minimum recommended 4GB of RAM. 4GB is really pushing it though and we recommend at least 8GB of RAM if you want to play the game with something on your second monitor or with programs running in the background.

While the amount of RAM you need for Fallout 4 is not a lot, the speed of your RAM is actually quite important in this game. The difference in FPS between fast RAM and slow RAM is usually a minuscule difference in most games, but for Fallout 4 you can actually get a significant performance boost with faster RAM.

In Digital Foundry’s analysis for the game, they found a 22% increase in performance when going from 1600MHz RAM to 2400MHz ram. The game went from an average frame rate of 54.6 on the slowest RAM to 66.9 on the fastest RAM. So, if you are considering upgrading your RAM, make sure to consider the speed of it.

Is Fallout 4 A Demanding Game?

Despite being released in 2015, Fallout 4 is still a relatively demanding game for PC. This is mainly due to the massive open world of the game and the thousands of different things that need to be rendered.

How demanding the game is very dependent on where you are in the game. Even good computers can struggle in downtown Boston due to the sheer amount of things that need to load in that area. However, most pcs will run fine if you are just out in the woods.

The game becomes even more demanding when you add mods to the game. If you plan on adding mods to the game you will need to have much stronger components than the Fallout 4 recommended hardware. Fallout 4 with mods can be a very demanding game.

Reccomended CPUs For Fallout 4

We are going to be giving you are recommendations for CPUs to run the game at all different types of resolution, with and without mods. But first, let’s take a look at the minimum and recommended CPUs from the developer.

The minimum recommended CPU for Fallout 4 according to Bethesda is an Intel Core i5-2300 and the recommended CPU is the Intel Core i7-4790. We are not sure if these have been updated since the game was released in 2015, but those are their recommendation.

When we are judging the performance of these CPUs we are turning the graphics setting up and we want a consistent 60+ FPS. If you are willing to turn your graphics settings down these CPUs will perform even better.

Here are the CPUs we suggest getting if you want to play Fallout 4 without any mods.

To play Fallout 4 at 60+ FPS at 1600×900 resolution we suggest the R3 3100

We recommend the i5-11400F if you want to run the game smoothly at both 1080p and 1440p.

For a 4K resolution, we recommend the R5 5600x.

Here are our recommended CPUs if you want to run the game with mods.

For playing Fallout 4 at a 1600×900 resolution with mods we suggest either the i5-11400F or the i5 11400.

For 1080p with mods, we recommend the i5-11600K

At 1440p with mods, we recommend the R5 5600X.

Lastly, if you want to play Fallout 4 at a 4K resolution with mods we suggest either the i7-12700K or the i9-12900KF.

Reccomended GPUs For Fallout 4

Now we are going to give you our recommendations for GPUs for Fallout 4, but first, let’s take a look at what Bethesda recommends in the GPU department.

The minimum recommended GPU according to the developers is the GTX 550 Ti or the Radeon HD 7870 and the official recommended GPU is a GTX 780 or a Radeon R9 290X. According to benchmarks, Fallout 4 uses about 3GB of video Ram on ultra settings 1080p, but you can get away with a 2GB VRAM card.

Once again all of the recommendations we are about to give were judged on playing Fallout 4 at high settings and with a smooth 60+ FPS.

Here are our recommendations for GPUs for playing Fallout 4 without mods:

Here are our GPU recommendations for playing Fallout 4 with mods:

Conclusion

There you have it that is everything you need to know about whether Fallout 4 is GPU or CPU intensive.

Overall, the game is considered to be GPU intensive, but even then some people might disagree. It’s a surprisingly difficult game to run despite being released in 2015 and with mods, it only gets harder. Hopefully, you found our recommendations helpful in deciding how to increase the performance of Fallout 4 on your PC.

If you have any questions or have your own suggestions for components for this game let us know in the comments below.

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