Can you play Fallout 3 on a 64 bit pc?

[mmgull]

Fallout 3 is 32 bit. When I installed it about 10 years ago, it didn't work on a 64 bit Windows 7.

Does the steam app circumvent this ?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Yes.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/discussions/0/828937546147175081/

[Eldin]

Maybe there was another reason why it didn't work.

32 bit apps/games should work on 64 bit PC.
But 64 bit apps/games can't work on 32 bit PC.

[Ogami]

Fallout 3 is notorious for having serious problems running on everything above Windows XP/Vista.
There are workarounds for it but you have to test what works for your system.

[Zekiran]

Fallout 3 has always worked on my windows 7 / 64 bit install, not sure why you'd have an issue beyond maybe your video card drivers aren't right.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Fallout 3 has always worked on my windows 7 / 64 bit install, not sure why you'd have an issue beyond maybe your video card drivers aren't right.

Just because it runs fine on your particular setup does not mean it does for the majority of users.
The standard for Fallout 3 is that it has massive crashing problems on anything from Windows 7 onward.

Even the store page for the game displays a big warning about it.

Notice: Fallout 3 is not optimized for Windows 7 and later.

[The Giving One]

If the operating system was 32 or 64 bit for Fallout 3, is irrelevant, as to if it would not run on your system, OP. what IS important is that it was Windows 7, and on the store page, it says that F3 is not optimized to run on Windows 7 or later. Yes, some people can play it without issues, but if you have issues, it may take some work to get it functioning well enough to play :

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/22370/discussions/0/828937546147175081/

Follow all that and that should limit the problems you may have with the game. My advice is, save often, or use a mod that saves automatically on periods of time.

[ZanyScum]

It always crashed on me until I used: http://wiki.funiaita.de/index.php/Fallout_3

[Longhaul]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Fallout 3 is notorious for having serious problems running on everything above Windows XP/Vista.
There are workarounds for it but you have to test what works for your system.

Unless you buy it from GOG where it actually works with no issues what so ever...

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Last time I played Fallout 3 was few months ago, played until I got outside the vault, and enter the first town, didn't crash, didn't have bugs, works perfectly, and this was the Steam version.

[mmgull]

What about GPU support? Will it run if I have a more recent GPU than this?


SUPPORTED VIDEO CARD CHIPSETS:
NVIDIA GeForce 200 series, Geforce 9800 series, Geforce 9600 series, Geforce 8800 series, Geforce 8600 series, Geforce 8500 series, Geforce 8400 series, Geforce 7900 series, Geforce 7800 series, Geforce 7600 series, Geforce 7300 series, GeForce 6800 series

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

My 580 and 1080ti both work just fine.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Daynox:

Originally posted by Ogami:

Fallout 3 is notorious for having serious problems running on everything above Windows XP/Vista.
There are workarounds for it but you have to test what works for your system.

Unless you buy it from GOG where it actually works with no issues what so ever...

Saying that doesn't make it true. It has the same issues on GoG

http://www.gog.com/forum/fallout_series/have_any_of_the_bugs_that_made_fallout_3_crash_on_steam_been_addressed_in_this_release
http://www.gog.com/forum/fallout_series/fallout_3_goty_crashes_immediatly
http://www.gog.com/forum/fallout_series/fallout_3goty_crashes_at_launch_in_windows_10
http://www.gog.com/forum/fallout_series/fallout_3_crashing
http://www.gog.com/forum/fallout_series/fallout_3_crashes_at_random

[nullable]

Originally posted by mmgull:

What about GPU support? Will it run if I have a more recent GPU than this?


SUPPORTED VIDEO CARD CHIPSETS:
NVIDIA GeForce 200 series, Geforce 9800 series, Geforce 9600 series, Geforce 8800 series, Geforce 8600 series, Geforce 8500 series, Geforce 8400 series, Geforce 7900 series, Geforce 7800 series, Geforce 7600 series, Geforce 7300 series, GeForce 6800 series

Back in 2008 I was running it on a Core 2 Quad and a Geforce 8800 GTS and Windows XP. Later on I upgraded to a GeForce 460 and Windows 7 64bit. The last time I played it I was running an i5 3570, 32GB of RAM, and a GeForce 670 or 970. So several configurations over the years.

Other people are right it will run on Windows 7 64bit and most hardware configurations. It's always been a rather fragile and tempremental game though. Heck even back in 2008 when people running Quad Core's were pretty few and far between you had to throw a custom line into the configuration .ini to limit the game to two threads because it didn't run very well on quad core systems. Things have only gotten messier from there as new OS'es and whatnot have not helped.

But there are workarounds, configuration settings you can put directly into the config ini files and unofficial patches/mods that get Fallout 3 working more or less.The last time I played it the F5 (quicksave) was my best friend because the game was rather crash prone, but I did play it all the way through on fair modern hardware (well it was back somewhere in 2013-2015 I think). It was simpler circa 2008 to just install an run it, but it's still manageable because it's such a well known and widely played game, all those resources are out there.