unexplained bad fps in fallout 3

[mattbar]

I have a 4gb GTX 770, and have to put the graphics on lowest settings possible to get 60fps. No cores on my cpu seem to be maxing out. My ram is not so good at 4gb ddr2 800, but I really doubt this is the problem. The videocard is not getting hot. I'm using all default settings in nvidia inspector for both global and fallout 3 profiles. With 8x sgssaa I get 30fps (lawl), but with no AA on highest settings I still get 30fps. Yes I am using v-sync. I also have uGridsToLoad=7 & uExterior Cell Buffer=64 set in the fallout.ini. I have deleted the fallout.ini file and and reset just these 2 values so that I am able to load my game, but my fps is still 30. Resolution is a tiny 1360x768. I feel my computer should easily be getting 60fps with no anti-aliasing. Why is it not?

 

[vrumor]

Most likely your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU. If you are using DDR2, then im assuming its pretty old.

 

[mattbar]

It is a quad 2.8. Device manager is says "AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 925 Processor". While no core is pegging at 100% they do sometimes come close, but overall processor usage is maybe around 50%.

I have also tested it with default fallout.ini. Using the default uGridsToLoad=5 and uExterior Cell Buffer = 36

I can play skrim max settings 4x sgssaa at 60fps

 

[vrumor]

Yeah, that is going to bottleneck your GPU. Upgrade your CPU, mobo and RAM to something more recent, and youll notice a huge difference.

 

[mattbar]

Can you recommend a program to monitor my cpu and ram usage? I planned to upgrade these parts next. I did not have the money to buy ram at the time so I got a mobo with slots to support my new cpu and old ddr2 ram. As you would imagine this was a long time ago.

EDIT: enabled prefer maximum performance for power saving, disabled v-sync. Video card is basically asleep. Very obvious bottleneck now. gpu usage around 20% hahahahaha. Thank you for your help!