Bethesda’s Fallout 4 Will Feature Nvidia’s GameWorks

With Fallout 4 set to launch relatively soon, we’re getting more word on how the game will run like on PC. According to the latest report, Bethesda has integrated components from the controversial GameWorks library. Provided by Nvidia, GameWorks is a library that allows developers to implement solutions designed by NVIDIA, with minimal work from the developer.

GameWorks gained notoriety when it caused issues in Warner Bros’ Batman Arkham Knight. Some players have blamed the poorly implemented GameWorks features as causing at least some of the many bugs and performance issues faced at launch. In that case, both AMD and Nvidia’s own users, especially those using Kepler cards, ran into serious performance issues with GameWorks enabled.

AMD has also been critical of GameWorks as well, claiming Nvidia was being anti-AMD. These claims were based off performance on AMD cards in The Witcher 3. In that title, HairWorks, a part of GameWorks used excessive tessellation that negatively impacted AMD’s and Nvidia’s own Kepler cards. Users found that turning down the tessellation levels did not impact visual fidelity but allowed for much better frame rates.

It’s important to note there have been GameWorks titles like GTA V that have implemented the features well without tanking performance. It remains to be seen which camp Fallout 4 will be belong to. Some commentators have expressed concern that the lopsided GPU recruitments may point to GameWorks hitting AMD cards hard. We’ll find out soon either way.