Wanna play Fallout 4? Got a PC that has crummy Intel HD Graphics or a mediocre Ryzen APU on your laptop? Well I hope to be of assistance. Usually with bethesda games, it’s rather easy to get them running on meh hardware. FNV? Just install stability mods! Fo3? TTW! Skyrim SE? Just play the OG version! *cough*andbuyitthroughothermeans. But Fallout 4 doesn’t have this sort of Luxury. However we can mitigate this with modding. I know I’ve made a modding guide recently... However that guide was assuming you had a decent gaming PC to get started. This guide assumes you have a GPU like a GT 730/1030 at best and an intel HD at worst. I will try my very best to make sure that you have a "good enough" looking game while also having playable performance. If push comes to shove, I’ll show you ways to Potato-ize the game to get maximum performance.

ATTENTION, I MADE THIS GUIDE SPECIFICALLY FOR LOW END USERS - iGPU USERS. FOR THOSE WHO WANTED TO OPTIMIZE FOR BOTH VISUALS AND FPS TAKE A LOOK AT THIS GUIDE.

Please give it a thumbs up. They deserve it.
https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2698768951

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKM8ZScbic8
Essentially windows 10 has so much bloatware shoved into it that it’s hogging up some of your resources for CPU and Ram. This is especially useful for those who use 4GB of ram. (Bless your soul). This debloater in particular is very safe as you can choose what you want to uninstall and debloat as well as an Essential tweaks tab. Just make sure you get a restore point set up.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR MACHINE IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG.

Fallout 4 Game of the Year Edition/ Fallout 4 with all DLC

https://steamoss.com/steamstore/sub/199943/

https://steamoss.com/steamstore/app/377160/Fallout_4/

Well you can follow this list to the best of your ability. This list was made assuming you have all the DLC. The game was made in 2015, The DLC goes on sale regularly so get it on sale the moment you can. I do know some people aren't financially fortunate so again, just try to follow this guide as much as you can, Most mods have a vanilla variant at least.

We don't want anything to get in the way of our modding. Just in case you downloaded something from BethesdaNet or Creation Club or something.

A Mod Manager

People will usually recommend Vortex since it was designed to be user friendly. If you're into that, go for it! You can't go wrong with it. But I would recommend
Mod Organizer 2: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/6194

Set up Guide by Dark Populous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaFN2nAkGh0
A Tips and Tricks of Mo2 by Dark Populous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2ig_V5JCwQ

Additional Tools

• Fo4Edit[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Bethini[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• LOOT[loot.github.io]

Good. Close it. We're setting up Bethini first.

Fallout 4 runs like ass and Bethini will help use get the best Bang for Buck settings for Graphics

Go back to the Basic Tab and click on Recommended Tweaks

There we go, we now enabled Loose Files and you now have recommended settings. But don't leave BethIni yet.

Follow these settings

Well not too much. In fact like a frame or two. If you can afford it, I say keep it on to minimize jagged edges
(Specs for this benchmark is overkill but it's the best I got)

Set your game to Medium or Below depending on your hardware
For the sake of this guide, I will be using Low.


All done? Okay Save and Exit!

Okay now press Save and Exit, now open MO2. you’re not done with INIs yet


Go to your Ini editor in Mo2 Go to fallout4prefs.ini and hunt down these lines and change them to..

fDirShadowDistance=
fShadowDistance=
Here’s your options

2500 - Can give you a great boost in performance without removing them entirely. They will pop in noticably
(Potato users should use this)

3500 or 4000 - You’ll still see a good bump in performance without making the shadows short distance

Now hunt for these settings and change as follows (IF YOU’RE USING BETHINI MEDIUM, IF YOU”RE USING BETHINI LOW AND BELOW, YOU CAN SKIP THESE STEPS)


fBlendSplitDirShadow= to 96.0000
fMaxFocusShadowMapDistance= to 450.0000
iDirShadowSplits= to 3
iMaxFocusShadows= to 3
iMaxFocusShadowsDialogue= to 3
uiOrthoShadowFilter= to 3
uiShadowFilter= to 3

INSTALL OF THESE MODS

• F4SE[f4se.silverlock.org]
  
• Fallout 4 Unofficial Patch[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Plugin Preloader (READ DESCRIPTION IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE)[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Buffout 4[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Raw Input[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• High FPS Physics Fix[www.nexusmods.com]
  Now we’re gunna be using this for the accelerated loading times. To help this even further change these lines in the INI that’s in the mod.
  Change the following options:
  Set EnableVSync= to false (line 18)
  Set DisableBlackLoadingScreens= to true (line 37)
  Set DisableAnimationOnLoadingScreens= to true (line 44)
  Set InGameFPS= to 60 (line 58)
  Believe it or not, this engine so stupidly made that disabling the animated loading screens and even the animating logo actually help loading times. Who knew..
  PreVis RepairPack[www.nexusmods.com]
  Rebuilds a Ton of Cells broken over updates. HUGE HELP in areas like boston
  
• MCM[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• (Optional) SKK FastStart[www.nexusmods.com]
  A quick start mod to get you back into the game

★The Stars of the Show!★

• PhyOp - Overhauled Optimized Textures[www.nexusmods.com]
  Essentially compresses the textures with as minimal quality loss as Possible
  (GET PERFORMANCE OR POTATO PACK + Face Sculpting Fix OF THE RESPECTIVE VERSION)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY6McMtWTG4
  
  INSTALL THIS IN YOUR DATA FOLDER I MEAN IT. IT'LL HELP WITH FPS IMMENSELY
  
  
• Free FOV - Skeleton Edit[www.nexusmods.com]
  Title of this mod is misleading but FOV higher than 80 sadly ruins your FPS more than it should. This does funky skeleton edits to help be able to see more!
  
• No Ugly Plants And More:[www.nexusmods.com]
  Basically a more up to date version of Insignificant Object Remover. Just makes the textures invisible, so it doesn’t break precombines and doesn’t have conflicting information on it. (your results may vary)
  Choose the FOMOD version but if you want those juicy frames, just get the First file.
  
• Fallout Priority [www.nexusmods.com]
  Set your game to High Priority. Usually has reasonable gains but if your CPU is really bad [Specifically for laptops], this may make your game run slower. It’s rare but it happens. If so, just don’t use it. Give it a shot though.
  
• BlurKiller - Visual Pollution Remover and Performance Enhancer: [www.nexusmods.com]
  Removes Blur, Bloom, HDR, and Depth of Field effects from all Imagespace Modifiers
  
• (Optional) DYNAVISION - Dynamic Depth of Field: [www.nexusmods.com]
  Adds a better Dynamic DoF effect meant to hide ugly lods in case you don’t like how they look. (Load this after BlurKiller)
  
• Lucid Institute[www.nexusmods.com]
  Will make the institute run much more smoothly. (EXCLUDE THE CHANGES TO OLD ROBOTICS)
  
• MCM Booster[www.nexusmods.com]
  
• Faster Workshop[www.nexusmods.com]

Okay Plan B

• Shadow Disabler[www.nexusmods.com]
  Shows you values to remove shadows using INI editing!
  
• ULT ULTRA LOW TEXTURES[www.nexusmods.com]
  This makes your game’s textures to an ABSURDLY LOW resolution of 4x4. I’d use this if PhyOP isn’t giving you that extra bit of FPS. (You should also delete PhyOp if you’re gunna use this)
  
• Ugrid Editing Guide[www.nexusmods.com]
  This is a final resort and I will not be responsible if you mess up your game. If you want to revert your changes, Bethini has an option to Revert your edits. I honestly do not recommend this, do it if you’re super desperate.

Okay Let’s get this taken care of. For you folks with low end gaming machines, you know like an i3 or i5 optiplex and a desktop GPU like a GT 1030 or similar, you can download mods like gun mods alright, just stick to 2K or Below textures for gun mods. For mods like Sim Settlements 2 which has alot of scripts and complex features in it, you will notice a hit in FPS due to the load of scripts and items being generated in your map. Mods like Wasteland Balistics, Be exceptional, Feral Ghouls expansion, should be okay, as they’re gameplay mods or just add a chunk of enemies to the game. However mods like Endless Warfare can mess up your frames due to flooding your world with enemies. You can also experiment with graphics mods. Pretty much all weather mods (as long as they don’t go nuts with fog) will be performance friendly and it helps give your game a different feel. Textures, you can stick to optimized ones such as Vivid Fallout. For grass mods, pretty much all of them will destroy your FPS. Although maybe take a look at the posts as some are fairly fps friendly, True Grass and Boston Natural Surroundings (1.30) are merciful to your FPS. Basically, use common sense, I’m sure you can get the hang of what your system can handle.

As for iGPU folk, you'll most likely be sticking to gameplay mods and some gun mods as long as their textures aren't 2K. F4SE gameplay mods like Wasteland ballistics should still work fine. However you may run into trouble if you add too many enemy mods for example. Just be very conservative. I know you can still have a fun time with Fallout 4 modding on a bad laptop.

A couple of questions I might get:

Not everyone is financially fortunate and plus we’re under a parts shortage rn

Well…You’re right. Though Fallout 4 mods are still lots of great fun and you can mold this game into anything you want. Whether you want a tacticool or lore friendly apocalypse, you can have fun!...within the limit of your specs lol

I hope this was of use to you guys. As long as I helped at least a handful of low end users to play the game, then I’m happy. I was there when I used to have my GT 940MX laptop. So until next time Something something war changing idk. Just go out there and game!

Also no mean to shill but if you'd like, Here's a recommendation list of mods I'd recommend trying out.
https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2725929079

But hey why stop here, here's a couple more guides!
https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2722884409
https://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2585242522
The Midnight Ride By Qolore[themidnightride.github.io]

Endorse any mods you enjoy!