Grand Theft Auto IV Frame Rate - L502x

I bought GTA IV + Episodes and the frame rate is really bad. 10-30 FPS but usually from 15-20.

This is with all medium settings and 1600x900 resolution instead of 1080p. view distance is at 10 and the other 2 sliders are no more than 20. Tri-linear filtering. It says I am using 309/2006 mb of vram. I don't think the game should run this horribly?

I have:

540M
2720QM
8 GB Ram

and when I do the benchmark test it says the graphics card is the Intel one not nvidia? but don't know if that has anything to do with it.

What FPS is everyone else getting?

 

GTA IV is a really really, really, really, bad port. Still you should be getting better performance than that.

Edit: Didn't notice the intel thing, you need to do what mikeybc said. Your performance should improve.

 

Sounds like the game is running on the intel graphics, go into you NVIDIA control panel and set the global setting to NVIDIA gt540m or you can just add the gta exe. to open with the NVIDIA gt540m.

I'm looking to buy this game someday too but if that's the best it can be I won't bother, hopefully someone else is getting it to run better.

 

Yeah that is exactly what I was thinking. I thought this game would not be very difficult to run and that my specs were good enough for at least 30 FPS but I guess not unless it is using the integrated graphics card despite setting it manually not to.

It might be running on the integrated graphics card but I set it to start on the nvidia and everything manually. But I am not 100% sure what it is running on. I have heard even if you set this game manually (doing what you said to do) it still might not run on the nvidia gpu.

I hope someone responds and says how their computer runs it also.

 

Xps just for multimedia. if you faster on game beter alienware.
some test may 30fps, but on some area(need many proccess) fps much lower then 30.

good for game, please 60fps. don't stupid trust 30fps can play. more enemy, building, fps much lower.

 

dude i get 29-32fps high with My gt435m oc'ed(see sig)...vran usage is aroung 938mb/2000mb...though i play at 720p cause i get 45fps and rarely dips below 35fps..just make sure you got 1.0.4.0 patch installed and OC your gpu a bit and run game booster before launching the game

Here's it
Game Booster 3 Download - free download, key and walkthrough

 

*i get 29-32fps high@1080p

 

I'm not sure how you get those kinda framerates at high settings AS WELL as being at 1080p, I have to run at low settings to get 30-40fps at 1080p. I am also overclocked, with essentially the same card. I know you are running with an i7 but I am also sandy-bridge, so I would say our specs are exactly the same?

 

high in the sense with mixture of medium's too.Though i prefer playing it at 720p.My HDTV scales and sharpens it way too good.So i am never disappointed with the gameplay .BTW use game booster and don't run any background tasks(browser,antivirus).I get solid 38-47 fps at high@720p and i couldn't be happier!!smooth as hell.Looks blurry on laptop display but connect it to HDTV and voila,its gud!

 

So I changed some stuff but haven't fixed anything really. I overclocked further to 805/1610/1035 and my FPS is around 20 on the same settings and 1080p. It goes from 20-30 (rarely higher than 25) and after about an hour playing it seems to go below 20 and starts to lag a lot but I don't know if that is because of time or just what was happening in the game because I stopped playing when that started to happen. Also I used some a commandline that seemed to help at first but it probably didn't do anything.

With that overclock my GPU never went above 76C which I think is good but I am not sure how that compares to others? MSI Afterburner is saying my GPU usage is going to 100% and I am sure that the game is using the 540M now. I even installed the 290.36 drivers with a clean install.

Changing the resolution from 1080p to 720p seemed to not affect the FPS at all and even overclocking seems to hardly have helped.

What FPS do you get at medium settings 1080p?

I downloaded that game booster program you recommended just now and I will see how it works. Thanks.

 

Game Booster probably helped me gain 1-3 FPS. When I first start playing I am generally at 18-25/26 FPS and it dips down to about 15 every few minutes. After I do one mission my FPS goes to 15-17 and stays there. I think my computer just isn't powerful enough to play this game very well and I also think it is more the game than the computer but either way I don't think there is anything I can do to get higher FPS besides using a faster computer. It's to bad Dell didn't put a GTX in the L502X it seems to me the graphics card is the weakest part (though still good). Some of the best laptop processors out right now, up to 8 GB of RAM, 1080p screen, great speakers, back-lit keyboard, it's just missing a little better GPU. But it's still great.

 

dude...give me some time.I will install that game again and will post fraps screenshots.That way you will exactly know my settings and people don't seem to be believing me here,so would help them too
And i am sure you should get couple of fps more than me cause you've got SB i7 and GT540m(higher base clocked)
Trust me,this can really play GTA 4 at 720p respectable settings.
Just wait for the screenshots!

 

I believe you and I am not saying this laptop is bad. It's not bad at all it's just not a great match for this game (at least from what I am seeing). And it isn't the laptop's fault it's the fact the game isn't really meant for computer and it is terribly optimized.

Thank you for the screenshots.

 

I started TF2 today just to see if it runs the same and I am only getting 20 FPS? All settings are at what the game recommends and I am playing at 1080p. I even turned off AA and stuff but the FPS did not get any better.

Before when I used to play at the same or higher settings I am pretty sure I got about 60 FPS? I know that game never lagged for me but I haven't played it in a while.

Could this be related to my poor frame rates in GTA IV?

What FPS is everyone else getting in TF2?

Also I am 99% sure it was using the 540M because Nvidia Optimus Test Viewer says it was.

 

Make sure you guy's are playing with the dedicatedgpu!!

 

what are your GPU temp's??

 

I know it definitely never goes above 80C and I am pretty sure it stays less than 76C (that is the highest I have seen and that was overclocked at 805). The lag is there when I just go from an idle computer to playing the game. I am not sure if it is my computer or a patch? Because I used to get 60+ FPS on the game.

 

so that assures that the game is USING actual GPU instead of integrated one!
What does this mean?? "idle computer to playing the game" ? do you mean while switching the game??

 

It's weird. I played today and now I am getting 25-40 FPS and usually around 28-32. It never really goes below 24-25 so it runs smooth.

TF2 is now back to normal as well.

I am not sure why though? The only difference I could think of it my brightness was all the way down and I was overclocked to 759 but that shouldn't make any difference either.

Also, before my battery charger was not working. It was saying that it would not charge the battery but it still powered the computer fine. It was saying that for about the past two weeks but now it works fine all of the sudden? Maybe that is why but I don't really see how that would make a difference? It was still powering the computer fine but maybe it was not supply enough electricity to run at full power and only enough to run the computer?

Either way everything seems to be working fine now. I think I still need a new charger though because I am not expecting it to keep working (charging the battery).