GTA IV Performance

Hey, I've tried the game just few minutes ago.
The graphic is all screwed up. I can't see anything except some lamps and stuffs. It's like, all transparent. What's wrong with that?
I use 178.24 dox version, I believe...
my specs as you can see in my sig below.

 

I'm planning to buy a Dell XPS m1530. I would like to play GTA IV on it (but it's not going to be my primary game machine, I have a desktop for that purpose) Right now I have it customized with a T5800 CPU (2.0Ghz 800Mhz FSB and 2 MB cache), 4 GB RAM. The laptop has a NVIDIA 8600M GT Go with 256Mb of RAM.

For about 100 euro (about 130 US dollars) I can upgrade the CPU to a T8100 (2.1Ghz 800Mhz FSB, 3 MB Cache). Better CPUs are also possible but I'm a bit on a budget. Is this worth the extra bucks? Would it run games like gta iv better with this CPU upgrade?

 

:O

How is that possible 0.o
The only difference, well possible one is that I have a 9600M GT and possibly you're using Vista.

But even then, you have the far better CPU.

I have updated to the DOX GTA Alternative drivers, but even before then I was using the old laptop2video drivers (from september).

Mind you I am using the Steam version of the game. But even then it shouldn't make much a of a difference.

Are you sure no other game is doing that as well after you applied the DOX Patch? Cause you should beable to at least see something at a low framerate @ lowest settings possible.

EDIT: You're not using the latest drivers. So possible it might be the textures bug which ppl seem to be getting.
UPDATE: http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=22122

 

Finally I can get the graphics works. But another problem appears. I can't even drive the car! I already press the button but still no move. And the screen is always waving (imagine like in the boat/ship)...

Statistics
Average FPS: 17.94
Duration: 37.23 sec
CPU Usage: 86%
System memory usage: 72%
Video memory usage: 75%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 800 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Medium
View Distance: 6
Detail Distance: 7

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT [Custom Forceware 180.70]
Video Driver version: 180.70
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8300 @ 2.40GHz

File ID: benchmark.cli

 

No its not enabled by default.

Try turning off clip capture. Oh and I think dox drivers have missing textures also except for 180.84.

Btw I am running the game with the norestriction command line aswell as v-sync and clip capture turned off if it makes any difference.

Also whilst the view distance maybe on the low end of the scale there also seems to be a lot of texture pop-in. Like here I'm not that far away but I was looking at the opposite direction and when I turned the texture loads after like half a second.



About vehicle density I think it also impacts the gpu aswell as the cpu because the more cars the cpu spawns the more graphics power is needed to render the cars on screen. So I feel that is also impacting the fps on my laptop. Vehicle density also isn't taken into account on the benchmark tool.

These screenshots below are the same settings as before.




Here are new screenshots of slightly increased settings. I've tried to take as many as I can of intensive moments.

 

i love this game guys, it runs on my 7900 GS

 

Statistics
Average FPS: 14.05
Duration: 37.86 sec
CPU Usage: 93%
System memory usage: 89%
Video memory usage: 91%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1024 x 640 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: High
View Distance: 51
Detail Distance: 61

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
Video Driver version: 180.84
Audio Adapter: Динамики (Realtek High Definition Audio)
AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-66

 

Hey anusthegreat, what kind of framerate do you get playing on the lowest settings at 1024 x 640? Any lag?

 

Thank you for your screenshots!
btw what is the most stable and good vga driver for 8600m GT to play this game?
I still find some bugs using 180.70 DOX version...

 

That's what I'm gettin', dunno why, lol. T_T

 

i'm interested to see how it runs, we are on the same gen of cards, mind posting some benchmark?

 

This game is totally awesome!

 

For that matter it will even run on Go 6000 series cards. But as brainer says, fps is all that matters.

 

give us a benchmark Pl0X

 

Have you tried giving 180.84 a shot as that has been specifically released for GTA and some people have said that it does increase performance for them. There is also a DOX beta verison(180.84 Alternative) of that driver for GTA IV that has no missing textures if your interested.

Different laptops will respond differently to every driver so I don't think anyone can say specifically what is the best for each laptop but can give recommendations. For me 178.13 has still been best for my laptop.

I've increased view and detail distance to 4 and vehicle density to 25 and I've had no performance loss, just goes to show the poor optimisation of the game. Traffic is a lot better now, more cars roaming and I still get 18-22fps. I'm sticking with these settings now.

 

Dunno what pl0ox means but here it is:

Statistics
Average FPS: 27.47
Duration: 37.06 sec
CPU Usage: 95%
System memory usage: 78%
Video memory usage: 95%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 800 x 600 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Low
Render Quality: Low
View Distance: 1
Detail Distance: 1

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS
Video Driver version: 180.60
Audio Adapter: Luidsprekers (High Definition Audio-apparaat)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz

File ID: benchmark.cli

NOTE: this is with replay cam off!

I turned it on and it slows down, a little bit. When I have 15 posts i will post my movie here. Can't post links till 15th post.

 

That must be looks like a painted green iPhone.

 

At least he got it to work. That is the WORST graphics card I have seen this game run on... Gratz

 

Again, i need my 15 posts, and you will see. it looks great!

 

ok, i am cheating now...

 

Yay, finally I can post links http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE96PW26Bs0&translated=1&fmt=18
Too bad it is hard to switch between programs, I converted it a lot. This is what it actually looks like (graphical wise)
https://tv.rockstargames.com/videos/view/id/C595F90BF91E1D9D

Note: I normally turn off the recorder, saves fps.

 

Awesome video

 

Any new info on the patch's release date..?

 

I'm gonna try it soon I hope my laptop will perform well

 

Guys on gtaforums.com said it was coming out 12/12.

Who knows how accurate that is though..

 

I see...
I haven't try 180.84 yet but I will try later on after I get it.

Btw guys, I still have a camera problem. The camera is waving to left and right, just like a 1st view from a drunken master...

 

The drunken camera has appeared to users who use the cracked no-dvd .exe file.

If it's not properly cracked, R* booby trapped the game, so the drunken camera is one of the symptoms.

I'm using the *proper* no-dvd patch, I don't want to destroy my DVDs, and having no problems. Make sure you get the proper no-dvd .exe.

 

ATI's full 8.12 is coming out on the 12th, I'm hoping it'll do something miraculous for me because I should not be running so poorly.

Edit: Oh shizzle they're out already!

*goes to test*

 

Fed0R for the win

 

Buggy

 

R* should have been working on the dam GAME and not booby traps.

 

Razer 1911.

And this game deserves to be cracked. It is the worst port ever.

I didnt dare get cracked versions of left 4 dead, fallout 3, and dead space tho. But this game would be a ripoff if i bought it.

 

Ever stop to think that if this game were completely optimized to run on garbage specs you would be saying the opposite, yet that optimization may not have been possible because of people like you cracking it "because it deserves it?" All those man hours spent on making the game "uncrackable" which clearly doesn't work for any company, (I don't get why they even try...) could have been spent actually making the game run.

 

Still R*'s fault. If it was a good port i would have bought it off steam a long time ago.

 

Do you think I'm gonna be able to play it well ?? my specs are just bellow ..

 

Here are some very interesting benchmarks. For the first 3, the settings as follows were held constant. Basically I wanted to see what settings affected what FPS. System memory usage stayed constant for me at 54% on all benchmarks so I removed that. View and Detail are at what's allegedly 'slightly better than the console', according to Rockstar's press release, so take that at face value. But essentially I needed a reasonable constant and I chose their settings for ViD/DD.

Video Mode: 1680 x 1050 (60 Hz)
View Distance: 22
Detail Distance: 10
Vehicle Density: 35
Shadows: 3

-------

--- Average FPS: 40.18
CPU Usage: 51%
Video memory usage: 79%
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Medium

--- Average FPS: 41.21
CPU Usage: 52%
Video memory usage: 100%
Texture Quality: High
Render Quality: Medium

--- Average FPS: 39.84
CPU Usage: 52%
Video memory usage: 100%
Texture Quality: High
Render Quality: Highest

From this, you can see that with Resolution, View, Detail, Vehicle, and Shadows held constant, changing the texture quality had, statistically speaking, almost no affect on my average FPS. My CPU usage was also relatively constant at 52% which surprised me. This all means, shockingly, it doesn't matter what detail settings I use for texture quality and render quality (AF), I will always get the same FPS. But also surprisingly, I'm clearly not being CPU limited. The game ought to be running better.

In my final example, all the above settings were held the same, but I changed the View Distance to 100, Vehicle Density to 100 (Expecting a CPU spike) and Shadows to 16. This should significantly hit my FPS, right?

--- Average FPS: 38.22
CPU Usage: 57%
Video memory usage: 100%
Texture Quality: High
Render Quality: Highest
View Distance: 100
Detail Distance: 10
Vehicle Density: 100
Shadow Density: 16

As you can see, almost nothing changed there either.

Conclusions I can draw from preliminary testing: At least on my system with a powerful CPU, the only setting that makes any tangible difference in my FPS is Detail Distance. I haven't played with intermediate settings for Detail to determine if there's a "sweet spot" or diminishing returns, but that's my current result.

I would strongly encourage all of you to try the same on your notebooks and try to isolate exactly which settings control game performance. I have a 3.32 GHz quad core so for the overall usage to be 52-57%%, that's a hefty workload. As a point of reference, an HD movie on my T7500 that used to take up 40-60% or more of my CPU is using only 11-12% on this CPU, same media player. Not sure how well my results scale to notebooks or to actual gameplay for that matter.

Edit: Using the same settings as my last benchmark up there, but running my CPU at stock speeds and affinity set to dual-core (GTA IV only used 2 cores), I dropped from a 38 FPS average to a 32 FPS average. So yes, the quad core makes a drastic difference.

 

Jeez thanx man!
The game runs well now, though only in crappy graphic and low FPS, but still it's still playable (I guess...)

 

Anybody able to play MP yet. I keep getting: "You have been removed from the game", "Server disconnected", "Unable to connect to server"...

And sometimes I join a game, i'm in the lobby but nothing happens. I am the only one there and then after a few secs i get 'removed from game'.

Help! I always play online games, BF2, COD series, etc. Why won't this work?

 

random for now...

 

Yes, for a few hours a day since I got it.

 

Just to let you know, may be interesting.
Using the specification below I can run the game. I don't have any benchmarks yet as I only got the game last night, but lets just say its not pretty.

But I messed around with the settings for GTA exe in the NVIDIA control panel, can't remeber exactly, just changed a few settings, and the graphics seem to load up quicker (Such as the stairs in Nico's flat)

Its still bad, but I didn't expect much from this laptop. I'm looking at buying a desktop to replace my laptop anyway.

 

Bit of a noob question here.
But is there a way to display the FPS rate onscreen while playing GTA 4? Ideally some freeware, as I wouldn't want to install FRAPs.

Also how do you do ingame screenshots?

Cheers.

 

fraps is freeware?
and fraps will do fps and screen shots for you.

 

hmm, ive noticed something really weird.. try doing Ctrl +alt+del, then get back to the game, you get some sort of a corruption, that basically removes some reflections.. but the framerate is more than doubled????? what the heck?

 

.... I really hope that the patch really fixes the majority of the issues. Other wise I'll just wait until it hits the bargain bin before getting that game...

 

My benchmarks..........for those who care......

Statistics
Average FPS: 31.61
Duration: 37.08 sec
CPU Usage: 98%
System memory usage: 84%
Video memory usage: 98%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 848 x 480 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Low
Render Quality: Medium
View Distance: 22
Detail Distance: 31

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT [Custom Forceware 180.70]
Video Driver version: 180.70
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7700 @ 2.40GHz


It runs quite well, well enough to enjoy this immense game anyways...my GFX card has been getting quite warm though, on one instance it hit 99 degrees C.

What a great game though. Bugs, glitches and shoddy optimisation aside it really is a fapping awesome game....we done R*

What the future holds for future GTA incarnations one can only wonder.........

 

Could you post some screenshots Pubert, please?
Btw, is your 8600m 256mb or 512mb?

 

256. XPS 1530 comes with 256.

 

it would be ddr3 memory though.

 

Still waiting for a patch to come out...>.>

I just watched this...
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