GTA IV Performance

Heck, the console version didn't even play properly, I think it plays and preforms better on PCs any day of the week. All this DRM just kills the game though, all the sign in, sign up, link accounts and enter key; every bloody time I install a new patch it asks for me to enter the key again.

 

Can I still play MP after un-installed those two ???

 

I think you need GFWL to play multiplayer, but if can uninstall RSC that would be nice.

 

You have to have GFWL to play multiplayer, but you can play the solo campaign without it. Its called XLiveLess. I am not sure about RSC though???

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=388658

I heard this patch has been causing a lot of problems. I would try downgrading it you can.

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=408280

 

Thanks RangerXML and Drew90
But I have tryed to exit RSC after I have opned the game, but when I selcect multiplayer is says I must be connect to RSC :S
And I play only MP becouse, I have finished story mode 100%
Maybe microsoft fix this issue with new patch soon (?)

Okay, I have read that a new patch has been relased today 24 April

 

I dont see the new patch

 

I have just installed my OS, I have not installed GTA IV yet

Can you try to download it from here ?
http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/Support/Pages/technicalIssuesGuide.aspx

Click on Download the Latest Update then the download will start. I have downloaded this and compared this and the other file. There is a change, they are not SAME.

Try and share your result please

 

yea i unistalled the latest game for windows live and installed an older version from december 2008....runs 10 times better and no stutter.....the only problem is you cant go online....and decline all prompts for updates for live

 

Look at this
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1752/upp.jpg

....

Edit;
I have test it and it works.

 

So I picked up GTA4 for $30 at Gamestop the other day. Also saw it at Target for the same price afterwords. Anyway, performance for my rig has been decent, although I suspect a QX9300 would make a world's difference.

Currently I have all the texture/shadow/water/refelction/etc settings at their highest, distance at 22 (360 equivalent), detail distance at 30, traffic at 40, and shadow objects or whatever at 0, vsync on. FPS can dip to the high teens at times, but a lot of the time it's low to mid 20's through 30's. Benchmark came through at 38 FPS. Oh, and this is at 1680 x 1050 res. Overall it's pretty playable, but I think the quad core should help out a lot, eh?

And I installed the "ultimate graphics tweak" for motion blur/dof/soft shadows, so that I don't have to use their fake AA that looks terrible (the definition setting controls that). Anything else I can try to improve performance?

 

Yes, the CPU is the problem. I have a T9600 @ 2.80 my ussage under game/Build in benchmark test is 97-98%. I have tried one graphics tweak but it didn't work out well for me.

 

From the GT725 front, 074US OC'd to 2.88, 4850 at 550/900

Statistics
Average FPS: 33.48
Duration: 37.70 sec
CPU Usage: 93%
System memory usage: 72%
Video memory usage: 100%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1680 x 1050 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 50
Detail Distance: 50

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
Video Driver version: 8.14.10.655
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz

 

Any of bartekxyz's graphics tweak variations with motion blur will impact game performance more than the standard blur filter on definition off, and definately more than definition on. His tweak uses more aggressive post-processing effects, thus more work for the GPU to do.

The game requires one fast thread and multiple support threads to spread out various calculations. Even desktops with the E8xxx would need to be OC'd to ~3.5-4.0+GHz to minimize the large fps drops during in-game chaos. Having only two cores means that the main thread will take up one core and the second core will have to swallow several smaller threads that are responsible for background calculations.

However, this is only the hardware factor that is preventing many of us from enjoying GTAIV on the level that we would like to. Keep in mind that the CPU will also be taking care of Windows and other various background processes while playing the game, in which it is our responsibility to keep the OS and other software streamlined.

 

I have the NP8662 gaming laptop with 3GB DDR 3 RAM, (32 Bit) XP Pro SP3, GTX 260M, and the 2.0 Ghz Quad Q9000. I have been running GTA IV at an average of 30 fps at 1680 X 1050, mostly high settings and a few medium. I was using the official Nvidia 185.85 drivers.

When I installed the 180.84 beta drivers that mention GTA IV in its performance increases as well as Rockstar recommended, my fps went up to 41 fps, sometimes I get 48 fps, 50 fps and 45 fps outside, driving, in busy areas etc and the useless benchmark went from 29 fps to 42 fps average.

The lag I used to experience outside has now almost completely gone, I mean 99% vanished.

I tried other drivers, for example 182.05 and 181.xx but my frame rates go back down to 30.

Has anyone else tried 180.84 beta drivers?

I would really like to know what they did to these drivers to give me such an fps boost and almost eliminated lagg.

Of course, I will be staying with these drivers until I have time to test others. If you guys have any drivers to recommend that I can test, please let me know.

Apparently these 180.84 Nvidia drivers were specifically designed to enhance Grand Theft Auto 4 game play performance. Are there any other driver releases that say the same thing?

 

I haven't had any problem with 185.85

Also, now that I've installed the QX9300, average FPS is up ~10 FPS. A FRAPS test gave me an average of 30 fps over 10 minutes going through algonquin, times square, etc.

My settings are: 1680 x 1050, high textures, very high water/shadows/filtering/reflections, 40 view distance, 50 detail distance, 100 traffic, 0 shadow objects, vsync on, as well as the ultimate graphics tweak. I think I've got a killer GTA 4 rig lol

 

At GTA IV I get best performance with 185.85 DOX. Maybe I should also try 180.84...

 

Eww my GPU can't handle 185.85...

 

I wouldn't say I experienced any problems with 185.85 as such. GTA IV was reasonably playable apart from a little lag when things became really busy.

However, I did get a big increase in fps when I switched to 180.84 and many others have also. Some report getting an increase of 10 fps, others 8 fps, for me the game is now much more playable. The difference is night and day really.

GTA IV is already running great on your rig but I am curious how 180.84 performs on yours too. Who knows, it could be 20+ fps lol.

Apparently Nvidia worked with Rockstar with these drivers to increase performance in this game but it hasn't worked for everyone.

 

180.84 didin't work for mee

 

What do you mean it didn't work?

If you mean that it didn't install then that is because you need a modded inf.

 

I know, I used modded .inf. I mean I didin't got better performance with it.

 

Oh I see. Yes, I guess it is different for every system because where some report getting an extra 10 fps increase, others report nothing different. Where as I get less performance with 185.85 and any other driver I have tried so far, some say they get better performance than they got with 180.84.

 

Yes, I think it is becouse of my CPU. My GPU ussage is around 95-96% (full settings, exept View distance and that other traffic option, I don't like traffic )
My CPU ussage is 97-98%. I think I'm stuck at this point until I upgrade my CPU...

 

anyone have an ati 4570? hows the perfromance ?
im getting a terrible frame rate of 7-10 with it most settings on medium at 1024 * 768.

 

What's your CPU? That could just as easily be the issue... although you may have to hit low with that card anyway.

 

I have a P8600 (2.4ghz). also, i just lowered the settings to 860 * 600 with low details and still only get roughly 12-13fps.

 

Yeah, the CPU isn't throttling it that much, it's just that the 4570 is a low-end CPU... a good low-end, but low-end nonetheless. Do you know if yours is a DDR2 or DDR3 version?

 

What fps are you getting in game?

I always hear many say that GTA IV will run well on a higher clocked Core2Duo and that it does not need a Quad. Of course I disagree but it would be interesting to know your results since 2.85 Ghz is quite a high clock rate.

By the way, I find Windows 7 to increase stability of GTA IV when compared to XP.

 

It all depends on your expectations... He was trying everything except view distance and traffic turned all the way up... that's a lot. Textures on medium and everything else very high with no shadows looks great and performs great on my system.

 

how will this run on the 9800m gs? with a core2duo @2.3ghz?

 

It won't run very well simply because GTA IV really needs a quad. With a Core2Duo you will get stuttering and lots of slow down.

 

Totally not true.... Check out my system specs on my signature!

Check out my YT video if you dare!

YouTube - MSi GT627 Several Video Game Performance on this laptop

 

In that video, what settings did you use for everything and what GTA IV patch version?

With the very latest GTA IV patch, you won't get good performance with a Core2Duo unless you use really minimum settings.

 

I don't recall the exact GTA IV details, I've done this in March 2009 but I do recall to set it at really high settings which surpassed my Xbox 360 and PS3 in graphics and gaming quality. Of course my laptop CPU was OC to 2.9 Ghz and the video card was also OCd to 620/850/1450.

I know the video has texts in Spanish but on the second screen you can see the overall settings.

Cheers!
Rayanmx

 

Nice one RPGMan. Thanks for bringing this back from the dead.

/sage.

 

Anyone know what kind of settings and FPS i would get with my desktop (in sig)???

 

That didnt look too smooth in my opinion, looked more like GTA IV running at 20 fps, unless it has to do with the recording. Sure no stuttering but bad framerate.

 

I would have to dissagre with that. YouTube - GTA:IV P-6860 FX. 8800m GTS, X9000 @ 3.0 GHz. magnus tweak. Thats with the 5th patch and magnus72's config. The latest patch did give me worse performance but I am sure it had to do with the new shadow system.

 

What settings and resolution is that?

There is hardly any traffic or any pedestrians so not really much taxing the CPU as there could be. In some parts there aren't even any pedestrians.


My original statement still stands but really should have been more specific that with high traffic and vehicle density (sliders around 50-60 for all) and any other setting / slider that is CPU intensive, with a Core2Duo you will not get very smooth performance. For example, on my laptop I can play with all sliders set to 60 and everything else on High including Night Shadows and still get playable performance from 35-40 fps but a Core2Duo will suffer.

The last patch also gives me worse performance but it is still playable so that also depends on what you mean.

If I drive through the same areas on my laptop settings that were shown in that video, the level of Cars in mine is a lot higher and instead of seeing 5 cars, you will see up to 50 and instead of seeing just a few pedestrians, you will see over 50. That is what taxes the CPU cycles.

 

All of the settings were set to "high" at 1440x900. the traffic slider is around 30 but i am sure the config removes a lot of parked cars and peds. In this vid you can see me drive by 20+ cars and I didn't notice any slow downs. YouTube - GTA IV P-6860 FX 8800m GTS X9000 @ 3.0 GHz.

I am not denying that GTA would benefit from a quad core but it is playable on a core 2 duo.

 

Erik try this and remove the -noprecache line in commandline.txt. This should give you a few more FPS. If it start to stutter too much just add in the line again. I made that tweak

So the tweak works with later patches? The one I have is only 1.3, so I haven´t been able to test it with newer patches.

 

Thanks for the tip. I dont use the tweak with the latest patches. I think its 1.0.0.4 patch.

 

I played some GTA 4 with my X9000 @ 3.6GHz and even with the traffic slider at 100 it was still very smooth.
YouTube - GTA 4- P-6860FX X9000 @ 3.6 GHz 8800m GTS

Still using magnus's config at 1440x900 just increased traffic.

 

I picked up gta4 recently and have a weird problem with the performance. couldn't find it by searching the forums (not really sure what to call it), so i'll give it a shot here.

When i'm driving through the city, the entire background (buildings, trees, etc) seems to go into slow motion momentarily, then "catch up" by going faster than normal for the next split second. The entire event is probably only 1/3 a second long but it repeats every couple seconds. It is a lot more noticeable when driving faster as you can really tell that the background isn't passing by so smoothly. I wouldn't say it's a stutter because it isn't a hard jerk and my fps remains constant (in the 30's and 40's) throughout these very short slowdowns. Anyone experience the same and/or have solved it?

My rig is: w860cu, 940xm, 5870m (10.8 drivers), win7x64

Gta4 settings: patched to 1.0.7, 1920x1080, everything high, night shadows off, view distance: 30, detail distance: 20, traffic: 50, definition: on, vsync on.