GTA4 suggestions for slight fps increase

Hello everyone I am running:

Dell inspiron 1720
Vista sp2 32bit
core 2 duo t5550
3 gigs DDR2
8600mGT 265mb

Even with lowest settings in the GTA benchmark I can only reach an average fps of 20, sometimes maybe 24.

I'm aiming for consistent 30 fps is this realistic?

Rivatuner appears to let me OC the card pretty high. I went up to 550/1100/430 but I see no real noticeable gains in the gta benchmark.

I notice that CPU usage in the benchmark is 100% could it be the t5550 holding me back rather than the GPU?

I have heard downgrading to XP would increase fps dramatically but I would lose some visual dx10 elements?

I have read through the the best drivers for 8600m GT thread but theres so many drivers and different versions I'm completely lost
Please link to the best driver for 3d and Overclocking performance

 

Since GTA IV is extremely CPU intensive you will see very little improvement by overclocking your GPU. The thing that may really help with you is to overclock your CPU instead. GTA IV actually recommends a quad core CPU. I can certainly verify that with my desktop as well. It runs much better on my Q6600 than it does on my P8400.

Drivers - You can try the 180.84 drivers. These drivers are apparently optimized for GTA IV, and are the only drivers that will make the game run with SLI (not that you need it).

I'd say a consistent 30FPS is only really realistic when you have a 2.4Ghz dual or better. I'm having a lot of trouble getting this to run above twenty on my 2.26Ghz processor.

GTA IV doesn't use DX10, so there would be absolutely no visual difference between the two OS's at all. I have also heard that it will run better on XP as well, so you can give this a try.

An optimization config is available here. The visual quality isn't great, but when I tried it I certainly got a better framerate on my desktop. Config is available here.

You may want to back up the entire GTA IV directory to an external source first though.

After all the crap I have gone through trying to get this to run better, I have decided that it's really not worth it, and that you may as well just get another notebook. That's what I'm doing, I just really can't be bothered with this unoptimized port.

One thing that makes a huge difference in how the game runs though, is what resolution you are running it at. 1280 x 800 sucks on mine, but I can get it running nicely at 1024 x 600. The thing I hate about that though is the fact that technically, I'm not running it at HD.

Good luck trying to get this game running.

 

I'm running it on 720p res, not fabulous but 720p is the norm for most TV shows obviously appart from HD stations, so that isn't too low.

 

wow I was pretty confident that I was gonna be able to play almost any recent game on low settings! Rockstar are full of S*** about the minimum requirements.

Thanks for the help I'll update my gfx driver now and go through that optimisation list. I'll look into overclocking the old t5550 as well if its possible.

I can play the game how it is now it runs smooth enough for normal gameplay but just....

 

hey shadow I just uninstalled my old graphics driver but when I try to run the 180.84 gta4 drivers it says cannot find the hardware. I'm guessing this driver was meant for the desktop 8600GT?

how to get it working with our 8600mGT 's?

 

I'm pretty sure there are two versions - the desktop version and the mobile version. What site did you obtain it from?

 

I got it from http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_gtaiv_downloads.html

I also have the 80.24 from laptop2go but It gives me the same error even when I paste the .inf over the one in the folder? could you give me a step by step?

I keep getting screen flicker now that I have no proper drivers installed now lol

 

just downloaded 179.28 which says it would support 8600mGT. Same error message "could not locate and drivers that support your current hardware" FFFFF

is this because it is a Dell and the driver isn't signed or something? I'm basically stuck

 

Well, laptopvideo2go.com should have 180.84 for mobile. If they don't, give 186.82 WHQL a try, these are apparently the best overall NVIDIA drivers.

 

Did you try setting processor affinity to only use 1 of your 2 cores "booboox"? I found this greatly improved performance for me, it halved FPS but eliminated any stuttering, i don't mind playing 10-20FPS as long as it doesn't stutter, i had a really fun time with it, don't know why it solved the problem, this is without my memory handling program running, MemTurbo 4.1. My theory now is heat... That the CPU is getting too hot to perform very well with both cores being used, since it heats up to the high 80's most of the time playing GTA 4, and as we all know performance is greatly hindered the higher temps you go. Either that or it's something to do with the Northbridge and the CPU interacting differently when only 1 core is allowed to work on GTA 4.

 

Use DOX modified drivers. Optimized and fat free.

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/26002-forceware-19562/

 

just tried 196.21 WHQL and same error message! This is killing me lol I'm on 256kb and i have to wait an hour for every driver DL.

shadow: I am downloading that driver now. fingers crossed no damn error

thinkpad knows best: ok I will try that once I can get any driver working properly!

edit:the modified inf for 186.82 is unavailable for download off laptop2go so I am going straight to the DOX drivers. fingers crossed

 

ah ty I will try this next!

 

DOX drivers give me same error message, no drivers support current hardware.

I don't really know where I should go from here

 

Try installing via Device Manager using the .inf

What OS are running?

 

Flipfire thanks for taking the time to help. vista 32 bit sp2

Here is the list of drivers and related files I have downloaded.



I am trying the "Have Disk" method with driver 180.24 and modded inf at the moment, I was just running the exe's before. Fingers Crossed!

 

Why have you downloaded all these unusual drivers? I thought 186.82 and the others were readily available. BTW, if you're looking for performance, and absolutely no downclocking issues, you may want to stay away from the whole 19x.xx series. Personally, I'd stick to 186.82, 186.81, and specifically 180.84 if you are looking to optimize GTA IV.

Usually any other people who are updating their drivers aren't having nearly as much problem as you.

BTW, just a question - are you selecting the 8 Mseries when updating? Are you you just selecting GeForce 8?

 

Whenever there is the option I always select the M series. Its ok now I have just managed to install the recommended GTA4 Driver!! woot

Had to use the "have disk" method rather than just replacing with the modded inf and running the exe.

Thanks for everyones time!!

edit: just GTA4 benchmarked with no overclocking and got 27 fps!!!! that is with medium textures and higher settings than before!

yusss!

 

Alright, good luck. Hope you get the game running better.

 

ok barebones GTA4 settings I get 29.5 fps so its a definite improvement with this new driver.

I can always go optimise the GTA4 files with that guide but I'm happy with the way it is atm. thanks alot shadow and flip!

 

You're certainly welcome good sir, that's what we're here for.