Who's running GTA 4 with 8600M-GT?

Anyone with a 8600M-GT card running GTA 4? How does it run? Do the patches improve performance?

 

Wow i started a thread similar to this in the Lenovo/IBM sub-forum asking if anyone has run it on their T61p with the 570M GPU, (8600M GT) because i may try it out and see what i can run it at, i'm fairly confident it will run it decently. GTA 4's "minimum" requirement for a GPU is a d desktop 7900 GS, which i've heard the 8600M GT's performance is equivalent to in desktop card flavor. I've also heard that performance patches that came out are making it alot more flexible with "older" CPU's and GPU's like the 8600M GT.

 

Well, I have a 3650 which is a tad worse than the 8600M GT, and it's not all that great. It really depends on your CPU. And by the looks of it, your T7100 isn't going to cut it. I manage 20FPS tops with my P8400, and with your GPU, you'll have to run it at 800 x 600. Hell, this game makes my desktop 8600 GTS arrtifact, and the 8600 GTS is supposedly somewhere near the 9600M GT in terms of performance.

Also, the best working patch for me was 1.0.4.0. 1.0.0.4, which is the most recent, has caused my framerate to drop by 5FPS.

 

Patches add more levels of graphics settings, which give you more controls over the game performance.

And they do improve performance, maybe like 20~30% jump.

 

If the game is CPU dependent then I'm most likely screwed. My 3dmark05 CPU tests (the one with the ships coming out of the cave) ran at under 1 FPS...

 

GTA IV is very CPU intensive. They have a Quad core under the recommended settings

 

Mine's like that too, IMO the CPU tests really don't run faster than that, unless you have a really awful-strong i7 running in there. BTW I have a T9600.

In my set-up, plus using DOX 180.84 (NVIDIA official 180.84's are GTAIV-optimized) I could net about 20-25fps average in daylight, and about 17fps when it's raining. Patches will help, so as using graphics tweaks, but that concerns patching the game unofficially, which I'm sure is a gray area lol.

 

3DMark05? You should be using 06.

 

The CPU test is always like that though, even for powerful CPUs.

 

It is actually the desktop 8600 GT which is equivalent to the 7900 GS.

 

True. This is why my 8600 GTS can only just manage it on 800 x 600.

 

And notebooks with 8600M GT are weaker than the minimum specs mentioned unless it has a powerful dual core or a decent quad core.

 

Ah no, the minimum requirement for a GPU is the desktop 7900.

 

That was exactly what my above posts meant. A desktop 7900GS is equivalent to a desktop 8600 GT but is more powerful than the mobile version of 8600 GT.

 

My mate does lol.. I think his CPU is about the same as urs too.. It runs "ok", i mean its playable but not a joy and visually thrilling.

 

I should probably wait till I get a new computer?

 

The game is poorly optimized, even high-end desktops are sometimes having problems running it properly i heard. But the released patches had a huge improvement. I have a 9600m gt and core 2 duo 2.4ghz, and after i applied the 1.001-1.005 patches the game ran way much better then before.
And im running it at 1280x1024 on my external monitor at med-high details with very decent fps, not sure how many exactly cause i never tested but it sure runs more then decent. So if you apply the patches and run it at 1280x800 with low-med details, im 90% sure you will be satisfied with it.

LE: 19-25 fps, sometimes it goes to 15-17 if its fog outside, but thats on a 19 inch monitor, it will run smoother on a 15 inch one.

Auto-configured settings:

 

I thought a 3650 is considered to be on par or slightly better than an 8600

 

Note that you only need to apply one patch for IV, not all of them.

 

Yes, the latest patch includes all the previous ones.

 

Yeah I just purchased this game from D2D for 19.99 USD. What settings should I use for peak performance and eye candy? ( Specs in sig, np 8662).

 

I am using it with 1.0.3.0 patch. I tried 1.0.4.0 and performance got much, much worse, so I rolled back, and haven't tried 1.0.5.0 yet.

I don't think I will try it, I am happy with the current performance...

 

@OP - I wouldn't try it for the CPU reason. 1.8 GHZ C2D isn't going to cut it. You simply won't enjoy the game

@naticus - you can play on high, but I recommend turning shadows off (they look bad anyway) and if possible OC your CPU a little. This is the only game I have used the turbo button on my MSI for. The difference between 2.4 GHz and 2.8 GHz was well worth it.

 

I never really notice shadows in a game enough to appreciate the intricate shading that the GPU puts into them. I also heard shadows take a huge performance hit so i won't by any means mind disabling shadows totally.

 

Trust me though, you'll notice it.. But either its shadows on medium, or non at all.. The shadows are in general pretty horrible in GTA4..

 

I play with shadows off and enjoy the game pretty much... When I tried to turn them on, it takes a huge performance hit and they look horrible.

I am also using "tweak 2" from this patch. It adds depth of field and a nice blur effect, without any hit on performance.

 

After you installed the 1.040 patch, did you re-adjust all of your graphic settings, disable clip capture and disable vsync?

I find that patch 1.0.0.4 is the best by far in terms of performance. You can run any different patched versions alongside each other too.

 

It's real world performance is the same, if the memory types are the same, and it actually performs worse in 3DMark06 with an identical processor in both tests.