Best config for GTA IV PC on P-6831FX/P-6860FX/P-7811FX (Please post yours)

GTA Releases today (Dec 2) in North America and tomorrow in Europe, and I've heard through some reviews that it requires some tweaking to get a decent framerate.

Let's make this the place where we post our best performance/graphics settings as well as any other useful performance or graphics tweaks.

(Will update my findings when I get my copy)

 

I doubt we will be having problems running GTA with our 8800M gts

 

Certainly not, in terms of video card muscle, but the CPU requirements are pretty steep, and if you look around a bit you'll see general worry about that.

 

Yeah that might be somewhat of an issue with the 1.66 C2D... Im packing an upgraded T8300 in my 6860 - which only costed me around 200 bucks on eBay.
If it gives you too much trouble, you should consider upgrading Definitely worth it!

 

sorry to break the news, but a qx9650 and 9800gtx2 can't even run this at medium/high apparently. More info over at gtaforums.

 

LOL - really?
So its more demanding than Crysis? Holy crap...

 

let's just hope they make a big optimization patch, or else I'm afraid this game will sink until next year when i7 and the 10xxxm is out.

 

I'd go as far to say it's doubly rubbishly coded compared to crysis. Infact, I think Rockstar must have tried their very best to make it as bad as possible, or somebody needs sacking.

I'm hoping for patches aswell, I was unable to cancell my preorder so I'm just gunna wait it out for some patches.

 

I was just reading on Wikipedia that the game needs 18 GB of HDD Space, good thing I'll have a 640 GB (596 GB Formatted) RAID 0 array in a few days

 

Got it and am getting the missing texture issue .

 

Reset drivers in riva tuner fixed that for me, but I'm hovering around 20FPS in benchmarks, in all the sensible settings I've tried.

 

yeah i am getting 19-21 average fps 99% of the times, but once i was managed to get 32 fps average on 800x600
there is new drivers out that boost ~10fps, but waiting for modded inf.

 

I have those drivers and I get about 20FPS no matter what I do, at all settings. It's weird.

 

you are talking about 180.70? there is 180.84 beta special release for gta 4. i also tweaked 7811 to 700/900/1700 and on medium textures, then second option highest and everything else to 0-1 41 fps... 800x600 versus old driver 30fps.
and varying on higher settings and resolutions i get 3-10fps increase.
get those drivers. Also i heard that patch/update from rock start is coming in a week, so it should give even better performance.

 

No point in super oc'ing your gpu, the game wont fully utilize it. It's all about cpu.

 

so you saying that cpu is holding it back?


edit: game is still wacky made. One time i got 30fps on benchmark with 1920x1080 graphics, then only 24fps with 1600x1200

tested with 180.84 driver.

 

Definetly.

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/aid,669476/Test/Benchmark/GTA_4_PC_Benchmark-Test_mit_13_CPUs/?page=2

First page says differences between 9800gt and 280gtx is 1 or 2 fps.

- After playing with the settings this seems to give very smooth gameplay. Thinking of bumpin up shadows though.

Statistics
Average FPS: 32.34
Duration: 37.13 sec
CPU Usage: 96%
System memory usage: 58%
Video memory usage: 94%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Highest
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 30
Traffic Density: 20
Shadows: 4
Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS
Video Driver version: 180.84
Audio Adapter: Speakers (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9300 @ 2.50GHz

File ID: benchmark.cli

 

that's the one i'm playing on. overall pretty good:

 

Statistics
Average FPS: 34.22
Duration: 37.14 sec
CPU Usage: 96%
System memory usage: 55%
Video memory usage: 95%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1680 x 1050 (62 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Very High
View Distance: 2
Detail Distance: 20

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: %NVIDIA_G92.DEV_0628.1%
Video Driver version: 180.84
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz

=======================================================

Statistics
Average FPS: 22.23
Duration: 37.16 sec
CPU Usage: 79%
System memory usage: 60%
Video memory usage: 100%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (62 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Very High
View Distance: 2
Detail Distance: 20

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: %NVIDIA_G92.DEV_0628.1%
Video Driver version: 180.84
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz
=========================================

Statistics
Average FPS: 29.26
Duration: 37.15 sec
CPU Usage: 96%
System memory usage: 54%
Video memory usage: 100%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (62 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Very High
View Distance: 2
Detail Distance: 20

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: %NVIDIA_G92.DEV_0628.1%
Video Driver version: 180.84
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz

 

Have you updated to the latest DirectX and .NET Framework?

 

I found this tweak* on some other forums that will help you play around with vram. They say its a memory leak ingame.

You set the resolution to lowest, textures & render to high or medium then click apply then restart the game. Now open the graphics settings again then lower both textures and render to low. This will free up gpu vram so you can raise the resolution to max 1920x1200 but the settings for textures/render remains on high until you restart the game.

*just google "gta4 tweaks" and click on the first link to nvnews

 

Interesting, I get 20 FPS no matter how I put the settings, and the 6831's CPU isn't that much slower than the 6860's

 

Thanks... that increased and stabilized the performance even more.

Average FPS: 30.72
Duration: 37.05 sec
CPU Usage: 96%
System memory usage: 57%
Video memory usage: 100%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (62 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Highest
View Distance: 10
Detail Distance: 10

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: %NVIDIA_G92.DEV_0628.1%
Video Driver version: 180.84
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz

710/910/1720 oc

so people, make sure you install 180.84 beta drivers, newest directx and framework 3.5.

I am really looking forward to final/stable 180.84 release and patch/update from rock start. I hope it would stabilize game even more and + 5-10 FPS.

 

I have craphic problem with 180.84 modded inf. The textures aren't drawn out. Only lines ( ?? Any help?

 

i finally got the missing textures to show up by doing that riva tuner thing, anyone have some good settings on a 6860 before i mess with them myself?

 

zarraza's numbers give me hope, but I'm gonna wait for the Rockstar patch to come out and see if that helps any before I buy this one. thanks for the info

 

i set my 6860 at:

1440X900
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Highest
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 25

i'm not sure about the last 2 settings, but it's usually running at 24fps, but it runs pretty smooth and still looks pretty good.

 

on my p6831 I get about 20FPS on similar settings, which I don't think is just cos of the slightly slower CPU.

I'll see what the patch does.

 

hmm I had the normal nvidia gfx drivers... I decided to upgrade to the 180.70 drivers and know im having the no textures issue... I was wondering if other people are getting this? If so ill probably go back to the stock nvidia drivers.

 

i found a link to this in another thread, try step nine, it worked for me.