This patch is AMAZING! Game is running much more smooth here, about a 4fps increase (it makes a difference), ALL PROPS, objects and hot dog vendors are back in the game, the city is highly detailed again, AND EVERYTHING IS WORKING!!! The city panels and clocks are working!
Best patch Rockstar ever made. At least for me it is...
I'm not really good with the technicialities, so I'd like to ask some of hardware gurus in here to help me.
I'm running GTA IV on almoust minimal settings to get playable FPS. Can anyone point out what is the weakest link in my rig or any tips to improve the performance?
Statistics Average FPS: 22.48 Duration: 37.24 sec CPU Usage: 56% System memory usage: 81% Video memory usage: 61%
Hardware Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT Video Driver version: 180.84 Audio Adapter: Realtek HD Audio output Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
File ID: benchmark.cli
Also 2Gb OCZ DDR2 400Mhz RAM, 8600GT 512MB DDR2 overclocked a bit, if that rings a bell.
I don't think so. A 8600GT is the recommended graphics card, it should run fine. I had a 8600GT and it ran much better than that. The processor is just fine, it should run everything (that uses the processor) maxed out.
In my opinion, his problem is RAM and can also be HDD. Look at this: 400Mhz, it should be very old, and GTA IV uses a lot of RAM too.
GTA IV mostly requires a good processor. His is great for this game, specially being quad core. Seriously, look at my pics and my computer spec and then look his settings and his FPS.
I'm playing on a Pentium D 820 2.8Ghz (weakest 2005 processor), 2GB RAM DDR2 667MHz, 9800GT 512MB.
A friend of mine have a 9500GT 1GB (a bit better than 8600gt) E7200 and play this game at 1280x1024, everything maxed out, about 20FPS. Another friend of mine has a E2160 1.6GHz (overclocked 2.82Ghz) and 8600GT 256MB, plays GTA IV with textures on medium, everything else on high. View distance 10, detail distance 36, vehicle density 45, shadow density 5. 26-32FPS.
All of the examples I mentioned above are of people running the game with the same graphics card and much worse processors when compared to art555's one.
My bet is, art555's memory may not be enough for this game, forcing it to use virtual memory (page file), and his HDD most probably isn't defragmented. Is the 8600GT enough to play the game? Yes, it should be, even a 7300GT 128MB can play GTA IV as long as the processor is good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty8_Q3bCoq0
My suggestions:
- Update to patch 1.0.3.0 (if you haven't done that already) - Update to latest nVidia drivers (182.08)
- Defrag your hard drive (if possible, do this to all of your partitions/HDDs) - Verify if your RAM is the problem (if the computer is using page file, it may be the problem. If so, I'd suggest getting 2GB or more RAM DDR2 at least 667MHz (I recommend 800Mhz, but your mother board must be compatible)) - Verify if you have enough free space on the HDD (If I'm not mistaken, about 4,1GB free)
- Try using some commandlines to see if it solves the problem (I'll suggest some to you depending on the situation)
Cheers [RF]-art555, I hope you can solve your problem
Tried doing a video with xfire..but for some reason (xfire crap maybe?) the vid slowed my framerate down while recording, and looked even worse when it played...might try fraps sometime
If the HDD is being used as virtual memory (page file) for the game, I think it'll have big impact on frame-rates
I don't know about the RAM though... I always thought the MHz it says is the real performance, so, my RAM DDR2 is running at 667Mhz, not 1334Mhz, just as his should be running on 400Mhz and not 800Mhz. Please correct me if I'm wrong
Every recording software will slow your rig down quite a lot unless you have an extra processor core and a different harddrive to record the footage on.
But why not use the in game video editor? It's quite powerful and relatively easy to use.
Does anyone know how to use your wheel on this game (momo)? It says it is supported, but it doesn't work for some reason. I tried -directinput command and all that, but it just won't work. Even the new patch didn't solve it
Because it causes memory leaks as big as the Grand Canyon..
PS...How MANY cores do you recommend..I already have 4!! along with 6 Gb RAM, so that should be enough. Will try recording to a different HD though, as well as turning the settings down from 30 fps to 25. and half size instead of full size...I must admit that on my last try, a 1 min 'film' weighed in at over 2 Gb !!
If you tried to compare two HDDs when they're used as virtual memory by a game, you'd be comparing frame rates of the region of 0.05 and 0.051. Virtual memory is so much slower than system memory it's ridiculous. Compare the 12GB per second transfer speed of DDR3 with the 300MB/s of an average SATA HDD. When a page file is used when you're running a game, it'll be for various system services - the game itself will be running completely in system memory.
The only time an HDD will affect a game is initial loading speed and if scenery needs to be streamed. GTA does stream its scenery, but you'd notice lack of performance here as blank textures or popup rather than low frame-rates.
Regarding the memory, I just had a look and was surprised to find you can actually get 400MHz PC3200 DDR2 memory. It's hard to find though, I really didn't think DDR2 does down to those speeds. That seems to be the utter, bottom of the range for DDR2.
There are two ways to "force" GTA IV to use page file, the first one isn't very effective and the second one makes the game use huge loads of page file.
- 1st way: Open something that uses a lot of RAM and let it opened (like Crysis, it uses about 780MB RAM), then open GTA IV. If the system is using all of its RAM, it'll start using page file for one of the games. Not effective for this test really.
- 2nd way: This one really makes the game use a lot of page file for itself, but can only be done if the computer doesn't have enough video and RAM memory to manage it. A 512MB graphics card with 2GB RAM is enough for the test (so it makes the game use page file).
- 1 - Create commandline and use "-availablevidmem 2.2"
- 2 - Open game and set all graphics to maximum possible (textures high, all graphics options on Very High, filtering on Highest, view distance 100, detail distance doesn't matter for the test).
No need to open any other programs, just start up the system and run the game. For the first like 3 minutes playing, FPS will be completely normal and the game is going to look amazing. After this time (can be less or more time depending on how much you go through the city), the game will start using page file. Frame-rate will decrease drastically, stay under 10fps almost all the time, have a lot of hiccups, and sometimes even stop running for a few moments while the HDD is being used. It's even possible to hear the HDD working a lot and making noises each time the game freezes. I can reproduce this on my computer, when the game start using the page file my RAM usage decrease from 98% to 70% and the virtual memory usage stays at very high levels. Windows 7 even closes everything it can trying to compensate it, including explorer.exe and many other tasks, windows, browsers, etc, and opens everything again when I close GTA IV. Doing this "technique" you won't have any missing textures at all, everything will load properly but it will use page file for that. When I suggested art555's computer was using page file I considered his RAM wasn't enough somehow and his computer started using page file to compensate. It's the only way I can explain such low frame-rates for such a good processor. It shouldn't be the graphics card fault because as you can see on the videos and many settings I posted, the 8600GT runs GTA IV just fine. Maybe his overclock isn't working well with GTA IV? Art555, try removing the overclock and see if it solves the problem.. it may not be the problem, but trying this will do no harm.
I seem to be having the same problem as art555.
My specs are:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Service Pack 3
Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz
XFX 8600GT @ 621/1336/453 (quite serious overclocking from 540 to 621, i have to admit it. )
Driver: 182.06
2 GB's of RAM @ 667Mhz.
Everything set to low, 800x600 (with a 22'' screen)
the FPS really differs, the best weather setting for playing it is a sunny day, and it's worse at night, when it's raining.
The fps never goes over 25, and it seems to be really laggy and unstable.
Unfortunatly, the newest patch isn't working at all for me, even with a freshly installed GTA IV.
This really annoys me as the recommended settings clearly said the 8600GT was good enough. Velociround is right.
I'll try downclocking to the normal Clocks, however i don't think it will make a difference.
I have updated the drivers to 182.06 version and defragged Harddrives. Patch 1.0.3. refuses to work for me somehow, so I'm sticking to 1.0.1.0 for now. All in all, all those actions gave a 1-2 Average FPS increase in Benchmark test. Regarding overclocking, I overclocked the card before in order to INCREASE fps in GTA IV, but the result was neglible.
Check these things:
- Is your processor overheating? Does it have enough thermal compound? Is it overclocked and, if so, is it running ok?
- Try reducing your view distance to a lower number (e.g.: 10) because it mostly uses the graphics card and should give you higher FPS.
- I've got a great mod that highers FPS and view distance a lot at the same time, it's really worth it. It increased about 10fps (maybe a bit more) for me with Pentium D and the game looks the same, except view distance goes even farther than before. But I don't know if it allows playing online, so... if you want it, just send me a PM. It's called "farclip", I'm using "farclip 3000" now as I think it's the most realistic one (some others just allow you to see too much farther).
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Since patch 1.0.3.0 brought benchmark finally working for me, I decided to give it a try.
Both tests (Pentium D and E5200) were taken with everything maxed out (read: "Very high", "100", etc), except for view distance (because of farclip).
I was playing online with beefyman666 friday night, and we came across the most wierd, yet funny glitch ever.
We were both messing about by the swing glitch on the first island. Beefyman shot some guy in a car, and he done the typical GTA4 thing, where he slams his head off the horn, and then floors the accelerator and drives off. He burst straight through the contruction barriers, and ended up the completely opposite way round. Beefyman then said "how did he end up this way round?". By this time, the dead guy had now stopped driving around, which is normal. So, i walked upto the now dead guy, still in his car and began looking for tyre marks to see where he spun. Next thing we know, the horn starts going off again, and the car starts driving off! Its driving down the road, and spinning its tyres in a cloud of smoke wiping pedestrians and there cars out. He was doing this for a good minute or so. I really wish i could have recorded it, but never the less, it provided me and beefyman with a great laugh.
this is a bug ive found out alot time ago. i usually steal a car by pointing the gun at the driver, not going and pressing the y where niko throws the guy out of the car(that takes more time). sometimes i like to shoot the guy in the car too, so if you point the gun at the driver, wait till he starts moving out of the car shoot him in to the head. he stands up from the car as he would be alive, but then falls to the ground after he's come out from the car
Today I was going fast with my car on the bridge getting back to broker, when I hit a sidewall, my car went to the air and I landed exactly over a police car. I pressed gas to get out of its roof and kept running. The cop didn't engage pursuit. This is some of the times I regret having clip recorded disabled.
After that, I hit another 2 police cars (with officers inside obviously) and none of them engaged pursuit. Both times I tried to avoid collision, but couldn't.
I love that the cops often kind of think "well that wasn't your fault so I'm not going to pursuit you", and I didn't really choose to land on a police car but I really thought I was going to be chased it was very funny.
I was very lucky yesterday, was just mocking about, crashing (I love the crash physics ) and when I went through an intersection and there were cars coming both ways, the one coming from the left just barely hit me, creating sparks and the other one stopped just in time Was pretty intense
And hitting cop cars, most of the time if you hit them head on or straight on the back they won't pursuit.
)
This is some of the times I regret having clip recorded disabled. 
) and when I went through an intersection and there were cars coming both ways, the one coming from the left just barely hit me, creating sparks and the other one stopped just in time