Specs:
Intel Q6600 @3.2GHz
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Motherboard
4G Patriot PC6400
ATI Radeon HD 4850
320G Seagate 7200.10 SATA
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Fatality edition
Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard
Microsoft Habu Gaming Mouse
24" Samsung 2493BW (1920x1200) & 42" 1080p Westinghouse (1920x1080)
Problem:
Everytime I press a key on the keyboard, the game freezes very quickly. We are talking about a ~250ms pause (1/4 a second). Just say I am in a car. If I use my mouse to scroll around the car, absolutely NO brief pauses or framerate issues. Once I press forward (W) to go, I will get a very brief pause but as long as I hold that button down, the care will keep going faster and faster with absolutely NO skipping/pausing/FPS issues. The second I press left (A) or right (D) I will get another breif skip. When you are hauling ass in a car, once that 1/4 of a second video pause catches up to where you are, you are most likely going to crash. I cannot play the game in this fashion. If you press a button once, and hold it, you can continue to hold buttons without the pause, but the second you press another button you will get the brief pause or studder. When you hit several buttons the pause/studder lasts much longer. If you are trying to bob and weave from the cops, while pressing different buttons (Up, left, right, run, jump) you might as well forget it because it chokes the video up very badly.
What I have tried to resolve the issue:
1. Reinstall
2. New drivers (went from the 8.12 Vista drivers from ATI to their Beta Windows 7 driver) was a huge PITA to uninstall the Vista drivers from Windows 7, specifically the Catalyst control center.
3. New drivers for my chipset
4. Uninstalled Sound Card and ran without sound. Still studder
5. Tried to mess with the Affinity of the GTAIV executable while it was running. Turned it to only using 1 core.. game ran like complete crap..and it STILL had the keyboard pausing. Tried 2 cores, same thing. When I did this the sounds was completely messed up.
6. Tried to mess with the priority of GTAIV.exe, set it to high and it did nothing.
7. Tried running the EXE in Win XP and Vista compatability mode, and not one of them even allowed me to launch the game. From what I have seen from people that are not having a problem is this should not be necessary at all.
The only thing I have no tried is a regular USB keyboard. Only thing I can think of is it is some sort of problem with the bluetooth or the way Windows 7 handles the drivers for my logitech, but I am only using what is automatically installed.
Of course everyone knows that Windows 7 is beta, and that it is not supported by Rockstar. But I think this could be an issue we find a resolution for if we put our heads together. The only thing I am worried about is not many people have reported having this issue.
Would be a shame to have to ditch Windows 7 for Vista just because of GTA, but I will definitely do it. GTA IV seems to run VERY smooth on Windows 7...provided I hold down the up arrow and drive in a straight line.
