awful frame-rate with fast cpu

[modeeper]

Greetings from Thailand. Yes, we have computers here too. I spent a month's pay up-grading to a 3.0 GHz Pent4, AMD mother, 1 gig ram and a Force 4 card (G-Force five's are rare here).

 

I was just reading the troubles some members are having with FPS and I have to wonder WTF? These people have components waaay older than mine, and it seems some folks are getting a better game than me!

 

I downloaded a Riva Tuner and it helped a little on the low setting. I can almost play the game. When Carl gets in a car the radio comes on, and he sits there taking hits from 20 gangbangers while I get the mouse wheel to shut of the music. With the music on it takes a good 3 seconds to even start to see movement with the car. Station turned off, no prob., but still, it's a slow going frame-rate.

 

My questions are: 1) How do I disable the radio for good? Can I go to the sound files and alter them where I get game play but no radio? 2) My puter dude says I need the Force 5 - 256 MB. Is that really the answer or does he want to sell me something. Yes, I defrag all the time, have no other programs running. Computer is lightning fast but Mr. Johnson is being slaughtered with slow FPS and it's makin me crazy.

 

By the way, I'm 61. People round here think it's really odd a bloke my age would be so devoted to GTA ... or any video game for that matter. GTA is THE best video game ever produced. I admire people in the 100 club. This game is not easy, at least with what I'm up against. Thanx for any replies.

[gta_rodney]

I think you have a Geforce4 MX (it really slow down the game ) ,you must upgrade your video card to Geforce FX (Force 5 ??) when they come to Thailand ,you can also turn the FX Quality to LOW , and play on 640x480

[GTA3Freak-2001]

If anything its the GeForce 4 you have, now while getting something newer such as something in the FX(GeForce5) or GeForce 6 will probably help I can't garantee it will be much better. You see SA is really badly ported and it has numerous problems with running even on good hardware. Have you tried lowering your settings for the game? Make sure AA/Antialiasing is turned off as that would slow it down a bit.

[modeeper]

Thanks for your help. I took your advice. I found a GF 5500 and bought it, at a scalper's price. Man, whata difference - not just the GTAs but everything .. smoother, richer-looking. Driving is a dream but still when he gets into a car and the radio comes on I get a delay, not nearly as bad as it was. I figure the memory must go to full demand with the two added variables; vehicle mode and music.

 

I have a confession. I have a cracked copy of GTA SA. Sorry, but pirats are all we have down here in the jungle. There's just about no sound coming through - traffic, bullets, sirens, etc are good. The cut sceens are about 95% void of sound and no peds are heard. The car radio is doggy too. Anything I can do? I've reinstalled but nothing new comes out of it. I don't know at the mo what sound card I have but I'm sure it's an old one.

[GTA3Freak-2001]

I have a confession. I have a cracked copy of GTA SA. Sorry, but pirats are all we have down here in the jungle. There's just about no sound coming through - traffic, bullets, sirens, etc are good. The cut sceens are about 95% void of sound and no peds are heard. The car radio is doggy too. Anything I can do? I've reinstalled but nothing new comes out of it. I don't know at the mo what sound card I have but I'm sure it's an old one.

Yeah I understand that it may be impossible to get legit copies because of your location so I am sorry you are stuck with a pirated copy. Sorry because we really can't help you, I can tell you that your sound problems are probably all related to it being a pirated copy. Pirated versions often have cut out audio to save on space so my only advice is to try and get a legit copy but that may be hard for you.

[modeeper]

I guess the Thais don't care about the voices anyway. All software is pirated in this country. Figure, Windows XP is what, 130usd? That's a lot of money to a Thai guy who earns 5us$ per day. Being legit is astronomically expensive.