*!* Another Success story in here w/ my tweaks *!*

[minter66]

First and foremost, there is hope my fellow GTAers. I too was lost upon the dark tossing sea of despair, lost in the darkness of crappy rendering and slow performance. But alas, a light formed upon my head in the image of a light bulb and salvation was attained.

 

My system specs are:

Intel Duo Core e6550 2.33ghz Processor

4gb DDR2 800 Ram

ECS G33T-M2 Motherboard (Yes, I pimp the ECS)

ATi HD3870 with Omega Drivers 4.xx series (overclocked from 772/1100 to 850/1300)

Windows XP - SP3

 

Ok another thread for you guys who got this game with high hopes, installed it, waded through the endless errors and found out that it ran like "dog crap" (as some have so aptly put it)

 

I was very scared after reading the tons of threads on here about performance issues and how bad the game is, but alas my cousin and I had made a pact to do battle with each other online and to see whose bumper would be the one coated in blood.

 

Right after installation I am slammed with error code RMN30 and I chuckle to myself wondering “why would I be any different?”

 

Turns out, your really DO need XP SP3 to run the game. So after doing that, I restart and try the game again. Loads, then crashes to MMA10 error. Yay.

 

So now, I need to log out of RSC before playing. No biggie, start game the third time, loads, set auto config in graphics, then I start a new game. It runs great!

 

Uh…sorta. The guy getting whipped in his cabin all the way up to the opening credits where the car is being offloaded the ship is super smooth. Then it turns to “dog crap”.

 

Cant get above 5 fps. So I turn everything down to minimum. 1024x768, all settings to low, all sliders to 0. STILL RUNS TERRIBLE. I am wondering how my system can possibly be running this game at its MINIMUM specs so terribly. I try to lower it down to 800x600, the game crashes with a DD3D80 error…which the translation makes no sense…

 

Frustration, anxiety, sadness, depression. They all hit me at once. Angrily I go down my stairs, grab the nearest puppy I find and throw it into the fireplace.**

 

Then, after thinking about it for a while, I make some changes to my system and they are as follows (note, I can not guarantee these will work for you, but they did wonders for me)

 

1) Strip visual settings off of your computer. I sent my computer back to the dark ages and it now looks like I am running Windows 98. No visual improvements what so ever, makes the system start a little faster and is more responsive

 

2) I had /PAE and /3GB added to my boot.ini command line. This will probably not apply to 90% of you, but for the 10% of us that use these command line switches to try and get that almighty 4 GB to read in WinXP, DON’T! Apparently windows was trying to write to physical memory which was not present, thus my game was trying to access resources which could not be written/read to, so it switched to a page file thinking it was out of memory which severely cripped the game.

 

3) Page file – CHANGE IT! Right now most of us have our page file set to the C: drive. If you have a secondary hard disk or a even a single disk but with two logical drives, change that bad boy over. I have one WD Sata II 500 GB drive split into a 160/320 config. I changed my Swap file to D: (your drive letter may vary) and manually set it to 4096 initial, 4096 maximum (I don’t know if binary helps it or not, but why not?)

 

a. I BELIEVE (I am not 100% certain on this) that this helps the system when it does switch to the page file to be more geographically centered on the hard disc instead of having the head on the disc move to random points on the drive searching for page file space under the outside rings. Additionally, remember to disable your old page file under C:, you want to make sure it jumps to the other area/drive

 

4) Update your video drivers and clean out old drivers with driver sweeper. I think out of all the things I did, this was the most important/satisfying. I was using ATi’s 8.11 drivers from their website. I uninstalled the display driver the device manager, restarted in safe mode and then cleaned all ATi related registry entries and restarted. I used Omega Drivers 4.8.442 (Catalyst 7.12) from OmegaDrivers.net . And a side note, if this solution works for you and these drivers help, donate to this guy. His stuff is top notch. I am doing some eBay stuff right now and when its all done, I am leaving about $5 - $10 in my paypal account and sending it to him. I used to use TweakForce drivers, but their webhost shut them down.

 

5) Finally, shut as many background tasks as you can down. Navigate to your run entries inside your registry and disable anything you don’t need immediately upon startup. I stopped stuff like PowerDVD, Quicktime, Adobe CS2 tray, etc… from loading on startup. This stuff (while small) eats a little of your memory up. Then, after editing startup programs and before running the game, stop all active monitoring spyware/anti-virus software. I exited my Teatimer on Spybot S&D so it wouldn’t scan my files actively while playing.

 

The result?

 

Incredible results. I was getting 5 fps on EVERYTHING LOW, and now I am getting somewhere around 28 – 32 FPS on these settings:

 

 

Current settings:

Display: 1440x900

Texture Quality: Medium

Render Quality: Highest

View Distance: 35

Detail Distance: 35

Traffic Density: 25

Shadows: Level 3

 

Incredible I say, from what I WAS getting. Oh and I did NOT disable my video recorder/editor and I would NOT recommend this as that one piece of software makes this game worth buying by itself. I had so much fun taking my random murders and putting them in slow motion and different camera angles. And best of all, it too ran like smooth silky butter.

 

I will post benchmarks and screenshots later when I get home. It took me about 2 ½ hrs of optimizing my machine and tweaking it to get it to run my game, so needless to say after that plus 1 ½ hrs of gaming it up (with no mem leaks or crashes/slowdowns) It was very early in the morning.

 

Do not read 100% in the terrible reviews. I agree, most people who are posting are complaining that the game is running like “dog crap” while those who have the game running great are having a great time and not worry about posting on a forum saying “Mine works gr8 kthxbai”

 

I hope this instills some hope, instills some ideas on how to get your system to run better, I mean my computer is by no means “top of the line”, I mean I am using an ECS motherboard for crying out loud. I did OC my graphics card though, so that is a minor tweak here.

 

Good luck to you all, as for me, I have some stuff to blow up and some benchmarks to post. Posting back tonight.

 

Ya'll have a good time now y'hear. (I'm from Texas, *draws revolvers and shoots wildly into the air*)

 

EDIT: I forgot to add, even though through STEAM you get the .net 3.0/3.5 installation package, I installed 3.5 again, after upgrading to SP3 something got messed up I believe, so if you have SP2, install GTAIV then update to SP3, install 3.5 again.

 

 

EDIT EDIT: And dont forget to update your DirectX. I was running 9.0c from April, now I have Novembers edition.

 

 

**No puppies were harmed in the optimization of my PC

Edited December 4, 2008 by minter66

[woozywag]

thats the funniest thing iv read but also the saddest

 

why change your system configuration on a decent enough spec to get just one poorly ported game to run on low? its madness!

 

 

i am able to run on high at 1680 1050 but it slows down occasionally especially cut scenes and looks ugly with no anti aliasing

 

and this is with a GTX 280 SSC, Q6600, 4GB and XP SP3

 

C*

 

 

EDIT: back to amazon it goes and thats 26 i can spend on beer

[minter66]

thats the funniest thing iv read but also the saddest

 

why change your system configuration on a decent enough spec to get just one poorly ported game to run on low? its madness!

 

 

i am able to run on high at 1680 1050 but it slows down occasionally especially cut scenes and looks ugly with no anti aliasing

 

and this is with a GTX 280 SSC, Q6600, 4GB and XP SP3

 

C*

BECAUSE THiS IS SPARTAAAAA!

 

No really, its because I have been wanting to play this game FOREVER (no consoles in my house) and I will do WHAT IT TAKES to get it to run.

 

Now it does...so I am happy.

[dr.whiz]

that's pretty impressive. from 8fps to almost 40fps? makes you realize just how much this game relies on how your computer SOFTWARE is setup.

[woozywag]

i was waiting ages for it too

 

i dont spend stupid amounts on next gen hardware which is superior to a relic like the PS3 to get a game that runs more poorly than any other recent game (except bully... actually that ran crap too and was an old game ported gasp!)

[VickeX]

why change your system configuration on a decent enough spec to get just one poorly ported game to run on low? its madness!

 

Didn't you read what he wrote?

 

 

...and now I am getting somewhere around 28 – 32 FPS on these settings:

 

 

Current settings:

Display: 1440x900

Texture Quality: Medium

Render Quality: Highest

View Distance: 35

Detail Distance: 35

Traffic Density: 25

Shadows: Level 3

[minter66]

that's pretty impressive. from 8fps to almost 40fps? makes you realize just how much this game relies on how your computer SOFTWARE is setup.

Dont get me wrong though, I am running on medium textures and my shaders are WAY low, but it runs well enough to drive high speed into a gas station setting all the pumps off and no slowdowns.

 

I am estimating my FPS, I will get you guys SS of the actual confirmed FPS tonight, but it was smooth to my human eyes so it had to been at least 30

[ld13]

Turns out, your really DO need XP SP3 to run the game.

Not at all. I'm running the game just fine with SP2 at the moment. There is a thread here where I explain the easy registry hack.

[minter66]

Turns out, your really DO need XP SP3 to run the game.

Not at all. I'm running the game just fine with SP2 at the moment. There is a thread here where I explain the easy registry hack.

Ahhh, well the damage has been done. THANKS FOR NOTHING!!

 

J/K

 

I really can't tell a difference, so meh

[orangeraf]

I thought that xp didn't manage 4 go ram... (3go max)

[minter66]

I thought that xp didn't manage 4 go ram... (3go max)

I was able to get 3.25 to read using PAE, but alas that may have been my downfall. But you are correct, I haven't seen any 32 bit versions of XP pro to read 4.0 GB

[xrk]

 

i am able to run on high at 1680 1050 but it slows down occasionally especially cut scenes and looks ugly with no anti aliasing

 

 

 

Strange? my fps jumps up to 60-70 on cutscenes

[NormanLeto]

minter 66

 

I see you have done lot of stuff to make things better.

 

But have you encountered an RESC10 error, which prevents you even to start the actual game? What would you do?

[Rod6er]

Yes the game runs much better if you take the time to tweak your system and settings

[Stewerd]

 

i am able to run on high at 1680 1050 but it slows down occasionally especially cut scenes and looks ugly with no anti aliasing

 

 

 

Strange? my fps jumps up to 60-70 on cutscenes

Oh, strange!

[minter66]

minter 66

 

I see you have done lot of stuff to make things better.

 

But have you encountered an RESC10 error, which prevents you even to start the actual game? What would you do?

RESC10 - Out of video memory - Please re-boot your system

 

Yeah...like that will make it work

 

Shot in the dark here, are your graphics card drivers up to date? GTA IV may be reading your graphics card and the drivers are out dated sending false information to the game and it shows you have less than available memory than you actually do. Drivers do some crazy stuff (as you can tell my post)

 

Incorrect drivers for your device (i.e. using 8600m GT drivers instead of 8700m GT drivers was causing Crysis to crash on my Toshiba X205)

 

On top of that, use driver sweeper to clean out old drivers, they may be conflicting with the new device drivers.

 

 

[Andre9977]

Thanks a lot for this topic, I will keep in mind to try them out if my game runs slow and FPS is small (I haven't got the game yet, but will tomorrow). I have the almost same PC as you do as it seems to me, yet I don't have stuff overclocked and things.

 

Your guide has lid the light in the end of the tunnel for me, I was already afraid I would stay playing with 8 FPS or so.

[xrk]

 

i am able to run on high at 1680 1050 but it slows down occasionally especially cut scenes and looks ugly with no anti aliasing

 

 

 

Strange? my fps jumps up to 60-70 on cutscenes

Oh, strange!

Whats that suppose to mean?

[minter66]

Yes the game runs much better if you take the time to tweak your system and settings

Exactly!

 

I think that is what maybe 60 - 75% of people on here who are complaining haven't done.

 

Its like taking a 1966 Mustang to the track and expecting it to compete against modern 4.7 Mustangs, it just won't work

 

You need to take a step back and go "hmmm, what I can I strip out of this car to make it go faster?"

[minter66]

Thanks a lot for this topic, I will keep in mind to try them out if my game runs slow and FPS is small (I haven't got the game yet, but will tomorrow). I have the almost same PC as you do as it seems to me, yet I don't have stuff overclocked and things.

 

Your guide has lid the light in the end of the tunnel for me, I was already afraid I would stay playing with 8 FPS or so.

Heh, not a problem man.

 

I was wary of admitting I was using an ECS motherboard...but hey the economy sucked and I needed a cheap board that could support C2D and QC processors. For a cheap setup, it works great I must say.

 

And I just wish that everyone who came here, saw how bad the game is working for people yet theirs is working fine, would come and post and let people know. I don't think this is as bad as it can be, granted there are some serious issues to address...but it's not all woe and despair...it can work if people are willing to put some time into it.

[Rod6er]

Poor analogy, modern mustangs are about as good as the 1967s ones. Maybe faster, thats all.

 

[minter66]

 

Hey now

 

I do have to say I enjoy driving my 1966 Mustang around more than my 2000...just something about the rumbling and the looks everyone gives the classic vs some run of the mill 2000.

 

Okay, let me revise my previous statement:

 

Its like taking a 1966 Mustang to the drag strip and expecting it to compete against a GT500, it just won't work

 

You need to take a step back and go "hmmm, what I can I strip out of this car to make it go faster?"

[medfreak]

There is a much easier way around all of this. Download TinyXP. It is a stripped down version of XP with all the most recent updates on it. I love it. I use it just for my gaming on a partition of its own and it has only 13 processes at startup. Don't screw your current version of windows for this game, just install a new stripped down one to another partition.

Edited December 4, 2008 by medfreak

[minter66]

There is a much easier way around all of this. Download TinyXP. It is a stripped down version of XP with all the most recent updates on it. I love it. I use it just for my gaming on a partition of its own and it has only 13 processes at startup. Don't screw you current version of windows for this game, just install a new stripped down one to another partition.

Very cool, haven't heard of that. I HAD heard of Windows XP black...sort of the same thing.

 

But honestly, its not a big deal. This machine is only used for games and remoting into work, nothing else...so I did not min hacking it up...

 

 

Function over fashion I always say

[medfreak]

There is a much easier way around all of this. Download TinyXP. It is a stripped down version of XP with all the most recent updates on it. I love it. I use it just for my gaming on a partition of its own and it has only 13 processes at startup. Don't screw you current version of windows for this game, just install a new stripped down one to another partition.

Very cool, haven't heard of that. I HAD heard of Windows XP black...sort of the same thing.

 

But honestly, its not a big deal. This machine is only used for games and remoting into work, nothing else...so I did not min hacking it up...

 

 

Function over fashion I always say

Trust me, Tiny XP is leaps and bounds better than Windows Black.

[sjaak327]

I simply installed Vista x64 on a different partition just for this game. My current vista X86 didnt load the needed driver to fix the texture issue. And that installation is like 2 years old, with all the bagage that comes with it. Now I just run Vista Ultimate, fully patched and whatever is needed to run the game, an it runs bloody great, considering I'm using a pentium D 830 and a geforce 7800 GTX.

 

Still it plays amazingly well, I haven't installed anti virus yet, and I'm guessing if defender is going to do a scan whilst I play, I will suffer.

 

I will get a new computer in some time, making sure I can max those settings out a bit more

 

But all in all, I'm playing, and I'm pretty happy so far. Not a single crash, and it seems since this morning the social club login bug is gone as well.

 

 

 

 

[crackdawg]

thats the funniest thing iv read but also the saddest

 

why change your system configuration on a decent enough spec to get just one poorly ported game to run on low? its madness!

 

 

i am able to run on high at 1680 1050 but it slows down occasionally especially cut scenes and looks ugly with no anti aliasing

 

and this is with a GTX 280 SSC, Q6600, 4GB and XP SP3

 

C*

 

 

EDIT: back to amazon it goes and thats 26 i can spend on beer

It's not madness. GTA IV is a demanding process, and your processors have limits on threading. I doubt R* used vectorization on the PC port, so this is just a reality.

[kajdehoop]

For shutting down background tasks you can use AlacrityPC

[siapnar]

Awesome post man.. must be very helpful for some.

 

I might just try those old Omega drivers.. but my card is a new(ish) 4870, so I'm not sure if it'll be supported all that well

 

 

 

As for "Tiny XP".. how have I not heard of this already? Does it play all current games at a higher speed because of less resources being used by retarded Windows?

[[email protected]]

My game runs so slow

 

10-20 at the best of times.

 

Trying your recommendations