anyone using 8600gt

[Devils Dog]

whats the fps after reducing or turning off shadows ???? any difference ???

Didn't really see a different Average FPS went to 21.90

[PuffMaN]

well i'm sick of it.. i ordered me a pair (yes, 2) of msi 9600GT's with 1GB vram

lets see how thát will work

[Olafgtaiv]

Could somebody test the new drivers 180.84 on this card.

 

Thanks.

[GamerShotgun]

Seriously guys, you cant be serious. 8600 graphics in this game ? No way no how, this game is extremely demanding. How on earth you expect a simple 8600 card to render miles and miles with detail landscape like this ? 8600 is a card that is "ok" on laptops for office use not games.

8600 is perfectly ok to play games on. It can handle games such as Fallout3, Farcry2, GRID, Witcher, Team Fortress 2, Halflife2 all on medium or even higher. Hell it can even run crysis.

Excuse me but... Could you tell me which game is a TPS, with sandbox gameplay?

 

Seriously people... get your facts straight! This game isn't an FPS, it's a Third-Person Shooter, which has pretty much to do with it's performance.

 

A Sandbox game needs much more than what you may think, and even on Draw Distance 0, it looks good. No matter how much you try to bash Rockstar, this is an error from your part.

 

I agree, they've screwed up the game in some parts (like that memory leak), but that doesn't mean they don't care about us. And we all know that performance in this game does NOT stands on your GPU's, but your CPU's.

[themasher729]

using the 8600 cards i recommend you read up on adding the "-norestrictions" command so the game doesnt stop you from choosing the graphics settings you wants.

 

1. make a new txt file name it commandline.txt and put it in the "\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV" directory

2. open the commandline.txt and put the commands in you want.

 

 

here is a list of commands i found from gtagaming.com or org i dunno

 

Command Line Parameters

 

Tools

 

-benchmark: Runs the benchmark tool and immediately exits game.

-help: Display list of all command line options

 

Graphics

 

-renderquality: Set the render quality of the game. (0-4)

-shadowdensity: Set the shadow density of the game. (0-16)

-texturequality: Set the texture quality of the game. (0-2)

-viewdistance: Set the view distance of the game (0-99)

-detailquality: Set the detail quality of the game. (0-99)

-novblank: Disable wait for vblank (No Vsync)

-norestrictions: Do not limit graphics settings

-width: Set width of main render window (default is 800)

-height: Set height of main render window (default is 600)

-safemode: Run the graphics in the lowest setting possible

-frameLimit: Limit frame to interval of refresh rate (ex If refreshrate is 60HZ –frameLimit 1 = Locks down to 60HZ)

-refreshrate: Set the refresh rate of main render window – Warning - Monitor must support (ex. –refreshrate 60)

-fullscreen: Force fullscreen mode

-windowed: Force windowed mode

-availablevidmem: Set amount of physical Video Memory(ex. –availablevidmem 0.9)

-percentvidmem: Percentage of video memory to make available to GTA

 

Audio

 

-fullspecaudio: Force high-end CPU audio footprint

-minspecaudio: Force low-end CPU audio footprint

 

System

 

-noprecache: Disable precache of resources

-nomemrestrict: Disable memory restrictions -install the game and/or re-install DirectX

[sanalishhh]

anyone of you with 8600m gt ??? what driver version do you use ??? ihave this 175.97 from dell

[Spectrobozo]

I made a video that show the performance here:

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=qfgCxJY753I

 

8600GT 256mb ddr2.

some of my benches:

 

Statistics

Average FPS: 33.34

Duration: 37.13 sec

CPU Usage: 91%

System memory usage: 67%

Video memory usage: 61%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 800 x 600 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Low

Render Quality: Low

View Distance: 1

Detail Distance: 1

 

Hardware

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Service Pack 3

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Video Driver version: 180.70

Audio Adapter: Realtek HD Audio output

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+

 

File ID: Benchmark.cli

 

Statistics

Average FPS: 28.90

Duration: 37.20 sec

CPU Usage: 95%

System memory usage: 68%

Video memory usage: 63%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1024 x 768 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Low

Render Quality: Low

View Distance: 1

Detail Distance: 1

 

Hardware

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Service Pack 3

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Video Driver version: 180.70

Audio Adapter: Realtek HD Audio output

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+

 

File ID: benchmark.cli

 

Statistics

Average FPS: 27.18

Duration: 37.15 sec

CPU Usage: 94%

System memory usage: 78%

Video memory usage: 87%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1024 x 768 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Medium

Render Quality: Low

View Distance: 15

Detail Distance: 10

 

Hardware

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Service Pack 3

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Video Driver version: 180.70

Audio Adapter: Realtek HD Audio output

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+

 

File ID: Benchmark.cli

 

driver 180.70 beta... I will try the new 180.84.

the memory use is very itense, even I only have 256mb of vram the game uses more than 400!?

 

you can see here

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c370/Spe...zo/gta4test.jpg

 

the mem on the left is the ram memory, on the right is the pagefile.

[miarkus]

I think I probably have you all beat!

I must have the most optomistic yet limited system for playing games but... I will still get the game and hope it works to some degree

 

I have never had the fastest machines and I thought myself lucky if I could play a game at 1024 resolution on all of them. Usually I game myself 800 res on my old pc with the settings at around medium - never AA!!! Newer games seem OK with my new laptop COD2 1024 is good - maybe 20fps

 

Now I have compared my specs to the required minimum (I meet them), the yoogamer test says I am well below par for minimum but I want to know what resolution most reviewers or test programs try to run it at? Everyone complains of 20fps and less; surely thats ALL I have ever been getting so wont bother me

With my NEW laptop (£600) below can I run the game at low settings and low resolution and hav it playable?

 

Bear in mind I run fear at 1024 online for smoothness, NFS MW at 1024 and Bully SE is just embarressing LOL

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

ASUS F3SV

2GB ram

Core 2 Duo T7100 1.8GHZ

Geforce 8600M GS 256 onboard with upto 1gb shared

VISTA SP1

I have very similar laptop.. Here are some sshoots from the game:

 

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtop...st&p=1058711638

 

let me just write in here one thing from that post:

 

almost 15 FPS on 1280x800 with higher quality and almost 12FPS on 800x600 with min setting - that is so bs

[PuffMaN]

i used the -norestrictions command

i run at 1280x1024 now, all other settings low, render quality: high

i also used the command to tell the game i have 512MB of vidram, as i have 2 cards in sli

but still i see 256 in the game..

 

benchmark:

CPU: 83%

sys memory: 35%

vid mem: 100%

average fps: 22.45

 

edit: typo

Edited December 6, 2008 by PuffMaN

[rerere]

 

using the 8600 cards i recommend you read up on adding the "-norestrictions" command so the game doesnt stop you from choosing the graphics settings you wants.

 

1. make a new txt file name it commandline.txt and put it in the "\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV" directory

2. open the commandline.txt and put the commands in you want.

 

 

here is a list of commands i found from gtagaming.com or org i dunno

 

Command Line Parameters

 

Tools

 

-benchmark: Runs the benchmark tool and immediately exits game.

-help: Display list of all command line options

 

Graphics

 

-renderquality: Set the render quality of the game. (0-4)

-shadowdensity: Set the shadow density of the game. (0-16)

-texturequality: Set the texture quality of the game. (0-2)

-viewdistance: Set the view distance of the game (0-99)

-detailquality: Set the detail quality of the game. (0-99)

-novblank: Disable wait for vblank (No Vsync)

-norestrictions: Do not limit graphics settings

-width: Set width of main render window (default is 800)

-height: Set height of main render window (default is 600)

-safemode: Run the graphics in the lowest setting possible

-frameLimit: Limit frame to interval of refresh rate (ex If refreshrate is 60HZ –frameLimit 1 = Locks down to 60HZ)

-refreshrate: Set the refresh rate of main render window – Warning - Monitor must support (ex. –refreshrate 60)

-fullscreen: Force fullscreen mode

-windowed: Force windowed mode

-availablevidmem: Set amount of physical Video Memory(ex. –availablevidmem 0.9)

-percentvidmem: Percentage of video memory to make available to GTA

 

Audio

 

-fullspecaudio: Force high-end CPU audio footprint

-minspecaudio: Force low-end CPU audio footprint

 

System

 

-noprecache: Disable precache of resources

-nomemrestrict: Disable memory restrictions -install the game and/or re-install DirectX

What literally i must write in commandline.txt so i can change my settings with 9600 gt...pls give me just to copy

this is how it looks...

pls help

Edited December 6, 2008 by rerere

[PuffMaN]

What literally i must write in commandline.txt so i can change my settings with 9600 gt...pls give me just to copy

this is how it looks...

pls help

just add the following line to the .txt

-norestrictions

 

this will let u change the settings over the max recommended

[Devils Dog]

 

Could somebody test the new drivers 180.84 on this card.

 

Thanks.

with the 180.84 I got 22.55 FPS on low, I dropped the shadow to 0 and got 23.39 FPS

Both at 1024x768

[PuffMaN]

i just got the 180.84

im bout to test it now ..

[Powis17]

i just got the 180.84

im bout to test it now ..

what is the news?

[gtathebest4ever]

i have a 8600gts and i have textures on medium, render on highest, detail distance on max, draw distance on 30/100 (i guess, because i can't go over 50), number of cars on max... i can't remember what the other settings are, but they're all maxed out, and i have a great 30 fps. it looks great, i don't get what's the problem with the guys that are whining, they must be graphic whores. oh, i forgot resolution 1280x1024, and shadow density max.

[HousePlant]

Hi, I have an 8600 gts and I have some tips for you. First of all, my rig:

 

AMD X2 6000+

2 Gigs of DDR 800

8600GTS

Windows XP Pro fully updated.

 

I'm running at 1024x768 with textures set at medium and renderer at high, view distance 32, detail distance, 50, shadow density at 8, and traffic density at 45. My average FPS is in the mid 30's (34 average on benchmark).

 

Some may think "BLASPHEMY!" but its actually really easy. Only 3 steps:

 

1. Add the console command "-novblank". You may want to also add "-norestrictions" so as to allow you to change your settings as you please.

 

2. Download NVIDIA's Nvidiabeta gta iv optimized driver

 

3. crack the game to skip all securom protection (this nets most people 10-15fps)[i own a legit copy, I just hate securom, it slows stuff down]. I won't say more than search fed0ra

 

As for cracking, it is in fact legal if you own the game. I didn't pay $50 dollars to play at 5fps. The amount of protection applied to GTA:IV hurts customers, not pirates; the pirates cracked it 2 days after release and us paying customers are left with a shoddy product.

 

PS: Running games in XP as apposed to Vista usually nets a few FPS, especially on older systems.

[alamuru420123]

Looks like crap, but atleast I can play. Should try to free up some memory and then give it a shot.

 

 

Statistics

Average FPS: 20.66

Duration: 37.17 sec

CPU Usage: 88%

System memory usage: 86%

Video memory usage: 99%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1024 x 768 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Low

Render Quality: Highest

View Distance: 1

Detail Distance: 16

 

Hardware

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Service Pack 3

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Video Driver version: 180.84

Audio Adapter: SoundMAX HD Audio O

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+

 

File ID: Benchmark.cli

[crevlthe]

ugh, here are mine:

 

Windows XP SP3 (updated)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500, 2.21 GHz

2gb RAM

Nvidia GeForce 8600gt 256mb (driver version: 180.84)

Realtek High Definition Audio

 

It usually gives about a fps of around 11-30 (rarely, though) if I run it 800x600 or 1024x768 (60Hz). Somehow, setting the texture or the rendering settings on high or low doesn't seem to make much difference.

 

It sort of works if i crank it up to my monitor's widescreen native resolution, 1440x900, but, if I look in a particular direction, it takes quite a while to render all the bits, though far away, there are cars floating about. Meanwhile, the fps drops to about 5-10.

 

Even if I did set everything on the lowest, the fps drops to about 11-15, which is quite a big difference and rather annoying. The CPU usage always bonks out at 100%, whatever I do in the game.

 

btw, I've tweaked my shortcut to look like this:

"C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\LaunchGTAIV.exe" -norestrictions -nomemrestrict -novblank –availablevidmem 512 -percentvidmem 100 -framelimit 0

Edited December 7, 2008 by crevlthe

[Holy yloH]

Im running 8600gt . and im getting no textures /fail

[PuffMaN]

well whatever i do, whatever driver i use, i wont go over 22fps..

pain in the ass...

i think it looks better though, and stability has improved too

im able to play for more than half an hour now..

i also used -nomemrestrict in my commandline.txt,

as i read gta iv tends not to go over 800MB ram use..

kinda foolish when i have 6gb atm..

oh whell, i ordered me a new pair of cards with loads of vram..

bring it on R*

Edited December 7, 2008 by PuffMaN

[ciphrix]

ugh, here are mine:

 

Windows XP SP3 (updated)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500, 2.21 GHz

2gb RAM

Nvidia GeForce 8600gt 256mb (driver version: 180.84)

Realtek High Definition Audio

 

It usually gives about a fps of around 11-30 (rarely, though) if I run it 800x600 or 1024x768 (60Hz). Somehow, setting the texture or the rendering settings on high or low doesn't seem to make much difference.

 

It sort of works if i crank it up to my monitor's widescreen native resolution, 1440x900, but, if I look in a particular direction, it takes quite a while to render all the bits, though far away, there are cars floating about. Meanwhile, the fps drops to about 5-10.

 

Even if I did set everything on the lowest, the fps drops to about 11-15, which is quite a big difference and rather annoying. The CPU usage always bonks out at 100%, whatever I do in the game.

 

btw, I've tweaked my shortcut to look like this:

"C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\LaunchGTAIV.exe" -norestrictions -nomemrestrict -novblank –availablevidmem 512 -percentvidmem 100 -framelimit 0

Just a question, but why are you using "–availablevidmem 512" if your graphic card is only 256 mem?

 

 

[crevlthe]

 

ugh, here are mine:

 

Windows XP SP3 (updated)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500, 2.21 GHz

2gb RAM

Nvidia GeForce 8600gt 256mb (driver version: 180.84)

Realtek High Definition Audio

 

It usually gives about a fps of around 11-30 (rarely, though) if I run it 800x600 or 1024x768 (60Hz). Somehow, setting the texture or the rendering settings on high or low doesn't seem to make much difference.

 

It sort of works if i crank it up to my monitor's widescreen native resolution, 1440x900, but, if I look in a particular direction, it takes quite a while to render all the bits, though far away, there are cars floating about. Meanwhile, the fps drops to about 5-10.

 

Even if I did set everything on the lowest, the fps drops to about 11-15, which is quite a big difference and rather annoying. The CPU usage always bonks out at 100%, whatever I do in the game.

 

btw, I've tweaked my shortcut to look like this:

"C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\LaunchGTAIV.exe" -norestrictions -nomemrestrict -novblank –availablevidmem 512 -percentvidmem 100 -framelimit 0

Just a question, but why are you using "–availablevidmem 512" if your graphic card is only 256 mem?

hm, i'm not really sure. for some reason it sort of improves my performance slightly. not much though. about 3-5 fps for me. i copied it off some other thread.

[misterbarlow]

Here are my benches on few settings I have tried...

The game runs an displays ok for me...

 

1)

Statistics

Average FPS: 37.53

Duration: 37.07 sec

CPU Usage: 96%

System memory usage: 51%

Video memory usage: 98%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 800 x 600 (56 Hz)

Texture Quality: Low

Render Quality: Low

View Distance: 9

Detail Distance: 46

 

Hardware

Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate

Service Pack 1

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Video Driver version: 178.24

Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)

Intel® Core2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz

 

2)

Statistics

Average FPS: 27.96

Duration: 37.16 sec

CPU Usage: 84%

System memory usage: 74%

Video memory usage: 100%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1024 x 768 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Low

Render Quality: Medium

View Distance: 12

Detail Distance: 46

 

Hardware

Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate

Service Pack 1

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Video Driver version: 178.24

Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)

Intel® Core2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz

[thastrogg]

Any one running it on a 8800gt? im going to buy the card if it runs good

[PuffMaN]

Any one running it on a 8800gt? im going to buy the card if it runs good

i would get a 9 series if i was u..

[misterbarlow]

From my post above I will be playing on this setup I suppose..

 

Average FPS: 27.96

Duration: 37.16 sec

CPU Usage: 84%

System memory usage: 74%

Video memory usage: 100%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1024 x 768 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: Low

Render Quality: Medium

View Distance: 12

Detail Distance: 46

 

Hardware

Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate

Service Pack 1

Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT

Video Driver version: 178.24

Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)

Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz

 

Having read here that the cpu is the main bottleneck with this game, would I see any major benefit in fps or quality in upgrading from my 256mb 8600GT to say a 512mb 9600 or 9800, or would I be wasting my time & money?

 

 

[LanceLongstiff]

At 1600 x 1200, high textures and high rendering, all sliders at halfway point, I get 27 fps average.

 

At 800 x 600, low textures and low settings, all sliders at lowest, I get 29 fps average.

 

Playable, but f*cking dumb.

 

(ATi 4850 1gb, AMD X2 6000+, 4gb)

[Ballystix]

So far very dissapointed by the performance (fps=20s and below) and i run into a massive slow down bug after about 1/2 hour of playing which makes the game unplayable

 

My system

 

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual, 4200+

2.21 Ghz, @.00 gb of RAM

Windows XP Sp2... using windows2000 compatibility to circumvent the SP3 requirement

 

8600 GTS, 256 MB of Video ram

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 800 x 600

Texture Quality: low

Render Quality: low

 

Setting resolution to 1024x768 destroys performance and causes invisible textures to pop up. The situation is so bad that i decided to play on a 14'' CRT because i cant stand the sight of an 800x600 game stretched to wide screen (nvidia's aspect ratio option doesnt work for 800x600 for some reason). I think i'll install SP3 and see what happens.

[hellraisert]

Just wondering if anyone has found a way to reasonably run this game with a 8600 card?

My specs:

Intel Core2Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz

4GB Ram

8600GT 512MB videocard

 

I agree with a previous poster that any resolution below 1680x1050 is basically a no-go, but even when I play it with all settings to low on 1024x768 the game stutters, and even worse, it looks like crap. But then again, I don't think it looks particularly great at high resolutions and high settings either...

 

Anyway, as this thread was dying, I hope someone has some ideas on how to get the game to run a bit better with this videocard, which strangely enough was the recommended one...