~! Ultimate GTAIV Performance Fix !~

[Lodis]

 

WIll an HP DV5-117 TX play GTA IV without any laggs?

Heres the some of the spec:

2.53 core 2 duo

Geforece 9600M GT Nvidia with 512 MB

4 GB ram

 

Advertising is prohibited.

wtf do you mean "without lagg".. No it wont lol.. it will run the game but sure as f*ck wont be a pleasure

If that was a desktop the game would run pretty good on it, but since its a laptop I don't know. Everyone here says laptops aren't good for gaming. Make sure you have it plugged in while your playing. I bet this game could drain a fully charged battery in half an hour.

Many laptops will not run that game well unless you know what you are doing and buy a proper gaming laptop with the right specs and res.

 

My NP8662 Quad gaming laptop runs this game on high at 1680 X 1050 and I get 30fps, sometimes 40 fps and higher fps when inside buildings. I have played with big police chases, steaming down the road at high speed being shot at from helicopters and police with lots happening at once on screen and it is still playable.

 

I am in the process of tweaking it for better performance still, of course.

[Lodis]

Regarding this tweak, wouldn't -memrestrict 262144000 do something similar?

[gtaforlifeshopper]

i tried everything.......i get the same resolution nothing better......

the vidmem is working.........i get faster speeds at windowed mode but not a good resolution if i dont add -windowed

Only solutions to all of your problems is..... To buy a new computer!

[shino123]

i tried everything.......i get the same resolution nothing better......

the vidmem is working.........i get faster speeds at windowed mode but not a good resolution if i dont add -windowed

Only solutions to all of your problems is..... To buy a new computer!

thanks for the advice ,but i cant afford it now .....guess i will have to stick with windowed mode,it works fine.

take care!!!

[megaknight]

alright this is screwed up

 

ive tried everything, and no matter what i have my settings at, or if i use this tweak, my game always runs at 19-21 fps. it was like this even before i over clocked my CPU. always in that area, never higher, never lower, even if i raise or lower the settings. what is going on?

 

my specs

 

AMD athlon x2 64 4200+ @2.6 ghz (OCed)

Geforce 9600gt 512mb VRAM

4gb kingston DDR2 667 mhz RAM

Gigabyte GA-M61VME-S2 motherboard

Windows xp professional X64 edition

 

[neilthecellist]

 

alright this is screwed up

 

ive tried everything, and no matter what i have my settings at, or if i use this tweak, my game always runs at 19-21 fps. it was like this even before i over clocked my CPU. always in that area, never higher, never lower, even if i raise or lower the settings. what is going on?

 

my specs

 

AMD athlon x2 64 4200+ @2.6 ghz (OCed)

Geforce 9600gt 512mb VRAM

4gb  kingston DDR2 667 mhz RAM

Gigabyte GA-M61VME-S2 motherboard

Windows xp professional X64 edition

For the most part, it's your CPU and motherboard that are VERY OUTDATED that's causing your generally abysmal, low framerate. I've provided a simple run down of your computer overall:

 

Your motherboard sucks. You own a video card that supports PCI Express v2.0, but your motherboard only does v1.0. Your processor is AM2 socket when AM2+ is already out with blazingly faster speeds (excuse the advertising language).

 

Quoted from your motherboard's website:

 

 

Revolutionary PCI Express interface provides scalable bandwidth for multi-purpose usage. PCI-E x16 interface

 

That just made me laugh. And you're wondering why you're getting low framerates. GTA IV is not Call of Duty 4, it is a graphics intensive game that rivals with Crysis as far as performance is concerned (not graphics obviously).

 

Your CPU is weak. This game pretty much demands quad core processors. Yes, the gaming era has reached that point. Clearly, as you saw your for yourself, dual core processors don't get the job done anymore. Overclocking your AM2 processor won't do anything, you don't even own a dual core processor that's at LEAST AM2+.

 

Your video card is weak and only has 512 mb of vRAM, when the game essentially recommends at least 1024 mb or 1 gigabyte. Again your motherboard limits your video card v1.0 performance.

 

4 GB of RAM is great, but at 667 mhz, which is a very outdated clock speed for RAM, you're really asking for slow performance overall. Put it this way: You could have 8 GB of RAM, or 16 GB, or even 32 GB of RAM in your computer! But it wouldn't matter so long as the physical maximum safe clock speed on your RAM is 667 mhz and not 800mhz or 1066mhz.

 

 

 

Overall, it's not the game's fault. What is "going on" is that your computer sucks now and it's time for an upgrade. "This is screwed up" is not the right way to put it. Nothing is screwed up on GTA IV's end, it's your own accountability that's screwed up.

 

 

EDIT: LOL the last person who bought and reviewed your CPU from NewEgg was in 2006! hahahahaha

 

EDIT 2: And your CPU's not even available for sale anymore.... hahahaha.

Edited July 14, 2009 by neilthecellist

[crackdawg]

I've heard of 70FPS with everything in graphics maxxed on overclocked hardware. I've seen 60FPS constancy, and bursts of 65FPS on the following:

 

CPU:i7 Extreme OEM clock(4 cores with HT(2 hardware threads per core so 8 core equivalent))

RAM:4GB DDR3 1066Mhz 4CAS

Video: EVGA Superclocked 9800GTX 512MB GDDR3 ~(758/2800)

SPU: on board HD realtek

HDD: 10000RPM SATA-300

 

Full FSB

 

Weird thing is I got the same constant FPS on an ITX with a 9300 IGPU and core 2 quad(no HT) and a 4MB cache at 2.4Ghz. I had a stripped down xp x64 install though(like embedded XP but not.) I think the GTA IV engine has a thread cap, or rather it is specially written to only utilize 4 hardware threads or 3:4 additional threads. Most people still don't know windows XP and Vista don't utilize additional cores in native allocation; this lock is to be removed in windows 7 supposedly; this means a lot of people who boast dual/quad core claims have no clue what they're talking about(R* wrote there own interface..)

 

The underlying software is a major dictator. This is the principle behind a game console, little code footprint under portable interface over fast embedded hardware with plenty of SIMD instructions. That's what I demonstrated with the ITX. I'm sure if the people who did the i7 tests properly configure the OS they'd get more FPS though(all it takes is native service management and defragmentation(eliminate as many real time processes as possible and sort file system; there is an epic amount of useless native processes under windows for security, interprocess communications, and protocol bloating.)) Also I did a good BIOS configuration.

 

SIDE NOTE: Can the yuppies at Google, Adobe, LogiTech and other mainstream vendors please quit using rootkit techniques to keep their processes running on client/consumer machines? I know some of them read these forums, especially the marketing fags who sold their parents to mexican prostitution to get a new car and a months supply of anti-depressants.

Edited July 14, 2009 by crackdawg

[megaknight]

 

 

Your CPU is weak. This game pretty much demands quad core processors. Yes, the gaming era has reached that point. Clearly, as you saw your for yourself, dual core processors don't get the job done anymore. Overclocking your AM2 processor won't do anything, you don't even own a dual core processor that's at LEAST AM2+.

 

Your video card is weak and only has 512 mb of vRAM, when the game essentially recommends at least 1024 mb or 1 gigabyte. Again your motherboard limits your video card v1.0 performance.

 

4 GB of RAM is great, but at 667 mhz, which is a very outdated clock speed for RAM, you're really asking for slow performance overall. Put it this way: You could have 8 GB of RAM, or 16 GB, or even 32 GB of RAM in your computer! But it wouldn't matter so long as the physical maximum safe clock speed on your RAM is 667 mhz and not 800mhz or 1066mhz.

 

 

 

Overall, it's not the game's fault. What is "going on" is that your computer sucks now and it's time for an upgrade. "This is screwed up" is not the right way to put it. Nothing is screwed up on GTA IV's end, it's your own accountability that's screwed up.

 

 

EDIT: LOL the last person who bought and reviewed your CPU from NewEgg was in 2006! hahahahaha

 

EDIT 2: And your CPU's not even available for sale anymore.... hahahaha.

Alright, i know that im not going to get high framerates. i was wondering why i didnt get a framerate increase at lower details, thats all. I know what i need to run the game, in fact, this is the new computer that i am getting in about 2 months:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA 1366

Mobo: MSI X58 Pro Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire DDR3 Mainboard

RAM: 6GB PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666 Triple Channel Memory

video card: 2 ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCI-E 16X 1GB Video Cards

 

Its gonna cost me $1337.00 (not including shipping and handling, and GST). i am also going to get a blue ray disc drive, and a 1080p monitor when i can afford it. im gonna sell my current pc. Also, there is no need to be an asshole.

Edited July 14, 2009 by megaknight

[heat84]

alright this is screwed up

 

ive tried everything, and no matter what i have my settings at, or if i use this tweak, my game always runs at 19-21 fps. it was like this even before i over clocked my CPU. always in that area, never higher, never lower, even if i raise or lower the settings. what is going on?

 

my specs

 

AMD athlon x2 64 4200+ @2.6 ghz (OCed)

Geforce 9600gt 512mb VRAM

4gb kingston DDR2 667 mhz RAM

Gigabyte GA-M61VME-S2 motherboard

Windows xp professional X64 edition

I have a similar setup: Athlon 64 x2 5000+ Black Edition OC'ed to 3..0GHZ, 9800GT 1GB, and 2GB of DDR800 RAM. On XP32 I got the same FPS as you did. I'm running Windows 7 64bit now and have gotten around a 5 FPS increase. That 5 FPS increase could be because its a fresh Windows install(XP was due for a reinstall before I borked it), because of the patches, or because XP was on an IDE drive and I installed Windows 7 on a SATA drive. I'm not a FPS junkie so I'm happy. I have all the graphics setings that don't use the CPU maxed out, draw and detail distance at 26, and vehicle density at 70 and VRAM usage is still in the green(946 MB). Vsync and Definition are off.

"

@neilthecellist: Dual cores aren't "very outdated". They're just not the latest technology.

 

[froggz19]

is working ...but sometimes i get fatal error

[neilthecellist]

 

 

Your CPU is weak. This game pretty much demands quad core processors. Yes, the gaming era has reached that point. Clearly, as you saw your for yourself, dual core processors don't get the job done anymore. Overclocking your AM2 processor won't do anything, you don't even own a dual core processor that's at LEAST AM2+.

 

Your video card is weak and only has 512 mb of vRAM, when the game essentially recommends at least 1024 mb or 1 gigabyte. Again your motherboard limits your video card v1.0 performance.

 

4 GB of RAM is great, but at 667 mhz, which is a very outdated clock speed for RAM, you're really asking for slow performance overall. Put it this way: You could have 8 GB of RAM, or 16 GB, or even 32 GB of RAM in your computer! But it wouldn't matter so long as the physical maximum safe clock speed on your RAM is 667 mhz and not 800mhz or 1066mhz.

 

 

 

Overall, it's not the game's fault. What is "going on" is that your computer sucks now and it's time for an upgrade. "This is screwed up" is not the right way to put it. Nothing is screwed up on GTA IV's end, it's your own accountability that's screwed up.

 

 

EDIT: LOL the last person who bought and reviewed your CPU from NewEgg was in 2006! hahahahaha

 

EDIT 2: And your CPU's not even available for sale anymore.... hahahaha.

Alright, i know that im not going to get high framerates. i was wondering why i didnt get a framerate increase at lower details, thats all. I know what i need to run the game, in fact, this is the new computer that i am getting in about 2 months:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA 1366

Mobo: MSI X58 Pro Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire DDR3 Mainboard

RAM: 6GB PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666 Triple Channel Memory

video card: 2 ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCI-E 16X 1GB Video Cards

 

Its gonna cost me $1337.00 (not including shipping and handling, and GST). i am also going to get a blue ray disc drive, and a 1080p monitor when i can afford it. im gonna sell my current pc. Also, there is no need to be an asshole.

*facepalm* a 1080p monitor implies that you're getting a monitor that can max out at 1920 x 1080 resolution, which is a 16:9 aspect ratio monitor... Why not a monitor that supports 1920 x 1200 so you get 16:10 aspect instead? It amazes me how people will save up all the money for the new car, new TV, new house, but they'll settle for less than what their money is TRULY worth for. You can easily get an Samsung or Acer monitor right now from NewEgg and it would not only support 1920 x 1080 (and 1920 x 1200) resolutions, but can shoot up to 2560 x 1600 resolution, which is beyond the quality of BluRay and will make your games sparkle. All of this at a very similar, if not cheaper, price than a traditional 1080p screen. (And please don't get this "plasma TV" or "HDTV" crap. If it doesn't have "LED" or "LCD" in the product description then you're throwing your money away... Enjoy your fuzzy scanline pictures).

 

I mean, if you're getting two video cards to run in CrossFire, what's the point of running a game in ONLY 1080p? Your video cards will be able to slam 1080p in the face with 1600p, so you might as well get a monitor that supports that. Otherwise you're losing value on your video cards. Might as well just get one HD 4850 instead.

 

I also like how you don't mention the brand names for the computer components you're buying, with the exception of MSI. (And why are you getting MSI when you can get a higher quality mobo from a better manufacturer like BFG, ASUS, or EVGA? Brands like MSI and ASRock are "budget" mobos. If you're gonna invest in two high-end video cards, 6 GB of RAM and a quad core processor, why are you cheaping out on the mobo? Your mobo will end up limiting the performance of your other computer components.

Edited July 15, 2009 by neilthecellist

[MonkeyMhz]

 

Your CPU is weak. This game pretty much demands quad core processors. Yes, the gaming era has reached that point. Clearly, as you saw your for yourself, dual core processors don't get the job done anymore. Overclocking your AM2 processor won't do anything, you don't even own a dual core processor that's at LEAST AM2+.

 

Your video card is weak and only has 512 mb of vRAM, when the game essentially recommends at least 1024 mb or 1 gigabyte. Again your motherboard limits your video card v1.0 performance.

 

4 GB of RAM is great, but at 667 mhz, which is a very outdated clock speed for RAM, you're really asking for slow performance overall. Put it this way: You could have 8 GB of RAM, or 16 GB, or even 32 GB of RAM in your computer! But it wouldn't matter so long as the physical maximum safe clock speed on your RAM is 667 mhz and not 800mhz or 1066mhz.

 

 

 

Overall, it's not the game's fault. What is "going on" is that your computer sucks now and it's time for an upgrade. "This is screwed up" is not the right way to put it. Nothing is screwed up on GTA IV's end, it's your own accountability that's screwed up.

 

 

EDIT: LOL the last person who bought and reviewed your CPU from NewEgg was in 2006! hahahahaha

 

EDIT 2: And your CPU's not even available for sale anymore.... hahahaha.

Alright, i know that im not going to get high framerates. i was wondering why i didnt get a framerate increase at lower details, thats all. I know what i need to run the game, in fact, this is the new computer that i am getting in about 2 months:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA 1366

Mobo: MSI X58 Pro Intel X58 Chipset CrossFire DDR3 Mainboard

RAM: 6GB PC1333 DDR3 PC3 10666 Triple Channel Memory

video card: 2 ATI Radeon HD 4850 PCI-E 16X 1GB Video Cards

 

Its gonna cost me $1337.00 (not including shipping and handling, and GST). i am also going to get a blue ray disc drive, and a 1080p monitor when i can afford it. im gonna sell my current pc. Also, there is no need to be an asshole.

*facepalm* a 1080p monitor implies that you're getting a monitor that can max out at 1920 x 1080 resolution, which is a 16:9 aspect ratio monitor... Why not a monitor that supports 1920 x 1200 so you get 16:10 aspect instead? It amazes me how people will save up all the money for the new car, new TV, new house, but they'll settle for less than what their money is TRULY worth for. You can easily get an Samsung or Acer monitor right now from NewEgg and it would not only support 1920 x 1080 (and 1920 x 1200) resolutions, but can shoot up to 2560 x 1600 resolution, which is beyond the quality of BluRay and will make your games sparkle. All of this at a very similar, if not cheaper, price than a traditional 1080p screen. (And please don't get this "plasma TV" or "HDTV" crap. If it doesn't have "LED" or "LCD" in the product description then you're throwing your money away... Enjoy your fuzzy scanline pictures).

 

I mean, if you're getting two video cards to run in CrossFire, what's the point of running a game in ONLY 1080p? Your video cards will be able to slam 1080p in the face with 1600p, so you might as well get a monitor that supports that. Otherwise you're losing value on your video cards. Might as well just get one HD 4850 instead.

 

I also like how you don't mention the brand names for the computer components you're buying, with the exception of MSI. (And why are you getting MSI when you can get a higher quality mobo from a better manufacturer like BFG, ASUS, or EVGA? Brands like MSI and ASRock are "budget" mobos. If you're gonna invest in two high-end video cards, 6 GB of RAM and a quad core processor, why are you cheaping out on the mobo? Your mobo will end up limiting the performance of your other computer components.

Lol you raised a thread from the dead just for that...

 

But I do agree with you, that guy isn't really looking into things properly.

 

However, MSI is not a budget mobo. MSI has some pretty damn high end stuff, my desktop setup has a MSI mobo right now (took it over asus and giga) and its top notch. But yea for intel theres not much high end MSI mobos.

 

[megaknight]

yeah, i dont know much about computer hardware tbh, so some help would be apprieciated. but if you are willing to help me, please pm me.

[Lollercoaster]

What the hell? I thought this thread wasn't relevant after Rockstar patched the game.

[heat84]

Some people prefer not to use the patches.

[Abel.]

Some people prefer not to use the patches.

Why? Surely their resolutions outweigh any new problems they may provoke?

[MonkeyMhz]

What the hell? I thought this thread wasn't relevant after Rockstar patched the game.

Its not, this thread was only relevant/useful before the first patch when the options were limited.

 

 

[Suss]

 

The Idea:

 

You've heard this rant a million times, GTAIV was future proofed all reflections and shadows are scaled with the resolution. A stupid yet seemingly unfix-able problem that makes the game a mess. Playing a game in 1024x768 or lower is not acceptable. If I wanted to do that I would pull out my P2/P3 with its 32/64mb graphic card. From looking at GTAIV, it has a lot of new technology but nothing that should struggle to run on 8800's or even 8600's. Its that resolution scaling, im sure of it!.

 

The Plan:

 

There must be a way to correct this mess. Lets look at our checklist.

 

- Configs/Settings Profiles in game directory? /fail.

- Will R*'s patch will add more options in? /fail.

 

Not long ago I figured out you can run in windowed mode in 800x600 and then stretch the window larger and it gets around R*'s quality scaling that would increase the reflection maps.etc that would lag the game and make objects/textures disappear and horrid pop-ins. It made the game look good because you weren't dealing with such a low resolution and the game played extremely well.

 

I wanted to look into this and see if you can achieve the same thing without stretched the window manually every time.

 

The Support:

 

After browsing the net, I noticed others used commandline.txt to set the size of their window, and some people have achieved resolutions over their memory limit without using -norestrictions and only using the resolution from the command lines. This instantly helped me find the answer I wanted.

 

How To Do It:

 

Theory:

Now my theory was that, if you have a memory limit on, and you enter a resolution in the command line that is unable to be achieved with that memory limit, it will still put you in that resolution, but the quality scaling will not be implemented. Therefore no disappearing objects/textures, no long or noticeable pop-in's, and less/no lag.

 

The trick is implementing the higher resolutions with you preferred graphic settings, by limiting your memory to just barely include the options you want, and then you force the resolution.

 

Steps:

 

1. Get rid of -nomemrestrict or any current commandlines you have. Run the game and let it die. When you run the game, go to the graphic options, turn your resolution to 800x600 or 1024x768 or whatever you want the reflection maps/resolution based quality to be at, I did 800x600 mainly because it looks simular to the rest and will give you the most performance. Use the rest of your memory budget in draw distance.etc.

 

2. If you cannot acheive the graphical settings you want with your currently memory budget do this next step. If you can, then you can skip this step.

 

make commandline.txt or append -availablevidmem (multiplier):

This command works like this, say I have 256mb vram. -availablevidmem 2.0 would make it say I have 512mb vram, its a multiplier.

 

So for getting our settings as we want it lets make a budget of 512mb vram, so -availablevidmem 2.0.

 

Open GTAIV, set resolution in the ingame settings to 800x600, set rest of the options to whatever you want (be reasonable).

 

Now continue to the next step.

 

3. Now you have your game set as you want it, but in a f-ugly resoltion, but we will fix that. Next step is to trick GTAIV, even people with 512mb graphic cards or even 1gb, this is even useful for them.

 

One of my buddies with a 8800GTX loves this tweak because it allows him to get much higher frames with very little to no graphical loss.

 

So now lets say all our desired settings ingame @ 800x600, use 650Mb. Ok. But say were now using a 1GB card so it says 650/1024Mb. This is a problem now because if we force -height 1080 -width 1920. We will end up with our ingame options changing to 1920x1080 giving us way more slowdowns because R* starts using that dam scaling reflection maps.etc with resolution.

 

So what we need to do now is limit the memory GTAIV sees to exactly the amount to run our game in 800x600 (or whatever quality refection maps.etc you want) with our desired settings.

 

So lets go back to our dilemma, we have a 1GB graphic card and the game only takes up 650mb with the settings we want in 800x600.

 

We can figure this out by doing some simple math.

1GB Card (650mb desired settings): 650/1024 = 0.635 (its 0.634 but give a tiny bit extra, just like a couple megabytes).

 

So you would use -availablevidmem 0.635 that would make the game detect you only have 650mb ram which barely fits the features you want in 800x600.

 

So now once we have figured that out your commandline.txt or your shortcut appending should look like this (depending on what resolution you want/your vidmem.etc):

 

-height 1080 -width 1920 -availablevidmem 0.65

 

and maybe you add stuff like (-framelimit, or -noblank or whatever).

*BUT DO NOT USE ANY UN-RESTRICTION (this includes the nomemrestrict and norestrictions or anything like that)!

 

4. Now when we start up our game. We will be in our desired resolution, and when we look in the game options it will say 800x600, even though we are in a way higher resolution and all your settings will be how you want them and your memory budget will be exactly the right amount or similar like 650/650 or 742/746.etc

 

Funny thing here you wont be able to go back cuz it will detect your memory budget is to low and the game is forcing a higher res, so you might not be able to leave the options screen now, so alt tab, and close the game. If all your settings looked right and it said 800x600 but was clearly in a higher res. Then you did everything right, if not, go retry.

 

5. Now restart the game and play. Yay, good fps, cheated GTAIV to not up the reflection quality with the resolution.

Additional Speed: If you happen to be running Vista x86/x64 and you have a directx10 capable graphic card. Do what elecg2 figured out. I tried creating empty/easy HLSL shaders and putting them in GTAIV to get rid of shadows and stuff but that didn't work.

 

However by doing what elecg2 tried, I got a huge performance increase,

 

Go to GTAIV folder, go into common, then shaders.

 

Backup everything in there <- !!!

 

Then copy the contents of win32_30_atidx10, and paste them into win32_30_nv8. Or just rename the folders, whatever makes you happy.

 

That gave me a significant performance boost and I have no graphical problems or abnormalities. Try it, if it causes you problems or decreased performance then just put it back to normal. With these steps you can get your game running beautifully in no time, or at least better than before.

 

Enjoy.

*Ill be adding screen shots tonight.

 

Please Sticky This, I'm tired of people complaining when the answer is right under their nose.

 

To do a test to actually see if you get any gain from this start your game with 800x600, rest settings how you want them, but start the game in windowed mode. Manually drag the window to your screen size. See if you have a performance increase there, if so. Then doing this big mess of text will help you achieve what you achieved there without having to start the game in windowed mode and manually resize it, thats all this thing does. If you don't get a gain from it then clearly this is no use to you. But it is use to a lot of people.

 

 

Now wheres my proof?

*Oh nice monkey, you showed us some screens but you have no proof!.

*Oh yes i do!.

 

Here the game is 800x600 in game options but tweaked to play at 1680x1050 (look at the highlights/sun reflection on the water):

http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/2272/shad...0stretchye9.jpg

 

Here is the game at 1680x1050 in game, no tweak (notice the waters highlights/sun reflection is not as stretched, higher res, because in the first screen we are cheating the reflections to not up with the res, also notice in the distance everything disappears):

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1943/sh...1050normjv4.jpg

 

And to keep things fair, in those water screens, the game was maxed, high textures, high render, full distance, full detail, hence the FPS remained 10 in both!.

 

I rather play the game in a higher res with no disappearing objects and no pop-ins with lower reflection maps, than the game in a high res with better reflection maps but everything disappears.

 

This tweak shmozzle does something!, so its not a placebo. I'm happily running the game 1280x800 with medium tex, hi rend, always in the 20s. So I honestly can care less if you believe me, the evidence is here that it will help someone and if you don't believe me then don't. Ill go enjoy my game while you can sit there and sob.

 

 

If your settings constantly reset, please use what ircmaster wrote:

 

If your graphics settings reset every time you start it up again just follow this quick fix:

 

(Note this is the Vista way, I'm not sure how to do it in XP)

 

1. Go into your C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\Settings folder

2. Delete everything that's in there

3. Start the game with your desired settings and settings shouldn't reset anymore

 

And I'm not lying or trying to ruin your game or anything. I got this off of the official GTA IV support website.

 

Btw, you know what pisses me off, R* could have added a single checkbox that says "Quality Resolution" and then you check it or uncheck it, checked it would up the reflections with the resolution unchecked it would just do what were doing by doing this whole frag feast of text. Lazy R* (do you wanna sell more games?). And a single check box would not make the options complicated!.

I've done some steps that "brandoon1111" or something posted on youtube to make GTA IV run smoother/faster. It helped a little.. The things I did was to ad a text document to my GTA folder (commandline.txt and to put some things in there), and also to download a program that's called "Game Booster", and download a file called "contig.exe".

As I said, it helped my game a little but I want to boost it more and get more fps. I don't really understand all that computertalk and so on that you posted here, but I really want to try it! So is anyone willing to help me understand it better..? =)

I would be forever grateful!

[oms600]

how to do 1??

 

i have a ati 4830 512mb...so i cannot exceed 512mb??

 

at start i set the resolution at 800x600 60hz using this commandline "-windowed -availablevidmem 2.0

 

and the total memory usage is 739 so multiple is 739/512 answer is 1.443

 

then after that my my commandline become this -height 1200 -width 1600 -availablevidmem 1.443

 

but after start game...yes..the graphic resolution display as 800x600 but the graphic settings all turn to low and off...even view distance 1 and 0

 

am i doing something wrong??

 

 

[heat84]

Unless you're running version 1.0.0.2 of GTAIV or earlier, this fix is moot since settings added to the game allow you to accomplish the same results.

[oms600]

i have 1.0.4.0 version...

[heat84]

Extra settings were added in 1.0..0.3 that did what this fix did. Adjusting the water quality and some others. It's been so long I can't remember. Its only been a month since I've played the game but I was tired of messing with the settings so its been longer since I've seen them. Just read through the thread starting from here. And it was 1.0.0.2 that added the settings.

Edited August 31, 2009 by heat84

[jaysb]

 

No spamvertising - get lost-MM

 

[neilthecellist]

Wow. That was long. But i'd be glad to try this out for myself. Probably later when i have nothing else to do.

 

 

Regards,

Jays

Placement financier

Ban this f*cker.

[roypaci]

Hey guys,

 

That sounds great,but I can not manage ...

I have a geforce 8400m gt 128mb dedicated vram GPU.

I usually use -availablevidmem 4.5 command,which gives me enough boost to play IV on low settings.

Everything on lowest and with 800x600.

 

I tried this and check how much memory I need for 800x600 and with my own setting(view distance pulled up,texture quality on medium etc...so not on lowest anymore)

So It is 474mb when I pull up the view distance,change the texture quality to medium etc...

So what I do not understand,if i do a -availablevidmem 4.5 command,as in the STEP 2 has mentioned,and get approx 500 mb vram with the multiplier,and I need 474mb vram to reach the higher settings and 800x600 resol.,then I go to STEP 3 and use -height 1080 -width 1920....WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT??

I mean If i use in STEP 2 -availablevidmem 4.5 command to reach enough VRAM,and to follow your steps,how could I use -availablevidmem 0.XXX here???

Sith this -availablevidmem 0.XXX(whatever) command will divide my dedicated ram,and the STEP2 where you say:

 

 

 

,,make commandline.txt or append -availablevidmem (multiplier):

This command works like this, say I have 256mb vram. -availablevidmem 2.0 would make it say I have 512mb vram, its a multiplier.

 

So for getting our settings as we want it lets make a budget of 512mb vram, so -availablevidmem 2.0.

 

Open GTAIV, set resolution in the ingame settings to 800x600, set rest of the options to whatever you want (be reasonable)."

 

 

 

 

 

won`t work anymore,because I use a new -availablevidmem command.

 

 

 

Please help me guys,it is really annoying :S

...Thanks in advance

 

 

 

 

Roy

[neilthecellist]

Hey guys,

 

That sounds great,but I can not manage ...

I have a geforce 8400m gt 128mb dedicated vram GPU.

I usually use -availablevidmem 4.5 command,which gives me enough boost to play IV on low settings.

Everything on lowest and with 800x600.

 

I tried this and check how much memory I need for 800x600 and with my own setting(view distance pulled up,texture quality on medium etc...so not on lowest anymore)

So It is 474mb when I pull up the view distance,change the texture quality to medium etc...

So what I do not understand,if i do a -availablevidmem 4.5 command,as in the STEP 2 has mentioned,and get approx 500 mb vram with the multiplier,and I need 474mb vram to reach the higher settings and 800x600 resol.,then I go to STEP 3 and use -height 1080 -width 1920....WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT??

I mean If i use in STEP 2 -availablevidmem 4.5 command to reach enough VRAM,and to follow your steps,how could I use -availablevidmem 0.XXX here???

Sith this -availablevidmem 0.XXX(whatever) command will divide my dedicated ram,and the STEP2 where you say:

 

 

 

,,make commandline.txt or append -availablevidmem (multiplier):

This command works like this, say I have 256mb vram. -availablevidmem 2.0 would make it say I have 512mb vram, its a multiplier.

 

So for getting our settings as we want it lets make a budget of 512mb vram, so -availablevidmem 2.0.

 

Open GTAIV, set resolution in the ingame settings to 800x600, set rest of the options to whatever you want (be reasonable)."

 

 

 

 

 

won`t work anymore,because I use a new -availablevidmem command.

 

 

 

Please help me guys,it is really annoying :S

...Thanks in advance

 

 

 

 

Roy

I'll help you:

 

1) Get a new video card (or in your case, a new laptop because you specified that your video card is a Mobile card edition)

2) Don't use the fix in this thread anymore because the later patches for GTA IV already include this fix as one of their update components.

3) Realize that your hardware will only go so far. You can't make something out of nothing. You can only make something out of what you have, and trust me, the stuff that you have is NOT going to cut it.

 

To tell you the truth, I'm not really that surprised that you're having technical problems.

 

Actually, to tell you the real truth, I'm not surprised at ALL that you're having problems getting the game to run decently. You're enabling parameters on your GTAIV's executable to get from Low to Medium Details (for some graphics choices at least) but you're still unable to get by without stumbling around with one problem or another. Either get a new laptop or computer with new video card, or just make do with what you have.

 

Like I said earlier, you can't make something out of nothing, and you can only make something out of the maximum potential of what you have.

[roypaci]

Hey guys,

 

That sounds great,but I can not manage ...

I have a geforce 8400m gt 128mb dedicated vram GPU.

I usually use -availablevidmem 4.5 command,which gives me enough boost to play IV on low settings.

Everything on lowest and with 800x600.

 

I tried this and check how much memory I need for 800x600 and with my own setting(view distance pulled up,texture quality on medium etc...so not on lowest anymore)

So It is 474mb when I pull up the view distance,change the texture quality to medium etc...

So what I do not understand,if i do a -availablevidmem 4.5 command,as in the STEP 2 has mentioned,and get approx 500 mb vram with the multiplier,and I need 474mb vram to reach the higher settings and 800x600 resol.,then I go to STEP 3 and use  -height 1080 -width 1920....WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT??

I mean If i use in STEP 2  -availablevidmem 4.5  command to reach enough VRAM,and to follow your steps,how could I use  -availablevidmem 0.XXX  here???

Sith this  -availablevidmem 0.XXX(whatever) command will divide my dedicated ram,and the STEP2 where you say:

 

 

 

,,make commandline.txt or append -availablevidmem (multiplier):

This command works like this, say I have 256mb vram. -availablevidmem 2.0 would make it say I have 512mb vram, its a multiplier.

 

So for getting our settings as we want it lets make a budget of 512mb vram, so -availablevidmem 2.0.

 

Open GTAIV, set resolution in the ingame settings to 800x600, set rest of the options to whatever you want (be reasonable)."

 

 

 

 

 

won`t work anymore,because I use a new  -availablevidmem command.

 

 

 

Please help me guys,it is really annoying :S

...Thanks in advance

 

 

 

 

Roy

I'll help you:

 

1) Get a new video card (or in your case, a new laptop because you specified that your video card is a Mobile card edition)

2) Don't use the fix in this thread anymore because the later patches for GTA IV already include this fix as one of their update components.

3) Realize that your hardware will only go so far. You can't make something out of nothing. You can only make something out of what you have, and trust me, the stuff that you have is NOT going to cut it.

 

To tell you the truth, I'm not really that surprised that you're having technical problems.

 

Actually, to tell you the real truth, I'm not surprised at ALL that you're having problems getting the game to run decently. You're enabling parameters on your GTAIV's executable to get from Low to Medium Details (for some graphics choices at least) but you're still unable to get by without stumbling around with one problem or another. Either get a new laptop or computer with new video card, or just make do with what you have.

 

Like I said earlier, you can't make something out of nothing, and you can only make something out of the maximum potential of what you have.

Thanks for responding...

 

 

It is a laptop,so I can not change the GPU.

I know it`s a quiet weak system,but this thread says in STEP 2 you can use the multiplier to double(or whatever till your memory capacity) your VRAM(what I have already used....)

I just don`t understand the STEP 3....

If I used in STEP 3 the -availablevidmem 0.XXX,it wouldn`t work the -availablevidmem 4.5 what I use in STEP 2.

 

 

 

RoyP

[Çãmþ裣]

doubling Vram isnt actually doubling it, it just makes the game think you have twice as much, (but the game won't be able to use this much since you dont actually have it)

[maniaknl]

This thing is not working for me. Infact its ignoring all the commands i put in

 

 

This is my shortcut his target:

 

"D:\****\****\Grand Theft Auto IV\LaunchGTAIV.exe" -height 1050 -width 1680 -availablevidmem 0.77

 

Its ignoring things like -windowed aswell i don't know what i am doing wrong XD

 

When i boot up the game the game is still in 800x600 resolution and the availible memory is still 1011 instead of 778.47

 

 

EDIT solved this thing by making that commandline.txt

Edited October 24, 2009 by maniaknl

[roypaci]

doubling Vram isnt actually doubling it, it just makes the game think you have twice as much, (but the game won't be able to use this much since you dont actually have it)

In that case STEP 3 rule out STEP 2....