ENABLE GTA to use system ram for VRAM

[badguy 0]

How much ram does GTA 4 use normally without this tweak?

[psx2p 0]

How much ram does GTA 4 use normally without this tweak?

mine has been known to hog up about 3.8gigs, but normally consumes 2.4gigs - 3.4gigs,

 

with the tweak i use around 2.4 constant.

(these figures are including system usage so figure 700MB less than what i have stated)

( i have 4 gigs total)

[thales100 0]

Two screenshots using the tweak, 1.45 multiplier.

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2008 by thales100

[ppehrson 0]

RAM is 100000x faster at transferring data than the hard drive.

Uh, you're either very old and sticking to old specifications, or extremely dumb. RAM is faster than a hard drive, yes, but include cache and the fact that SATA2 is extremely fast, you will be able to pull 2-3 frames extra from disabling your pagefile, and you may very well end up with a SLOWER game due to the fact that Windows (and therefore also Windows software+games) is DESIGNED to use a pagefile.

Also the pagefile is very optimized, like a database, so in ways it may actually be as fast as RAM since RAM is not necessarily sequential in its way of writing.

 

Get your head out of your a** and read on, or keep it zipped.

[ppehrson 0]

Don't turn of the pagefile, whoever told you to do that is an idiot.

 

If you have more than 1 hard drive (Not partitions of the same drive) I highly recommend installing the game on a separate hard drive and adding a second pagefile to the drive.  Set the page file to 2 or 3 times the amount of ram you have.

 

This is a proven technique gamers have been using for years, and it does help with performance issues... I got rid of the stuttering on this one after adding the extra pagefile... New system a few months ago and had been running every other game perfectly until GTA IV... and I'd simply forgotten to do it.

Really? I was always told to set it to no paging file. What would one set it to for say 3gigs of memory?

LEAVE it at Windows recommendation. I don't imagine any of you are technical enough to tamper with the paging file as far as I can read in here.

IF you must change anything; install a second (fast) hard disk and set the system to page on that one. It will give you an improvement, although not much (nowadays).

[thales100 0]

 

IF you must change anything; install a second (fast) hard disk and set the system to page on that one. It will give you an improvement, although not much (nowadays).

I use the pagefile in a secondary fast HD, and set it smaller than windows would do, works just fine.

BTW i simulated using the pagefile in my main hd (where vista and GTA 4 are installed) and keeping the recommended size by windows, and i got some crashes and stuttering.

[x8681150 0]

can someone explain better?i put the  text file commandline on the gta folder but nothing happends ,my memory is still the same !!!! help!!!!     

Your GTA 4 folder should look like this, with the commandline file (its a txt file) inside it.

 

 

Inside the commandline.txt, you should have this command (opening it with notepad) :

 

 

-availablevidmem 1.5

 

 

The 1.5 multiplier can be edited to any value you may want to try. After having the commandline file inside GTA 4 folder, just like in the pic, start game, and check in Graphics options, your VRAM should have been increased.

would love to try it ,i have vista and the steam version but inside the gta folder is sighly difrent than this ,,,nothing happends my memory stays the same,,any help???can some one put pictures of a step by step????

[Marcin6 17]

Damn ! This is very Nice , but when i disabled PageFile , my GTAIV shut down with error RSC10 or something like this , that i don`t have much memmory :|

I`ve gut 4 gb !!!

 

But PageFile is the same virtual memmory ?????

 

I disabling this :

 

 

This is it ????

[mkey82 13]

Damn ! This is very Nice , but when i disabled PageFile , my GTAIV shut down with error RSC10 or something like this , that i don`t have much memmory :|

I`ve gut 4 gb !!!

Windows is designed to use the pagefile, turn it back on to recommended and restart the PC.

[thales100 0]

 

Damn !  This is very Nice , but when i disabled PageFile , my GTAIV shut down with error RSC10 or something like this , that i don`t have much memmory :|

I`ve gut 4 gb !!!

 

But PageFile is the same virtual memmory ?????

 

I disabling this :

 

 

This is it ????

Dont turn it off, what you may try is to set it to a secondary HD (with similar speed to your main HD ) and make it smaller than what windows would do, since you have 4 Gb as RAM you may try 512 mb or 1 gb (as both initial and maximum sizes).

[Pikkuhippi 0]

Holy crap. This Tweak removed all of my popups and blurry textures! THANKS ALOT.

 

Only con is that I get some short "loadings" more often.

 

also when I died. It was like 1-2 fps for 5 seconds.

 

However increasing the multiplier "seems?" to have fixed it.

(Atleast not detected any fps lag yet)

 

But hell. Works even smoother now. =)

[Marcin6 17]

Other people add this command and it`s ok , but for me it`s no ok

I gut terrible performance after this command

[Quemical 0]

Other people add this command and it`s ok , but for me it`s no ok

I gut terrible performance after this command

Ditto, i got more pop ups than before and missing textures was a lot more frequent. I had to delete the command and go back to normal

[Pikkuhippi 0]

Goddammit. It looks so nice. No popups or anything. But Annoying stuttering after 15 minutes of gaming.

[thales100 0]

 

Goddammit. It looks so nice. No popups or anything. But Annoying stuttering after 15 minutes of gaming.

Is your HD defragmented ? If you have a secondary HD (fast one, similar to you main), set pagefile to it, and make it smaller than what windows would do, since you have 3 Gb as RAM you may try 1 gb (as both initial and maximum sizes). See if it fixes the stuttering.

[shivanandrs 0]

Goddammit. It looks so nice. No popups or anything. But Annoying stuttering after 15 minutes of gaming.

Try reducing your multiplier a little. I have a 8800GT 521Mb and i use a multiplier of 1.25 and it works perfectly. I tested for 3 straight hours. BTW i had the game priority set to high.

[0goldeneye0 0]

Sticky this thing. It works.

[Pikkuhippi 0]

Ok thanks for help guys.

[Turdist 0]

Yes it works, but only in the sense that now the games shows that there is more VRAM than there actually IS. no performace boost at all.

[FX2K 0]

Doing this actually made my game into a slideshow, even with the same settings before adding this line.

[Neoappie 0]

Oke, nice it looks like it's working, but how do i set my priority to high? When i do it it taskmanager it won't let me (vista 64 bits admin mode).

And is there a way to let it always automaticly run in high priority mode?

[thales100 0]

Oke, nice it looks like it's working, but how do i set my priority to high? When i do it it taskmanager it won't let me (vista 64 bits admin mode).

And is there a way to let it always automaticly run in high priority mode?

Yes its possible, create a shortcut at your desktop for GTA4.exe, and use this as the target (adapt to your PC):

 

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "runhigh" /high "C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\GTAIV.exe"

 

Start game by double clicking this shortcut, if it opens the Rockstar Games Social Club, always log in with your password and then close the RGSC (not just minimize it, but exit), and double click again the shortcut you created - game should start and using high priority.

If you start game by clicking on PLAY at RGSC, you wont have the high priority, just using the shortcut.

[Kaisseer 0]

where is the cammand menu?

 

[Neoappie 0]

Oke, nice it looks like it's working, but how do i set my priority to high? When i do it it taskmanager it won't let me (vista 64 bits admin mode).

And is there a way to let it always automaticly run in high priority mode?

Yes its possible, create a shortcut at your desktop for GTA4.exe, and use this as the target (adapt to your PC):

 

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "runhigh" /high "C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\GTAIV.exe"

 

Start game by double clicking this shortcut, if it opens the Rockstar Games Social Club, always log in with your password and then close the RGSC (not just minimize it, but exit), and double click again the shortcut you created - game should start and using high priority.

If you start game by clicking on PLAY at RGSC, you wont have the high priority, just using the shortcut.

When i do this, directly after it starts SC it starts the game and not in high priority

[pLaTaNo 0]

Worked for me, but i highly recommend this for people who have at least 3GB or More. I Have 2GB, and it was working well with GTA using only 1GB of RAM and my other RAM combined with my VRAM. As soon as the fog hit IG, sh*t started to lag like hell. Lag got worse when i went to the Booth Tunnel, so this tweak works best with people who have 3GB or more.

[reeven 0]

 

Goddammit. It looks so nice. No popups or anything. But Annoying stuttering after 15 minutes of gaming.

Same here.... and i have 4gb of speedy ddr 1066:(

[jas927 0]

hey shivanandrs whats your pc specs

[Kaisseer 0]

this comes from the ultimate guide that's stuck to the forums, i noticed that if you double you multiplier the game will use ll the on board ram on your GPU as well as system ram,

 

don't use this if your already maxing out your system ram and your Vram.

(i have 4 gigs system RAM and 512mb VRAM gta does not use all my system ram, so i use the left over system ram for Vram)

 

the code for the command is: -availablevidmem (multiplier)

 

if you were to put: -availablevidmem 2.0

that would double you VRAM

 

for example lets say i have a 512mb card, i want to make gta think i have 1024Mb i would use the code: -availablevidmem 2.0

 

the multiplier 2.0 will double the ram, 3.0 will triple it and so on and so forth.

 

doing this also thrashes your HD's like crazy, as you have taken away system ram so it doubles up on caching

 

my friend has done this and he is able to play high textures at 1440 x 900

 

this beats using the no restrictions command because this actually allows more VRAM,

 

ONE last quick tip: i found that setting the GTA4 process in task manager to high priority seems to make the game run a bit smoother, not any FPS gain but more constant.

O and also overclocking. that makes a difference, my CPU is OC'd to 3.4Ghz and i gain average of 5-7FPS

i figure any advice is helpfull.

 

HERE ar my PC SPECS:

 

SYSTEM SPECS

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ @ 3.1Ghz / OverClocked to 3.4Ghz

Motherboard: Foxconn M6 OC eddition

RAM: 4 gigs transcend @ 800mhz

GPU: ASUS HD 3650, 512MB

OC'd GPU speeds: Core @ 830Mhz, MEM @ 920Mhz (max 950) effective.

OS: vista ultimate 64 bit

 

 

EDIT:heres the Poll to this thread

 

 

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=386954

where do you place the commands

[thales100 0]

where do you place the commands

Inside a .txt file called commandline , you should create this file using notepad, add the command inside it and place the file inside GTA 4 folder.

[67257990206098020947 0]

Hello i read the Tutorial with Ram to use Vram...all clear

I created in my GTA IV Folder a Commandline.txt and i put in the Commandline.txt

-availablevidmem 2.0

 

And saved it....

 

Now i started the Game and looked at the OptionsMenu...

 

Nothing changed i have 494 Vram

 

Help

 

I Have Win Xp 32 Bit

Gefroce 8400 GS

and 3 Gb of ram