ENABLE GTA to use system ram for VRAM

[pranavsg07 0]

works like a charm

[thales100 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

Do you have the retail or steam version ?

[Neoappie 0]

Pity, yesterday it started stuttering like crazy, so put it back to normal. Guess it won't work for me.

[gameguy1589 0]

Bump.. because it really does work alot of the time.

[anus 422]

I tried this and everything was REALLY smooth but after a while it started stuttering. Using a 512MB card and a 2.0 multiplayer. I then went to task manager and checked how much RAM IV was using, and it was only slightly above 1GB!

 

So, I improvised and set the multiplier to 4.0 which makes the game show the available resources as 2GB in game. And guess what? SMOOTH gameplay and no more stuttering AT ALL. So, I think that you're supposed to set the multiplier so that the final output is equal to the amount of RAM you have in your system.

 

For e.g. if you have a 512MB card and 2GB of RAM, set the multiplier to 4.0 so that it equals 2048MB (512*4=2048).

 

I hope this helps, it REALLY helped me. Thanks to the topic starter for this method.

 

Btw, I also run it in 'Real Time' mode in task manager.

 

All the commands I use:

 

-nomemrestrict

-novblank

-availablevidmem 4.0

Edited December 27, 2008 by Warlord.

[RuWarlord 0]

I tried this and everything was REALLY smooth but after a while it started stuttering. Using a 512MB card and a 2.0 multiplayer. I then went to task manager and checked how much RAM IV was using, and it was only slightly above 1GB!

 

So, I improvised and set the multiplier to 4.0 which makes the game show the available resources as 2GB in game. And guess what? SMOOTH gameplay and no more stuttering AT ALL. So, I think that you're supposed to set the multiplier so that the final output is equal to the amount of RAM you have in your system.

 

For e.g. if you have a 512MB card and 2GB of RAM, set the multiplier to 4.0 so that it equals 2048MB (512*4=2048).

 

I hope this helps, it REALLY helped me. Thanks to the topic starter for this method.

 

Btw, I also use the command '-percentvidmem 100' to dedicate as much resources to IV as possible and also run it in 'Real Time' mode in task manager.

Does it start to stutter after 5-10 min ? or is it smooth thruout the game ?

 

Because the guy who started this thread, his solution works for about 5-10 min and then it starts stuttering.

[anus 422]

Nope, its smooth throughout the game. Tested it for an hour and still smooth as butta !

 

Try it out..

[anus 422]

So...does it work for anyone else other than me? It would help if you guys tried it out and posted your results .

[RuWarlord 0]

So...does it work for anyone else other than me? It would help if you guys tried it out and posted your results .

Well I havent had any issues with this game, its smooth as it is maxed out.

 

But I recommned your fix to my friend, and I am waiting for his call back.

[anus 422]

Ah cool. Feedback would really help, as a lot of people can be helped then . Thanks.

[yogibbear 0]

using -availablevidmem 2.0 gives me MAJOR stuttering after ~ 5mins of using this.

 

Q9450

8800gt 512mb

4gb ram

vista 64bit

1680x1050

high, high

 

With -norestrictions instead, i get texture pop-ups, with the -availablevidmem 2.0 i don't get pop ups, but i do get major stutter, then about 20 mins later it crashes with "out of video memory error".

 

Hence, i'm going back to -norestrictions, as despite the "pop-ups", it doesn't crash.

[anus 422]

Guys try my method, I'm sure it'll work for you. But DO NOT use the '-percentvidmem' command! It f*cks up the FPS for me.

[includao 0]

guys, please try Warlords method!

 

 

i'm going to try it out tomorrow

[Kurgen 0]

Tried it. All it does is fool the game into thinking it has more resources to play around with, and while not increasing performance at all, it turns into a slide-show after 10 - 15 minutes.

 

 

[anus 422]

Thanks for the feedback man. Well it worked fine for me, but yeah I guess that's how it is.

[includao 0]

Thanks for the feedback man. Well it worked fine for me, but yeah I guess that's how it is.

keep playing to see if it happens to you warlord

[x8681150 0]

does it work on the steam version?????i cant seem to make it work

[bongshark 0]

I created an account just to reply to this thread, as it is that important to me.

 

First off, my system specs:

 

DFi UTX-200 socket 939 mobo

X2 4200+ (stock)

2 gigs quality ram

ATi 4850 (512)

 

 

I was getting unplayable frames (as expected with an aging rig), and running out of patience trying to make gta4 playable. Resolution, details, all of that crap made almost no difference in performance, as I'm sure the 4200+ is choking the sh*t out of my frames.

 

I tried this little trick with just the availablememory 2.0 command....wow. I'm at 1680x1050, high, high, view and detail @ 21, vdensity at 10, shadows at 1. I'm not gonna try and convince anyone that im running 30+ frames constant, but I most certainly am always above 20 (with very rare exceptions) and with the "p" button enabled I am more than satisfied both in singleplayer and online. It seems this game is random as dog sh*t about how it runs on different systems, and how different tweaks like this affect its performance on said machines. Just wanted to thank you for the tip, and encourage anyone else hitting the wall to try this out. I'm loving it.

 

*edit*

after reading the above post I should also note that my performance has remained consistent over 1-6 hour sessions. Hope this gives hope to those with older rigs.

Edited December 27, 2008 by bongshark

[How-To-Improve-GTA-IV 0]

Does it work with XP, too? Will it use ram as vram?

[gtaivdude 0]

i registered so that I could say that this mod actually works really well. This is the first mod that allowed me to boot GTA IV and then actually be put to use. I used the 2 multiplier so far.

 

Below are specs.

 

xp sp3 32 bit

q9450 at 2.7

2x1 gb 800 ram

asus 4850 512 mb

p45 mobo

22" monitor at 1680 x 1050

 

Thank you so much!

[-TheStig- 0]

Does it work with XP, too? Will it use ram as vram?

yes and yes

[EdgarZKid 0]

I tried this and everything was REALLY smooth but after a while it started stuttering. Using a 512MB card and a 2.0 multiplayer. I then went to task manager and checked how much RAM IV was using, and it was only slightly above 1GB!

 

So, I improvised and set the multiplier to 4.0 which makes the game show the available resources as 2GB in game. And guess what? SMOOTH gameplay and no more stuttering AT ALL. So, I think that you're supposed to set the multiplier so that the final output is equal to the amount of RAM you have in your system.

 

For e.g. if you have a 512MB card and 2GB of RAM, set the multiplier to 4.0 so that it equals 2048MB (512*4=2048).

 

I hope this helps, it REALLY helped me. Thanks to the topic starter for this method.

 

Btw, I also run it in 'Real Time' mode in task manager.

 

All the commands I use:

 

-nomemrestrict

-novblank

-availablevidmem 4.0

Hey Warlord what about if i have a GeForce 8800 GT 256 mb and 4 gb of ram? What multiplier should i set?

 

btw my specs

 

Motherboard: DP35DP__

 

Basic I/O System(BIOS): Default System BIOS

 

Central Processing Unit(CPU): Intel® Core2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz

 

Physical Memory X 4

 

1GB

 

1GB

 

1GB

 

1GB

 

Hard Disk: WDC WD3200AAKS-55VYA0 ATA Device (298,09GB)

 

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

 

Monitor: SyncMaster 226BW(Digital)

 

~Edgar~ peace from Lithuania

[Marcin6 17]

This option for me working now !

 

Before not working because my system disbaled 4 GB using ram , and only working with 3 GB

In BIOS just enabled option Memory Remap Feature and now i`ve gut full 4 GB USING !

And disabled virtual memory and game work`s fine !

 

 

PS. Sorry for my English

[xStalkerxx 0]

OMFG!! the FPS is now 90% constant 30FPS+ with High texture!

i say this because even when i had it at LOW it was crappy 23FPS most of the time

 

thx you rock

[el badman 0]

That made my game unplayable.

I used availablevidmem 1.5 and removed the "no restrictions", and while it started pretty well indoor, it became a slideshow after a couple of seconds in the street, with 3-4 FPS...

Should I try 2.0 or even more maybe?

My rig:

 

GTX260 896MB

Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz

4GB DDR2 RAM

Gigabyte 965P-DS3

I play at 1680x1050, high textures and very high rendering, about 30 in view distance, 70 in traffic and LOD, and anywhere between 0 and 8 in shadows.

[Pixelated 0]

I have a card with 768MB VRAM. While playing GTA IV I usually have around 300MB of system RAM free. Adding just 100MB using the "-percentvidmem=1.1" command it made it unplayable after 10 minutes or so. I don't think that GTA IV isn't pushing the work into system RAM but sticking it in the paging file\hard drive. I have a WD Raptor 10,000 RPM 16MB cache drive too. So I would say this doesn't work.

[How-To-Improve-GTA-IV 0]

If I put -availablevidmem=2.0 into my commandline, it tooks about a second to take a screenshot with fraps (you notice a lag). Without this parameter, I can take screenshots without any lag. Oh, and in the same moment I took a screenshot (took several before), I had a BSOD (blue screen of death) because of nv4_displ.dll. Can anyone say something about that issue?

[Pixelated 0]

 

If I put -availablevidmem=2.0 into my commandline, it tooks about a second to take a screenshot with fraps (you notice a lag). Without this parameter, I can take screenshots without any lag. Oh, and in the same moment I took a screenshot (took several before), I had a BSOD (blue screen of death) because of nv4_displ.dll. Can anyone say something about that issue?

Using the command -availablevidmem=1.0 would use 100% of your video memory, whatever it be 256MB-1GB or whatever. So if you have a card with 512MB of VRAM setting it to 2.0 would tell the game to use 1024MB of VRAM even though you only have 512MB. It effectively doubles the amount of VRAM every time you double it, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 4.0, etc.. As for the BSOD who knows. It could be a random crash or because of the game thinking it has more VRAM to use than it actually does. Usually GTA IV will just crash to the desktop with an MMA error if it somehow overloaded the memory buffer because of the command.

Edited December 30, 2008 by Pixelated

[HomoUniversalis 0]

I have yet to see any evidence that GTAIV uses RAM if it runs out of VRAM. Indeed, the 'ran out of vram'-error seems evidence to the contrary. None of the suggested solutions worked for me and I await a patch from Rockstar to fix the performance and give me 30+ fps, continually and constantly.

[Rossiko 0]

does it work on the steam version?????i cant seem to make it work

ditto