GTA IV laggs after a few minutes

[thales100]

 

Are you a troll? If i can do 4 races, at (if no rain) 26/40fps, then suddenly at the same point each lap for the same length of time i get 12/15fps for short periods, even though the same track played perfectly well 10 mins ago, how does this show that "you cant expect a high quality performance at 1920 x 1080 running an old card like a 8800." when ive been doing it for weeks and winning ~70% of my races in 1080p?

K, now you run a 8800 at 1920 x 1080, have stuttering and guess what ----> its GTA 4 fault.

Get rid of any commands and play respecting the limit of your rig, you should get no issues.

Now use commands to enable higher GFX settings, but make sure first your rig is completely up to the job.

 

 

If i have to remove the commandline to avoid this entirely id be pretty upset because at 1080p with high textures i can only set a view distance of 1 even with 768mb on card.

 

 

Please investigate R*.

[Psymn321]

 

K, now you run a 8800 at 1920 x 1080, have stuttering and guess what ----> its GTA 4 fault.

 

If the stuttering was constant or even common to a particular busy scene i would obviously agree with you. But you also have to listen to the facts that dont support your story instead of the bullsh*t 'buy a new graphics card' spiel.

 

Ive had the stuttering at normal settings too. EDIT: today right after removing commandlines to see if it would behave. Got framedrop within 2 races.

 

I suspect that if you actually played the game for a good length of time in one go, you might learn something of the issues. If my computer can play the game 100% satisfactorily for hours, then there is no reason to assume that its my computers capabilities that somehow reduce by ~40% randomly at the whim of GTA 4, and its even more retarded imo, because if thats the case then i can 'upgrade' my computer back to 'satisfaction' by simply restarting GTA4.

 

Please, you obviously spend less time playing the game than talking about it, whatever makes you happy but this IS clearly a game issue...

 

Please dont make me flame you, you seem like a nice guy but if you want to troll me just because you have a better graphics card than me (its pretty obvious) then you are coming across brutally handicapped.

 

 

I cant remember if i had this problem before installing the BETA nvidia driver a couple of days ago so i might go back to the official and see if that restores my performance.

Edited February 12, 2009 by Psymn321

[thales100]

I cant remember if i had this problem before installing the BETA nvidia driver a couple of days ago so i might go back to the official and see if that restores my performance.

K man, no problem, i hope you can find a solution, and fast, its a damn great game ok.

[pinky]

K, now you run a 8800 at 1920 x 1080, have stuttering and guess what ----> its GTA 4 fault.

 

If the stuttering was constant or even common to a particular busy scene i would obviously agree with you. But you also have to listen to the facts that dont support your story instead of the bullsh*t 'buy a new graphics card' spiel.

 

Ive had the stuttering at normal settings too. EDIT: today right after removing commandlines to see if it would behave. Got framedrop within 2 races.

 

I suspect that if you actually played the game for a good length of time in one go, you might learn something of the issues. If my computer can play the game 100% satisfactorily for hours, then there is no reason to assume that its my computers capabilities that somehow reduce by ~40% randomly at the whim of GTA 4, and its even more retarded imo, because if thats the case then i can 'upgrade' my computer back to 'satisfaction' by simply restarting GTA4.

 

Please, you obviously spend less time playing the game than talking about it, whatever makes you happy but this IS clearly a game issue...

 

Please dont make me flame you, you seem like a nice guy but if you want to troll me just because you have a better graphics card than me (its pretty obvious) then you are coming across brutally handicapped.

 

 

I cant remember if i had this problem before installing the BETA nvidia driver a couple of days ago so i might go back to the official and see if that restores my performance.

I got stuttering with my 8800 Ultras until I used the -nomemlimit and -novblank commandlines, give them a try out.

[Psymn321]

Just a quick vid of gameplay taken with fraps while the game is running well to prove that you can indeed expect an 8800 to cope with 1080p;

 

Obviously it is now in 720p after rendering but i was both playing and recording in 1080p. The multiplayer clip was from a while ago and the settings i used were the max possible from availablevidmem 1.6 (opposed to 1.4), but even then its coping well and if i wasnt frapsing, fps wouldve actually been very good.

 

 

 

(Goto youtube for HD)

 

Ill try those command lines, cheers, but like i said on the day it started happening i removed all command lines and got framedrop even without any modded settings.

 

 

It would be great if R* could acknowledge the issue even if a solution isnt there yet.

 

Ill post again if those command lines work

Edited February 13, 2009 by Psymn321

[Psymn321]

This is INTERESTING;

 

When the game is running well, in normal weather conditions i get 30/45fps, obviously towards the lower end in busier scenes but ive been all over the city and had good fps with these settings sp+mp.

 

When the game is running well and im frapsing, i get 26/30fps.

 

When the game is stuttering, which is usually after some 30mins/3hours of play. i get good fps on certain portions of tracks but start and stop stuttering at the same points lap after lap. When im stuttering the fps is uneven and 10/15fps.

 

When the game is stuttering, if i start frapsing, i get 26/30fps. 30fps being the maximum fps fraps will allow the game to run while recording with my current settings.

 

 

 

So could anyone who generally gets good performance but runs into intermittent framedrops and uneven framerates, and who knows that their computer can cope easily with fraps without too much of a hit, try this next time they have framedrop and see if it works.

 

Obviously this is not a solution but i just hope its a clue for R* if they ever actually read this forum.

 

Ive only done it in one session but it was definitely running very smooth when i was frapsing and the 3/4 times i stopped frapsing the framedrop came back again within moments only to dissapear the moment fraps started recording the game again.

 

 

Strange but true...

Edited February 13, 2009 by Psymn321

[mkey82]

Strange but true...

Sad but true...

 

You should play with fraps recording at all times But seriously, in my case fraps takes some 5-10 FPS when recording.

[pinky]

This is INTERESTING;

 

When the game is running well, in normal weather conditions i get 30/45fps, obviously towards the lower end in busier scenes but ive been all over the city and had good fps with these settings sp+mp.

 

When the game is running well and im frapsing, i get 26/30fps.

 

When the game is stuttering, which is usually after some 30mins/3hours of play. i get good fps on certain portions of tracks but start and stop stuttering at the same points lap after lap. When im stuttering the fps is uneven and 10/15fps.

 

When the game is stuttering, if i start frapsing, i get 26/30fps. 30fps being the maximum fps fraps will allow the game to run while recording with my current settings.

 

 

 

So could anyone who generally gets good performance but runs into intermittent framedrops and uneven framerates, and who knows that their computer can cope easily with fraps without too much of a hit, try this next time they have framedrop and see if it works.

 

Obviously this is not a solution but i just hope its a clue for R* if they ever actually read this forum.

 

Ive only done it in one session but it was definitely running very smooth when i was frapsing and the 3/4 times i stopped frapsing the framedrop came back again within moments only to dissapear the moment fraps started recording the game again.

 

 

Strange but true...

Tried those commandlines yet, that is what I used to get with my 8800?

It would still register the same FPS when it wasn't stuttering and when it was.

[Psymn321]

 

You should play with fraps recording at all times biggrin.gif But seriously, in my case fraps takes some 5-10 FPS when recording.

 

Reduce the settings in fraps to minimal settings (no less than 30fps), and it might be doable?

 

 

 

Tried those commandlines yet, that is what I used to get with my 8800?

 

Not yet, kinda derailed that for a bit with downloading that securom no-cd crack which didnt like extensions. I got rid but not messed with it yet. Im kinda obcessed with the fact that fraps fixes gta at the moment and only hope gta coders know why fraps can iron out bad memory management from gta4(or whatever it actually is)

 

 

It would still register the same FPS when it wasn't stuttering and when it was.

 

Exactly the same. Sometimes, the stuttering is so slight that you can only see it in the camera movements, but i have had it once where my fps counter did go to 10fps, but it felt like 3.

 

Dont know why or how but Fraps does indeed even out the flow of frames and kill any framedrop that isnt caused by fraps itself. Infact when the drops start they can seem like a single frame per second, and even tho fraps takes 5fps and im only getting a slight 1/5fps stutter per second, enabling fraps and losing 5fps feels smoother than just putting up with the uneven framerate, even if its only dropping a few frames per second, its the unevenness that makes it unplayable.

 

 

Why is this R*? Looks like the blame has landed firmly with the game here, please fix.

Edited February 13, 2009 by Psymn321

[mkey82]

You should play with fraps recording at all times biggrin.gif But seriously, in my case fraps takes some 5-10 FPS when recording.

 

Reduce the settings in fraps to minimal settings (no less than 30fps), and it might be doable?

It was on 30 FPS, uncompressed video (don't remember what other settings were) and it dropped from 30 something average to 20 something average the last time I ran it. Which was I a while back, before 1.0.2.0 and before I reinstalled Vista.

[Psymn321]

Install it again, change default settings to no sound, and half screen, they will greatly reduce the hit. Its more to see if it works and gives you even framerates rather than stuttering even if the framerates are lower.

 

Also, your cpu should be in good order to deal with fraps, maybe overclock to give it a hand?

[mkey82]

Yeah, I had a Q9300 before this one, after a mild overclocking attempt (from 333 to 400 MHz FSB) on stock cooling and voltages the poor sod died so after the replacement I'm taking it easy with this one. I have my doubts that the MBO might be acting up, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I have all the auto settings in BIOS on manual now, just to be sure.

 

Anyway, with GTA IV this proc gets it's hands full. Well above 70% average usage. I could/should have figured it out myself, for the half of screen res. Firstly I waste FPS on a large dump then I scale it down with virtual dub.

[Psymn321]

Might have been that you left your old cpu on 'auto' and as you upped the fsb it auto upped the vcore more than it needed to?

 

Stay below 1.4vcore and i think you will probably be ok. Thats a big probably btw

[gta-emotion]

The problem is not fixed, I tried all tips here but without success.

 

And what can I do now?

[shivanandrs]

I think im getting the same prob you are having but on Windows 7 Beta. Strange though, it runs perfectly under Vista x64 SP1.

[gta-emotion]

The problem is not solved

[thales100]

Sry i didnt read all thread, but are you playing with the clip capture disabled ? This can cause lag in some systems depending on the GFX settings you use to play.

[gta-emotion]

Clip Capture? If you mean the automatical video recording that is disabled.

Sorry I'm from Germany.

 

To be honest I'm very frustrated and so I would like kick the game trough the Window

[gta-emotion]

bump

[Langbein_]

I have the same problem as you have. The only way I found to fix it was to use a off line account and I hade to disable my internett connetion, online or off line account. It do not matter. As long as I have a internet connetion to my PC, it will work for 5+ minuts and then start to lag badly. I turn the power of my modem, restart the game. And it works with out any lag.

 

I have had this problem sins i got the game first day of releas. And no patch have fix the problem yet.

 

I have people complain that all my problems are my PC. That it is to slow and cant run the game. Thats not it in my case.

 

Disable the internet, use an off line account and try it.

 

And sorry for my English to. To cold in Viking territory to write correct all the time.

Edited February 22, 2009 by Langbein_

[gta-emotion]

How can I use an offline account?

 

I don't want to loose my savegames.

[gta-emotion]

How can I use an offline account?

 

I don't want to loose my savegames.

[gta-emotion]

bump

 

Offline Account need help

[mkey82]

When the game gets to the start screen) press the home button. It should allow you to create an offline account.

[gta-emotion]

Thank you.

I will check this in few days.

[pinkisthenewblue]

@ the OP - I had what seem like identical issues. I'll explain my story;

 

When I started to play the game after a fresh install, the game stutters after 4-5 hours (2-3 FPS). Start it up again, same thing after 1 hour. Then 30 minutes. Then instantly. Only way to fix it is to reboot the entire comp, and then I get 4-5 hours, stutter... and so forth. Anyway I eventually figured out that reducing my texture settings to low rather than medium completely solved it. I think that it was using too much video memory (even though it was only 90ish % usage in the options menu).

 

I also noticed that when it stutters, CPU usage goes from 85-90% on each core to 100% on one and 20% on the other. Weird I know.

 

It may not be the same thing as you but perhaps worth a try - its weird how the stuttering you had seems so much similiar to me.

 

My shortcut BTW is:

 

"C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\LaunchGTAIV.exe" -renderquality 3 -viewdistance 40 -detailquality 40 -width 1600 -height 900 -windowed -shadowdensity 0

 

And my settings are pretty much all medium except for textures.

 

I have a 9800 512MB but I did play this on my old 8600 256MB - I found the above shortcut worked well on that, all be it at a slightly smaller resolution.