Doesn't run good on my Core2Duo e8500

[isamu99]

Welp guys, unfortunately this game runs like absolute ass on my machine. Here are my specs.....

 

Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

Intel Core2Duo 8500 @3.1Ghz

ATI 5870 1GB Ram

4GB DDR2 System Ram

1.2TB HDD 7200RPM

 

I mean it's not atrocious, and I'm getting somewhere around 25-30fps most of the time, but it stutters and slowdown often occurs when walking through the city. Resolution is at 1280x720, Aspect Ration is 16:9, Shadows are low, Water is low, Textures are high, Reflections are low, vsync is on.

 

Basically the only thing that is on high is textures, and I still get stutters and slowdowns.

 

My E8500 Core2Duo is probably the bottleneck, and if what I've been reading about GTA IV running much smoother on a Quadcore is true, then it looks like I'm better off upgrading to one of those and overclocking it.

 

A couple questions for you guys:

 

1)Does anyone have a PC with similar specs to mine, and is getting at least a constant rock solid 45fps or higher? Any stutters or slowdowns?

 

2)So, about that quadcore... assuming money is not too much on an issue, is there one out there that can eat GTA IV for breakfast? I'm talking close to a rock solid 60fps consistently with no stutters? Which quadcore would you suggest?

 

3)How much does GTA IV depend on raw cpu clockspeed? Would I see a significant benefit from overclocking from 3Ghz to say, 4? Or higher? What clockspeed would it take to run GTA IV at a rock solid 60fps? 4.5Ghz? 5.0Ghz? 6.0Ghz?

 

As you can tell, I am a framerate whore and it's just....*sigh*....difficult to go back to seeing a game run at around 25-30fps after playing Call of Duty 5 & 6 for so long. I would give anything to be able to run GTA IV at 60fps with fairly high detail.

[Kenster1025]

I was able to run mine on my previous E8400 with a 9800 GTX+ mostly high settings except for Texture, I would say about 30 FPS maybe more. I think the graphics and CPU play a big role, but more so the CPU. I think Quad Core will give you a definite improvement.

[Merlena]

 

I was able to run mine on my previous E8400 with a 9800 GTX+ mostly high settings except for Texture, I would say about 30 FPS maybe more. I think the graphics and CPU play a big role, but more so the CPU. I think Quad Core will give you a definite improvement.

Quad Core = 4 cores/8 threads, Duo Core = 2 Cores/4 threads.

 

You should have no problem running the game. Optimize your memory in the BIOS by selecting the correct DRAM frequency written in the RAM bricks. You'll also want to know the CL information. It's usually posted at the RAM bricks. If it's a 2x2GB set, the timings are usually somewhere around 6-6-6-12, 7-7-7-X, 8-8-8-24. Insert these into the CAS_Latency/Delay (the four first) in the BIOS.

 

Also make sure to use one of the commands in the game, as your CPU is pretty much a bottleneck for your GPU. The commands should be listed here somewhere posted Rockstar on the this forum. Force more data into your video memory than into your physical RAM, and let the card handle more of the job.

 

Look for Voodooman's post shader file, and you'll be running Shadows at Very High with no frame cost. Go into ATI's control panel and don't force any graphic enhancements on the game.

 

Could help you further if you gave me this information:

 

Video Card Driver

Name of RAM

Motherboard

 

(Note that GTA IV is a very very poor port from consoles, and is probably one of the worst stable games on the PC.)

 

Being a frame rate "whore" as you said... many are, and 99% of them do not even understand what "fps" is, or how it's generated. It's how many frames per second your graphic card sends to your monitor. The less frames, the more "sloppy" the game will go, as the human eye is pretty sharp. However, commonly discussed is that the human eye cannot see more than 35+- frames each second anyway, as you might have noticed that a "frame per second" beyond that is not "sloppy".

 

Read this and you've learned yourself about it for a week. http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html

Edited August 9, 2010 by Merlena

[oc student]

That CPU should have no problem running this game, try what the guys above me said.

 

[Ebernanut]

Quad Core = 4 cores/8 threads, Duo Core = 2 Cores/4 threads.

<snip>

Being a frame rate "whore" as you said... many are, and 99% of them do not even understand what "fps" is, or how it's generated. It's how many frames per second your graphic card sends to your monitor. The less frames, the more "sloppy" the game will go, as the human eye is pretty sharp. However, commonly discussed is that the human eye cannot see more than 35+- frames each second anyway, as you might have noticed that a "frame per second" beyond that is not "sloppy".

<snip>

Uhm, only quad cores with hyperthreading have 8 threads, and none of the core 2 CPUs have hyperthreading(duo or quad).

 

The fps issue is not as black and white as you make out to be, especially since everyone's reaction to framerate differences is unique. 30 fps is generally viewed as the minimum acceptable framerate but this can vary depending on the game and the individual, most people can still see a difference in framerates well above 30 fps though(I can see a difference up to about 75 fps). How much the framerate varies can make a big difference as well, a steady 40 fps will look better than if the framerate is constantly fluctuating between 45 fps and 60 fps.

[yoječ]

 

Quad Core = 4 cores/8 threads, Duo Core = 2 Cores/4 threads.

Actually Core 2 Quad = 4 cores/4 threads, Core 2 Duo/Dual Core = 2 cores/2 threads.

 

If you really want to upgrade your PC, you might consider buying used (USED!) Q9550/Q9650. It's basically the fastest CPU available on LGA775. Don't bother buying the new one because Intel raised its price so much it's far from being good value for money.

 

You might also try overclocking your CPU. You should reach 4GHz without much problem, if your motherboard, CPU cooling and PSU are good enough. Don't go any higher though, you'd probably have to raise the voltage so much that CPU's life would be vastly shortened.

[gp65cj04]

the problem is gta4 need a quad cores cpu at least...

Edited August 9, 2010 by gp65cj04

[isamu99]

You know what's funny? I bought this PC and it already came overclocked to 4.0Ghz. Then after about a year and a half, the cpu overheated even though I had LIQUID COOLING in this sucker! But the liquid cooling failed as did the cpu. So I got it back a few months ago and at stock speed of 3.1Ghz and air cooling instead of liquid. I don't think I wanna take a chance of getting it overclocked again without liquid cooling or perhaps a phase changing system. I think it would be more sensible upgrading to a quad altogether.

 

Right now, when gaming on this e8500, my temps hover around 68 degrees celcius and around 60 when surfing the when via Firefox.

[Ultraman1966]

From the benchmarks that I've seen, even if you overclock that dual core to around 3.8GHz, it'll only yield performance equivalent to a stock Q6600 so it's preferable that you upgrade, especially with the overheating!

[Chevyboy]

Spec's in sig.

 

I run at 1680x1050 with high settings (about 750mb vram usage) with shadows turned off. I find I lose about 15 FPS with them since I exceed my video card's vram by using high settings since I'm stuck with the 512mb version of the 4870. Anyway with the above said my FPS average in the mid to high 40's with lows of high 30's. I've never seen it dip lower than 38fps with the above settings and again average is somewhere in the 45-50 range.

 

Note however I run at 4ghz on my E8500, at stock speeds I lose about 8 FPS. You are correct tho your system is bottlenecked by your chip in GTA4, 3 cores are utilized significantly by the game with 4 (or more) seeing minimal action. One of the few games currently out that sees a lot of benefit from additional cores.

 

An additional note, if your cores temperature is actually close to 70c while gaming at stock speeds I would consider an upgrade to a premium heatsink. You can get decent ones + fans for very fair rates these days and it will knock a good 20-25c off your temperatures. To give you an idea, mine on a warm day (27c for example) will max out at 51c while gaming, 55c while running prime95, this is again overclocked to 4ghz.

 

Sorry I rambled on a bit there but may give you some idea's since I run the same chip. Honestly tho it may be worth considering an upgrade if you intend to play a lot of GTA4, that and *finally* more and more games are starting to actually utilize more than 2 cores.

[Chevyboy]

 

Quad Core = 4 cores/8 threads, Duo Core = 2 Cores/4 threads.

Horrible misinformation, only chips with hyper threading have cores in addition to physical ones on the chip. Most of intel's new chips use hyper threading however the still very popular core 2 duo/quad series have 2 and 4 cores/threads respectively. AMD is similar, no hyper threading.

 

 

the problem is gta4 need a quad cores cpu at least...

 

Wrong, however a quad does help. Need is a very strong word for someone that provided no facts to support his claim.

Edited August 9, 2010 by Chevyboy

[yoječ]

 

the problem is gta4 need a quad cores cpu at least...

"At least"? GTAIV can't utilise more than 3 or 4 cores (I'm not sure). Switching to more than that won't make much difference (if it's the same CPU architecture)

[mkey82]

GTAIV uses three cores and they're best served hot at over 3.2-3.5 GHz. This doesn't mean GTAIV will not run great on a dual core at 3.5-4GHz. However it seems, GTAIV loves i7 processors the best, again especially at higher clocks. Even though it can use only three threads.

[joshuazh]

Eh...

hm..

I get middle 40's, high 30's min fps

However, shadows off+low texture but high reflection

I have 4850 512 mb, ddr3 8gb ram, q8200 2.33 GHZ

I cant overclock core cause mobo wont let me D:

My card is sort of hot so i OC very little.

[yoječ]

However it seems, GTAIV loves i7 processors the best, again especially at higher clocks. Even though it can use only three threads.

That's because Core i7 CPUs have the best architecture at this time. When compared at the same clock speeds, its

single core performs noticeably better than a single core from AMD Deneb CPUs or Core 2, and also slightly better than Core i3/i5.