Specs for Full GTA4 settings

[Lilday]

OK So I have searched and read all the other threads I can find, and I have the recommended specs/minimum specs...

 

But I want to know what system I will need to play GTA4 on FULL settings.

 

Everything on 100%, Highest graphics levels...

 

What system would I require?

 

(I plan on buying a Laptop with 4GB RAM, Intel Core i5 (2.40GHz), NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M 1GB and Windows 7 Premium)

 

Will it be enough?

[Smiler-Online]

I can't even play with full settings...

 

even though I have some good specs I have to turn (Day) shadows down to High, and turn V&D distance down to 50

 

 

 

I was monitoring the memory usage the other day though, and it looks like the game performs so bad because the game is limited to 32bit memory...

 

So I think that we will only start to see GTAIV performing the way it should if the GTA community can put together a x64 exe file for it... but thats not likely...

 

*EDIT*

 

NOTE,

 

I do have 1GB of Video Memory which I believe causes the game to lose access to that extra 1GB of System Memory too which makes the 32bit memory limit even more difficult to put up with

Edited September 15, 2010 by smiler_16

[viometrix]

any of the nvidia 300 series graphics are for office use only, not meant for any type of gaming. use either a gtx 260 - 285 or gtx 460 or 480.

[yolol]

Get a alienware laptop perfect for gaming, doubt alienware will fail

[QwertyAAA]

A PS3.

[yolol]

A PS3.

The 360 has better details in most of their gaming library,but PS3 exclusives overall beats 360 exclusivity games when it comes to graphics like wise.

[Jigglyass]

 

Get a alienware laptop perfect for gaming, doubt alienware will fail

Alienware is hipster overpriced thrash.

The macs or machines that run windows.

 

This will do

http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_c....asp?PRID=13880

Id say pick a 950 CPU since its faster and its only extra 13 bucks, and the 480 has 2GB of vram dedicated to it so maxing out the game will be no problem and there will be no texture popins.

Edited September 19, 2010 by JigglyAss

[yolol]

Get a alienware laptop perfect for gaming, doubt alienware will fail

Alienware is hipster overpriced thrash.

The macs or machines that run windows.

 

This will do

http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_c....asp?PRID=13880

Id say pick a 950 CPU since its faster and its only extra 13 bucks, and the 480 has 2GB of vram dedicated to it so maxing out the game will be no problem and there will be no texture popins.

Overpriced? yeah speak for yourself your laptop suggestion cost over $2000 dollars alien laptops cost at least 1000, Buy the alienware.

[Jigglyass]

Get a alienware laptop perfect for gaming, doubt alienware will fail

Alienware is hipster overpriced thrash.

The macs or machines that run windows.

 

This will do

http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_c....asp?PRID=13880

Id say pick a 950 CPU since its faster and its only extra 13 bucks, and the 480 has 2GB of vram dedicated to it so maxing out the game will be no problem and there will be no texture popins.

Overpriced? yeah speak for yourself your laptop suggestion cost over $2000 dollars alien laptops cost at least 1000, Buy the alienware.

The hardware in the laptop i suggested is far superior in any alienware laptop.

Learn2comprehend.

[mkey82]

Get a alienware laptop perfect for gaming, doubt alienware will fail

Alienware is hipster overpriced thrash.

The macs or machines that run windows.

 

This will do

http://www.avadirect.com/product_details_c....asp?PRID=13880

Id say pick a 950 CPU since its faster and its only extra 13 bucks, and the 480 has 2GB of vram dedicated to it so maxing out the game will be no problem and there will be no texture popins.

Overpriced? yeah speak for yourself your laptop suggestion cost over $2000 dollars alien laptops cost at least 1000, Buy the alienware.

The hardware in the laptop i suggested is far superior in any alienware laptop.

Learn2comprehend.

Yeah, I second Jiggly. Alienware is overpriced bullsh*t and laptops just can't cut the standard desktop PC cost/performance ratio.

[dafour]

You need at least this,

 

I5 430m, 4GB DDR3 ,HD5650 1GB

 

I'm playing GTA4 online with this at 20+ fps

 

1440*900,medium,no shadows.

 

 

[viometrix]

get a system like mine and youll be golden...

[gh3860]

Get at least an i7 965 or Intel xeon (dual) x5680 (pricey). Nvidia 480 gtx or ATI radeon hd 5970. Get these and you will be able to max out every game.

[IronHide-AW]

For reference on a machine that owns GTA-IV like you're wanting, i.e absolutely FULL in every possible way.

 

i7-975EE 4@4ghz (wc)

2xGTX295 QSLI (good oc on cores/shader/mem, on ac)

2xRaptor-R0

8Gig LLPT (i7 memory handling/internal bandwidth is FAR superior to all previous, resulting in much less need to go crazy with raw ram oc on them)

 

That's my dev rig back home. Don't have access to it atm (currently oos on contract) but this is what I roughly recall:

 

1611+Meg resources reported in-game graphics menu.

Every setting turned as high as the setting goes.

All command line options related to opening up max / restricting nothing in any way.

 

I use vsync on that one because everything is so strong the video boards will simply run-away with fps beyond benefit and eventually overheat.

 

But with the settings described above at 1920x1200 at no time, no matter what the hell is going on, does it drop below a perfect 60fps. It is simply liquid smooth at all times, period.

 

Granted that rig is overkill for most things not related to gaming, but if you want something that shreds games, something like that or close will do it.

 

As far as Alienware being overpriced. Yes, but you're paying for a lot more [crap] and overhead that you don't actually need when you buy pre-built on something like that.

 

Even with just a little knowledge you can build your own rig with little effort that gets you where you want to be. Just don't purchase inferior parts or skimp on important core components (especially a strong PS).

 

EDITED:

 

Just saw the last bit of what you asked in OP.

 

 

(I plan on buying a Laptop with 4GB RAM, Intel Core i5 (2.40GHz), NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M 1GB and Windows 7 Premium)

 

Will it be enough?

 

No. Even on lower res that's not the only issue. GTA-IV is a CPU-crushing beast. It eats them hard-core. The more cores/threads the better that's for sure. You should likely do at-least the i7 not i5 and if you don't get an extreme addition that allows you to oc from the bios you'll likely wind up using other tools to oc it just to get it running decent. And since it's a laptop you'll be particularly limited on how far you cn push it (especially video) before it freezes or reboots due to heat and component tolerence. Just wanted to brace you since I saw that last bit. Don't expect that to own GTA-IV, by any stretch.

Edited October 1, 2010 by IronHide-AW

[unwinding]

 

For reference on a machine that owns GTA-IV like you're wanting, i.e absolutely FULL in every possible way.

 

i7-975EE 4@4ghz (wc)

2xGTX295 QSLI (good oc on cores/shader/mem, on ac)

2xRaptor-R0

8Gig LLPT (i7 memory handling/internal bandwidth is FAR superior to all previous, resulting in much less need to go crazy with raw ram oc on them)

 

That's my dev rig back home. Don't have access to it atm (currently oos on contract) but this is what I roughly recall:

 

1611+Meg resources reported in-game graphics menu.

Every setting turned as high as the setting goes.

All command line options related to opening up max / restricting nothing in any way.

 

I use vsync on that one because everything is so strong the video boards will simply run-away with fps beyond benefit and eventually overheat.

 

But with the settings described above at 1920x1200 at no time, no matter what the hell is going on, does it drop below a perfect 60fps. It is simply liquid smooth at all times, period.

 

Granted that rig is overkill for most things not related to gaming, but if you want something that shreds games, something like that or close will do it.

 

As far as Alienware being overpriced. Yes, but you're paying for a lot more [crap] and overhead that you don't actually need when you buy pre-built on something like that.

 

Even with just a little knowledge you can build your own rig with little effort that gets you where you want to be. Just don't purchase inferior parts or skimp on important core components (especially a strong PS).

 

EDITED:

 

Just saw the last bit of what you asked in OP.

 

 

(I plan on buying a Laptop with 4GB RAM, Intel Core i5 (2.40GHz), NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M 1GB and Windows 7 Premium)

 

Will it be enough?

 

No. Even on lower res that's not the only issue. GTA-IV is a CPU-crushing beast. It eats them hard-core. The more cores/threads the better that's for sure. You should likely do at-least the i7 not i5 and if you don't get an extreme addition that allows you to oc from the bios you'll likely wind up using other tools to oc it just to get it running decent. And since it's a laptop you'll be particularly limited on how far you cn push it (especially video) before it freezes or reboots due to heat and component tolerence. Just wanted to brace you since I saw that last bit. Don't expect that to own GTA-IV, by any stretch.

(sigh) Too much BS misinformation on this forum, especially in this response. For the OP - Firstly, this is not a graphically demanding game and will run optimally on any modern mainstream video card just fine so long as it has 1GB RAM. (mainstream being the $150ish range). Secondly, it does run best with three cores so do not settle for an i5. Thirdly turn off shadows. You can max out all the other settings and play at like 720p with a 60fps. It's the shadows that destroy the framerate, but unfortunately disabling them takes away from realism.

 

IronHide-AW, what you describe in this statement is impossible: "I use vsync on that one because everything is so strong the video boards will simply run-away with fps beyond benefit and eventually overheat." Vsync just makes sure that frames are in sync with your monitor's refresh rate. It's still 'drawing' those other frames.. Thats how it works. By syncing with the refresh, tearing is eliminated.

 

Same with this "no matter what the hell is going on, does it drop below a perfect 60fps. It is simply liquid smooth at all times, period" which is also BS. Vsync is broken in GTA IV, it doesn't work like a proper implementation of vsync does, it merely limits the framerate to 5fps below your refresh rate to reduce tearing. It also doesn't work with d3doverrider so tearing still can occur. What that means is if you are telling the truth, then your game definitely dips below 60fps if you have vsync on because R*'s Vsync is broke.

 

"GTA-IV is a CPU-crushing beast. It eats them hard-core. The more cores/threads the better that's for sure. You should likely do at-least the i7 not i5" I agree with you on not getting the i5, but you're wrong about 'the more cores/threads the better'. GTA IV only uses three threads tops. Ideally I really hope it's using three cores but because I get a slight bump in FPS by disabling hyperthreading I don't think that's the case. Three threads only, everything else is overkill for this game. One thread for the engine, one for Euphoria, and one for Bullet physics mimicking how it was programmed on the 360. Check the task manager... three threads only for gtaiv.exe

 

 

Note for OP again, I've been messing with this game for the past few days on my new system which is a core i7 860 and an nvidia gts 450 with 1gb vram. Don't believe for a second that a better video card will improve framerates, just google GTA IV PC and 5870 Xfire, or 480 GTX SLI, or GTX 280, GTX 295 (except IronHide-AW's) and you'll see that nobody gets great performance with higher end cards. I read on neogaf that having more than 2 gigs of ram might even decrease performance due to memory latency. Here is a feature from two years ago regarding the game being CPU bound: http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,669595/...cessors/Reviews

 

With everything maxed out, the game has pitiful framerates. With everything on high it seems to start out smooth but then gets in the 20s and lower. Not cool when even my conservative rig should get 60fp with this two-year-old+ game. I did a test and with every detail turned down it averages 200fps. All you have to do is turn shadows on at this point to kill performance. For example, very high shadows turns it into a slide show even on the lowest possible settings/resolution. So anyways, on my setup (above) I have it at 1920x1080, no mods, no command lines, and all settings at max with sliders at 50. And shadows on low. I can get 30-60fps (fluctuates) this was and I am using the vasoline/motion blur effect thing (definition off). It has no excuse to run less than 60fps, but I'll take his as a compromise and be done with it. Low shadows look like poo but it's better than nothing and definitely better than low FPS.

 

It's a great game, and I'm glad I kept messing with it to get it near-playable. But it's horribly under optimized.... If you turn off virtual memory, performance will increase but windows doesn't like it when you turn virtual memory off. If you turn off hyperthreading you'll get a bump in fps at times too. So the game has no idea what is real memory and fake (virtual) memory and no idea what is a real thread and what is a fake thread (hyperthread)... at least part of the time. And it's vsync is broke like I said, forcing vsync elsewhere increases loading horribly for some reason. There is no anti-aliasing, just the vasoline blur affect designed for hiding artifacts for the console versions. Shadows kill FPS. Anisotropic filtering was called "render quality" until the recent patch. Honestly, render quality? This is an anti-pc gamer pc game

Edited October 2, 2010 by unwinding

[apache249]

get a system like mine and youll be golden...

Sweet rig man! I wish I had an SR2. You might want to edit your sig though(2GB 480?). Does GTA IV utilize all 24 threads?

[IronHide-AW]

unwinding, everything said in my post is correct from personal experience The game runs liquid smooth as I described. If you don't believe it, that's ok too, but that just means you have some other issue unrelated to the facts, either with me or something else. But it doesn't change the facts. GTA-IV is completely owned by that rig.

 

And for clarity since it wasn't clear it seems:

"I use vsync on that one because everything is so strong the video boards will simply run-away with fps beyond benefit and eventually overheat."

 

That statement implies, as intended, I use vsync on that rig for everything, either through the game if it's working or through the hardware if there's a problem. Mass Effect 2 is another example of a game with apparent issues, but on that one they can actually be fixed by modifying a number of settings related to mouse dampening and others.

 

Bottom line, you appear to think what I've posted is incorrect. Not sure what that's based on, but it's certainly not based on the truth. My post is from personal experience. Since I'm oos I don't have it available to bench and dump it, but the benchmarks dumped by the gane on that machine back up what I said.

 

Edited:

 

I re-read both my post and your inexplicable post. I am always interested in having my facts correct, and always correct them when found to be wrong. Ego has no meaning to me. Being of large ego but retarded as opposed to being smart and willing to self-correct or admit when wrong is no contest. However, everything I said is correct, and your argument against what I said about vsync is at-best lacking in knowledge, and at worst simply wrong. It is very well documented across the planet that using vsync will in-fact prevent video hardware from overheating in many situations, has been known to me for years, and used by me for years, for that very reason. And yet you spew information to the contrary like you know something the rest of the planet knows the opposite of. Bad stance. Check into it. And with that I'll leave it be since the OP is not looking for a flame war, but is instead looking for suggestions (which I added too with my post) on a machine capable of owning GTA-IV. He did not ask what problems GTA-IV has. He asked what it would take to own it.

Edited October 2, 2010 by IronHide-AW

[yoječ]

Does GTA IV utilize all 24 threads?

GTA4 uses 3 cores at best.

[unwinding]

unwinding, everything said in my post is correct from personal experience The game runs liquid smooth as I described. If you don't believe it, that's ok too, but that just means you have some other issue unrelated to the facts, either with me or something else. But it doesn't change the facts. GTA-IV is completely owned by that rig.

 

And for clarity since it wasn't clear it seems:

"I use vsync on that one because everything is so strong the video boards will simply run-away with fps beyond benefit and eventually overheat."

 

That statement implies, as intended, I use vsync on that rig for everything, either through the game if it's working or through the hardware if there's a problem. Mass Effect 2 is another example of a game with apparent issues, but on that one they can actually be fixed by modifying a number of settings related to mouse dampening and others.

 

Bottom line, you appear to think what I've posted is incorrect. Not sure what that's based on, but it's certainly not based on the truth. My post is from personal experience. Since I'm oos I don't have it available to bench and dump it, but the benchmarks dumped by the gane on that machine back up what I said.

 

Edited:

 

I re-read both my post and your inexplicable post. I am always interested in having my facts correct, and always correct them when found to be wrong. Ego has no meaning to me. Being of large ego but retarded as opposed to being smart and willing to self-correct or admit when wrong is no contest. However, everything I said is correct, and your argument against what I said about vsync is at-best lacking in knowledge, and at worst simply wrong. It is very well documented across the planet that using vsync will in-fact prevent video hardware from overheating in many situations, has been known to me for years, and used by me for years, for that very reason. And yet you spew information to the contrary like you know something the rest of the planet knows the opposite of. Bad stance. Check into it. And with that I'll leave it be since the OP is not looking for a flame war, but is instead looking for suggestions (which I added too with my post) on a machine capable of owning GTA-IV. He did not ask what problems GTA-IV has. He asked what it would take to own it.

Sorry dude, but the OP wanted to know what it takes hardware-wise to run the game on full settings and you're trolling that your setup does when no setup on the market in fact can do it. The in-game vsync limits the framerate to below your refresh. Forcing vsync results in slow loading meaning the game's vsync method is unorthodox.... Even on a great setup shadows on very high result in a slide show on the LOWEST (everying at low, 800x600) settings. I'm simply stating facts while you and a bunch of trolls anonymously pretend all is well just by upgrading to overpriced hardware. Simply not true. Please PROOVE it via a non-fraps (since fraps and combine frames to fake a framerate) youtube video. And if you can't, obviously you are all being dishonest. And you can't either

 

Folks, GTA IV uses three threads tops, doesn't really care what your video card is as long as it is a nvidia 9800 gts+ with 512gb+ vram. It's a poor port of an okay video game and I wish somebody at rock star was reading this because there are a lot of PC games/ports that run circles around it and equivilent settings. but nobody cares, just trolls

[IronHide-AW]

Everything I've said is verifiably true, no matter how badly you wish it wasn't. And with that I'm out. Good luck to OP. Research the threads, decide which folks are being straight with you and which ones are not, due to anger or anything else. Then make the best choice you can and enjoy the game. Later.

[kudoboi]

lol my com is intel core 2 duo, 9500GT nvidia

2.66GHZ and it runs perfect on medium settings. just update ur graphic driver, also i don't reconmand laptop for gaming anyway, usually i only like to use desktop since the monitor is better, key is bigger, mouse is slightly the same if ur thinking on getting a usb/wireless mouse for ur laptop, if ur intending to use the build in mouse in the middle, its gonna be hard to aim. also a additional numpad would be good if ur considering using mods.

also my com does not lag running any 2008 to 2010 games eg: mafia 2, gta eflc, need for speed shift.

Edited October 5, 2010 by kudoboi

[viometrix]

 

unwinding, everything said in my post is correct from personal experience The game runs liquid smooth as I described. If you don't believe it, that's ok too, but that just means you have some other issue unrelated to the facts, either with me or something else. But it doesn't change the facts. GTA-IV is completely owned by that rig.

 

And for clarity since it wasn't clear it seems: 

"I use vsync on that one because everything is so strong the video boards will simply run-away with fps beyond benefit and eventually overheat."

 

That statement implies, as intended, I use vsync on that rig for everything, either through the game if it's working or through the hardware if there's a problem. Mass Effect 2 is another example of a game with apparent issues, but on that one they can actually be fixed by modifying a number of settings related to mouse dampening and others.

 

Bottom line, you appear to think what I've posted is incorrect. Not sure what that's based on, but it's certainly not based on the truth. My post is from personal experience. Since I'm oos I don't have it available to bench and dump it, but the benchmarks dumped by the gane on that machine back up what I said.

 

Edited:

 

I re-read both my post and your inexplicable post. I am always interested in having my facts correct, and always correct them when found to be wrong. Ego has no meaning to me. Being of large ego but retarded as opposed to being smart and willing to self-correct or admit when wrong is no contest. However, everything I said is correct, and your argument against what I said about vsync is at-best lacking in knowledge, and at worst simply wrong. It is very well documented across the planet that using vsync will in-fact prevent video hardware from overheating in many situations, has been known to me for years, and used by me for years, for that very reason. And yet you spew information to the contrary like you know something the rest of the planet knows the opposite of. Bad stance. Check into it. And with that I'll leave it be since the OP is not looking for a flame war, but is instead looking for suggestions (which I added too with my post) on a machine capable of owning GTA-IV. He did not ask what problems GTA-IV has. He asked what it would take to own it.

Sorry dude, but the OP wanted to know what it takes hardware-wise to run the game on full settings and you're trolling that your setup does when no setup on the market in fact can do it. The in-game vsync limits the framerate to below your refresh. Forcing vsync results in slow loading meaning the game's vsync method is unorthodox.... Even on a great setup shadows on very high result in a slide show on the LOWEST (everying at low, 800x600) settings. I'm simply stating facts while you and a bunch of trolls anonymously pretend all is well just by upgrading to overpriced hardware. Simply not true. Please PROOVE it via a non-fraps (since fraps and combine frames to fake a framerate) youtube video. And if you can't, obviously you are all being dishonest. And you can't either

 

Folks, GTA IV uses three threads tops, doesn't really care what your video card is as long as it is a nvidia 9800 gts+ with 512gb+ vram. It's a poor port of an okay video game and I wish somebody at rock star was reading this because there are a lot of PC games/ports that run circles around it and equivilent settings. but nobody cares, just trolls

Unwinding you are a moron. if anyone remotely listens to this jackass they are as rediculous as him. he has about as much hardware and programming/ coding experiance as a rotten grapefruit in a paperbag. he is downing people here that have been here for YEARS and have proven experience, some even way more then me when it comes to this game in particular. Unwinding if you are having such a sh*t time with this game or any other, you sir belong on a console.

 

i think your name (Unwinding) is an oxymoron because you come here and seem to like to get everyone wound up. please if you have nothing factual to add, go away. yes this game is a bad port and is bugged, i have the most powerful computer on these forums (for now) and i still have issues with crashing, but framerates and stutters arent among them. also you are wrong on the threads, it uses 3 cores 100% tops, and uses others partially. i have 12 cores with 24 threads, mine utilizes 3 cores 100% and the others partially and being i have 2 processors it also utilizes the other processor for a total of 5 cores and 9 threads. you have never dealt with a dual cpu system so you dont know what you speak of. next time you wish to talk out of your ass, make sure it is only when you fart.

Edited October 5, 2010 by viometrix

[crackdawg]

CPU with 1066 FSB, or DMI, or any of the QPI or HT interfaces and PCIe prefferably 2.0. Dual core or better. 2GB card(any 2GB will have decent FPS and allow all max settings). DDR3 800 or better RAM, in the case of 1066 FSB fastest chip supports.

 

dual core with Hyperthreads are just as good as quad cores. Hopefully some budget HT and PCIe 3.0 hardware will exist in 2011..

 

a low power dual core with decent FSB or HT and a 1GB 8800GT actually does better than most new hardware with no mods, and can be found way cheaper on ebay, amazon, and google shopping.

Edited October 5, 2010 by crackdawg