Low FPS, High-End(ish) PC?

[An Average Username]

Hey people, I'm new. Apologies if this is in the wrong section. I mean, perhaps I'm wrong, but looking at these specs by doing a benchmark, doesn't it seem a little low?

 

Statistics

Average FPS: 27.23

Duration: 32.72 sec

CPU Usage: 70%

System memory usage: 75%

Video memory usage: 79%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: High

Shadow Quality: High

Reflection Resolution: Low

Water Quality: High

Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16

Night Shadows: High

View Distance: 10

Detail Distance: 100

 

I have an ATI Radeon 5870, 4GB RAM, AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2ghz. I also used fraps and my average FPS showed the same (on average) as the benchmark.

[yoječ]

How much FPS do you get in the game? Benchmark is not a trustworthy source.

[An Average Username]

Actually, as stated in the bottom sentence in my first post, I also tried fraps and got the same FPS.

 

Although good-ish news, I clicked "Auto-Configure" which increased the graphics settings, yet I now get 40fps average. Although there's no longer night shadows but I'm not fussed about that whatsoever.

 

If anyone has any other tips, I'd be grateful though.

[yoječ]

Actually, as stated in the bottom sentence in my first post, I also tried fraps and got the same FPS.

Ah, for some reason I thought you used Fraps in benchmark, lol. Around 30FPS in-game is a decent result for your PC on setting you posted in first message.

[An Average Username]

If you're right, not that I doubt you, then that sucks.. Thanks anyways.

[BLKMAG]

Statistics

Average FPS: 27.23

Duration: 32.72 sec

CPU Usage: 70% Cpu not at 75%, means GPU

System memory usage: 75%

Video memory usage: 79%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz) Lowering the resolution would take a lot of load off the GPU

Texture Quality: High

Shadow Quality: High Set to low-medium

Reflection Resolution: Low

Water Quality: High

Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16 Try running a lower AF setting.

Night Shadows: High

View Distance: 10

Detail Distance: 100 Set it lower, around 40-50.

[An Average Username]

Whilst I respect your post, I'm not willing to lower my graphics settings. I've actually found that if I click 'Auto-Configure' (which increases certain settings, decreases none), it gives me a higher FPS. As a little test earlier, I did lower shadow quality etc and it made no difference whatsoever.

[Oaty]

Whilst I respect your post, I'm not willing to lower my graphics settings. I've actually found that if I click 'Auto-Configure' (which increases certain settings, decreases none), it gives me a higher FPS. As a little test earlier, I did lower shadow quality etc and it made no difference whatsoever.

Thats because your graphics card is not the bottleneck here, your CPU is. Shadow quality puts more work on your card as the setting get higher, whereas nightshadows put a sh*tload more work on your CPU calculating dynamic shadows at night. And since GTA4 only likes to use three cores, you're out of luck for good performance unless you do some overclocking.

[mkey82]

Sometimes when you change the settings, the game should be restarted to make effect. *Sometimes*

 

Anyways, like others have said, 40FPS at those settings is a decent result. You can try fiddling with memrestrict, it may allow you to pull out something more, but in this case I doubt it.

[jnzooger]

There is no reason to have Shadows on High. Medium looks better than the old shadows and will increase your performance noticeably. This is and the Texture filter are only suggestion which will have any real bearing on your FPS without changing hardware or really messing with the look of the game.

 

Again, you will not notice a graphical difference by knocking shadows down one setting, but you will notice a boost in performance.

 

And doing this, you can turn on Night Shadows no problem.

[Oaty]

There is no reason to have Shadows on High. Medium looks better than the old shadows and will increase your performance noticeably. This is and the Texture filter are only suggestion which will have any real bearing on your FPS without changing hardware or really messing with the look of the game.

 

Again, you will not notice a graphical difference by knocking shadows down one setting, but you will notice a boost in performance.

 

And doing this, you can turn on Night Shadows no problem.

Shadow quality affects graphics card load.

 

 

Night shadows requires much more extra load from the CPU, when compared to the load it requires from the graphics card. Therefore, he will still lose a considerable amount of FPS when turnin night shadows on, and also end up with considerably worse looking shadows during the day.

[jnzooger]

There is no reason to have Shadows on High. Medium looks better than the old shadows and will increase your performance noticeably. This is and the Texture filter are only suggestion which will have any real bearing on your FPS without changing hardware or really messing with the look of the game.

 

Again, you will not notice a graphical difference by knocking shadows down one setting, but you will notice a boost in performance.

 

And doing this, you can turn on Night Shadows no problem.

Shadow quality affects graphics card load.

 

 

Night shadows requires much more extra load from the CPU, when compared to the load it requires from the graphics card. Therefore, he will still lose a considerable amount of FPS when turnin night shadows on, and also end up with considerably worse looking shadows during the day.

 

Enhanced Night Shadows added with user-selectable level of detail (replaces Shadow Density)

Night Shadows are the Patch 5 shadow system, the game doesn't use the new shadow system at night, only during the day. At night, the game still uses the old shadow system. Shadow Density did not have that much performance hit in Patch 5, thus the Night Shadows do not either.

[mkey82]

Shadow Density did not have that much performance hit in Patch 5

Yes it did, in my case I would lose about 40% FPS with shadow density set to 16 as opposed to being set to 0.

[jnzooger]

Shadow Density did not have that much performance hit in Patch 5

Yes it did, in my case I would lose about 40% FPS with shadow density set to 16 as opposed to being set to 0.

Sorry, *as much as the new shadow system...

[Stinky12]

Did some benchmarking test and here are the results.

OP-Left (red), My-Right (white)<---the same game settings as OP to see the difference, (orange)=the settings I actually play at.

 

Average FPS: 27.23 / 49.25 / 38.95 (Fraps avg: 33FPS)

Duration: 32.72 sec / 37.58 sec / 37.74 sec

CPU Usage: 70% / 70% / 65%

System memory usage: 75% / 72% / 74%

Video memory usage: 79%/ 73% / 79%

 

Graphics Settings

Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz) / 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz) / 1920 x 1200 (60 Hz)

Texture Quality: High / High / High

Shadow Quality: High / High / High

Reflection Resolution: Low / Low / High

Water Quality: High / High / High

Texture Filter Quality: Anisotropic x16 / Anisotropic x16 / Anisotropic x16

Night Shadows: High / High / High

View Distance: 10 / 10 / 80

Detail Distance: 100 / 100 / 100

 

Graphics: ATi Radeon HD5870 1GB / ATi Radeon HD5850 1GB

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition @ 3.2GHz / Intel Xeon X3350 @ 2.66GHz

Memory: 4GB DDR3 / 4GB DDR2

Note: There is no overclock to the CPU, game patch 1.0.7.0, graphic driver-Catalyst 10.12 with hotfix, Vista Ultimate 64bit w/SP2

For other game settings not listed they are set to "High" not "Very High", and "Vehicle Density" is set to 100.

 

-Who ever build your system (either yourself) did not do it properly or correctly.

-Update graphic drivers, game, and as well as your motherboard bios/ and OS

-Check the bios to make sure your ram is actually operating at the advertise specs.

Edited January 3, 2011 by Stinky12

[bbonsignor]

Gta IV is a horribly ported game. I have a brand new high end gaming pc.

i'm running:

Intel core I7 950 running at 4.0ghz

Gtx470 stock

6gb of ram

and i only get about 60-65 fps with setting maxed and vsync off.

in other high end games that are ported properly i get close to 90-100 fps

 

Im also running better city textures and a custom enb.

Edited January 3, 2011 by bbonsignor

[TheTomster]

Gta IV is a horribly ported game. I have a brand new high end gaming pc.

i'm running:

Intel core I7 950 running at 4.0ghz

Gtx470 stock

6gb of ram

and i only get about 60-65 fps with setting maxed and vsync off.

in other high end games that are ported properly i get close to 90-100 fps

 

Im also running better city textures and a custom enb.

How could you possibly complain about 60-65 fps? That's pretty much what everyone wants to run, anything above that is unnoticeable to the human eye. FACT.

[BLKMAG]

Gta IV is a horribly ported game. I have a brand new high end gaming pc.

i'm running:

Intel core I7 950 running at 4.0ghz

Gtx470 stock

6gb of ram

and i only get about 60-65 fps with setting maxed and vsync off.

in other high end games that are ported properly i get close to 90-100 fps

 

Im also running better city textures and a custom enb.

How could you possibly complain about 60-65 fps? That's pretty much what everyone wants to run, anything above that is unnoticeable to the human eye. FACT.

You're wrong, FACT!

 

I can see the difference between 75FPS (My monitors refresh rate) and when FPS drops to the 60s.

[Oaty]

Gta IV is a horribly ported game. I have a brand new high end gaming pc.

i'm running:

Intel core I7 950 running at 4.0ghz

Gtx470 stock

6gb of ram

and i only get about 60-65 fps with setting maxed and vsync off.

in other high end games that are ported properly i get close to 90-100 fps

 

Im also running better city textures and a custom enb.

How could you possibly complain about 60-65 fps? That's pretty much what everyone wants to run, anything above that is unnoticeable to the human eye. FACT.

You're wrong, FACT!

 

I can see the difference between 75FPS (My monitors refresh rate) and when FPS drops to the 60s.

Honestly, it depends on your monitors refresh rate. If you had a 120hz monitor playing at 120fps next to a 60hz monitor playing at 60fps, the difference would be noticeable.

[mkey82]

Maybe you can see the drop, but I'm not so sure about a stable stream of images. You can always pull a few blind tests.

[D5 Driver]

Gta IV is a horribly ported game. I have a brand new high end gaming pc.

i'm running:

Intel core I7 950 running at 4.0ghz

Gtx470 stock

6gb of ram

and i only get about 60-65 fps with setting maxed and vsync off.

in other high end games that are ported properly i get close to 90-100 fps

 

Im also running better city textures and a custom enb.

What!? You think that is low? Uhm... My BEST Fps what I could get on my computer, is... Somehow, under 20.

Specs; OS: Windows Vista Lagging Edition [Home Premium] 32-Bit. CPU: AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core 5000+ (2.6GHz). GPU: Nvidia Geforce 9500 GT.

And I don't know why, but DirectX version; 11. And my PC is a real premium one, cause it cost me like..... ........ .......... .... 500-600€, when I bought it in.. 2007-2008.

And with Enb Series + Ultimate Textures Fps = 0.01. on max settings!

-D5 Driver

[jnzooger]

Gta IV is a horribly ported game. I have a brand new high end gaming pc.

i'm running:

Intel core I7 950 running at 4.0ghz

Gtx470 stock

6gb of ram

and i only get about 60-65 fps with setting maxed and vsync off.

in other high end games that are ported properly i get close to 90-100 fps

 

Im also running better city textures and a custom enb.

How could you possibly complain about 60-65 fps? That's pretty much what everyone wants to run, anything above that is unnoticeable to the human eye. FACT.

This depends on the person. The average person is used to 25-30fps, because we grow up with 50-60hz flicker in our lights. However, that is only in a stable image. When things abruptly change, then we notice it, weather that is from 120 to 50, or 85 to 20.

 

Remember, movies in the theater are going at 24fps, and that doesn't stutter for you, because the whole movie is constant at 24fps.

[mkey82]

because the whole movie is constant at 24fps.

And it's motion blurred as sh*t.

[OGIamLoco]

IMHO, its the texture filtering thats killing you.

 

I play at the same resolution and have mine turned off, since I can't

tell the difference when actually playing anyways.

Marginal improvment if your standing still and really looking for it.