Framerate issues+Texture issues+crashing

[Anasterian]

I will keep it short..

 

I play GTA 4 as usual, no mods, no trainers. Steam version, newest patch.

 

It runs fine, then, after some time, there are slight, strange problems with some textures.

 

For example weapon icon textures go missing, and instead of that i get a big black square where a pistol icon is supposed to be. Also footprints on sand go missing the same way. Then framerate starts going weird, the sound in cutscenes is fine, it could be described as skipping frames.

After a while it stops, plays well for a short time and then suddenly locks up the PC. I have to reboot to do anything again.

 

 

 

Specs: 9800GT, C2Q Q8200 @ 2.33GHz, 4GB RAM 800MHz, Asus P5k Pro, Windows XP SP3.

Settings: 1280x1024, Everything on medium except night shadows, they are off, texture filtering is set on anisotropic x16.

Sliders: 22/40/50

Definition is On

Vsync is Off

 

 

As mentioned above, i dont use ANY mods. Or trainers.

 

Right now i tried checking the game's files integrity, will edit or post again when i play it for a while to see if it changed anything...meanwhile i hope someone knows how to fix that. And no, its not my PC being too weak. I ran this game months ago without any problems, NOTHING has changed since then in terms of my PC, settings or system.

[Girish]

Could be an overheating issue. Check your system temps to verify that they are within safe limits.

[mkey82]

Very strange issue, did you try messing with the GPU drivers. Try using the -noprecache commadline switch.