80 - 100 & CPU Usage

[gwnsf]

Hi I just got GTA4 and I have:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 255 at 3.1GHz(dual core)

GPU: Nvidia Geforce 9500gt updated drivers at 1024mb

RAM: 3GB

OS: Windows XP SP3

 

And the game runs at 25- 40 fps only if I have everything low except for textures medium and shadows off, but even then it uses 80 to 100 percent of the CPU usage which I am afraid about.

Here are my exact game settings:

Resolution: 800 x 600 (60hz)

Texture Quality: Medium

Reflections: Low

Water Quality: Low

Shadows: Off

Texture Filtering: High

Distance: 10

Detail: 10

Vehicle Density: 1

Definition: On

Vsync: Off

 

Please help if you can.

Thanks.

 

[Garfield 2]

And that's about correct.

Dual Core and terrible graphiics card - don't expect much.

Quad Core and 9600GT play this game much better.

[unc13bud]

that's about it. you could tweak the operating system perhaps, but you might as well purchase a graphic card that has more than 32 shader cores -- 96/128 max because its a dual core

 

edit: i have played eflc with x3 2.1 ghz and it said 97%, the original engine used three cores of the xbox 360. you could swap that dual core for a cheap OEM x4 chip, its like night and day

Edited September 10, 2011 by unc13bud

[gwnsf]

Playing with vsync appears to have fixed my cpu usage problem, now I'm only getting 60-80% usage, but my performance has dropped a whole 15 fps. Is there anyway I can keep Vsync on and boost the fps a little more?

[mkey82]

Are you sure you're losing 15FPS over vsync? That doesn't sound right.

[gwnsf]

Highest with vsync = 45 FPS

Highest without vsync = 59 FPS

 

To be exact, it was 14.

I don't want to use up my entire CPU until it fries but I do want the best performance out of GTA IV, please help.

[radioman]

There's not much you can do, as the Athlon is a slow dual core processor(speaking from experience there) and the 9500 is not really a gaming card. I have an Athlon X2 Dual core on my desktop and on a laptop, and it is A LOT slower than my Core 2 Duo on my XP SP3 laptop...Athlon's are definitely NOT good for today's games..however, III, VC, and SA will run quite well on them though...

 

So, the ONLY thing you can do is upgrade your processor AND Video card-this is assuming you are on a desktop, as you CANNOT upgrade a laptop as the Processor and Video cards are soldered in...Just a couple of friendly heads up..

[gwnsf]

I don't understand though, because if Crysis 2 runs on my computer at 30-60 fps on medium, only using 50-70% of my cpu, why does GTA IV have to use more and get less?

Is GTA IV just poorly optimized for the computer?

[OverTheBelow]

I don't understand though, because if Crysis 2 runs on my computer at 30-60 fps on medium, only using 50-70% of my cpu, why does GTA IV have to use more and get less?

Is GTA IV just poorly optimized for the computer?

Yes, GTA4 is somewhat unoptimised, but Crysis 2 isn't exactly simulating an advanced ragdoll physics engine, in a large freeroam environment, with over 60 AIs actively working simultaneously in realtime. Even if GTA4 was optimised to a flawless extent, it would still need to use a considerable amount of the CPU.

 

In basic terms, Crysis 2 needs nowhere near as much CPU horsepower to function as GTA 4 because it's physics engine is much less complex.