Fully capable PC is skipping frames?

[ryohazuki]

I've been having so much trouble trying to get this game to run properly. I have the steam version and I think it's running the latest update. The problem I'm having is the game is CLEARLY running atleast 40-60 FPS. It's very much so a smooth experience but when I'm in a car and start going fast, it's like the game is skipping frames or the background is trying to catch up with the car. It's not an FPS drop stutter or anything, it's more or less the game is trying to catch up with how fast the car is going or something, but it still appears like a smooth image just with a jittery motion in the background which completely interrupts the gameplay.

 

I've tried following all these performance tweaks and still I'm not sure. It goes away when I put the game on low settings or take off any kind of memory restriction setting I believe, but if I don't have those options in, then I can't tweak the graphics even though I have more than enough Vram, GTA IV thinks I don't.

 

My specs are as follows,

 

Core i5-2500k @ 4.5GHZ

8gb DDR3-1600 Ram

AMD Radeon 7950 3GB Ghz Edition

WD Black 500GB 7200RPM HD

 

I'm not sure what else is necessary to post spec wise for you guys to get an understanding.

[Prometheus]

Maybe it's detecting your integrated GPU instead? How many VRAM/resource usage do it show available? try disabling the integrated vid card from the BIOS if it's possible.

[ryohazuki]

Maybe it's detecting your integrated GPU instead? How many VRAM/resource usage do it show available? try disabling the integrated vid card from the BIOS if it's possible.

When it starts with default settings and resolution it shows that it's using 248 out of 3048 MB, so I don't think it's detecting my integrated GPU, but I will try disabling it through my bios and see if that makes a difference.

 

Any other suggestions or possibilities?

[luceberg]

Assuming you are playing at 1920x1080, you may need to turn down some graphics settings. Try all on high with night shadows off, 25 view 35 detail distance.

 

Also assume you have the latest patch and video driver updates.

[Prometheus]

3GB means it's detecting the AMD graphics card.

 

Anyways this problems usually occurs when you use more than one AMD GPU [CrossfireX] - but using the commandline should fix it. Add a .txt file in the games' root directory named commandline and copy/paste the following line:

 

 

-nomemrestrict

 

[ryohazuki]

 

Assuming you are playing at 1920x1080, you may need to turn down some graphics settings. Try all on high with night shadows off, 25 view 35 detail distance.

 

Also assume you have the latest patch and video driver updates.

I'm only playing at 1600 x 1200 with a crapload of Vram left only using around 1000. Like stated though, it's not a matter of the frame rate dropping, the game is clearly having a problem or something engine side. It's running from 40-60 but it looks as if the game is trying to catch up with what I'm doing or something. The sense of speed is eliminated as a result of it and it looks like my car is going slow while panning through everything smoothly. I don't quite understand it or know how to explain it properly.

 

 

And from what I can remember the game didn't do it when the norestrictions commandline was taken off. I tried to see a difference and there is one. I played the game at low settings with the command line off, and it was fine. Then I played at low settings with the command line on and it still did the stuttering which at that setting there should be NO fps drop imo.

[luceberg]

You do not need nomemrestrict or norestrictions commandlines. Use the following instead, -reservedapp 0 and -memrestrict as described here.

 

If that does not fully resolve the issue, then try dropping the cpu clock to around 4Ghz, as I think that the graphics card may not be keeping up with it.

 

Otherwise, an Nvidia graphics card such as a GTX660Ti and up would cope much better.

[TheTaxidriver]

OK, I know I might be late to respond but I can confirm that this is caused by the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series card. I'm using the same card and I had these problems before.

 

I'm not entirely sure if it works for you but seem to have fixed it by using the default application settings in the Control Center for GTA IV. Catalyst version 13.1.