If you are worried about GTA V fps and performance, read this.

[TheMostKnowledgable]

There's a lot of talk around about performance and fps, including a lot saying that "if it's better than iv was, it's fine" or "hopefully it's not godawful like iv was"

 

I'd like you to try something and there is good reason for it. This is a preemptive performance demonstration that will hopefully prime some of you for helping others if they are looking for ways to make GTA V run better when it comes out.

 

Now, firstly, let's remember that GTA III, VC, and SA all targeted 25fps. Actually, I'm not sure the framerate limiter setting in III and VC, but in SA, if you turn on the frame limiter, it is 25 fps and runs smooth. If the limiter is off, a lot of strange things happen. That won't be covered here to keep the opening post short, but just know, there are effects and even mission critical timers that are effected by fps in SA.

 

Now, onto the demonstration (you will demo for yourself):

 

In GTA IV, you may notice if you have high fps that the traffic stutters and so do cutscenes. That is because the traffic in GTA IV, no matter what FPS you get, is ticking at 25 updates per second. That is, the traffic is 25fps and independent of the actual framerate of the game. This is important to convey the differences you are about to see.

 

Now, go ahead and load up your GTA IV without any commandline.txt. Let it run from 35 to 60 to 90 fps depending where you are. Drive around some areas and notice that sometimes it is smooth and sometimes it feels like it is becoming sluggish. Drive around for like 5 minutes like this.

 

Now, exit the game and put commandline.txt into the folder where launchgtaiv.exe (or launcheflc.exe) is. For me, it is;

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Grand Theft Auto IV\GTAIV

 

or

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Grand Theft Auto IV Episodes from Liberty City\EFLC

 

Put the file commandline.txt in and use ONLY this command:

 

-frameLimit 30

 

Exactly as it is there.

 

 

Turn the P filter ON. Many believe that all P filter does is turn on a blur. That is wrong. It is depth of field and motion blur in one. When you drive fast, this effect makes things blur more and it looks like you are really driving fast. If you turn it off, you can't see any blurring at high speeds, and it looks bad and jaggy in the mid and far clip range. The blur fixes that. It also makes the game look like a real film on a TV.

 

GTA IV looks like a cinema, as if it was recorded on actual film stock while you play it with the filter enabled. It is a crucial part of the game's aesthetic, to seem like you are in a real classic NYC movie. Without it, you're just in a game. Personal preference respected, I suggest using it and seeing the differences at least.

 

If your FPS are too high, the effect will look bad. Even the trees are designed with this effect in mind, and if you have too high fps, the places you can see through the trees (where there are no leaves), stands out too much. But at 30 fps and motion, it looks more like a real tree (in the way that everything looks real in GTA if you don't focus on it directly)

 

Anyway, type that command above into your commandline.txt and Save it, and launch the game. Play again for 5 or 10 minutes driving and running around.

 

Notice how smooth everything is. Notice how less often you see slowdown. Notice how everything is more snappy and responsive and less erratic in terms of - look, just play 10 minutes of GTA IV with -frameLimit 30 and notice how solid it is.

 

You won't feel like it is 30 fps, because it is steady and throttled. IE, you won't notice it is going up and down in frames per second because it's not anymore.

 

Just try it. Because knowing this, and SEEING it for yourself how well the presentation becomes when it is steady fps, will help to prepare for this in GTA V.

 

Yes, there is a rumor GTA V already runs 60fps. Meaning, they have made it all work correctly at 60, if true, which is fine. But who will run it at 60 maxed? Not many. I hope we can limit it to 30 fps in GTA V, because that means double the time to draw frames, which means that settings can be turned higher without causing massive dips in framerate and such.

 

Try 30 fps GTA IV as I wrote here, and tell back what you think. It may shock you. And may help you to feel okay with GTA V no matter what, knowing you can probably limit it like we can limit IV as well.

 

The game targets 30 fps on console, and it achieves it the exact same way. Actually, it might be 24, I can't remember for IV. Anyhow, try this game at 30 fps. And watch some cutscenes and notice the characters shake around less (you know, that cutscene jutter in IV) they will still do it, because the cutscene animations are actually 24 or 25 fps and not 30, but it does it way less than if you were rendering those cutscenes 60fps with 25fps animations.

 

Try it this way, and be amazed. If you already do this, let people know how good the game runs and how 30fps is just fine and actually works better. If we could limit it or vsync it to 60 without dips, that would be great, too. I'm saying it is fine and works better steady than non-steady. I myself float between 40 and 60 fps give or take. That is bad for me because I can SEE and FEEL the changes occurring in FPS. But when I limit it to 30 fps, it is butter smooth and everything works correctly.

 

Just try it! What do you think?

Edited February 11, 2015 by TheMostKnowledgable

[KyojinEM]

144hz monitor 'nuff said

[TheMostKnowledgable]

Has nothing to do with it. Unless you are getting 144 fps. In which case, congrats, you are in the top 0.1 percent of PC gamers when it comes to hardware, and I am a bit jelly!

 

But if you don't limit it to some frame per second, you still are seeing problems and dips and feeling those issues.

 

Point is: High FPS is pointless in a game which many things are only ticking at 25 or 30 fps as it is. You have 1000 fps, but you're still going to see 25fps traffic, which will result in jutter because the 1000fps motion of the world doesn't match closely enough to the 25fps traffic. Whereas at 30fps, everything ticks along at roughly the same interval, meaning, the game is running correctly.

 

If you are a player who runs 60+ fps at all times, you can go without this "fix" in commandline.txt, but you will still see things as they are not intended to be seen. If you try at 30fps, you will notice it all runs perfectly, provided you can maintain the 30fps.

 

Hit detection on enemies works better, too. Every bullet will hit at 30fps. If you ever noticed "sometimes a bullet doesn't hit" in IV, it's because of erratic fps. Try it!

Edited February 11, 2015 by TheMostKnowledgable

[wah007]

I will try it in the morning when I get home.

 

It does sound very promising. I hope it fixes my IV

[Maxxeine]

*Post deleted.

Edited October 8, 2017 by The7thOne

[TheMostKnowledgable]

The7thOne, try with P filter, it will help, and it won't feel as much like 30 fps as without. If you turn it off, you will notice though. Like any 30 fps game, it'll stand out to your eye being used to high fps. But with the post process (P) turned on, it will be a lot smoother. Let me know what you think!

 

You will also notice a lot less pop in. This is because in cases where you're unlimited, the frames are going as fast as they can, and the streamer is designed to only load so much at a time, so you end up drawing frames which are still LOD while the streamer catches up, while at 30 fps, you are often already loaded before the frames come, so you notice less pop in. I notice none. Only on the southern bohan/broker bridge where it turns but I think that is just due to the origin of the model being out-of-frustum on the camera and not a loading thing. Not sure, but I don't get that same error in other places I used to get (where a street is LOD and you are clipping through it, doesn't happen anymore)

Edited February 11, 2015 by TheMostKnowledgable

[rest1]

i will try after downloading iv . but i know when vsync off some places feel like smooth especially broker but the alderney way more laggy if i remember correctly.

[TJGM]

I have no idea how this would make anyone worry less about GTA V's performance. If anything, you made this thread to make yourself look smart with some facts that you probably found after about 30 minutes on the internet.

[TheMostKnowledgable]

i will try after downloading iv . but i know when vsync off some places feel like smooth especially broker but the alderney way more laggy if i remember correctly

 

 

This is sort of like vsync, except your limiting the game itself, rather than limiting or rather attempting to match it to the refresh rate of the monitor itself.

 

You will notice much more parity in the performance of the two areas when limited to 30fps. The whole game will run better. You won't notice the smooth places being any less smooth, but the places that get sluggish will no longer be rendering as fast as it wants to, and you're limiting it to 30fps, so instead of slow down there, it will stay more smooth, because you've told it you want only 30fps instead of "whatever it thinks it can render".

[Huskerboy42]

My rig: Pentium G3258 3.2ghz (overclocked)

Gigabyte R9 270

8 gigs of 1600mhz ddr3 ram

 

could I run GTA V on low-medium settings at a good fps?

[eastriver]

My rig: Pentium G3258 3.2ghz (overclocked)

Gigabyte R9 270

8 gigs of 1600mhz ddr3 ram

 

could I run GTA V on low-medium settings at a good fps?

I'm confident you'll run this game with a satisfactory performance.

It's hard to tell what kind of performance you'll get without actually knowing how the game will run in the first place... but that's a solid CPU and GPU and you shouldn't have trouble running GTA V.

Edited February 11, 2015 by IG_

[Eurotrash]

I think you took a wrong turn somewhere. This is the GTA V section.

[TheMcSame]

TL;DR anyone?

[Huskerboy42]

 

My rig: Pentium G3258 3.2ghz (overclocked)

Gigabyte R9 270

8 gigs of 1600mhz ddr3 ram

 

could I run GTA V on low-medium settings at a good fps?

I'm confident you'll run this game with a satisfactory performance.

It's hard to tell what kind of performance you'll get without actually knowing how the game will run in the first place... but that's a solid CPU and GPU and you shouldn't have trouble running GTA V.

 

Thanks, thats reassuring

[TheMostKnowledgable]

I think you took a wrong turn somewhere. This is the GTA V section.

 

I'm using IV as a platform for people to see for themselves, in preparation for V basically. We would all love to have 60fps steady, but in the event that for some of us we get 35 to 60 or so again, many can be ready to try 30fps and see if it makes them able to turn up more settings.

For me, I can turn up more than ever (I still slowdown some with night shadows density and very high shadows algorithm) by using 30fps. It runs very good this way, and I want others to know about it, so they can try it themselves, enjoy some IV before V, and be prepared for this simple "fix" when V comes. V is definitely going to be better than IV was, we know from max payne engine, but gta is still a different beast with resources spent in different places than they spent them in Max. So, the idea here is to give people this tip for IV, in the hopes they benefit from it for IV sure, but more importantly so that some of us can be helpful with this tip and ready to try it on day one if we need to.

[Neos7]

just activate "adaptive vsync(half refresh rate)" from nvidia control panel and turn on the vsync in-game, i use it in Assassin's Creed IV and Unity and lock the fps to 30, I have less gpu usage and constant frame rate instead of 40-60 with drops to 30 and I prefer it in some games

[TheMostKnowledgable]

That's pretty cool! It'll lock you down everywhere though, not just in GTA IV. I will always remember that trick, thanks for sharing it. I will probably keep using the commandline.txt frame limiter, since it just does it to gta iv and I won't have to change it based on which games I am playing in the nvidia panel, but it will surely come in handy for other games too. Especially upcoming releases that target 30 fps on their console counter parts (to help me not to upgrade for a while. I want to upgrade as late as possible in this generation ).

 

I will definitely be trying it out soon though, with my commandline.txt renamed so the panel does it. When I do, I'll post if it's better and add your post for nvidia users at the top of the first one.

[Aikor]

That's pretty cool! It'll lock you down everywhere though, not just in GTA IV. I will always remember that trick, thanks for sharing it. I will probably keep using the commandline.txt frame limiter, since it just does it to gta iv and I won't have to change it based on which games I am playing in the nvidia panel, but it will surely come in handy for other games too. Especially upcoming releases that target 30 fps on their console counter parts (to help me not to upgrade for a while. I want to upgrade as late as possible in this generation ).

 

I will definitely be trying it out soon though, with my commandline.txt renamed so the panel does it. When I do, I'll post if it's better and add your post for nvidia users at the top of the first one.

Oh hey iv played GTA IV and it runs smooth most times with a lil lag rarely..my question is..was GTA IV running originally at 60FPS on PC and my comp?(I didn try ur commandline one yet) Edited February 12, 2015 by Aikor

[CookinSmokeey]

i will try after downloading iv . but i know when vsync off some places feel like smooth especially broker but the alderney way more laggy if i remember correctly.

 

Game : 45 FPS

 

China Town : 20 FPS

[TheMostKnowledgable]

Let's do a case study;

 

Someone run a benchmark, and if you find 25 to 30 is your lowest (ignore highest and average for this), use this trick, and then play the game. Post back how it goes.

 

 

That's pretty cool! It'll lock you down everywhere though, not just in GTA IV. I will always remember that trick, thanks for sharing it. I will probably keep using the commandline.txt frame limiter, since it just does it to gta iv and I won't have to change it based on which games I am playing in the nvidia panel, but it will surely come in handy for other games too. Especially upcoming releases that target 30 fps on their console counter parts (to help me not to upgrade for a while. I want to upgrade as late as possible in this generation ).

I will definitely be trying it out soon though, with my commandline.txt renamed so the panel does it. When I do, I'll post if it's better and add your post for nvidia users at the top of the first one.

Oh hey iv played GTA IV and it runs smooth most times with a lil lag rarely..my question is..was GTA IV running originally at 60FPS on PC and my comp?(I didn try ur commandline one yet)

 

 

 

Probably not. And you may have a setup that never drops except for the most extreme cases, so it may not be a "need" for you to play the 30fps mode, but you might find that if you have only rare lag, limiting the game to 30 still PLAYS the same, and doesn't slow down anymore in your rare trouble areas. Some, as the post above shows, struggle in chinatown. I get like 30 in chinatown and (noticable) bounce around 40 to 60. Keeping mine at 30 makes it stop transitioning. In some areas, the game runs just fine, and when it starts to get demanding in other areas, I don't notice it, because instead of sudden drops from 50 to 30fps, I just go from 30 and stay at 30, maybe 25 in some demanding areas or on long/large missions with companion NPCs.

 

You might go from 50 to 60 and 35 in rare occasions - if that is the case, you may benefit from playing 30 because lowering to 30 will be smooth by design of the game itself, and then eliminate the fluctuation of frames. Thus, since you never drop below 35 with your rig in this example, you never notice lagging because your computer can do the 30 easier than trying to maintain the 60 and dropping to 35 when it fails to do it.

Edited February 12, 2015 by TheMostKnowledgable

[Aikor]

Let's do a case study;

 

Someone run a benchmark, and if you find 25 to 30 is your lowest (ignore highest and average for this), use this trick, and then play the game. Post back how it goes.

 

 

 

That's pretty cool! It'll lock you down everywhere though, not just in GTA IV. I will always remember that trick, thanks for sharing it. I will probably keep using the commandline.txt frame limiter, since it just does it to gta iv and I won't have to change it based on which games I am playing in the nvidia panel, but it will surely come in handy for other games too. Especially upcoming releases that target 30 fps on their console counter parts (to help me not to upgrade for a while. I want to upgrade as late as possible in this generation ).

 

I will definitely be trying it out soon though, with my commandline.txt renamed so the panel does it. When I do, I'll post if it's better and add your post for nvidia users at the top of the first one.

Oh hey iv played GTA IV and it runs smooth most times with a lil lag rarely..my question is..was GTA IV running originally at 60FPS on PC and my comp?(I didn try ur commandline one yet)

 

 

Probably not. And you may have a setup that never drops except for the most extreme cases, so it may not be a "need" for you to play the 30fps mode, but you might find that if you have only rare lag, limiting the game to 30 still PLAYS the same, and doesn't slow down anymore in your rare trouble areas. Some, as the post above shows, struggle in chinatown. I get like 30 in chinatown and (noticable) bounce around 40 to 60. Keeping mine at 30 makes it stop transitioning. In some areas, the game runs just fine, and when it starts to get demanding in other areas, I don't notice it, because instead of sudden drops from 50 to 30fps, I just go from 30 and stay at 30, maybe 25 in some demanding areas or on long/large missions with companion NPCs.

 

You might go from 50 to 60 and 35 in rare occasions - if that is the case, you may benefit from playing 30 because lowering to 30 will be smooth by design of the game itself, and then eliminate the fluctuation of frames. Thus, since you never drop below 35 with your rig in this example, you never notice lagging because your computer can do the 30 easier than trying to maintain the 60 and dropping to 35 when it fails to do it.

Ooh IC now..thts the reason it lags..mine usually starts to lag at places like star junction..and there may be a very slight freeze like for half a second when i drive too..this is my setup..

 

AMD FX 8300 3.8Ghz

MSI R9 280X 3Gb

8GB RAM

Win7 64bit

 

I can usually play watch dogs at high settings(shadows at medium) with around 50-60fps..not tht smooth cause it drops round frm 50 to 60 in some areas..I wonder if this is normal??does this happen in GTA V in PS4??like occasional frame drops at certain places..sometimes like when i stand still and rotate my camera behind or front there may be a slight frame drop round 50-55FPS..then when i look the opposite side its smooth again

[philbeau]

Already tried it but did not like it, but I get the game running at 60fps almost all the time.

So I just live with the dips here and there, seems like the isn't a way to acheive a locked 60fps without cutting

in a lot of image quality settings.

[TheMostKnowledgable]

Already tried it but did not like it, but I get the game running at 60fps almost all the time.

So I just live with the dips here and there, seems like the isn't a way to acheive a locked 60fps without cutting

in a lot of image quality settings.

 

Are your dips still above 30 fps? Figure out where you dip down to. Say, if you dip to 48 or 50fps and notice it, limit the game to 40 or 45 fps and see if it stops dipping and stays steady. You can go higher in the fps, and find a place where it all runs the way you like, even in the heavier places.

[Russi4nW4rrior]

If you don't mind me asking where do I turn on P filter?

[tomsk222]

If you don't mind me asking where do I turn on P filter?

Tap the P key on your keyboard.

[Russi4nW4rrior]

lol that easy I feel dumb now

Wait... its just the Definition thing which I always had on. Just didn't know you can also activate it with P.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Russi4nW4rrior

[Njale]

This thread is in the wrong section but anyway, over the years i learned a lot of thing from IV, it definitely hates amd GPU's. Some strange lag starts appearing after patch 1.0.6.0, the framerate isn't dropping but you can just feel the game speeding up and slowing down. I suspect the frame times are really high and that's why controls feel sluggish. This isn't present in 1.0.4.0 and below.

[mojito]

tried this a long time ago with 30 fps lock still got dips. With 2500 at 3.8ghz and gtx 570

[rest1]

30 fps lock with p better than normal 55-60 fps v-sync this game really made for 30 fps i guess

Edited February 12, 2015 by rest1

[IcePwrd]

Do you work for Ubisoft?

 

It doesn't matter how you spin it, 30fps is not good (barely acceptable would be more accurate), and it definitely isn't smooth