Is GTA IV's performance just that bad on PC?

[BasketPropellors]

I'm playing the game on a laptop running an AMD A12-9720P APU using an integrated R7 graphics processor running on 12 Gigabytes of RAM, and somehow a game from 2008 runs terribly on this thing

 

I can run games from 2008 and beyond just fine but GTA IV is somehow one of the games having this problem? I'm averaging like 15 to 28 frames with constant dips (just an assumption) in the game, even on the lowest settings

 

Is there any other settings I should consider? are there any mods out there that optimize the game?

Oh, and before anyone asks, yes I have it downgraded to version 1.0.7.0, and I have patches installed that were options on the downgrader

[Moncastler]

GTA IV runs bad on every single platform, the map is poorly put together and to this day even high-end PCs struggle to run it at max settings. Also it doesn't help that your GPU is extremely weak, as you can see it is on par with 2008-2009 desktop GPUs: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-r7-graphics.c2533

 

AFAIK there aren't any mods atm that improve the performance while keeping the same level of quality, the only one that aims to do such a thing is Project RevIVe but it isn't out yet. So with your game settings, I wouldn't go past 1280x720 resolution (maybe something a bit lower would be more ideal) and make sure that all other settings are set to the lowest option available (with draw and detail distance set to 1). Don't try wrappers such as DXVK or DXWrapper, in your case you would just lose performance.

 

Game version in my experience doesn't really matter in terms of performance, but I know there'll be someone here disagreeing with me. 1.0.7.0 is fine because most mods will be compatible and you also still have access to both episodes, but don't downgrade even further. I've heard people saying that 1.0.8.0 performs better, but again I've never noticed a meaningful difference.