GTA IV lag on 8800gt?

You need a quad to play it smoothly.

Hey guys, I recently bought GTA IV on black friday (couldn't resist for only 20$) and Installed an upgraded the thing to patch 1.0.0.4. I have a pretty decent computer, XPS 410, 2 gigs of ram, 8800 gt, core 2 duo, been able to play almost every single game I've ever bought on high: borderlands, farcry 2, NFS shift, you name it. However, GTA IV lags like a **** when I try it out, and it's only on medium high, 1280 * 1024. are my specs too damn low for this game?Cheezyphil

You need a quad to play it smoothly.

Baranga

[QUOTE="Baranga"]

You need a quad to play it smoothly.

biggest_loser

Because it's GTA.

The quad requirement is valid, since Euphoria needs a lot of processing power and there are many more AI entities in the PC version, but the GPU requirements are total crap. Not to mention they locked higher details for users that don't have too much video memory.

A lot of RAM is also recommended, since it streams a huge amount of data.

[QUOTE="biggest_loser"][QUOTE="Baranga"]

You need a quad to play it smoothly.

Baranga

Because it's GTA.

The quad requirement is valid, since Euphoria needs a lot of processing power and there are many more AI entities in the PC version, but the GPU requirements are total crap. Not to mention they locked higher details for users that don't have too much video memory.

A lot of RAM is also recommended, since it streams a huge amount of data.

You may want to give your pc a good clean. I've recommended CCleaner on another GTA IV thread and I think it should be recommended here for cleaning your registry and such. Also don't forget to defrag your hard disk, I found that my performance was 40% slower because of that.

Also not forgetting to keep up to date with Nvidia drivers. So far that's all I can think of to help reduce the lag.

I played this on my 8800GT when it first came out. I bought it on steam and ended up asking for a refund, glad they let me return it. Anyway, I was able to get it to run at 25-40fps on the lowest settings possible with my resolution at 1360x768. I bought it because I thought it would run a lot better than it did on the PS3, but it didn't. But if you have a quad core that helps out a lot.

switch to a quad core and im sure it'll run smoothly..i switched from a pentium d to a quad core and gta4 runs as smooth as a baby's butt!

Edit : its on medium high settings,view distance being 25 and shadows at 3 and cant remember the rest.

Hey guys, I recently bought GTA IV on black friday (couldn't resist for only 20$) and Installed an upgraded the thing to patch 1.0.0.4. I have a pretty decent computer, XPS 410, 2 gigs of ram, 8800 gt, core 2 duo, been able to play almost every single game I've ever bought on high: borderlands, farcry 2, NFS shift, you name it. However, GTA IV lags like a **** when I try it out, and it's only on medium high, 1280 * 1024. are my specs too damn low for this game?Cheezyphil

You certainly want to go to the options and select auto config for the best possible performance. My setup is a quad core, 2gigs and a 8800GTX with the auto config recommending medium textures(which still looks miraculous once you adapt). One difference that I made however is that I made a shortcut for GTA IV from the exe. in the root folder, allowing me to go into the properties>compatibility and disabling both visual themes and Desktop composition. In indoor(House, Pool Room, Stip clubs) my performance is capping 60hz, with outdoors 30hz at 1920x1200.

Visually there are moments where the game looks pretty good and moments where it looks absolutely stunning. Here's a screen from my playthrough after my date with Michelle(excuse if I spelled the name wrong). It's a far better looking game then the consoles versions with a higher resolution and much more details; when PCs have more processing power users will be able to really max the game for an even better looking game.

if you use a 360 controller on your pc. unplug your mouse and keyboard that might help.

jslizzle

Also wanted to add that you can try these settings which are equivalent/similar to the Console version.

Texture: medium
Reflection: medium
Water: high
shadows: high
Texture filter: Low
View distance: 21
Detail distance: 10
Vehicle density: 33
shadow density: 0
definition: off

The definition setting is one of the main ingredients that can make the PC version look much more define in the objects when it is set to on. Don't be upset when you encounter slowdown in very traffic areas or firefights, due to the consoles as well obtain slowdowns.

its because its an open world game, it needs a full cpu power since it renders all of the objects in a view distance,quadcore is must for this game, reduce your settings like the one posted above..

Hey guys, I recently bought GTA IV on black friday (couldn't resist for only 20$) and Installed an upgraded the thing to patch 1.0.0.4. I have a pretty decent computer, XPS 410, 2 gigs of ram, 8800 gt, core 2 duo, been able to play almost every single game I've ever bought on high: borderlands, farcry 2, NFS shift, you name it. However, GTA IV lags like a **** when I try it out, and it's only on medium high, 1280 * 1024. are my specs too damn low for this game?Cheezyphil

An 8800GT is not going to cut it. I have a GTX 260 and can only do medium/high settings at 1920*1200. It is a poorly optimized game to a degree, but also a pretty decent lookign game and a massive level thta ahs to be displayed. Also 2GB of RAM won't cut it either.

GTA IV is running really smooth with my setting configuration and looks phenomenal bud.

OoSuperMarioO

define really smooth. I prefer a minimum FPS of 40 yself. Not to mention you have a quad core and the OP has a dual core and you have a 8800GTX and the OP has a 8800GT.

OP is using a 1280x1024 resolution. My definition of smooth is a 30hz game, in addition indoors can cap nearly 60hz.

OoSuperMarioO

Indoors is easy, outdoors is much tougher. Like I already said I prefer a minimum of 40 FPS so your really smooth gameplay wouldn't work for me.

Outdoors is 30hz which is smooth technically, granted it's consistent. I have really good eye as well that easily spots the smallest differences, but 30hz is smooth.

OoSuperMarioO

If you are running 30 FPS then it is easier to go down to 25-28 which is getting into lag territory. I prefer a minimum of 40 so I can be sure that lag won't happen to me. I should mention I don't even get a minimum of 40 on GTA IV without some really llow settings.

it depends on how you tweak your system

[QUOTE="jslizzle"]

if you use a 360 controller on your pc. unplug your mouse and keyboard that might help.

Assassin1349