GTA IV improved?

Clum · 19 Oct 2009 at 23:10

I think the key always was that it needs more than 512 vram. Runs smooth as silk on my sig spec but was choppier than a choppy thing with the same rig and my old 8800.

SkeeterPSA, you got any more info on forcing AA? must have missed this.

LeJosh · 19 Oct 2009 at 23:21

I always saw Quad owners complaining that games didn't utilise all their cores then this came out they still complained about the performance using all their cores. :/

This is what I've seen. Dual Cores by any means just don't get on well with this game though.

Edit - I do have a lot of alcohol in me right now though.

fizzle-187 · 20 Oct 2009 at 00:08

I still need to get this for PC

NeoVo · 20 Oct 2009 at 00:19

Perfectly playable single player and mp on high settings at 1680 x 1050, runs like crap on my friends pcs that have duos.

HangTime · 20 Oct 2009 at 00:40

Clum said:
I think the key always was that it needs more than 512 vram. Runs smooth as silk on my sig spec but was choppier than a choppy thing with the same rig and my old 8800.

The thing is, while you need a lot of VRAM to run high settings, you can actually get away with less if you turn the settings right down. The VRAM usage scales reasonably well in this game, i.e. you can adjust settings to suit your card. Whereas aside from running at 4ghz+ clock speeds it is difficult to get good performance with less than 3 cpu cores.

I played the game on a GTX280 (1GB VRAM) and performance was pretty shoddy on a 3.2ghz C2D.

DennisK4 · 20 Oct 2009 at 01:27

GTA IV with 2x2 Supersampling Anti-Aliasing (4xSSAA) - playable at about 25 fps.
I also tried 3x3 Supersampling (9xSSAA) but is was not playable (below 10 fps).

GTA IV really, really needs AA - the jaggies are extremely annoying.
Both the screenshots below were taken at 1680x1050, but the one with 2x2 SSAA had to be rendered by the GPU at 3360x2100.

No SSAA

2x2 SSAA

The rest are all with 2x2 SSAA

LeJosh · 20 Oct 2009 at 01:28

It makes it look so much better with AA.

snowdog · 20 Oct 2009 at 02:46

^
Isn't that true for every game

?

Anyways, the game should have been released with at least a supersampling option, as no AA makes any modern game look worse than most 5 year old games with AA imo... Running without AA = ugly...

andy_mk3 · 20 Oct 2009 at 03:33

I run GTA IV on my E8400 @ 3.6GHz with 4GB ram and XFX 8800GT 512mb gfx.

Graphics are at about medium overall and it runs at 30-45fps at 1280 x 1024.

willhub · 20 Oct 2009 at 11:37

andy_mk3 said:
I run GTA IV on my E8400 @ 3.6GHz with 4GB ram and XFX 8800GT 512mb gfx.

Graphics are at about medium overall and it runs at 30-45fps at 1280 x 1024.

My game is no where near that much playable :confused:

How do you enable AA in this game?

[TW]Fox · 20 Oct 2009 at 11:40

I run it at 1680x1050 and it's totally smooth. No idea what FPS but definately sustained at well over 30.

Craig R · 20 Oct 2009 at 11:41

willhub said:
My game is no where near that much playable
How do you enable AA in this game?

If it's not playable at a decent framerate for you now, forget about using the AA mod.

Paul_cz · 20 Oct 2009 at 11:44

C2D 3.16ghz
2Giga Ram@800mhz
GeForce GTX 280 1GB Ram
WinXP SP3
GTA4 - Patch 1.04 + Ultimate Graphics Tweak

Game runs like a dream, looks amazing (1920*1200 everything highest, sliders 30,30,30,0).

Awesome game, compared to trash like Saints Row 2, GTA4 is like from another dimension or something.

Ali195 · 20 Oct 2009 at 12:24

The first 3rd of the game was amazing, great story, funny but had its serious moments. The next third was 'shut your fat mouth [insert eastern european insult) & go do this job'. After a completing the main story mode i did stop playing but it was well worth the money.

As for graphics....ranged from amazing to really bad lack of AA. You sort of got used to it after 30 minutes of play but when i reinstalled it (going from 2x3870 to 2x4890) i couldnt play it for even that...the lack if AA hurt my soul.

willhub · 20 Oct 2009 at 12:35

Can someone post a link to this AA mod, I can't see it anywhere, I know it might not be playable but I still want to have a go lol.

MikeHunt79 · 20 Oct 2009 at 12:45

How well do these new fangled 5850 cards do with this game?

otemu · 20 Oct 2009 at 12:53

willhub said:
Can someone post a link to this AA mod, I can't see it anywhere, I know it might not be playable but I still want to have a go lol.

Here is a guide to help improve the look and feel of GTA 4 http://www.bizzntech.com/2008/12/22/how-to-fix-gta-iv-pc-version

The site for the patch was orginally here http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru/index_en.html but seems to be down.

willhub · 20 Oct 2009 at 13:03

3. Better FPS and graphics:
Here’s a short tutorial which will enable you to run GTA IV with better frame rates and better graphics even on higher resolution. Just follow the below instructions carefully:
Start GTA IV
Now go to configure graphics and set the resolution to 800×600. You can also set other sliders according to you wish but make sure the numbers telling you the VRAM you have left are GREEN.
It’s time to do a little math now. Just divide the first number by the second one, you should get something like 0.5, 0.8.., etc. Make a note of it.

I don't understand that bit, anyone actually understand it?

Divide what number by what?

LeJosh · 20 Oct 2009 at 14:12

snowdog said:
^
Isn't that true for every game ?

Anyways, the game should have been released with at least a supersampling option, as no AA makes any modern game look worse than a most 5 year old games with AA imo... Running without AA = ugly...

I whole heartidly agree.

LoadsaMoney · 20 Oct 2009 at 14:18

MikeHunt79 said:
How well do these new fangled 5850 cards do with this game?

Probably won't make much difference, as its the CPU that makes the biggest.

I went from a 4850 to a 4870 with the same CPU and it never changed, i still got 33 average at pretty low settings, now im on the i7 with the same 4870, im now at a higher res (1680x1050 instead of 1280x1024), and much higher settings (everything maxed, textures, shadows, water etc...), im now averaging around 55.

On same game settings as on my previous CPU (and same res), the frame-rate doubled, went from 33 to 66 avg, so i whacked the settings up, runs fine, and looks fantastic.