[aznsound]

i'm wanting to play GTA4 so bad but it is so choppy that it is unplayable to me... even when i turned EVERYTHING to the lowest setting AND 800x600 resolution, it still wouldn't even run half as good as the other games i play...

granted that my system is not the latest and greatest, it can still run the other games that i play very well... and to me, GTA4 doesn't have any perceivable graphical advantage over the other games that i have to make it run so terrible...

right now i am running Vista 64, Q6600, 4GB RAM, and 2 x 8800GTS 512 in SLI... i was wondering if i would see much of an improvement, if any, going with one video card but with 1GB of memory...?

[necrokiller]

Its a BAD port.

1GB of vRAM will only make you increase the settings further and you wouldn't see any better performance than ur curent setup. But you need to overclock the hell out of that Q6600 to see some real gains. Even on the highest of resolutions, GTA4 is a pure CPU hog!

[Rich'[ard]]

i suggest getting a good old 360 or PS3 and play it on that
i can't believe the ppl who make GTA4 are so lazy and can't make a proper pc version.

[necrokiller]

Rockstar is known for that. Nothing new here.

A friend of mine plays it on his 360 and when he saw it on my PC he was kinda blown away. I told him those were just the medium settings haha

[jhanby]

you shouldn't have that much trouble.

My computer in sig can play it alright on medium.

[nightelph]

Originally Posted by Rich'[ard]

i suggest getting a good old 360 or PS3 and play it on that.

NO. I played through it on PS3 and the PC.

It is a really bad port, which sucks. Having more vram is going to let you up some settings OR draw distance, but you still need some uber MHZ to run it. My 4ghz E8400 and GTX285 can run all settings maxed at 1920x1200... but not at maximum draw distance- I run out of vram. :/

[BG-0]

Instead, do this: http://forums.steampowered.com/forum...d.php?t=797171 Won't make the game any uglier, and helps with FPS a lot. Use low view distance and high detail distance.

Also, going with one vid card, and a GOOD card, instead of an 8800 GTS SLi, would propably help some. OCing your Q6600 (further?) would also be a wise choice.

[Neural Net]

An i7 actually shows the biggest performance boost. VRam isn't the issue, it's CPU power more than anything else.

[freeagent]

i tried that game once with my old q6600 and 88gtx setup, that was one of the first times i saw all 4 cores litup to the max from a game, it was awsome. it played pretty decently at 1680x1050. i was running the q66 at 3.6, maybe 3.7.

[aznsound]

thanks for the suggestions... the game defaults at medium and when i do the benchmark on that, it gets around 28fps, which is already choppy, but the frame rates on the actual game drops even further especially when a lot is going on like a police chase...

i'm not really planning on upgrading this computer just for this game since as i said before, it still do everything else i need... i'll just wait to play this game or get a used Xbox 360 as was suggested...

[shadin]

It's a bad port, as has been stated. Having 1GB of VRAM isn't going to vastly improve anything, as the game should run like a dream on even a 512MB 4870.

Sacrificing a live chicken might help, though.

[BG-0]

Originally Posted by shadin

It's a bad port, as has been stated. Having 1GB of VRAM isn't going to vastly improve anything, as the game should run like a dream on even a 512MB 4870.

Sacrificing a live chicken might help, though.

If you go this way, I suggest doing the sacrifice at midnight on a Thursday. Also, using a silver alloy knife with a 9-point star on its blade helps, and the best results will be achieved through drinking half of the chicken's blood, storing the other half in the bottom-front-left-corner of your PC case.

[middydj]

I have had no probs playing with it on a q9400,8800gt Sli, 4gb ram,vista64

[PhoenixOfChaos]

Originally Posted by Rich'[ard]

i suggest getting a good old 360 or PS3 and play it on that
i can't believe the ppl who make GTA4 are so lazy and can't make a proper pc version.

A little bit OT, but I felt a strong need to reply on the quality of a lot of ports.

When I hear bad ports I think;

Halo PC version – Netcode from hell.

Orange Box PS3 - Kick ass powerful system bogged down by insane load times.

Just like if they ever try to port Crysis to PS3/360 it won't be the system's fault for not handling it at the specifications they want, but I think the port will just be shoddy.

[iLoki]

As people have already stated, CPU power above all for this game. Try to get your q66 up to 3.4-3.6ghz if you can. My QX6850 handles it like a dream at 3.6.

[xilix]

Dude, you just need to find some settings that work for you. I ran it with high textures on an 8800GTS 320MB and it ran great on that card. You also REALLY, REALLY need to do the command line hack to make the game think you have more video ram than you really do. It's absolutely necessary to do this in order to get the best result possible. Go to the GTA forums for more information on doing this, it's easy.

[nightelph]

Originally Posted by BG-0

If you go this way, I suggest doing the sacrifice at midnight on a Thursday. Also, using a silver alloy knife with a 9-point star on its blade helps, and the best results will be achieved through drinking half of the chicken's blood, storing the other half in the bottom-front-left-corner of your PC case.

ROFL.