Grand Theft Auto 4

MoNkEyMiKeY · 3 Dec 2008 at 03:04

50% now, so I'm looking at a 3 hour wait when I get home by the looks of it. I've even had a constant 8mb dl.

mrk · 3 Dec 2008 at 03:05

Not long for me!

Margaret · 3 Dec 2008 at 03:10

Installing now, 4870 1Gb/4Gb Ram/Vista 64 and a 3Ghz Core 2 Duo, will report back.

Viper² · 3 Dec 2008 at 03:10

Ages for me. 15% done.

Feel like crying.

steve258 · 3 Dec 2008 at 03:36

hmm I don't see the option to buy GTAIV on steam?

Servers are too busy maybe dealing with download requests from people who already bought the game?

Hyper · 3 Dec 2008 at 03:42

MoNkEyMiKeY said:
Check my X-fire profile its in there.

You hoping to be able to run this game at a good rate then :confused:

KnightStalker · 3 Dec 2008 at 03:54

to the people who are downloading via steam...im getting 1.8mb/sec solid

< scrap that 2.1

dirtydog · 3 Dec 2008 at 03:56

TheStig said:
I have a Q6600 (stock), 8800GTS 320 and 2GB of RAM and it won't let me pick 1680x1050 unless I put it to absolute minimum. (Where the FPS is around 30)

That might be because your video RAM is too low to run at that resolution.

Cyber-Mav · 3 Dec 2008 at 04:06

yantorsen said:
what settings and framerate please.

got settings on high, lcdtv so 1360x768 have 2xAA on too but still see a few jaggies, when i put 4xAA on it reverts back to 0xAA :confused:

may try forcing it through driver control panel later on.
8800gt is 512mb version, vista 64bit, 4giggery of ddr3 rammage.
game runs very smooth.
as for screenshots, anyone know why i get a black screen from my printscreen button? lots of games do that for me :confused:

not sure how to measure the fps properly may have to install fraps.

Hyper · 3 Dec 2008 at 04:12

If your game is running smooth then I cant understand why a 4870 wont run at even above 30fps

Cyber-Mav · 3 Dec 2008 at 04:38

Hyper said:
If your game is running smooth then I cant understand why a 4870 wont run at even above 30fps

what cpu are you using? im guessing a quad may be vital for this game, will test the game on my main pc which is in my sig probably tomorrow and see what the difference is.

as for the 4870, its an ati card, so your bound to get inconsistant performance and as always need to wait for a hotfix or driver update to get things running half decent.

dirtydog · 3 Dec 2008 at 06:30

Cyber-Mav said:
as for screenshots, anyone know why i get a black screen from my printscreen button? lots of games do that for me

Yeah, printscreen won't work (or work properly) with a lot of games. Games usually have their own key for taking a screenshot and when you press it, it will save the image to a folder automatically.

mysticsniper · 3 Dec 2008 at 06:40

dirtydog said:
Yeah, printscreen won't work (or work properly) with a lot of games. Games usually have their own key for taking a screenshot and when you press it, it will save the image to a folder automatically.

Yeah its usually F12. Am sure you should be able to edit the config text file and select what you want for the screenshots

I am still waiting for mine to be delivered, it was posted yesterday, so hopefully it will be here tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

dirtydog · 3 Dec 2008 at 06:56

Well the place I've pre-ordered from appears to be out of stock so god knows when I'll get it! Order status is "Item to be ordered from supplier" :/

dirtydog · 3 Dec 2008 at 07:00

IGN's review is up: http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/934/934806p2.html

Yet with the PC version, you're going to need a particularly powerful machine to see it in all its splendor at a decent framerate, as even on our system (Core 2 Quad 2.40 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 768 MB GeForce 8800 GTX with Vista 32) we were having performance problems even after toning down a few of the settings, and some of the effects (the shadows in particular) didn't look so hot when displayed in high resolutions.

.one. · 3 Dec 2008 at 07:20

Is this just another console bad port or ?

steve258 · 3 Dec 2008 at 07:22

hmm looks like I'll give it a miss then.. for now.

Dup · 3 Dec 2008 at 07:39

http://www.rockstargames.com/support/gta4pc/docs/GTAIV%20Graphics%20Settings.doc

THE GRAPHIC SETTINGS OF GRAND THEFT AUTO IV PC

Most users using current PC hardware as of December 2008 are advised to use medium graphics settings. Higher settings are provided for future generations of PCs with higher specifications than are currently widely available.

Graphics settings are limited by system resources by default. 256MB video cards force minimum settings by default. If a user bypasses these safety measures using command line arguments and exceeds their system resources, the users gaming experience may be compromised.

Video Mode
Resolution scaling effects water, reflections, shadows, mirrors and the visible viewable distance. The resolution settings relate to the amount of available video memory. At 2560*1600 the game will require 320MB of video memory in addition to all the memory required for content. At 800*600 the game will require 32MB of video memory in addition to the content. Medium resolution settings are recommended for most users as higher settings are only usable if there is available video memory.

Texture Quality
Texture quality affects the visual quality of the content of the game. High setting for textures will require 600MB of video memory at a setting of 21 View Distance in addition to the memory taken by the Video Mode. A medium texture setting is recommended for most users.

Render Quality
Render quality is the texture filter quality used on most things in the world rendering. Most people would know this as anisotropic filtering. Medium settings are recommended for most users and will provide filtering beyond what the console versions can execute.

View Distance
View distance scales the distance in which different objects in the world such as building and cars are seen. Raising this option increases the distance in which high quality objects must be loaded and will increase the memory it requires. Restrictions are established to ensure the game runs optimally for most users. A setting of 22 or more will provide PC users an enhanced experience over the console versions.

Detail Distance
Detail distance scales aspects of the environment that the View Distance setting does not including vegetation, trash and other moveable objects. A setting of 10 would be the equivalent to the performance on a console. This setting has little effect on memory.

Vehicle Density
Vehicle density scales the traffic density of the traffic in the game. It has no effect on the mission vehicles or difficultly of the game, but can have a significant impact on CPU performance

Shadow Density
Shadow Density controls the number of shadows generated for positional lights in exterior environments. These shadows are exclusive to the PC version and can have a major impact on CPU and GPU performance.

Crossfire/SLI
With the latest ATI driver (8-11 series) the game supports crossfire modes (ie. 4870x2)
SLI is currently unsupported. Support will be added through a future game patch as well as an updated Nvidia driver.

NOTE: Background Processes
Certain background processes can have a detrimental effect on system performance when playing GTA IV, especially on systems with minimum required system memory. Users should ensure they disable their Virus scans (especially “on-access” type scans) when running the game to maximize performance.

So yeah, pretty unoptimised or another purposeful Crysis type "Z0MG BUY EXPENSIVE NEW HAREDWARE" demo.

dirtydog · 3 Dec 2008 at 07:42

Higher settings are provided for future generations of PCs with higher specifications than are currently widely available.

What an absolute load of crap. There is no reason the game couldn't have been made to run perfectly on modern PCs.

I bet this means there will be no patch to provide a performance fix.

Keyser Soze · 3 Dec 2008 at 07:53

I can see this being a 300 page thread of complaints :rolleyes: