which graphics card for GTA4+mods ?

bobo696 · 8 Jun 2012 at 15:29

Hi there!

I played the game a while ago on this rig:
PSU Corsair HX620W
phenom 2 x4 955 @3.2GHz
Ati 4890 OC
4 go RAM DDR3
resolution 1680*1050

It was okay. Recently I tried to replay with a new monitor @1900*1080p, Icehencer, and new textures. It's unplayable : 18 FPS...

Thus I guess I need a new graphics card. Which one should I go for? I like AMD so I'm looking at 7850,7870,7950, but I'm not against going for nVidia

I now have a phenom 2 x4 965 @4.1Ghz. I would like a graphics that will max the potential of this CPU, but not too powerful that it would bottleneck the CPU.

What do you suggest guys ?

youdsy · 8 Jun 2012 at 15:44

4gb 680

Frenzy · 8 Jun 2012 at 15:49

It's slower because they changed the anti aliasing in the newer patches. Whilst it looks brilliant it takes far more resources. As youdsy pointed out, the faster the card the better but you also want one with at least 2gb of memory to take full advantage of the mods and anti aliasing.

bobo696 · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:03

youdsy said:
4gb 680

OMG 600£ that's not an option...

It's slower because they changed the anti aliasing in the newer patches. Whilst it looks brilliant it takes far more resources. As youdsy pointed out, the faster the card the better but you also want one with at least 2gb of memory to take full advantage of the mods and anti aliasing.

So you say go for the highest I can afford, no matter what cpu I have ? What about Bang/bucks ?

Drejko · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:05

with a 1080p monitor you really need a good £200+ card anyway i play gta iv and with some mods not many on a gtx 670 or if your hard for cash wait for the 660ti or something?

bobo696 · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:14

Well I'm a little bit afraid that my PSU won't handle the new card as well

This website says I'm already at the limit : http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

With my phenom 2 965 [email protected] Ghz and a 7950 I would already exceed the 620 watts...

Razor-BladE · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:18

I don't see how people are getting such low frame rates on the game. I'm playing at 1080p with a 5770 1GB and it's playable to me. I haven't played very recently though, so not sure about whatever they've patched, but before then it's fine.

Just saw you put '+ mods' in your title.. that may explain it then.

Frenzy · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:27

Yeah it's the mods which strain your system. I'm not sure if your current spec is suitable, but at a guess it should be fine... Q6600 was always recommended for the game as a minimum (4 cores).
I would get another 4GB of ram at least too.

bobo696 · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:27

Razor-BladE said:
I don't see how people are getting such low frame rates on the game. I'm playing at 1080p with a 5770 1GB and it's playable to me. I haven't played very recently though, so not sure about whatever they've patched, but before then it's fine.

Just saw you put '+ mods' in your title.. that may explain it then.

Yes, it was fine without the mods for me as well. But if you look at these Icehencer mod on youtube, you will see it's bluffing and you want to play again !!!

Frenzy · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:29

Yeah I had the urge but then I rememberd the headache of downloading all the texture packs etc

Aeleys · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:29

my 4890 didn't have any problems with gta...

and that was with me spawning a ship load of things as well as some other mods

bobo696 · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:32

Aeleys said:
my 4890 didn't have any problems with gta...

and that was with me spawning a ship load of things as well as some other mods

How many FPS did you have with Icehencer ? I can't exceed 18 FPS, totally unacceptable

Frenzy · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:35

Try turning off AA first then lower the resolution. If you get a playable fps from either/and then you know it's your card.

Aeleys · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:36

bobo696 said:
How many FPS did you have with Icehencer ? I can't exceed 18 FPS, totally unacceptable

More than that lol, it was playable at least.

but it's been a while since i had that game on my pc... so can't tell you the exact fps.

bobo696 · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:38

Frenzy said:
Try turning off AA first then lower the resolution. If you get a playable fps from either/and then you know it's your card.

Already tried actually. with 1680*1050 I'm closer to 27FPS, which is not perfect but better!

With just the bare game (no mods) It was 35FPS @1650*1050 I think I'm not too sure it was a long time ago

Razor-BladE · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:50

bobo696 said:
But if you look at these Icehencer mod on youtube, you will see it's bluffing and you want to play again !!!

Oh wow.. someone was playing driving around a Merc SLR :eek:

The graphics... such beauty!

Omaeka · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:58

youdsy said:
4gb 680

Pretty sure he was just taking the **** with that comment, as GTA 4 is known to be the worst PC port in history.

Aeleys said:
my 4890 didn't have any problems with gta...

and that was with me spawning a ship load of things as well as some other mods

How? I have a HD6850 and can barely get above 25fps on medium graphics settings, let alone using mods and the ICE ENB.

bobo696 · 8 Jun 2012 at 17:17

So what would you say ? 7850 enough or not ?

marc1024 · 8 Jun 2012 at 17:19

If you can find one, my evga 570gtx 2560mb runs gta IV very well on 1920x1080 with mods. They can come in around £260.

Guest2 · 8 Jun 2012 at 17:32

On my GTX570 1280mb, i5@4ghz it works fine (~30fps) with Icehencer at max in 1080p.

2560x1440 in max with Icehencer makes it drop to 15 - 20fps - should be fine with a 2gb card though