GTA IV - any tweaks to force it to use system RAM?

KatanaDV20

KatanaDV20

KatanaDV20

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Ive had GTA IV for a long time but never paid any attention to it because I found it dull. However for some reason (starting last week) i suddenly got back into it with a vengeance and really enjoying it ATM.

But really :mad: that it only sees my graphics card 1GB RAM when Ive got 12GB system RAM. I know this is a shot in the dark but ...any way via a tweak to tell the game to use the sys RAM as well? :confused:

I saved up to get a decent gaming rig and now Im in the ridiculous position of having mates over (who have consoles) who snigger when they see GTA IV on my "gaming rig " stutter....it wont even let me put the detail-levels sider past 25!!

Any hints from long-term players appreciated , thanks guys :D
 
Thank you all very much for replying with all your ideas and opinions :)

Show them something like Crysis or Metro then lets see them snigger.
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Heh heh good idea I will do that!

With GTA4 as it stands, make sure it is patched up to the most recent version and tweak the settings to the point where it plays as smoothly as possible (I believe removing shadows makes a big difference). As for moving system RAM to video RAM, I don't think you can do this. Another great way to improve framerates in GTA4 is to overclock your CPU. Even with an i7 920, overclocking from 2.66GHz to 3.6GHz (a relatively simple overclock so long as you have a half-decent CPU cooler) will yield a big performance increase in that game.
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Thanks I have been told before to OC my CPU but Im still a bit afraid of doing all that as admittedly its new territory for me. I will definetly end up doing it though once I get a bit braver! As for patching GTA IV the very latest patch absolutely CRIPPLED the game..it causes intense stuttering. So I had to reinstall the game and Im going no frther than the 1.0.1.2 patch. It runs the smoothest on this (still stutters but they are massively reduced) Incidentally I have tried the game with each patch and this one is the best. It seems (for me at least) that the later the patch the more crippled the performance. Strange game I tell you!

@OP: From your sig I see you're running at eyefinity res. Is that right? I can't imagine many people have managed to get GTA4 running nicely maxed at that res
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Good catch dude I didnt even think about that! I didnt consider that at all because other games I have like Just Cause 2 and Fallout 3 run so smoothly on Eyefinity. In fact JC2 works SO well out of the box on Eyefinity I wanna write to the developers to say thanks. Silky smooth game with EVERYTHING maxed and not a stutter in sight. It will be a bummer to go back to one screen but I will try it. Thankfully AMD Catalyst allows Profiles so a simpel right click and it disables the outer two monitors and Im back to single.

Your GPU will use system RAM as an overflow by default. If you find the properties tab of your gfx card, it will say something along the lines of "1024mb RAM, total available 4095" (that's what mine says. System RAM is much slower than graphics card RAM so using it will slow things down but it's better than a game crashing or having textures missing etc.
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Thanks for that explanation m8. Will check that tab out as its not something I paid attention to TBH.

:)
 
You can make the game more compliant by using the -nomemrestrict command appended to the shortcut. Then you can increase the details over the limit imposed according to your VRAM.
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Interesting, thanks. I will try that out!

I still cant believe they released the game coded like this for PC. You even see the console carry-overs ("Saving data, please dont turn of your system")

I just saw an commercial on TV for La Noire lets hope its not the same GTAIV-like business...
 
Ok check this out guys - shows just how strange the coding of this game is (well at least on this rig lol).

I updated to Patch 1.0.3. Heres were the weirdness starts (but in a good way). In the Graphics options I did these (leaving everything else maxed)

Vsync:Off
Shadow Density: 0
View Distance: 30
Detail Distance: 50
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And heres the odd part:

Resource Usage: 1025/986MB [Resource warning]


Yes. For me going OVER the resource value and LEAVING it there as given me a performance gain along with the 1.0.3 Patch. And I tested this in the hardest way possible: High-speed low-level flight over Liberty City in a helicopter.

I need a drink!
 
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HangTime said:
Have you done a proper comparison since installing the patch though?
GTA4 patches gives a performance boost so you might find it you set View Distance and Detail Distance to 1 that you get even more performance. If you are comparing unpatched vs patched then it's not a valid test because e.g. the shadow rendering was changed.
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Good points. I went from Patch 1.2 --> 1.3 primarily because of better Shadow control. However setting shadow on anything below Very High = flickering shadows :( But the good thing is even with shadows=very high Im getting good performance. I would say with Patch 1.2 I had stutters. With 1.3 I have *INFREQUENT* micro-stutters.

As for setting View Distance and Detail Distance to 1 - you are correct I did try that and got good performance but the visual tradeoff was something I did not like :( Trees, road-signs etc were popping into view.
 
gropingmantis said:
Does this game just always run badly?
With everything maxed at 1920x1080 I get between 20-40fps but with loads of stuttering and textures dissappeaing and when it rains there are artefacts in the raindrops (they flash red).

Is it just because I'm using an AMD card and GTA hates AMD?
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Hey dude what patch are you running the game with?
 
Oh yea that would be the 1.7 patch. Theres been a lot of complaints about that one - it seems to increase stuttering on a lot of peoples systems. It basically crippled my GTA and thats one reason I downgraded and and now Im keeping it at Patch 1.3 although many say that Patch 1.4 is the best. If you want to do this you will have to uninstall-reinstall your game. Dont forget to backup your savegames.

Check out these threads:

http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=392912&st=20
http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=404147
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1269228
 
@ MoodyB - thanks I didnt know about that DKTronic viz mod will check it out!

Has nobody else with the ATI stutter tried resetting CCC to defaults yet?
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Hmm I didnt even think of playing with CCC, will have a look at that and see if it makes a diff.
 
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