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
 
As above, GTA4 is one of the worst modern ports of a console game to the PC. It basically requires a triple core CPU to play and even with top line hardware it still runs like a dog. However, compared to consoles it should look a lot better on your system - for one thing the PS3 only renders the game at 640p and I believe the 360 renders it at 720p. Compared to your (most likely) much higher render resolution the game should look a lot better and much more detailed - even at low settings. Then when you go into other, better optimised PC games (like crysis 2) the difference between your PC and consoles is truly night and day.

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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cmndr_andi said:
As above, GTA4 is one of the worst modern ports of a console game to the PC. It basically requires a triple core CPU to play and even with top line hardware it still runs like a dog. However, compared to consoles it should look a lot better on your system - for one thing the PS3 only renders the game at 640p and I believe the 360 renders it at 720p. Compared to your (most likely) much higher render resolution the game should look a lot better and much more detailed - even at low settings. Then when you go into other, better optimised PC games (like crysis 2) the difference between your PC and consoles is truly night and day.

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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That crysis 2 comparison link is pretty interesting, thanks for linking it. If you want GTA4 to run half decently put all of the sliders to around 40 max and lower the shadow setting down. Those are the biggest framerate killers on that game by a mile.
 
GothicCorpse said:
You guys think la noire will be unplayable on pc (as the same as gta4 ?)
Hope not an so on an so on.
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Heck, i'd settle with a bad port of LA Noire so long as we see it on the PC. Red Dead Redemption doesn't look like it's ever going to see a PC release and I sincerely hope LA Noire isn't going down the same road.

So far rockstar has continuously denied there are plans for a PC version "at this time".
 
system ram isnt anywhere near fast enough to be used as a logical extention of the gpu ram

I saved up to get a decent gaming rig
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12gb of ram? i would have put that money towards a better gpu maybe, its certinaly not needed for a gaming pc.

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!!
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thats not related to gpu ram or a lack of. is your game up to date and running the latest patch? i have a 5850 and i can set everything as high as it will go, for what it's worth.
 
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You wanna max out GTA4 all you need is a decent Quadcore/Core i7 + GTX480/580. It only needs 1.2GB Vram for max gfx with everything 100% @ 1920x1200. Any GPU with 1.5GB Vram should be ok though as its more about CPU Cores than GPU speed.

PC is the only way to play this as intended the console version looks like low setting on PC but even then they are running sub 720P & it still looks terrible with low uneven FPS R* really gave console owners a glitched beta version :eek:

Search on here in the screenshots thread for DennisK4 he has some amazing looking mods which make GTA4 look a lot better than the stock settings in some places it looks photorealistic :D
 
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@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 :p
 
FrenchTart said:
@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 :p
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Ah, good spot.

If the OP is running at 5040x1050 and wondering why GTA4 doesn't play smoothly on a HD 5850 then the answer should be pretty obvious.

I would suggest hooking up the PC to just one of the monitors (or ideally a 1080p HDTV) and then run GTA4 in front of the console playing friends. At 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 that rig should play GTA4 smothly and look great doing it (plus a massive step up from the consoles in terms of visual detail).
 
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.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Ah, good spot.

If the OP is running at 5040x1050 and wondering why GTA4 doesn't play smoothly on a HD 5850 then the answer should be pretty obvious.

I would suggest hooking up the PC to just one of the monitors (or ideally a 1080p HDTV) and then run GTA4 in front of the console playing friends. At 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 that rig should play GTA4 smothly and look great doing it (plus a massive step up from the consoles in terms of visual detail).
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Yup, agreed. Though you put an extra R in 'fiends' by mistake :)
 
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.
Click to expand...

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.

:)
 
Does anybody know what kind of fps i will get on GTA IV with

Sapphire HD 5850
Quad Core Q660
2GB Ram

High settings
 
B&W said:
Does anybody know what kind of fps i will get on GTA IV with

Sapphire HD 5850
Quad Core Q660
2GB Ram

High settings
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It will run ok. The biggest factor with that system will be that the Q6600 is clocked to. More RAm wouldn't hurt either.
 
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