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Is the ATI problem still in GTA IV?

Secret_Window

Secret_Window

Secret_Window

Soldato
Joined
10 Aug 2006
Posts
5,207
Just wondering if ATI cards still get the stuttering in GTA IV or whether this has been finally fixed?

Reason I ask, is I have a ATI 6870 sat beside my desk which I bought back in January for a new build (was a dirt cheap offer here on OCUK :D) and just discovered a lot of people, namely ATI users suffer terrible stutter in GTA IV. I am now worried this will be the case with my ATI 6870, and that I should go the Nvidia route and sell my card.


Just thought I'd check.:)
 
I have the 4850 and GTA IV runs like crap for me on anything past 10.09 drivers....nice and smooth on 10.09 drivers though.

I assumed this was down to improvements for 5xxx/6xxx range of cards at the expense of older gen cards like mine.
 
Well, that's what I thought too. Then I checked some videos on youtube, and there's videos of people with 6950/6970's experiencing the same stutter still. I am not sure what to make of it really, I just hope that it's a driver issue but I need to hear more opinions really.
 
If it is a problem that has been there for a long time i doibt new drivers will fix it any time soon.
I would probably sell if you got it cheap. Also, if the 6970s have it then i would certainly sell
 
Hmm, not good then.

Trouble is, if GTA IV wasn't a game I played then I'd be quite happy with the ATI 6870 but part of the reason for my upgrade (among other reasons) was to be able to enjoy GTA IV in all its glory. I just never bothered to research into the problems I would have with certain hardware, as I wasn't really fully aware there even was an issue with ATI hardware. I only found out by mistake when browsing for something else GTA IV related. Damn. :(

Looks like I might need the nearest equivalent to a ATI 6870 in the Nvidia range then if that's the case. Not sure what that would be, both in terms of performance and power consumption. I know the GTX 470 matches and surpasses it's performance, but not too keen on power hungry, hot cards anymore.
 
I remember having the same issue with a 5870 and GTA4. It was so bad that I sent the card back under the DSR and bought a GTX470.

If you want to play it without the ATI stutter issues then you might have no other choice than to swap it for a more power hungry Nvidia card. The game loves anything over 1.2GB of vram so I'm not sure if a 460 would cut it?
 
Hmm. Prices are good at the moment. I like the look of the GTX 560 Ti but for the same money, I could put my hate about heat and power consumption behind me, and get a GTX 480 that would be much faster and probably last me a good few years right (in terms of playing most things with high graphics)?

It's a shame that GTA IV is such a buggy game, because it has it's moments on the PC where it really shines.
 
v1.004 (patch 5) runs fine here on the 11.2 drivers & a 5850 with the following settings in-game :

1680x1050
Textures - High
Reflections - Very High
Water - Very High
Shadows - High
Texture Filter - Highest
View Distance - 35
Detail Distance - 75
Vehicle Density - 33
Shadow Density - 0

The latest patch runs about 20% slower, although it does use less video memory & has better looking shadows.
 
MoodyB said:
v1.004 (patch 5) runs fine here on the 11.2 drivers & a 5850 with the following settings in-game :

1680x1050
Textures - High
Reflections - Very High
Water - Very High
Shadows - High
Texture Filter - Highest
View Distance - 35
Detail Distance - 75
Vehicle Density - 33
Shadow Density - 0

The latest patch runs about 20% slower, although it does use less video memory & has better looking shadows.
Click to expand...

Good to hear!

Might keep the ATI 6870 afterall. Just need to research into this a bit more and see if there are more ATI users who have little to no problems.
 
Well, I looked into it more there seems to be some people with ATI 6xxx cards that can play the game fine, but there's more who can't. Which to believe? I am still undecided.

GTA IV is a major PC game that I play, mostly because of the endless amount of mods for the PC version. I love the game to bits, like the previous 3, which I believe can only be best experienced on the PC.

I am not sure also if it's worth the trouble of selling my ATI 6870 and buying an Nvidia card for one game either.

Sucks.
 
It's definitely still a problem, although I had tried everything to get it to work better on my 5870, I finally reinstalled Windows 7 and boom - super smooth! This is with 11.2. Then, seemingly as you play it longer and longer, it gets more stuttery, even if you close the game, reboot etc. Strange but that's what I've observed.
 
GTX 470 or newer as game requires 1.2GB+ gfx card memory for highest options, O/C your Q6600 to 3.4+ or higher as the games very CPU dependent.

The above should freshen up fps a fair bit, and allow most of the highest gfx options.
 
Last edited:
Hate to bump an old thread but did you get it to run smoothly in the end? I know with my 5850 it had the annoying stutter. I've got a 560ti right now and GTAIV is butter smooth :)
 
I found to begin with it was smooth, then as the game progressed the 'stutter' issue started happening. I kinda stopped some of it by enabling vsync, which has somewhat stabilised it but the combination of a poorly optimized game and drivers is really what is the culprit here. It's a shame ATI haven't fixed the issue in their drivers (I'm using 11.3) and seems like they are in no hurry to either.

Decided to dump the game for the mean time and play something else. GTA IV is a favourite of mine, but if it's going to be a pain in the backside to simply run then I'd rather just load it up on my 360 and make do with it on that *shudders* for the time being.

I plan to come back to it on the PC at some point in the future though.;)
 
When i first fired it up on my 5850 it was a totally unplayable pile of carp on any setting. What fixed it was going into CCC and applying default settings (even though everything was on default already) and saving. After that worked beautifully on almost maxed out settings (just one of the detail sliders turned down a little if I recall).
 
ah that's interesting Liam - I haven't sold my 5850 yet so I guess I could test that maybe :o

The 560ti was definitely a sidegrade from a 5850 @ 900/1200 :( but GTAIV is sooo smooth right now. Physx made the world of batman and mafia II seem more alive too. Crysis 1 performance seems very similar though.
 
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