Run Mafia 2, COD, Grid, Starcraft 2 good, but run GTA IV crappy

[jlzagar]

I have a Intel Duo Core 2.5GHZ processor, Radeon 5770, 4 GB DDR2

I can run Grid, Starcraft 2, Mafia 2, COD WAW great

but when I tried to play GTA IV, it was the crappiest, slowest I've ever seen.

Could it be my computer was trying to run the game and not my graphics card?

Anyone out there think they can help me?

 

[Herr_Koos]

Your system is not to blame; GTA 4 on the PC is crappy. The system requirements are ridiculous. I would guess the chief bottleneck is your CPU. GTA4 requires at least a quad (preferably a high-clocked one) before it runs decently.

 

[55Range]

+1 for quad core-

 

[isamuelson]

Download the latest patches for GTA IV, reduce the detail (specifically the depth of field to around 30) and see how that goes. I do know the latest patch has helped make things better for those on lower-end systems.

But as others have stated, you really need a quad core for this game.

 

[jlzagar]

I read an article about dual core processors being good for gaming and the extra cores not really mattering. I guess that guy was wrong?

 

[xaero1ne]

as great as this game is, it has horrible pc optimization. i used to play it
on my amd x4 9600 w/ 5770, and i ran like crap even on low setting, 30fps at best.

now with my current rig I've started to play through the game again on high setting, and it is actually playable, but does suffer occasionally from a stutter or frame drop.

to me it seems to like rockstar purposely made this game run better on consoles from some god forsaken reason. i hope to god when gta v comes out it wont be such a crap shoot on the pc.

 

[isamuelson]

I read an article about dual core processors being good for gaming and the extra cores not really mattering. I guess that guy was wrong?

It depends on how the game was written. If the game itself was written to only use one core, then dual core usually isn't going to do much for you. Just because a CPU has more than one core does not mean that every program will take advantage of it.

GTA IV was written to take advantage of multiple cores. Specifically, at least 3, best 4. In order for a program to take advantage of multiple cores, it must be written as such. So, most games were written for single-core systems. Hence, the extra core usually does NOT translate into better performance on a multi-core system.

So, the author is correct in a sense, depending on the game. In the case of GTA IV, it DOES pay to have more than 2 cores. I can definitely attest to that.

I had an AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+. The game ran like crap. I was lucky to get 24 fps if that.

I upgraded my machine to an AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE. With the same GPU from the X2 days, the game was MUCH more playable. I've since unlocked the 4th core (which hasn't seem to help GTA IV much), but I went from around 14 fps to an an average of around 35. I since upgraded my video card and I now average around 40 to 45 fps.

So, depending on the game, multi-cores may or may not have an affect on their performance. However, newer games are being written to take multi-core processors into account, so more and more games WILL be affected by it.

 

[jlzagar]

Best answer selected by jlzagar.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey