ILOVECOMPUTERS1

Distinguished
Nov 17, 2011
21
0
18,510
My PC GAMES are lagging. For example GTA IV lags terribly. ITS FRUSTRATING!!!!
MY PC SPECS ARE
PROCESSOR:AMD ATHLON (TM) 64 X2 DUAL CORE PROCESSOR 5000 + 2.60GHZ
RAM:3:00 GB
VIDEO CARD: ATI RADEON HD 5670
WHAT DO I DO?
 

Lephys

Distinguished
Nov 17, 2011
17
0
18,510
Are you running Windows Vista or 7 on that machine? With either of those, 3GB of ram might be stretched a little thin depending on what settings you're using for your games. May not be your whole problem, but it could be contributing. Also, how much video RAM does your HD 5670 have?
 

bwrlane

Distinguished
Oct 5, 2010
449
0
18,860
Mate, your problem is an inadequate CPU. Your GPU isn't up to much either but the good news here is you can counteract this by dropping the resolution and/or eye candy. For an underpowered CPU there's no fix.

I remember trying to play Crysis with an Athlon 64 3700 and an ATI x850 in 2007. The frame rate was perhaps 1 frame every 5 seconds. This isn't far off what you're trying to do today with BF3.

Only one option I'm afraid - upgrade.
 
No, it means your mobo cannot be use with current generation fast CPU that is required to run this buggy ported GTA IV game with no lag and yes your CPU is very slow by today's standard.

Discussion of playing GTA IV game on PC on this forum always comes to this conclusion - play it on the console.
 

bwrlane

Distinguished
Oct 5, 2010
449
0
18,860
Thats ok we were all noobs once. An underpowered CPU is a CPU that's not powerful enough to do what you're asking it to. Your Athlon 64 5000 x2 is precisely that. An underpowered CPU. Simply not good enough for the job.

What you need is:

- a core i5 2400
- 4 gb ram
- an nvidia 550 ti or better. Or an amd 6870 or better.
 

ILOVECOMPUTERS1

Distinguished
Nov 17, 2011
21
0
18,510
Ok Im going to get the core i5 2400, but the thing is i cant upgrade to 4gb ram, i have the 4th gb of ram but when i put it into the last socket, windows dosent read it.. And my current video card cant pass? amd 6870 kinda pricy
 

bwrlane

Distinguished
Oct 5, 2010
449
0
18,860
i5: good choice. But you'll need a new motherboard to get an i5.

I've been on intel platforms since 2007 so don't know much about AMD mobo/CPUs these days. Others will be able to advise if you can get a substantially faster CPU (eg a Phenom X4) that will slot straight into your mobo.

Secondly, your graphics card will work. You won't be able to play on max res/settings but better-than-console graphics should be accessible to you.

Finally, the reason you can't use 4GB RAM is almost certainly that you have the 32bit version of Windows. To use 4GB and beyond you need the 64bit version.
 

Toxicknight79

Distinguished
Nov 18, 2011
14
0
18,510
theres a youtube vid of a intel Celeron G530 using its on chip HD1000 graphics playing GTA IV at lowest settings with no lag ,,, so it seems

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F22i0Rj5a74

so if that is capable of playing GTA IV Id say a core I3 sandy bridge and your video card should be capable ,,,, no you wont have awsome graphics quality ,,but it wont lag at least.
 
GTA4 is higly CPU bound. Ehmphasis on that. It's a crappy job of porting from the Cell to the x86. You will need a lot of RAM too, since the crappy port also screwed up memory management. Expect 5gb+ to be loaded exclusively with game content.

The vga on the other side bears almost no impact on performance. About any U$100 GPU will be more than enough for GTA.