Best Graphics Settings Mafia II DE

[giannoc87]

Hello everyone,

I am having major graphic issues with this version of the game, such as lagging (especially when driving a car, in the tunnel, etc..), flickering smoke and others, playing in high, medium and custom settings.

Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ 2.60 GHz
RAM: 16 GB
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 960M 4 GB DDR5

I think my spec are quite good, but still having problems...
Any help with the best setting for smoothest performance?

If this cannot be fixed, I will keep playing the Classic version which works much smoother and graphics are still looking great.

[TΩKSYK]

It might be you are running out of VRAM since the DE version use higher res textures than the classic version, try booting up MSI Afterburner and monitor the hardware usage especially the V-RAM with RTSS, if you are hitting the 4GB limit then it is very likely that's the cause of lag.

[giannoc87]

OK I installed MSI and RTSS following your indications, but I cannot see during playtime any other screen information except FPS real time on the top left corner in orange color, which was indeed useful.
I found the game playable quite smoothly with FPS until around 25
I have made some trials and found out that definitely the problem stands with Shadows.

1) i am running Anti-alias 8x and MSAA 2x, all other options HIGH including shadows and i got lagging during driving ONLY in shadow areas and in the tunnel. I noticed my FPS:
- stable around 30 or slightly over while walking (31-32)
- slightly below 30 driving a car in NO shadow areas (normally around 27-28, a few times below 25 for a second)
- dropping suddenly to the lowest 20s driving in shadow areas (22-23)
- dropping below 20 (minimum 18-19) inside the tunnel and critically below 15 (minimum 13-14) only at the exits of the tunnel

2) with same settings and only Shadows decreased to MEDIUM, I got an improvement already. I noticed my FPS:
- still stable around 30 or slightly over while walking (peaking at 34-35 sometimes)
- Around 30 driving a car in NO shadow areas (mostly around 28-29, never below 27)
- dropping suddenly to the mid 20s driving in shadow areas (normally 23-25)
- dropping to the lowest 20s inside the tunnel and touching a minimum of 18-19 at the exits of the tunnel.

I surely gain in gameplay but lose in quality.
Do you have any recommendation on how to bring back the shadows to High and keep a better performance?

Thanks

[J4MESOX4D]

MSAA is a bit of a framerate killer - I'd turn that off.

[V I D A L]

The Remaster doesn't improve a whole lot.. if you are to turn down graphical settings, you might as well save the trouble and play the original. Chances are, you will get a better experience, less bugs, better PhysX and so on.

Even maxed out at 4k the DE doesn't look much better than the original. If I was playing in a system like yours, I would stick to the classic... You're probably gonna max out that version and get a better look than you will by reducing settings in the DE.

[giannoc87]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

MSAA is a bit of a framerate killer - I'd turn that off.

Yeah I have noticed that when I turned it to the maximum (8x). It was terrible, almost never above 20 FPS.. 4x was not so bad, but 2x is more stable and you cannot see the difference anyway..

Originally posted by V I D A L:

The Remaster doesn't improve a whole lot.. if you are to turn down graphical settings, you might as well save the trouble and play the original. Chances are, you will get a better experience, less bugs, better PhysX and so on.

Even maxed out at 4k the DE doesn't look much better than the original. If I was playing in a system like yours, I would stick to the classic... You're probably gonna max out that version and get a better look than you will by reducing settings in the DE.

Yes I agree, after seeing the lagging troubles with the DE i started up the Classic (which I had finished already few years ago..) and I have to say with the highest graphics setting I run very smoothly and the changes are indeed not much... I have just noticed that the driving physics (when not lagging) are better on the DE, but the rest is quite similar. Do you agree?

Indeed with the DE I was looking for a reason to replay this game from the beginning, but I may end up replaying on the Classic version in Difficult mode, and that's it :)

Waiting for the remake of the first MAFIA hoping that they are doing a much better job!

[TΩKSYK]

You have to go to settings > monitoring > and tick the "Show in On-Screen Display".

Here shows how it's done https://youtu.be/1pHuv8Ndc2Y?t=135

[giannoc87]

Thanks Artaxeus,
here are some screenshots, after i set up again shadows to High. From the screenshots you can see that outside shadows areas FPS works quite normally, and in general all other parameters do not change much, either in shadows and non shadows areas...

https://imgur.com/a/a1TW2pR

Unfortunately the VRAM never reaches 4GB as we expected... so I still do not understand where the problem is...
Do you have any idea?