Stuttering/Choppy Graphics/Frame skipping Issue

[ZaZa]

I'm having an issue with video being choppy, stuttering and frames skipping and I'm not using Vsync. Game starts up normally and it seems to run perfectly until about 2-3 minutes later and it just starts to stutter and gets choppy.

Here's my PC System Info:

Windows 10.0.18363 Build 18363
MPG Z390M GAMING EDGE AC (MS-7B50)
Core i5-9600K CPU @ 3.70GHz OCd 4.70GHZ All 6 Cores Stable
16GB DDR4 Ram
OS Drive: 970 EVO Plus 500GB NVMe
Game Drive: SanDisk Ultra II 480GB SSD (Connected using: SATA to USB 3.1 GEN C Cable)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Latest Driver Release 445.75)
ASUS 1440p @144Hz G-Sync 16:9 Monitor
PS4 Controller (Wired with USB 2.0 Cable)

***NO MODS INSTALLED EVER***

I've also tried various fixes including:
-fresh install
-rolling back game version
-launch options
-changing the "affinity" in task manager
-Vsync on and off
-framerate cap in Nvidia Control Panel
-Manually changing the graphic settings in Nvidia Control Panel
-Various graphic option changes in-game

All other games have and still do run perfect using these same settings. GTA IV CE is now the only game that doesn't seem to run well.

If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. The game runs BUTTER SMOOTH for about 2 minutes and looks gorgeous on my rig but I start to experience the frame skips and choppy graphics and the game becomes virtually unplayable.

[Agent]

people been also saying "Threaded optimization" turn it off.
located in the nvidia control panel> manage 3d settings> program settings> gta iv exe

[mikO]

i5-8600k @5.2ghz (5/6 cores)
GTX 1060.
Windows 10.
8GB of Ram (8/16)

I am getting really bad stuttering and frame skipping, it kills the experience of the game. I am running Windows on a virtual-machine however but other games are stable. It's nice to see I am not the only one in this boat.

[mikO]

Escrito originalmente por Hom Tanks:

Steam Overlay is on by default for me. I hate to sound spoiled but the game drops horribly as low as 30 fps. I run 144hz with a RTX 2070 and i7-7700k. Pretty bad optimization if you ask me.

If you pay that amount of money for your setup, you deserve more than a 30 frame experience.

[Pure_Cipher]

Rockstar support said they are aware of the issues and are working on a fix. So, we need to have more patience

[psmatt94]

Escrito originalmente por AsishPC:

Rockstar support said they are aware of the issues and are working on a fix. So, we need to have more patience

Patience? For a 12 year old game? They had all that time to fix it.

[MetalZeroFour]

The game was running fine for me until the update. I had to run the game through the LaunchGTAIV.exe in the directory for it to run properly. Running it through Steam is always what caused the stuttering every few frames for me. UNFORTUNATELY, with the update, and the game having to go through the RS Launcher now, they removed the LaunchGTAIV.exe file and now there's no way to launch the game outside of Steam/RS launcher. Everything within my power was done prior to the update, and again now with this update, to figure out why the game was running the way it was, and that was just about the ONLY thing I could do to fix it.So now I'm in the same boat as y'all, and it's incredibly frustrating. I bought my gaming laptop and have since gotten into PC gaming all because of GTA IV, as it's just about my favorite game of all time, but now there's no way to play it without it being broken.

*edit* I've got an ASUS FX505GT with a 9th gen Intel i5, clocked at 2.4ghz, and 8gb's of RAM

[leemicah61]

Escrito originalmente por MyNutsAreLoaded:

Escrito originalmente por MartasZLA:

same problem for me

*Everyone*
From a reply I just got from another thread about stutters—TURN ON STEAM OVERLAY.
I have mine turned off by default and someone said their game stutters and was choppy until they turned on steam overlay. I turned it on and I’ve been playing for 15+ straight minutes without one. Single. Stutter.
Let me know if it works for you. It worked for me!

This works for me no joke!

[Lylliana of Mirrah]

have you check task manager? check if something is eating your cpu usage

[Agent]

try this set all the exe in the gta iv folder to window vista (service pack 2) my games been running good since yesterday

[LuckY23]

Escrito originalmente por MyNutsAreLoaded:

Escrito originalmente por MartasZLA:

same problem for me

*Everyone*
From a reply I just got from another thread about stutters—TURN ON STEAM OVERLAY.
I have mine turned off by default and someone said their game stutters and was choppy until they turned on steam overlay. I turned it on and I’ve been playing for 15+ straight minutes without one. Single. Stutter.
Let me know if it works for you. It worked for me!

Turning on steam overlay helped me. Thank you!

[WetNachosFlavor]

The 3 distance sliders view , detail and vehicle density drain cpu resources reduce them to 50.

[LuckY23]

Escrito originalmente por .:

The 3 distance sliders view , detail and vehicle density drain cpu resources reduce them to 50.

Man, thank you! I tried to play it at 900p to this moment, and no chance. Now, I can play it on 1080p with very high reflections. I had to turn off view distance (1 on slider) and other two get on 51.

Edit: I changed view distance to 31, the cutscenes with no view distance was too choppy... But it finally run for me. I started campaign as a Niko now, and it runs little bit better than TBoGT. If somebody is intrested on using different timecyc, I use this one and LC have more colors now (Also it run better in IV than EFLC)

https://www.gtainside.com/en/gta4/mods/123795-simple-graphical-improvements/

[Tomator]

I get this problem sometimes, it goes away if I ALT+TAB to another window and return to the game.
Disabling Steam overlay is a must as well

[LuckY23]

I made this guide if somebody is interested.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2042233061

[Xrestos]

+++++++++....Same problem!!
Frame skipping ! before/after alttabing..looks like overheat!!!! after few minutes of playing!!
Hello guys. Sry for my eng))
I have a prolem with GTA4...i played this before GTA5 starts, and game worekd fine(fine enough , ,bad optimisation bla-bla-bla)
I reinsttall this game now and get a terrible problem: Game starts frameskipping after few minutes of playing...Its looks like every 4th frame skips...doestn matter where. whats happing on screen...just start lagging with same frequency everywhere and always....THIS stops right after i change resolutin or alttabbing....and starts again after minute or two...
i know it looks like my videocard is oberheating: trust me - its not.
Tried a lot of things: Disable Fullscreen Optimizations, creating commandline txt with some commands i found into internet, usuing steam inititalizing commands (sry dont know how its in eng, means RMB on gta4 in steam and put some settings...) ....tried usuing v-sync fast in Nvidia...Nothing work...can u help me please, comrads?