Can't get the game to run at 60fps?

[Uncle Dead Rob Haywood V2.0]

Specs:
Gfx: Nvidia GTX 970 4GB VRAM
Cpu: AMD FX-6350 6-Core 3.9GHz
RAM: 8GB
OS: Windows 8.1

It must be me or something because unless I set the graphics to extremely low, the game will stutter at around 30 to 50fps at max settings. But strangely, if I enter a building (like the apartment), or if I run the benchmark test, it runs perfectly fine at 60fps. (I'd post screenshots of my benchmark results, but it likes to keep crashing during the test for some reason.)
It only runs at that low fps when I'm just standing outside.

Is my hardware just not strong enough? (Which I find hard to believe, since I can play DOOM 2016 at 60fps just fine.)
Or is there some magical Nvidia setting that's just screwing me over?

[RGC]

It's the game,it's bad optimized,mostly it only works around 30-40 fps,the best specs out there barelly can keep it at a steady 60fps,so it's the game,not your PC

[Uncle Dead Rob Haywood V2.0]

Originally posted by HiGhameRO:

It's the game,it's bad optimized,mostly it only works around 30-40 fps,the best specs out there barelly can keep it at a steady 60fps,so it's the game,not your PC

That's ridiculous that a game that's been out for about 8 years now is so poorly optimized on modern systems.
Ugh. Thanks for the answer. At least I know I'm not just going crazy.

[RGC]

Originally posted by MrTimotei:

That's ridiculous that a game that's been out for about 8 years now is so poorly optimized on modern systems.
Ugh. Thanks for the answer. At least I know I'm not just going crazy.

From what I know,this was their first bigger game that they tried in this engine,I mean,the program they used to make the game,so we have to understand them.And the game was working better when it first released,from what I know,but in time,no one cared about it anymore and it got here.

[ironmanmk42]

I managed to get it to be steady 55 fps by doing this -

- turn off all shadows
- set AF to trilinear
- enable vsync
- set water reflection to medium

On my older gtx 560m laptop which has a sandybridge core i7 and 12GB DDR3 666MHz RAM and 7200rpm HDD, I get 50fps at 1920x1080 and 55 fps steady at 1600x900

I just lowered brightness a bit and increased contrast and set saturation to maximum and color is back in the game and it looks nicer.

Try it. On newer HW, you'll get probably 75fps with this at over 1080p

Also, create commandline.txt in the folder where the exe for this game is and add some setting -nomemrestrict and couple others. Search it online

This is one poorly optimized game. In your case, you might just need to enable vsync or tweak something else. shadows was key in my case along with vsync.

Once I did this, I went from choppy stuttering gameplay to quite smooth experience. No more stuttering, no sudden fps drops from 55fps to 12 fps and back up every few seconds. It is now steady 55fps, even with explosions and stuff.

[ironmanmk42]

Originally posted by PEU:

-norestrictions -nomemrestrict , google more launcher commands , just reinstalled and its running great all high settings, no vysnc and trillinear filtering.

Are you saying vsync is disabled? Actually wouldn't that
- create screen tearing
- anything greater than your screen refresh rate (say 60Hz) means it is useless anyway? So 75fps on 60Hz monitor is really a waste since you won't exceed 60fps anyway. You'd realy need 120Hz monitor (like I have) or 144Hz monitor to really see the advantage of disabling vsync or am I mistaken here?

[AE86THETIC]

Hello. I don't know if this is a old thread but I got AWFUL, just AWFUL performance on my Nvidia GeForce 960 and I5 4460. I'll just go ahead and copy what I did and what helped me. If you have any questions, feel free to write

I did the following things:

Installed EDGE, a GTA mod
Disabled Windows Event Log and Collector in MSCONFIG
Ran CONTIG, to "reorganize" the whole game


I get a solid 55-60 fps, even in heavier areas.

[Uncle Dead Rob Haywood V2.0]

Originally posted by Ze Crab:

Hello. I don't know if this is a old thread but I got AWFUL, just AWFUL performance on my Nvidia GeForce 960 and I5 4460. I'll just go ahead and copy what I did and what helped me. If you have any questions, feel free to write

I did the following things:

Installed EDGE, a GTA mod
Disabled Windows Event Log and Collector in MSCONFIG
Ran CONTIG, to "reorganize" the whole game


I get a solid 55-60 fps, even in heavier areas.

Installed EDGE, and ran CONTIG.
Graphics set around medium. VSYNC off.
Nothing seemed to change. (Over 100 fps in small areas. But when out driving, fps drops between 50 and 30.)

I'm so glad I have a "VR Ready" graphics card.
Now if only it was ready to play an 8 year old game.

[snowiblind]

shadows basically bring down your fps
try setting them to medium/high

[Sdaddy345]

I'm playing at 1080p 144hz. Hopefully this guide helps you.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/12210/discussions/0/350540974006894072/

[Uncle Dead Rob Haywood V2.0]

Originally posted by subhan345:

I'm playing at 1080p 144hz. Hopefully this guide helps you.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/12210/discussions/0/350540974006894072/

Tried it.
Nothing changed~

[princesswinter]

Rockstar doesn't know how to make a frame limiter. The purpose of VSync it to lock the frame rate to your monitor's refresh rate (typically 60 or 144, but probably just 60). In GTA IV however, this will lock it to 56. Similarly in GTA SA, the frame limiter will lock it to 25 rather than 30. There is a fix, disable vsync in the game's graphic options, and enable vsync using the nvidia control panel, going to 3D settings, finding GTA IV in the list of programs, and enabling vsync there. This will make the game use accurate vsync, but I noticed this messes with load times too. Just be patient though, it'll load and you'll have a smooth experiance. Another option is using some kind of ENB mod with a frame limiter if you can handle it, as that will also improve overall graphics. If you're having trouble getting high FPS though anyways, that's not a good option.

In short, the game's frame limiter sucks, so you'll have to use an external frame limiter such as what is in nvidia's control panel.

[Uncle Dead Rob Haywood V2.0]

Originally posted by daboss54320:

Rockstar doesn't know how to make a frame limiter. The purpose of VSync it to lock the frame rate to your monitor's refresh rate (typically 60 or 144, but probably just 60). In GTA IV however, this will lock it to 56. Similarly in GTA SA, the frame limiter will lock it to 25 rather than 30. There is a fix, disable vsync in the game's graphic options, and enable vsync using the nvidia control panel, going to 3D settings, finding GTA IV in the list of programs, and enabling vsync there. This will make the game use accurate vsync, but I noticed this messes with load times too. Just be patient though, it'll load and you'll have a smooth experiance. Another option is using some kind of ENB mod with a frame limiter if you can handle it, as that will also improve overall graphics. If you're having trouble getting high FPS though anyways, that's not a good option.

In short, the game's frame limiter sucks, so you'll have to use an external frame limiter such as what is in nvidia's control panel.

I've been playing with VSync off this entire time.
I don't keep it on unless I know the game will ALWAYS stay above 60fps.
That's the thing- even with vsync off, it'll still drop below 60fps in some areas (mostly outside), which is absolutely ridiculous.
The issue has nothing to do with vsync or whatever.
Unless the graphics are turned down to "garbage", then I can't keep it above 60fps.

[Toquita]

Install some enb MOD's and you'll see how well it runs ;-)

Now on the serious side, it's OK that it doesn't always run at 60. I can run it at 40-70 almost all the times, it's fine by me, the game doesn't require high FPS even on shooting parts.

[Uncle Dead Rob Haywood V2.0]

Originally posted by Toquinha:

Install some enb MOD's and you'll see how well it runs ;-)

Now on the serious side, it's OK that it doesn't always run at 60. I can run it at 40-70 almost all the times, it's fine by me, the game doesn't require high FPS even on shooting parts.

I agree that it doesn't NEED to be constantly at 60fps.
But what blows me away is that, even with the hardware I have, this shouldn't even be an issue to begin with!

I can play Fallout 3, Penumbra, and Left 4 Dead, which all came out in the same year as GTAIV, and they run perfectly fine at 60fps. No issue.
You can't argue "oh, it's because of the game's engine" because it's not like it wasn't possible, or some ♥♥♥♥ to keep it optimized.

I know it sounds like I'm really irritated in a lot of the replies I've been making throughout this post. But, the whole reason I'm playing this on PC was to escape the low framerate on the console version. But when the PC version is also having framerate trouble WITH SUPERIOR HARDWARE, then that's just inexcuseable.

I guess I'll go give these "enb mod's" a try when I get a chance.
I'll post back once I see how it is.

Edit: I realize this all seems like it's directed just to you.
But these are just my thoughts that I want EVERYONE who scrolls through this post to see.

[Toquita]

I run CSGO at 300 FPS (Max frame rate), so as Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2. CSS at 550 FPS, etc.
I run Battlefield 3 at 90-120 FPS on Ultra with 64 players.

I run GTA IV at 40-60 FPS. That's because, as everybody said, GTA IV is a not a good port. This means they coded the game for the console first, and then ported to PC. Since it's not a good port, you cannot expect it to run very well.

GTA IV is kinda like Windows Vista. They made a great OS, huge changes, they risked a lot by doing so. However, both GTA IV and Windows Vista don't have a very nice performance. In the Vista example, Microsoft fixed most of the issues with SP1 and SP2, but RockStart didn't fix GTA IV completely. Since Vista had a very bad reputation but had most bugs fixed, Microsoft decided to launch Windows 7, which is pretty much a Vista SP3. The same with GTA, GTA V is nothing but a very well optimized GTA IV. You cannot expect Vista to run that smoothly, and you cannot expect GTA IV to run smoothly, there's Windows 7 and GTA V for that :)
Vista and GTA IV are projects that revolutionized their own ecosystems. For that, there IS an excuse for the poor performance.