Stuttering FIXED

[Dingus]

Ok folks after about an hour of screwing around I found the stuttering, for me, was caused by launching the game from Steam. Instead, with Steam running in the background, launch the game from SteamApps\common\Grand Theft Auto IV\GTAIV\LaunchGTAIV.exe . After doing this I get NO MORE STUTTERING OR LAG. Thought I would share and hopefully save someone else the headache of going through what I just did. None of the million other solutions posted worked (likely as they are for people with low end systems) and this is all that was needed running the below system. Settings maxed out @1080p, BTW.

Intel i7 930 @4GHz
Corsair ddr3 6GB @1800MHz
Corsair Force GS 240GB SSD
NVIDIA GTX 470 1280MB
Windows 8.1 x64

[Llama glama]

PainkilleR の投稿を引用：

Any updates on this subject?

What about now?

[M. Walrus]

I just reinstalled the game on my modern PC and got everything worked out. No stuttering, and fixed the messed up/jittering animations in cutscenes.

Guide here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1214530112

[VALROY_CL]

i had this issue with an
i5 6600 4ghz
gtx 1060 6gb
16gb DDR4 2400mhz
win10pro
the fix? activate the steam interface on this game and good bye sttutering

the only bug i had in the game is the phone not working correctly with a xbox 360 controller

[M. Walrus]

Valroy_CL の投稿を引用：

i had this issue with an
i5 6600 4ghz
gtx 1060 6gb
16gb DDR4 2400mhz
win10pro
the fix? activate the steam interface on this game and good bye sttutering

I found the same thing, when I made the guide above. 980ti & 4790k 16gb ram - only time I had the stuttering issue come up is when the steam overlay was disabled. strange as I previously had to do the opposite with my amd & gtx480. with that I had to start the game from the executable outside of steam and completely prevent the overlay stuff. Now, it requires it. What a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up port this game was/is.

[adam_odell]

Here's my behaviors.
Launch directly/GFWL only- fine, this doesn't happen
Launch directly/GFWL-subverted - fine, this doesn't happen
Launch through Steam overlay on- fine this doesn't happen
Launch through Steam overlay off- after about 30 seconds the game starts throwing a fit that can be temporarily fixed by opening the GFWL overlay or playing with the vsync setting
Steam /w GFWL subverted- same as above Steam behaviors

I'm honestly getting angry at Steam's more and more heavy handed process injection as of late. No, I don't use overlay. No Valve, I'm not going to use your controller configuration either. It shouldn't inject into the APIs unless these are actually being used. I've seen conflicts with stuff like XinputPlus with old games and the like where when a game is ran through Steam it starts messing up because Steam can't keep its precious hands out of directinput and the two conflict. I like wrapping things on my own terms.

[Zodasaur]

Adamu-kun! の投稿を引用：

Here's my behaviors.
Launch directly/GFWL only- fine, this doesn't happen
Launch directly/GFWL-subverted - fine, this doesn't happen
Launch through Steam overlay on- fine this doesn't happen
Launch through Steam overlay off- after about 30 seconds the game starts throwing a fit that can be temporarily fixed by opening the GFWL overlay or playing with the vsync setting
Steam /w GFWL subverted- same as above Steam behaviors

I'm honestly getting angry at Steam's more and more heavy handed process injection as of late. No, I don't use overlay. No Valve, I'm not going to use your controller configuration either. It shouldn't inject into the APIs unless these are actually being used. I've seen conflicts with stuff like XinputPlus with old games and the like where when a game is ran through Steam it starts messing up because Steam can't keep its precious hands out of directinput and the two conflict. I like wrapping things on my own terms.

My advice is to stick with the retail physical version. It's got far less issues than the one on Steam with the extra DRM addtion.

[Emirhan C.]

Guys i fixed it, i just downgraded my game to 1.0.6.0 and its done.

[mfer52416]

actually, 1.04 is the superior version of the game. Just saying. It has deep mod support, and also, better average performance.

[onurguzel16]

With using latest GTA 4 v1.0.8.0 (including the patch that involves removal of certain songs), it is still massively stuttering and it always used to do this since ages. I am using Steam version. Though having 7200 rpm drive, my bet is that this game needs a fast SSD drive to eliminate stutters. Disk activity is high during the game.

[Ra 'alga0]

Hmm strange. I get nearly zero stuttering and smooth frame rates in GTA IV regardless of game version (tried 1.0.7.0 and latest) when launching straight from Steam client. I have it on my HDD as well, the game is not much better on SSD for me.

Specs:

Ryzen 7 1700X @ 3.8
GTX 1080
32GB RAM @ 2666 MHz
game installed on Toshiba P300 3TB

[jhr_digitalartist]

i tried this method, it helps with the stuttering some, but doesn't solve it. bummed out cause i havent played this in years, and after using xliveless to get rid of gfwl, i can finally play it again, but it should be smooth & fluid :(

i7-4770k
gtx 1050 ti
16gb ram
windows 8.1

[Zodasaur]

Tanks_for_the_memories™ の投稿を引用：

Hmm strange. I get nearly zero stuttering and smooth frame rates in GTA IV regardless of game version (tried 1.0.7.0 and latest) when launching straight from Steam client. I have it on my HDD as well, the game is not much better on SSD for me.

Specs:

Ryzen 7 1700X @ 3.8
GTX 1080
32GB RAM @ 2666 MHz
game installed on Toshiba P300 3TB

Show us a picture of your frametimes as proof. I think your game is stuttering but your standards are so low that you don't notice.

[Holly Padfield]

Even in 2019 with a GTX1080 this post has saved me! It seams Steam never fixed this bug. If you launch from Steam, the game will stutter after a few minutes no matter what settings (I'm playing in 4k, but tried 1080P with no change). I launched from the steamapps folder and no more stuttering. Thanks to the poster of this article. There's a reason why it's still the top hit on google!

[Zodasaur]

Jon Padfield の投稿を引用：

Even in 2019 with a GTX1080 this post has saved me! It seams Steam never fixed this bug. If you launch from Steam, the game will stutter after a few minutes no matter what settings (I'm playing in 4k, but tried 1080P with no change). I launched from the steamapps folder and no more stuttering. Thanks to the poster of this article. There's a reason why it's still the top hit on google!

Actually the game stutters even if you launch it directly from the steamapps folder. It's a placebo. Use an on screen frame time graph and see for yourself.

[M. Walrus]

I think the assumption that one method works to fix this for all users was thrown out the window a long time ago. If a user finds a particular method fixes their issues, then it is good to know it worked for them. I have had different AMD and Intel PC's in the time since this game released and the same fix did not work on both. On my old AMD system I had to do exactly that the previous poster said he did (launch from windows instead of steam) and on my newer Intel PC I have to launch it from Steam to prevent stuttering, with the steam overlay enabled, otherwise i get stutters.
Rockstar never fixed this game, and not all fixes that work for one person will work for the next.