Get better performance in GTA IV by installing D9VK

D9VK is a Direct3D9 to Vulkan layer, and many games can benefit from a performance boost by using it (including GTA IV). Before proceeding, be sure that your GPU supports Vulkan.

Getting D9VK

D9VK is a Direct3D9 to Vulkan layer, and many games can benefit from a performance boost by using it. Before proceeding, be sure that your GPU supports Vulkan (search for your GPU here: https://vulkan.gpuinfo.org/ ). Oh also bear in mind that I'm not responsible for any crashes during gameplay.
Go to https://github.com/Joshua-Ashton/d9vk/releases and download the latest version (click on assets).
Update: You may want to try DXVK instead of D9VK as it's more up-to-date (D9VK was merged into DXVK): https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases and then proceed with the installation as usual.
Update 2: You may not be able to use features such as the Steam overlay or taking screenshots if you choose to install DXVK. Also I'm not responsible for any of the glitches that may or may not occur while playing the game with D9VK/DXVK installed.

Installing D9VK

Open the .tar.gz archive that you've downloaded with 7-Zip, then open the .tar inside, go to the x32 folder and extract "d3d9.dll" to the folder where GTA IV is installed in (it's probably in steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto IV/GTAIV). After that all you have to do is open the game and play. It will seem stuttery at first but I recommend roaming around for a few minutes and then restarting the game.
So uh, yeah. That's it. Hopefully it helped you. If not, you can just delete the .dll to uninstall D9VK.

One last thing: Changing the settings before starting the game crashed it for me, but changing them while ingame didn't. This may happen to you or not but I'm just throwing this out there.

[w3st80]

I have it working, but when i go to video settings it shows my monitor resolution 2560 x 1440 23Hz, but when i go to change it there is no 2560 x 1440 144Hz, only 1360 x 768 100Hz as highest resolution.

[Clippy95]

yes

[w3st80]

if i have msi afterburner on, should't it display vulkan as the api?

[Clippy95]

They don't seem to work eitherway

[watermelon]

doesn't seem like the author replies here, but does anyone know if steam achievements work with this enabled?

[Clippy95]

This isn't even a mod

[Skelly]

Thanks for the constant black screen after starting up, worthless mod.

[_Extern_]

It doesn't work on GTA SA :(

[24/09/2044 4:54:09 PM]

For anyone getting freezes at the start of a game session, this is because the Vulkan shaders aren’t pre-cached. This can be fixed using Steam by going to the Shader Pre-caching tab in Options and ticking “Allow background processing of Vulkan shaders”. This should fix the freezes and possibly the long loading times.

[Jayden]

how do you fix steam overlay?