Running Max Payne on Windows 10 [Nvidia Only]

Max Payne is a riveting film noir-themed third-person shooter which was developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Rockstar Studios. Unfortunately for this classic title, originally released in 2001, it no longer runs well natively with modern operating systems and hardware. This very simple guide, focusing on Windows 10 and modern hardware, will enable you to restore this game's intended experience in only a few steps.

Installation

This guide is for clean installations of Max Payne only. If you've modified your game already, delete the game, clean the game folder of any installed mods, and reinstall. You will not lose your saved progress.

The default Steam installation folder is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Max Payne

Sound Fix

The sound in this game does not work properly in operating systems such as Windows Vista or newer. Download[mega.nz] the unofficial sound patch and follow the instructions inside.

Frame Limiting

Unfortunely this game does not run well on Windows 10. Vertial sync does not function at all, so the game renders too many frames per second. This causes issues with mouse stuttering/jittering/skipping over lines of pixels, making it much more difficult to aim, and making the AI quite difficult to combat.

To fix the overpowered enemies and mouse stutter, you have to force the game to run at a steady frame rate.

Download[github.com] nVidia Inspector from Orbmu2k's official github (click on the latest version number on this page, then click on nvidiaProfileInspector.zip to download it.) Extract the full contents to a new folder and Run nvidiaProfileInspector.exe

Search Profiles: for 'Max Payne'. Make sure the following settings are on. They may differ or require experimentation based on your computer specifications. Optional settings, which may effect performance and differ between hardware setups, are marked with an asterisk.

• Antialiasing Fix: On
  
• Frame Limiter: [~] 59.7 fps -- This is the most crucial setting. If your monitor's refresh rate is 59 or 60 Hz, use 59.7 fps. If your monitor is only 30 Hz use 29.5 fps. If it's higher, use 59.7fps. The game will not behave normally running above 60Hz.
  
• Vertical Sync: Force on
  
• Vertical Sync Tear Control: Adaptive

• *Antialiasing - Mode: Override any application setting
  
• *Antialiasing - Setting: Application-controlled / Off
  
• Toggle FXAA on or off: On -- This is what fixed the visually pixelated wall textures for me.

　
Hit Apply Changes and launch the game. Next you can configure the game settings.

Settings vary as always, but the most important is changing Screen Buffers to Double. This helped me completely eliminate mouse problems. Click OK and click Play.

　

Sound should work perfectly. Mouse stuttering/jittering/skipping should be completely gone. Leave NVIDIA Profile Inspector open every time you play the game.

For more insight about what NVIDIA Profile Inspector can do, you can refer to these pages:
this page[wiki.step-project.com].
or this page[www.pcgamingwiki.com]

Misinformation

There are a lot of discussions online which blame the wrong factors to be the cause of this game's problems.

The fan-made sound patch is not the cause of the mouse-jittering issues. This issue is caused by the outdated programming of the engine, not the sound patch. Users of this patch probably noticed the mouse bug later in their playthrough and naturally blamed the sound patch instead of the game itself because it was the only thing they did to modify the game's installation.

Disabling mouse acceleration/smoothing aka 'enhanced pointer precision' does not fix mouse stuttering. The issue lies in how the game engine draws frames onto the screen, not in your hardware input methods.

Running the game in compatibility mode, or forcing it to run as administrator does not automatically fix issues. In my experience, running Max Payne in compatibility mode for older operating systems on Windows 10 simply did not work. It will run silently and not open at all, forcing you to end the process in task manager. Some people in Steam forums are reporting completely opposite experiences.

Running as administrator is a compatibility option not intended to be used on things such as games that don't need administrator privileges. This option has no effect on the performance of Max Payne. In fact I would argue that running any program with third-party modifications installed as an administrator is insecure and could result in harm to your machine.

Also, if any compatibility modes are enabled, the Steam overlay will not work.

CPU Afffinity/Limiting the amount of cores the game works with. Not exactly necessary, but you can feel free to test.

Other mods/additions to this game Not necessary. I've found the game runs and looks well without any Widescreen fixes or Reshade patches. Install third party mods at your own discretion, but I'd only recommend doing so after you've had a chance to fix mouse jittering and the abcense of sound.

Issues

For some reason the video brightness setting doesn't change at all in-game. Screenshots are effected by such adjustment, but changes are not visual.

Afterword

Please leave a positive rating if you found this guide helpful so that others can find it quicker.

[Lightking813]

Might be able to fix all the problems with the sound fix and dxvk I did actually fix alot of the stuttering with 4 gb patcher,

which just allows the game to use more than 2 gbs of ram but dxvk would translate direct x to vulkan which on more modern systems would fix alot

[NJMike]

This did not fix anything at all.

[ZakBax]

I've followed the instructions as best as I can given that the newer version of the profile inspector has changed some options around, but it doesn't appear to be doing anything. Framerate still floats around the 500-600fps range no matter what

[King Chin]

Very helpful. Worked for me on Windows 11 as well.

[Rustic Clover]

Scratch that, following all the steps and limiting FPS doesn't actually lower the framerate for me. It's still in the hundreds when I turned on the FPS counter. Setting the framerate to 59.7 doesn't work either, doing that sets it to off. I thought 59 FPS cap would be "good enough" but idk if there's something special about .7 being after that's required to actually cap the frames.

[Rustic Clover]

At this point I'm convinced the soundbug fix DOES cause the mouse stuttering. I've tested numerous times on numerous saves to check with or without it, and when I don't have it the mouse stuttering doesn't happen. I am using one of the soundfix options from the Complete FixPack that MasterZoen linked though, as it's the only one that works.

Also, I'm finding the fixes here for the mouse stuttering aren't working. I still get noticeable mouse jumps while playing after following the steps to the best of my ability using Nvidia Profile Inspector, though some of the options are different from your screenshots.

[sonikku dammit]

sorry to anyone who had trouble with the google drive link for the sound fix, i changed it to a mega link.
if you're still having any troubles i'd try swapping the screen buffers setting and if that doesn't work there are other people who have compiled max payne fixes guides such as fkortsagin max payne fix on github, his might work for you.

[[QSL] [KAF] [PAG] (USSR) Garage]

I'm unsure if I did something wrong, but I did the full installation running Windows 10 and nothing happened. The later levels definitely had issues with the sound, but I was still able to beat the game.

[Prisoner416]

Part 2 Chapter 7 is still glitched for me now that I got a new graphics card. Vinnie failing to perform jumps or not activating sequences properly. Might be because my monitor (and nvidia setting) is 144.

[MasterZoen]

So, I used darkje's installer to fix all the issues for the game:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1633394421