Compfused

[Olgaline]

So I just bought GTA IV of steam and it's lagging like crazy...
even on lowest possible settings, "wich look very bad btw"

thing is, the setup easily meets the minimum requirements, and abit more..
so I'm abit confused as to what the problem might be, the only thing I can think of is the low ram on the GFX card, but can that really tip the scale that much ?

Windows XP with SP3
1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB RAM
16GB
256MB nVidia 7900

Now I have

Windows XP with SP3
2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB RAM
Plenty of free space
256MB nVidia 8500GT

so i dont get it, if you let the game configure settings to best match your system, I can hardly make the guy walk 5 yards...so Halp!!!!!

 

[Sparx]

Anything else running in the background? itunes etc? check if your Antivirus is doing anything too

 

[Olgaline]

Ps: Dont move this to tech...I posted this on OT for a reason...
much thanks

 

[Sparx]

Also how full is your harddrive?

 

[Olgaline]

Anything else running in the background? itunes etc? check if your Antivirus is doing anything too

Nope, nothing of any consequence
I've even tried running it all purely offline and disabled anti vir and FW

 

[Olgaline]

Also how full is your harddrive?

harddrive is not an issue

 

[Sparx]

if its full it could slow things down

 

[Olgaline]

it's not

 

[Sparx]

How old is your machine?

The obvious choice to me is something is running in the background and taking up speed

 

[old.Tohtori]

Funny thing to try; set it on maximum graphics and then start lowering bit by bit.

Sometmies if a GFX card doesn't get enough "work" to do, it doesn't work at all and thus sometimes can cause the game to lag.

Also, minimum settings for a game means that it works on those settings, that is all, it doesn't have to run past 15fps.

 

[Raven]

GT4 is coded/ported by chimps for the PC. It even slows down on my monster of a PC. Those minimum recommended specs are quite laughable too, it needs a pretty large amount of memory as its quite texture heavy.

 

[Olgaline]

bleh,
so basicly
I've wasted 25 euros on nothing..

 

[old.Tohtori]

Help perhaps ( i do not quarantee safety of links etc)

 

[fettoken]

The graphic card you have. Its really no good. That's your issue. Oh and those specified requirements for GTA IV are minimum requirement right? It's specified what you need to at least start up and run the game.

 

[Olgaline]

so I've got it to run at 800x600 with everything set on low low low low low


on a side note though,
does anyone here run an SLI soloution, and is it worth it ?
you know, sli MB, 2x GFX card ect....

Guess what I'm really asking is, would two small chinese guys kick the ass of one big as Gangster ?
or would they simply be crushed under his mighty armpit ?



I'm concidering either
A: buy 1 new gfx card and leave it at that,
B: Dump the the old P35 MB and go for an X48 or Nforce SLi and run a 2x smaller gf card kinda thing...

 

[Afran]

Sometmies if a GFX card doesn't get enough "work" to do, it doesn't work at all and thus sometimes can cause the game to lag.

Not being funny but that's complete and utter bs

 

[ECA]

Not being funny but that's complete and utter bs

Although tohts explanation is bollocks the effect is actually true.
Setting everything to minimum to try and up fps on an aging pc from like 25fps to something more, actually has lowered the FPS on quite a few titles down to ~15-20.

No idea wtf causes it, but I've definitely had it happen to friends PCs and on this occasion toht isn't talking complete shite, just 50% shite.

 

[Ch3tan]

Olga; SLI is never worth it uless you have more money than sense. The latest gen gfx cards will outperform older cards in SLI.

 

[Olgaline]

and crossfire ?
with f.exp the X48 mb ?
been pondering a combo of 57xx on a full 16 x 16


question is if it's worth it