GTA IV lag spikes - Hardware & Software

Specs: Windows XP Pro SP2 ATi Radeon 4550 512mb AMD Athlon 6000+ 3.01ghz dual core 3GB DDR2 800mhz I can run GTA IV at 30-40 fps on lowest, but after playing for a while I get lag spikes that last about a second and happen every 3 seconds. It makes the game unplayable. Can anyone help?

did you check for any cpu consuming processes while GTA IV running besides GTA IV itself of course.

[QUOTE=Denzo;19492254]did you check for any cpu consuming processes while GTA IV running besides GTA IV itself of course.[/QUOTE] The only things I have open are Xfire and the Rockstar Games Social Club. I've tried closing Xfire but that didn't fix it.

Have you downloaded the 1.0.0.5 patch yet?

[QUOTE=gokulol;19492287]The only things I have open are Xfire and the Rockstar Games Social Club. I've tried closing Xfire but that didn't fix it.[/QUOTE] uhm, there's more running than that. open the task manager and look at the processes tab.

I run GTAIV on Quad Core Q8300 and GTX260 and i get lag spikes. The game is highly demanding, even at low it seems.

[QUOTE=Denzo;19492312]uhm, there's more running than that. open the task manager and look at the processes tab.[/QUOTE] There's nothing memory consuming nor processor consuming. [editline]04:21PM[/editline] [QUOTE=SGNinja101;19492332]I run GTAIV on Quad Core Q8300 and GTX260 and i get lag spikes. The game is highly demanding, even at low it seems.[/QUOTE] My brother runs it on a similar setup to mine except he has a triple core 2.4 ghz, and he doesn't have this problem [editline]04:22PM[/editline] [QUOTE=dvsilverwing;19492307]Have you downloaded the 1.0.0.5 patch yet?[/QUOTE] No, I haven't.

[QUOTE=gokulol;19492369] No, I haven't.[/QUOTE] try it

The only thing I can see in your specs is that you only have SP2 and as far as I know, GTA IV is only supported for SP3 and above.

[QUOTE=zeepaaan;19493006]The only thing I can see in your specs is that you only have SP2 and as far as I know, GTA IV is only supported for SP3 and above.[/QUOTE] Windows 2000 compatibility mode fixes that, and it wouldn't run if that were the case. [editline]04:56PM[/editline] [QUOTE=Denzo;19492455]try it[/QUOTE] Doing.

The game won't even let me play it unless SP3 is installed. I get lagspikes sometimes too. usually when there's alot of cops on me.

lag spikes as in when you drive the car down a street ? what if you stay still ? does the enviroment around you look like its getting lag spikes? There is a problem with GTA IV on some machines where it effects your game (a memory leak) solved by doing this : - DOWNLOAD MEMTURBO VERSION 2 OR 3 OR 4 ( doesn't matter which one ) - Install it and then set both sliders for automatic ram recovery on 50MB - Then uncheck the option "only recover ram if cpu is below 25%* - Minimize the program and start GTA4

the windows port of GTA:IV(4) has been noted by many reviewers to have ridiculously high requirements in order to run without problems, some find it runs fine, while others report even crashes after 10 mins or so. While being a great game graphics and gameplay wise, it really does have a ridiculous amount performance bugs, I'm surprised you can even get 30 FPS on it with a Radeon 4550, many still have trouble with two Radeon 4890's in crossfire and a quad core Phenom 2.

[QUOTE=GetOutOfBox;19496553]the windows port of GTA:IV(4) has been noted by many reviewers to have ridiculously high requirements in order to run without problems, some find it runs fine, while others report even crashes after 10 mins or so. While being a great game graphics and gameplay wise, it really does have a ridiculous amount performance bugs, I'm surprised you can even get 30 FPS on it with a Radeon 4550, [b]many still have trouble with two Radeon 4890's in crossfire and a quad core Phenom 2.[/b] [/QUOTE] Seriously? I'm using an Intel Core I5, and a ATi HD 4670. average 35FPS with everything on high. Shows how terribly unoptimized this game is.

Is it while driving / moving quickly though the city, if so then it's related to the speed it can load the city from the hard drive. I found that more memory helped me with the same situation. Runs perfectly for me now.

i7 920 and GTX 280 here, not having any problems.

[QUOTE=Rixxz2;19500487]Seriously? I'm using an Intel Core I5, and a ATi HD 4670. average 35FPS with everything on high. Shows how terribly unoptimized this game is.[/QUOTE] I wasn't saying that its universal, but if you don't believe me, then read the wiki page for it [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTA:IV#Windows_version[/url] screenshot: [img]http://i47.tinypic.com/2elwoba.gif[/img] sorry, media tag doesn't seem to like gif images.

[QUOTE=Denzo;19492455]try it[/QUOTE] Didn't work, but I'm going to try this: [QUOTE=Neddy;19493595]lag spikes as in when you drive the car down a street ? what if you stay still ? does the enviroment around you look like its getting lag spikes? There is a problem with GTA IV on some machines where it effects your game (a memory leak) solved by doing this : - DOWNLOAD MEMTURBO VERSION 2 OR 3 OR 4 ( doesn't matter which one ) - Install it and then set both sliders for automatic ram recovery on 50MB - Then uncheck the option "only recover ram if cpu is below 25%* - Minimize the program and start GTA4[/QUOTE]

Post back with results :P (if it worked ^^)

Sounds like not enough RAM. If it's out of RAM, the content of the RAM will be put in the page file (on the hard disk; which is slow) to load new content. I think that's what the lag spikes are. I recommend 5GB or more for smooth (prolonged) gameplay in GTA IV.

I have 4 gigs of RAM and I still get random lag, only while speeding through the city though. I don't think one more gig would change that much. Hope the memturbo fix works for you.

[QUOTE=Neddy;19541044]Post back with results :P (if it worked ^^)[/QUOTE] It didn't. But I found out that this only happens sometimes now, other times it is fine. [editline]10:27PM[/editline] New problem: In multi-player, not even in-game, in the menu, I get literally less than 1 frame per second. Is there any solution to this?

I have lag spikes here and there, it's still playable, but I really hate it. I doubt this should happen... Specs: Windows 7 Home Premium Dual Radeon 5770's (Sapphire and Xfx) Intel i7 860 (quad core) Hyperthreaded so it reads as eight cores. 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz ^ I really have no clue why it should lag at all...

[QUOTE=spdsky12;35615188]I have lag spikes here and there, it's still playable, but I really hate it. I doubt this should happen... Specs: Windows 7 Home Premium Dual Radeon 5770's (Sapphire and Xfx) Intel i7 860 (quad core) Hyperthreaded so it reads as eight cores. 8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz ^ I really have no clue why it should lag at all...[/QUOTE] Few thing,Note the thread age? 2 read the page... the game is poorly ported and just tends to run like crap on any system