Playing GTA IV

well, technically, 9600M GT is about the same as 9500GT.
my laptop is running a 9600M GT with 512MB DDR3. all stock, no overclock.

Unofficial driver
Statistics
Average FPS: 18.40
Duration: 37.11 sec
CPU Usage: 75%
System memory usage: 77%
Video memory usage: 22%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 800 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Medium
Reflection Resolution: Medium
Water Quality: Medium
Shadow Quality: Medium
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 25
Definition: Off
VSync: On

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT [Dox Optimised 185.20]
Video Driver version: 185.20
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz

Statistics
Average FPS: 25.32
Duration: 37.08 sec
CPU Usage: 92%
System memory usage: 73%
Video memory usage: 22%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 800 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: Medium
Reflection Resolution: Medium
Water Quality: Medium
Shadow Quality: Medium
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 25
Definition: Off
VSync: On

Official Driver
Statistics
Average FPS: 18.05
Duration: 38.07 sec
CPU Usage: 71%
System memory usage: 66%
Video memory usage: 24%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 800 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Render Quality: High
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
View Distance: 20
Detail Distance: 20
Definition: Off
VSync: On

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Home Premium
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Video Driver version: 179.28
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz

Statistics
Average FPS: 17.03
Duration: 37.99 sec
CPU Usage: 75%
System memory usage: 78%
Video memory usage: 46%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1280 x 800 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Render Quality: High
Reflection Resolution: High
Water Quality: High
Shadow Quality: High
View Distance: 100
Detail Distance: 100
Definition: Off
VSync: On

so you see, that was my last month' run. after i modded my GTA IV seems unable to benchmark again. what im trying to say is, sometimes under similar conditions, the results are not the same. p.s. i don't know why all it says vsync on and definition off, but each time im playing, vsync off and definition on.

hmm do u have the latest patch installed?

nope that was taken last month under 2nd patch. as i said i just modded my gta and it doesnt allow me to benchmark.

y? what error does it show?

it just closes when the benchmark begins. never mind. from the benchmark file above, i can assure you, i am also getting uneven FPS in GTA IV with similar system spec.

hmm but the game is not playable for me at the resolution i want to play it at

what fps are you getting? have u tried commandline?

u can google for "commandline gta iv", sometimes it helps adding more fps.

commandline is useless cuz the settings that it offers are already present in the in-game graphics settings... i get around 20 fps at 14400x900 with settings at medium\low and thats pretty unplayable

the only thing that sometimes helps from commandline is percentvidmem 100 that's all.
not sure though, but on 1440x900, all low u should reach 30fps, unless ur card is ddr2.

it is ddr3 but with everything set to lowest , i get 22-24fps ...but i have draw distance at 20 and detail distance at 20 too....is that making a difference? anyway i cant play with these 2 lower than 20 cuz then as u are driving a car objects suddenly pop up :|

yes view distance and detail distance is hogging alot of GPU. i know how if u set it to low, i experience that as well, that's why i suggest u to use the percentvidmem 100 in commandline, because somehow that makes the rendering of images faster, for my laptop and another laptop.

ok heres the thing, i ve tried pushing the water quality,shadow quality and reflection resolution to max but it doesnt make any difference on the performance ...its only only the resolution

by the way i think my cpu is also slowing me down....is there any way to check GPU (not CPU) usage?....ive tried nvidia system monitor but it doesnt tell it right

it doesnt make a difference because the graphic already on its limit. im pretty sure the CPU is slowing you down, as u see above, if u notice the higher my CPU % the higher my FPS is. for me i cant overclock since basically im using laptop and i have no intention in doing that as well.

just turn off some unused programs, disable antivirus temporarily and do disk-cleanup as well as disk defragmenter. sometimes it helps. if it's then u know it's your CPU limit.

add, another commandline for you to try-out.

If you are experiencing frame speed fluctuations, please update to the latest video drivers, then use the -memrestrict commandline. Please do not use any other commandlines as they may override the effects of this one. Start at the lowest number based on your texture setting (ie. try them one at a time) You can try to increase the number until you notice stuttering again.

-memrestrict 188743680 LOW TEXTURES (256M Video Cards)
-memrestrict 209715200
-memrestrict 230686720
-memrestrict 262144000 MED TEXTURES (512M Video Cards)
-memrestrict 293601280
-memrestrict 314572800
-memrestrict 629145600 HIGH TEXTURES (1Gig+ Video Cards)
-memrestrict 650117120
-memrestrict 681574400

If you still notice stuttering with the lowest number, there may be a seperate issue with your system configuration.

i suggest you to use this commandline= -fullspecaudio -memrestrict 293601280 -percentvidmem 100
or -minspecaudio, some computers works better with fullspecaudio, weird.

Statistics
Average FPS: 22.34
Duration: 37.16 sec
CPU Usage: 99%
System memory usage: 91%
Video memory usage: 98%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Low
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 20
Detail Distance: 20

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Video Driver version: 190.38
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4600 @ 2.40GHz

ok here u see my cpu usage is 99% and all the settings were set to max except Texture Quality(LOW) and Texture Filter quality(HIGH)...all others were at their MAX .....i get the same FPS with lower settings at same FPS....what can i do to lower the CPU usage?

ok now heres the thing, i set EACH AND EVERY SETTING TO THE LOWEST POSSIBLE VALUE, EVEN RESOLUTION!!! but my cpu usage doesnt go down at all


Statistics
Average FPS: 28.23
Duration: 37.19 sec
CPU Usage: 98%
System memory usage: 84%
Video memory usage: 64%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 800 x 600 (56 Hz)
Texture Quality: Low
Texture Filter Quality: Low
View Distance: 20
Detail Distance: 20

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Video Driver version: 190.38
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4600 @ 2.40GHz

File ID: Benchmark.cli

first of all make sure u set your CPU to its max throttle speed. (in win vista = max performance, in winxp = always on) not sure on win7 but i think should be about same as vista.

and in power setting set the CPU to 100% min and 100% max. im not sure if u need to upgrade your RAM as well or not. i only get back home in december, that's when i can try the GTA IV in my 9500GT and E6300.

where do i set that ??

should be in control panel > power options.
make sure its in high performance, and then check the settings, for CPU. minimum 100% and max 100%. however i did not use win7 yet, but it should be quite similar.

yea i have set the processor minimum state to 90% and max was already 100%

ok what the hell my CPU usage wont go below 99%....check this out,when i had vista 32 bit this is the benchmark

Statistics
Average FPS: 22.76
Duration: 37.18 sec
CPU Usage: 86%
System memory usage: 94%
Video memory usage: 80%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Low
Render Quality: Low
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 37

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate
Service Pack 1
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Video Driver version: 180.48
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4600 @ 2.40GHz

u see my cpu usage wasnt full and i remember that the game was atleast playable but now with win7 64bit cpu usage jst isnt going below 99%

Statistics
Average FPS: 23.30
Duration: 37.12 sec
CPU Usage: 99%
System memory usage: 93%
Video memory usage: 86%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 20
Detail Distance: 20

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Video Driver version: 190.38
Audio Adapter: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4600 @ 2.40GHz

File ID: Benchmark.cli

is it windows 7 or is it the 64bit????