Windows 7 - GTA IV low fps at lowest settings?

hi all,
today i installed GTA IV on my pc.
my system specs are:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 Ghz, 2MB L2
RAM: 3 GB DDR2 @667 Mhz
GPU: PNY GeForce GTS 450 XLR8 (1 GB GDDR5)
Motherboard: Asus P5LP-LE
OS: Windows 7 Professional SP1 32bit

i run a lot of games (like Unreal Tournament 3, Assassin's Creed 2...) at medium/high settings on my computer. but with GTA IV i must set ALL video settings to minium and i must play at 1024x768 to get a playable framerate

in GTA performance test i get 25 fps at lowest settings, and 23 fps at highest settings

i have Nvidia drivers 285.62

what could it be??

GTA lV is very CPU demanding, id probably say thats your weakest link.

Primarily this:
But also this:

gta iv is based on running on tri cores since that's how many cores the xbox used ,gta iv runs best with a quad core and your card is kind of weak to run it also,get your self a nice quad core with at least 2.0ghz or more

i know that my CPU is old and not very fast, and i know that the PNY GTS 450 is a mid-range card, but i'm able to play games like MW3 at medium settings and at 1280x720 without problems... i get about 45-50fps...

no fix for GTA IV?

You really are at the minium.

The minium Req for GTA 4 is:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz or equivalent AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4Ghz
Memory/RAM: 1GB for XP and 1.5GB for Vista
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA 7900 or 256MB ATI X1900

But, recommended is:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz or equivalent AMD Phenom X3 2.1GHz
Memory/RAM: 2.5 GB for XP or Vista
Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 or 512MB ATI 3870


Keep in mind, the Min. requirements just means thats what it takes to get the game to run. Its usually at loer settings as well.
it doesnt mean it will run well (not only for GTA4 but any game)

When looking at specs, you should really be looking more towards recommended as thats where the game will run rather decent.


As mentioned already, GTA is quite CPU heavy. So I too would agree thats where a large portion of the problem is.
Something you may try is turning shadows down as low as possible. I think GTA4 renders shadows on the CPU.


Games that are not quite as CPU bound will run better.

Different game engine, different system usage and requirements. MW3 is a lot less 'taxing' than games like GTA IV. Plus GTA IV is notorious for being a poorly PC optimized port.

Instead of low settings, try disabling Shadows. As mentioned they're mostly rendered by the CPU and have the single biggest FPS hit. Draw distance and Vehicle Density also have a big impact on CPU utilization.

Definition disabled might net you a couple more FPS. Also defrag your HDD. it won't gain FPS, but it can help a little with 'stuttering'.

i did it:
now i get around 50fps at 1600x900!

it helped me a lot

thank you!

Excellent. You're welcome

I also have problems with the FPS in GTA IV. Specs below :

MSI 560 GTX Ti Twin Frorzr II/OC with latest beta , 290.53
Intel Core 2 Quad @ 2,5 GHz
4 Gb Ram
PSU - 600w Corsair

I get around 20-25 fps with medium settings @ 1280 x 1024. What can be the problem ? This is not normal, is very poor performance.
I have a genuine copy of GTA IV with the latest update, 1.0.7.0

Thanks in advance