Getting GTA IV to run optimally on modern systems

[Markie 3]

Thought I'd create this topic and leave it here as a reference point about how this game runs on modern systems. It's not supposed to be an in-depth guide but rather something focused on the essentials and a discussion thread so people feel more inclined to share their experience with the different tweaks and fixes for the game present in its PCGW article as well as any issues.

Currently, most people should be able to get the game up and running as good as possible by doing the following steps, preferably in order:

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV#Use_over_2_GB_of_RAM (essential tweak for any game version and under any system) [section temporarily removed from the article until further reference can be added to back it up, as well as more accurate information on what it does, see stream.ini file below for the tweak]
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV#Ultimate_ASI_Loader (necessary for FusionFix and ColAccel)
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV#FusionFix (requires ASI loader)
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV#ColAccel (requires ASI loader)
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV#DXVK (if the system has Vulkan support)
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV#VRAM_amount_is_wrongly_detected (use ExtendVidMem with DXVK)
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/ReShade (easy way to add anti-aliasing and sharpening, works with DXVK perfectly fine and does not require additional DLL files in the game folder for the Vulkan API)

This is how my configuration files are set up:

-stream.ini https://pastebin.com/zeW0m5rz
-GTAIV.EFLC.FusionFix.ini https://pastebin.com/thNg8AmD
-dxvk.conf https://pastebin.com/hRK7qQrC

Note that the d3d9.maxFrameLatency = 1 tweak isn't just to avoid or reduce occasional stuttering and frame skipping as stated in the article, it also possibly leads to a decrease in input lag in case Vsync is active.

ReShade settings on the the other hand are more a matter of personal preference. I use a mix of LumaSharpen (CAS makes textures in this game look too rough no matter how it's configured in my opinion) and FXAA (SMAA does look sharper but is also more demanding and to be quite honest I think FXAA with my settings just works better upon close inspection). Anti-aliasing plus sharpening through ReShade like that gives you both substantially cleaner edges and more defined surface detail while costing almost no performance. I have also set it up to work alongside FusionFix's FXAA so it's FXAA + sharpening + FXAA and it actually looks great. Anyway, if anyone is wondering how I ordered and tweaked the shaders in my ReShade preset, here it is: https://pastebin.com/sYVbLbe9.

You can always combine that with downsampling through CR/DSR/DLDSR on Nvidia or VSR on AMD so it looks even better of course.

With this done, with a basic, low-end PC like this:

-i5 2500
-8GB of RAM
-GTX 1050 2GB

You can run the game like this:

-Resolution - 1920x1080
-Aspect Ratio - Auto (16:9)
-Reflection Resolution - Very High
-Water Quality - Very High
-Shadow Quality - High
-Night Shadows - Off
-Texture Filter Quality - Anisotropic x16
-View Distance - 25
-Detail Distance - 25
-Vehicle Density - 25
-Definition - On
-VSync - Off (handled by DXVK)

With a nearly flawless 60 FPS and little to no stutter, especially when compared to the vanilla game, save from a few exceptions (such as big/multiple explosions which can be very demanding on the GPU or police chases which can be demanding on the CPU).

I would personally recommend having at least 4 physical CPU cores, 8 GB of RAM, and 2 GB of VRAM for GTA IV running under DXVK.

Playing the latest version of the game (Complete Edition) on Steam, with the latest Windows 10 version and Nvidia drivers as of the time of writing this thread, there's no crashes or any sort of major issues whatsoever. The game runs great, looks great, and plays great, better than it ever did.

[hansestadt_greifswald 0]

Very nice guide!

How do you implement the downsampling? With DSR via Nvidia Control Panel?
Moreover, do you experience the bug, that the mirrors don't work normally, when using DXVK?

[Markie 3]

I do downsampling through Custom Resolutions as it performs bilinear filtering unlike DSR which performs gaussian and looks blurrier even if you set the smoothness slider to 0%.

I don't remember having any issue with mirrors.

[hansestadt_greifswald 0]

On 10/20/2022 at 4:05 PM, Markie said:

I do downsampling through custom resolutions as it performs bilinear filtering unlike DSR which performs gaussian and looks blurrier even if you set the smoothness slider to 0%.

I don't remember having any issue with mirrors.

Thanks for your reply! Sorry to bother you any more, but how do you do custom resolutions besides DSR?

Would you care to let me know which DXVK version you use?

[Markie 3]

7 hours ago, hansestadt_greifswald said:

Thanks for your reply! Sorry to bother you any more, but how do you do custom resolutions besides DSR?

This video explains how to do it, it's quite simple:

 

7 hours ago, hansestadt_greifswald said:

Would you care to let me know which DXVK version you use?

I use DXVK version 1.9.4, see the note about it in the DXVK section of the article.

https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/releases/tag/v1.9.4

[Zorklis 2]

I don't see how using an oudated version is "best"

[Markie 3]

You'll see how if you check the note about it in the DXVK section of the article like I told user hansestadt_greifswald to.

[Kobi Blade 3]

I honestly don't need any of the above tweaks to run the game, I just install and it runs 🍵

[Markie 3]

Changed the title to better reflect what the thread is about...

[Kobi Blade 3]

12 hours ago, Markie said:

Changed the title to better reflect what the thread is about...

I'm sorry, but you pretty much gave the idea the game doesn't run on modern systems without those tweaks.

I would recommend ENB over Reshade, if you wanna make the game look better in modern systems (you don't need to use resource intensive presets either, default preset from ENB is already an improvement and not resource intensive).

[Markie 3]

I do realize it gave that idea, hence why I changed the title.

ENB and ReShade are not mutually exclusive.

[shuvo030 0]

I think G-Sync doesn't work with custom resolution enabled. What's the work around for that? I want to run at higher resolution with G-Sync working.

[Markie 3]

Try DSR or DLDSR instead of CR.