[Zcool31]

This is a VERY easy way to boost your FPS that I noticed by accident. Normally I'd run the game at 1680x1050x60hz and get 20-30 fps. However I was playing around with my settings and accidentally left the resolution at 1680x1050x59hz. You'd think that the screen runs naturally at 60hz, so putting it lower would make your game stutter or your image tear or something, right?
WRONG!
Putting the refresh rate (in the game, NOT in your control panel settings) to 59, lower than the usual 60 increased my framerate by 10-15, so now I can get 40 frames per second on average. Suttering is GONE! No more intense lag spikes, no more pausing for a few seconds while the game loads or just idles. No more slide show! Welcome to smooth gaming.

Also, if you have the choice between XP and Vista, choose XP. The OS is more optimized since it was designed for systems from 2002, it uses less resources, which leaves more power for GTA to use. Alt tabbing no longer takes a full minute, instead its smooth and transparent. When you tab back to your game, you start playing immediately, not wait while it reloads the textures.
I dual boot XP and Vista, and I'm never playing GTA IV under Vista again.

[fredi_]

whats your PC spec?

must try this..

[slade67]

well tried -refreshrate 59 and got my first d3d80 error ... so wont work for me i guess
no chance of changing it to 59 ingame other than commandline.txt which does not work

[fredi_]

QUOTE (slade67 @ Dec 11 2008, 21:37)

well tried -refreshrate 59 and got my first d3d80 error ... so wont work for me i guess no chance of changing it to 59 ingame other than commandline.txt which does not work

same for me..

[Zcool31]

In the game from the main screen go to Options -> Graphics
Near the top there's a slider that changes your resolution. If your current setting is at 60hz, move it just slightly to the left. Your resolution will stay the same, but refresh rate will go to 59.
800x600x60hz goes to 800x600x59hz. Thats it.

Specs:
XFX Nvidia nForce 780i
EVGA Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512 with new G92 architecture (its about as good as 8800 GTX, but a bit less memory)
2GB DDR2 RAM at 800mhz
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0Ghz with 6MB cache.
Dual booting XP and Vista.

This post has been edited by Zcool31 on Thursday, Dec 11 2008, 21:46

[Cylon]

Nope, not for me. My native res is 1680x1050 (60hz). When I go down it changes to 14xx something (60hz). Only some resolutions like 800x600 go to 56hz.

Only resolution where I can set to 59hz is 1280x720.

[fredi_]

QUOTE (Zcool31 @ Dec 11 2008, 21:43)

In the game from the main screen go to Options -> Graphics Near the top there's a slider that changes your resolution. If your current setting is at 60hz, move it just slightly to the left. Your resolution will stay the same, but refresh rate will go to 59. 800x600x60hz goes to 800x600x59hz. Thats it. Specs: XFX Nvidia nForce 780i EVGA Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 512 with new G92 architecture (its about as good as 8800 GTX, but a bit less memory) 2GB DDR2 RAM at 800mhz Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0Ghz with 6MB cache. Dual booting XP and Vista.

nah. i can only set 59hz on 1280x720

my native is 1280x1024

and 1280x720 59hz dont speed up my game

[Zcool31]

That's very strange then. For me it does that for every resolution. I guess it depends partially on what kind of screen you have.

[adhdadhd]

I confirm what Zcool31 wrote, I have noticed it a few days ago on 1440x900 resolution, 8800gts 640mb and q6600@2.4ghz, but the change wasn't that big, about 2-3fps more

[Cyc2u]

If yous want more FPS then stop the madness of these extreme resolutions. Anything above 1024x768 does NOT look better, things just get smaller.
Also turn that silly view distance to 0. At 0 you can still see as far as the eye can see. Theres no need to have it higher unless youre trying to spot San Andreas from the Liberty City shoreline.
Do those 2 things and youll easily get another 10-20FPS with no noticable difference in graphics.

[catzilla]

Well actually, with the absense of AA, the higher the resolution, the better it is for the eyes.

[Nillansan]

QUOTE (Cyc2u @ Dec 11 2008, 22:11)

If yous want more FPS then stop the madness of these extreme resolutions. Anything above 1024x768 does NOT look better, things just get smaller.

That is quite a statement. That does not apply to all cases. I have to run in native resolution otherwise I'll will end up distorting the picture.

[CybeRWoolf]

QUOTE (fredi_ @ Dec 11 2008, 21:39)

QUOTE (slade67 @ Dec 11 2008, 21:37) well tried -refreshrate 59 and got my first d3d80 error ... so wont work for me i guess no chance of changing it to 59 ingame other than commandline.txt which does not work same for me..

Hei guys LOL, D3D80 pop up if your comand line is wrong! So instead of -refreshrate 59, you should write 59 without space!!! so it will look like this -refreshrate59!!! I find that, when i wrote in my cmd -width 1024 -height 768, so after that i got same error as you said - D3D80!, i changed cmd, and rewrite those width and height without spaces between numbers, and guess what?!- NO MORE D3D80!

[Zcool31]

What anti-aliasing does is double your resolution, then compress the resulting image so that it fits your screen, taking the average of 4 adjacent pixels in the image for each one on your screen. Its what you do when you want to have resolution beyond what your screen can show, and have tons of rendering power to spare. I never use it because I like jaggies and high framerates.

[Stryder2k]

If you wonder how to get the 59hz Option in your ingame settings:

If you have a nVidia Graphiccard you have to add a custom resolution with e.g. 800x600x59hz in your nVidia Systemconfiguration.
Do that for all resolutions you want to run at 59hz. (Dont know if you can also can activate the new resolution via commandline but nevertheless ingame it works)

But now the bad part: It gave me no fps boost ;( But i cant proof it 100% because my Gta always crashes when making a benchmark.
So thats only my feeling (FPS looks almost the same as always)

[Kurgen]

QUOTE (Cyc2u @ Dec 11 2008, 22:11)

Anything above 1024x768 does NOT look better, things just get smaller. Also turn that silly view distance to 0. At 0 you can still see as far as the eye can see. Theres no need to have it higher unless youre trying to spot San Andreas from the Liberty City shoreline. Do those 2 things and youll easily get another 10-20FPS with no noticable difference in graphics.

Sorry, but the bits I've highlighted in red have major logical errors.

[Burnie222]

QUOTE (Cyc2u @ Dec 11 2008, 22:11)

If yous want more FPS then stop the madness of these extreme resolutions. Anything above 1024x768 does NOT look better, things just get smaller. Also turn that silly view distance to 0. At 0 you can still see as far as the eye can see. Theres no need to have it higher unless youre trying to spot San Andreas from the Liberty City shoreline. Do those 2 things and youll easily get another 10-20FPS with no noticable difference in graphics.

This is not true... In fact everything above 1024x768 looks better... the higher resolution the less jagged edges.

also, ive noticed about the view distance, that it doesnt affect how far you can see, it affects how far away details gets drawn, like lightpoles, dumpsters, trashcans etc. well thats what it looks like in options anyway, just hit esc while ingame, and slide the viewdistance up and down and youll see what i mean.

Detail distance seems to be how far away particles gets drawn. like lightbeams and similar details.

[synx]

QUOTE (Burnie222 @ Dec 11 2008, 23:09)

Detail distance seems to be how far away particles gets drawn. like lightbeams and similar details.

And things like trashcans/mailboxes/dumpsters.

[Zcool31]

Bump. I think this is real and relevant. Might help out some people.

Also, very important. Dual boot to windows XP, its worth it just to be able to run this game smoother.