[Da33le__]

uh... GTA community i guess, i seriously need help.

I bought GTA IV a few months ago and cannot for the life of me get it working. i install the game and it freezes every couple of seconds and then promptly crashes shortly after that.
I lowered the specs even though this was not required with my rig, and 20 minutes in i pressed the escape key and i got the RESC10 error.
I played through as far as i could without pressing escape, but needless to say the RESC10 error appeared anyway.
through some random fixes and stuff that some long forgotten post described i managed to "fix" the RESC10 error and the game only crashed every hour or so.
removed the game, and now i'm trying again.
similar issues started popping up so i figured i'd try a different route, starting with the patches as they supposedly fix the memory leak errors (RESC10) or whatever they are.
so i installed patch 1.0.4.0, and got a message upon clicking LaunchGTAIV.exe that says "invalid resource detected please re-install the game"
which i did, and then right back to original issues with lagging and crashing.
this same "invalid resource detected" issue appears with every update from 1.0.3.0 to 1.0.7.0, however 1.0.2.0 doesn't fix my original problem.
before downgrading patches i did re-install the game.

if anyone can follow what i'v written here and you have a solution for me please share it with me.

i'm at a loss guys, please help me, the fixes for my problems create problems to which there appear to be no fixes.

here are my system specs

Intel core i5 650 @3.20GHz
4.00 GB RAM
Windows 7 64-bit
Nvidia Geforce GTX460 with 1023Mb dedicated video memory

[mkey82]

Sure as hell you meet the specs to play this game on high.
What's your screen resolution?
Which game version do you have installed now?
How long has it been since you reinstalled your OS?
Have you upgraded any hardware recently?
Have you tried using memrestrict?

[Da33le__]

1920x1080 ideal screen resolution
at the moment i'm busy installing the retail version
i havent re-installed my OS since beginning of last year, what does that entail, how does it help?
no hardware upgrades since i opurchased the rig end of 2010

what is mem restrict and how does it work?

thanks mkey82

[mkey82]

The OS condition can have significant effects on GTAIV performance

memrestrict above is actually a link -> http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=458859

[Da33le__]

so through some meddling with my 3d graphics settings,
through turning off that infernal clip-capture setting,
and turning my detail settings in game down to medium,
the game no longer crashes, however there is alot of lag, not constant,
but momentary and annoying. apart from dropping the graphics down further which firstly really should not be necessary,
and secondly doesnt help in any case, any suggestions on how to get rid of this? thank guys.

[radioman]

Lower the resolution to no more than 1024X600, set the settings at low to Medium, and the sliders at no more than 25, and turn shadows OFF and you should get a lot better performance without the crashes..There really is no noticeable difference in this resolution and the higher ones...

Also, remember the I5 is a Dual Core processor(with Hyperthreading) so, in reality it only meets minimum specs?-at least that is what everyone said in previous posts on here?

[unc13bud]

original poster, are both your game and operating system (windows) completely legal? and what is your power supply?

[Exxon]

QUOTE (radioman @ Friday, Jun 29 2012, 17:39)

Also, remember the I5 is a Dual Core processor(with Hyperthreading) so, in reality it only meets minimum specs?-at least that is what everyone said in previous posts on here?

Due to it's hyperthreading, it's just like any other quad core
But even then, IV can only use 3 of the 4 threads just like it can only use 3 of the 4 cores of a true quad core.

[yojo2]

QUOTE (Exxon @ Saturday, Jun 30 2012, 11:29)

Due to it's hyperthreading, it's just like any other quad core

Not really, since extra threads are about 30 to 50% as powerful as physical cores.

[Exxon]

Is it? I thought they were just as fast
Ah well, my bad! Guess I learned something new today then, thanks yojo