How to remove lag and gain FPS on GTA IV!!

[Shorty_209]

Please don't delete this might be usefull for others!

THIS IS ONLY FOR NVIDA GRAPHIC CARDS(Doesn't work well on ATI, sometimes it doesn't work at all!)

Make sure u have the latest patches installed for gta iv and social club.... The best patch in my opinion that works best is the 1.0.3.0.

NOTE:This may or may not work for u, depending on how old or fast your pc is, it worked for me went up 17fps!!

WARNING: DO STEP 3 AT YOUR OWN RISK!! IF U STOP IT OR U DO IT WRONG ILL PROBABLY WON'T SCREW THE GAME UP BUT JUST IN CASE FOLLOW IT CAREFULLY!!!!

For 7 series:
Haven't tested on the oldest ones but it did show improvement on the 7900!

For 8 series:
8400gt, 8500gt, 8600gt 256mb-1GB

For 9 series:
9400gt, 9500gt, 9600gt 256mb-512MB ONLY!

Those are the cards that have more trouble playing GTA IV, but luckly there is a solution without overclocking your graphics card! Since my gamming pc isn't fully done i decided to look for a solution for my 8500gt, the game lagged like crazy, i was getting around 19-21 fps on all low and on high around 5-9 fps!! Even though some people can play the game, getting an average of 27-32 fps on the graphic cards listed above, it did show an improvement form 32 to 46fps!! At the end When i finished I ran the game and from 21fps im getting an average of 32 fps!!!(30-32 on the outside and 32-40 on interiors!)

I dont have a verry fast pc or a verry slow one here is my pc:
PC:Gateway GT4022
Processor:AMD Athlon 64 @ 2.41GHz Performance rated at 4.0HGz
Ram:1.50 GB of ram (DDR)
Hard Drive 200GB
Video card: GeForce 8500gt
As u can see my PC isn't fast or slow.

Follow this steps CAREFULLY!

1. Firs download this... http://www.4shared.com/file/116004096/db2708dc/commandline.html its a command txt file. Place it in the game directory and don't eddit the file!!. For example: C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV

2. Once the command file is in the game directory, download this other one.. http://rapidshare.com/files/186766678/gtxd.rar and place it here C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\pc\data\cdimages DON'T FORGET TO MAKE A BACKUP!!

Here get's complicated.........
3. Download this other file.... http://www.4shared.com/file/116004163/2d178aab/Contig.html

Pay attention most get this wrong! Extract the Contig file cut or copy the contig.exe to the game directory C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV and make a shorcut to the desktop should look like this...
after u have the shorcut right click it and go to properties...on TARGET add a SPACE at the end then -s like this... then click apply or OK. On the contig shorcut on your desktop run it u should get a CMD box and it should be done in 5-10 mins depending on your computer. Its verry importand that u dont stop it u should let it finish.

4. The last thing you are going to do is get hacked Nvida drivers(new ones) it seemed that the drives were locking the FPS at 19-22!!! with hacked drives the fps are free and unlocked meaning that there are no restrictions!! u can download it here, just chose your graphics card series or model and download your driver!!!
http://downloads.guru3d.com/

Hope this helped.. It did for me i gained 17 FPS!!! If u need any help please leave a comment!

And yes it will help boost your FPS if u just want more performance!!!!!

Here is a pic getting 42 FPS without blurr on a geforce 8500gt!!!!!


Graphic stings: Almost high, little better than medium graphics!


And remember to mess around with the graphc settings for me on low settings it lags but on higher setting it doesn't lag! IDK...

AND ONCE AGAIN IF U NEED HELP LEAVE COMMENT AND ILL ANSWER..


UPDATE

Ive noticed that people are having trouble finding the video drivers so here there are:

For Windows XP (64bit & 32bit)

http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards---NVIDIA-GeForce-(XP-32-bit)_c10.html   Here is a direct link for the drivers for XP 32bit, choose the drivers that are more updated like "185.20" << just an example



http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards---NVIDIA-GeForce-(XP-64-bit)_c28.html   Here is a direct link for the drivers for XP 64bit, choose the drivers that are more updated like "185.20" << just an example


For Windows Vista and  7(64bit & 32bit)


http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocards---NVIDIA-GeForce--Vista-%7C-7_c32.html  Here is a direct link fo rthe drivers for Vista and Windows 7, choose the drivers that match with your pc. Here the drives for Vista 32-64bit are mixed with windows 7 so be carefull read everything before you download.

[Sebihunter]

what 8500GT do you have? The 256 or 512mb one?
If it's the 256 one then I'm going to try this out

[Shorty_209]

what 8500GT do you have? The 256 or 512mb one?
If it's the 256 one then I'm going to try this out

Yes its the 256 MB, but i had onboard graphics 6100 with 256 MB also so its like if i had 512 but it shows alittle more than 400 MB, they combined for more video memory.

[m0niSx]

Great men i'll try this 

[Sebihunter]

Shorty, could you please give me a direct link to the driver you used?

[Shorty_209]

Shorty, could you please give me a direct link to the driver you used?

here is a direct link to the one i used

http://downloads.guru3d.com/GeForce-Forceware-186.18-WHQL-XP-(32-bit)-download-2311.html

[misco]

do you have more tweaks for iv ? and combining with internal graphic memory really helps ?

[Shorty_209]

do you have more tweaks for iv ? and combining with internal graphic memory really helps ?

yea i have more tweaks but they didn't work well, there is a draw distance mod(ill look for it) and it really works!! u can gain 5 fps!! For combining onbard graphics help me a little like 4 fps.

[misco]

do you have more tweaks for iv ? and combining with internal graphic memory really helps ?

yea i have more tweaks but they didn't work well, there is a draw distance mod(ill look for it) and it really works!! u can gain 5 fps!! For combining onbard graphics help me a little like 4 fps.

im collecting this tweaks and getting game better, i have draw distance patched, shadows turned off,and edited visualsettings
shader tweak helped me alot too

[Shorty_209]

do you have more tweaks for iv ? and combining with internal graphic memory really helps ?

yea i have more tweaks but they didn't work well, there is a draw distance mod(ill look for it) and it really works!! u can gain 5 fps!! For combining onbard graphics help me a little like 4 fps.

im collecting this tweaks and getting game better, i have draw distance patched, shadows turned off,and edited visualsettings
shader tweak helped me alot too

yea i posted this tutorial so u can gain more fps, but if i use my NVIDIA Quadro i will get 60 fps inside and outside!!! but that one is for my gamming pc.

[Sebihunter]

thanks for that tutorial. It runs a lot smoother now

[Shorty_209]

thanks for that tutorial. It runs a lot smoother now

Thanks!!

[m0niSx]

i tested it and it works great 
but i got a little probleme, after doing all the steps
all is ok but after playing about 5 minutes i got the camera drunk bug how do i fix this ?
PS: the camera drunk bug is a horrible bug
your camera will move like you drunk, then you can't stop your car, and your health car will be bad(google it to see more infos).

[Shorty_209]

i tested it and it works great 
but i got a little probleme, after doing all the steps
all is ok but after playing about 5 minutes i got the camera drunk bug how do i fix this ?
PS: the camera drunk bug is a horrible bug
your camera will move like you drunk, then you can't stop your car, and your health car will be bad(google it to see more infos).

Wow that's never happend to me? Ill look for a solution!

[k0r3]

does this work for a GTX280?