GTA 4 - the next part of a series of action games in the open world from a third party, released in 2008. Unlike previous games, a completely new engine was used here, which led to a sharp jump in the level of graphics, a physical model of behavior, and so on.
In addition to the increased system requirements, gamers fully felt the poor optimization of GTA 4. The game at one time managed to freeze, crash and slow down even on the most powerful computers, not to mention laptops. Drawing objects and range required too much operational and video memory. Although the standard graphics settings could boast of variability and the ability to turn off literally all the improvements, this is often not enough to get 25-30 frames per second. Below we will consider the main options for setting "GTA 4" on PCs and laptops.
All ways
There are several optimization options that are described below:
- Choosing the best graphics settings in the game itself.
- Installation of special patches.
- Replacing standard textures with low-resolution textures.
Let's consider each method in more detail.
Set the correct graphics settings
Before resorting to drastic measures to reduce graphics, we advise you to choose the optimal parameters in the game settings. Of course, for this method to be effective, your computer must meet the minimum system requirements for GTA 4:
- 2-core processor with a frequency of 1.8 GHz;
- at least 2 GB of RAM;
- at least 256 MB of video memory;
- 16 GB of free hard disk space.
If your computer meets at least the minimum requirements, or even exceeds them, you can try to achieve good performance using standard methods.
Game settings
First, start the game and open the graphics settings menu. In addition to the picture parameters, a video memory load scale is displayed here - used / total size. Accordingly, with an increase in a number of indicators, the occupied memory increases. Now we highlight the main parameters that greatly affect the optimization of GTA 4:
- Screen resolution. The first and one of the factors affecting productivity. The higher the resolution of your monitor, the greater the value you need to set in the game to get a high-quality picture. However, high resolutions heavily load the graphics card. Therefore, we abandon FullHD or higher in favor of optimizing GTA 4. To minimize discomfort, choose an aspect ratio that matches your monitor. Although the image will be in pixels and "ladders", but you will get a significant increase in FPS.
- Texture quality. This parameter is responsible for the elaboration and detailing of textures - cars, characters, houses, roads and so on. The higher the setting, the more clear and pleasant objects in the game. It does not affect the performance of GTA 4 on a PC so much.
- Image quality. This item is responsible for the level of graphics in general. The fact is that in the game there is no detailed separation of settings (therefore, often users themselves change them through configuration files). Setting the parameter to "Low" will slightly reduce the load on the video memory.
Next are the parameters that change using the sliders. This allows them to be configured as precisely as possible for their configuration:
- Viewing distance - the more, the further objects will be drawn. Strongly affects the load on the video card.
- The depth of detail can be set at your discretion, since the parameter does not take away video memory.
- Traffic flow. It consumes not only the resources of the video card, but also the processor, since a large number of different machine models appear on the screen. Their frequency and a specific model are calculated by the processor. Want to speed up GTA 4? Then set the traffic density to a minimum.
- The intensity of the shadows. Complete disabling of the shadows can add 10-15 FPS. This is very useful when optimizing GTA 4 for a weak laptop.
If during automatic configuration selection the game sets the parameters above the minimum, but still slows down, then feel free to change all the settings to low. We recommend setting the resolution below the maximum, but not by much, to make playing comfortable.
Performance patches
Immediately after the release of the project, modders began to issue whole patches that affect the change in game performance on low-end computers. These files were used not only on laptops, but also on modern PCs of their time, since the optimization of GTA 4 was useless.
Usually, patches replace standard configuration files with modified ones. They completely turn off effects, lower the resolution of textures below the minimum, remove shadows, and so on. Of course, the image in the game becomes very poor, but such an optimization of "GTA 4" for a weak laptop allows you to play on the road or enjoy the gameplay without a powerful PC. Modified files include visualSettings.dat, timecyc.dat, commandline.txt, and others.
You can download a set of necessary files and copy them to the data folder manually, but the most convenient option is automatic installation.
Texture Replacement
On the Internet, you can find archives with recycled textures for almost any game. If the owners of powerful PCs are looking for modifications of high resolution and realistic quality, then we are interested in exactly the opposite result. Similar mods can be found for GTA 4.
Additional measures
In parallel with these activities, do not forget to perform the following steps to optimize GTA 4 for weak PCs:
- disable all third-party programs;
- turn off the antivirus during the game;
- update the driver for the video card;
- “Clean” the list of running processes.
Only with the totality of all the recommendations presented, you can raise the number of FPS to 30–40, which is already an excellent result and quite a comfortable value for gameplay!