TruXter Tech News

Forceware 196.21 Windows XP (32-bit WHQL) http://downloads.guru3d.com/Forceware-196….nload-2457.html
Forceware 196.21 Windows 7 | Vista (32-bit WHQL) http://downloads.guru3d.com/Forceware-196….nload-2458.html
Forceware 196.21 Windows 7 | Vista (64-bit WHQL) http://downloads.guru3d.com/Forceware-196….nload-2459.html

Despite the FPS listed in the results, I really felt a smoother game play, even with the settings set higher.
I did exit and run GPU-Z and found 52 degrees Celsius. a bit high.  I mean all game play signs were smooth and even flowing
but after exiting, for the first time on this pc, it took longer than 2 seconds to open my start menu. So I think I may have been
running a bit hot. I will work on better cooling.

I also saw that the drivers defaulted my machine to run gtaiv in SLI mode. since SLI is not supported on this game, I just flashed red
Felt like a seizure. I had to go through a few settings to turn that off

For anyone With a budget card wanting to GTAIV. It is very much worth it to try these drivers.

BEFORE
Statistics
Average FPS: 23.33
Duration: 37.58 sec
CPU Usage: 96%
System memory usage: 82%
Video memory usage: 87%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 24
Detail Distance: 36

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Video Driver version: 195.62
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+

File ID: Benchmark.cli

AFTER
Statistics
Average FPS: 20.20
Duration: 37.28 sec
CPU Usage: 99%
System memory usage: 86%
Video memory usage: 79%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1440 x 900 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: Medium
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 56
Detail Distance: 56

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
Video Driver version: 196.21
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+

Finally Nvidia’s Drivers have caught up with Windows 7. These probably will not make it to the final release version. These are leaked and tweaked by the gur3d community. but if you are on a budget video card and just want to play the game on medium settings, do this, these are great drivers.

I do warn that I did not creat these drivers and am not in any accountable for the outcome or effect or results of what these drivers might do to your machine. So don’t thank me and don’t scream at  me for what ever happens. Not all video card vendors are the same, not all video card vendors have the exact same configuration. Not all computer combonations are the same. For my machine, these are exactly what i need to play grand theft auto IV.

Here is my computer Configuration.

Next to bench Need For Speed Under Cover

Ok for starts,

I did do a big full test of windows seven at work on a machine and threw everything at it that makes vista and xp crash. the version we used for that test is windows 7 32 bit, here is  Windows & in Workplace Environment.

I have to say that anyone who preaches on about 7 being better than windows Vista, You really did not even try both with an open mind. I like vista, Seven is not impressing me at all. All the stuff about vista I heard everyone complain about but never noticed myself, I am seeing it in Windows 7. I think by now it’s just common enough to blame everything on George Bush and Windows vista, it’s the first two things out someone’s mouth. But ok here is what I get in the trial at home on  windows 7 64bit.

Well I am on day two of windows 7. The default drivers it installed, amazed me, almost as much as windows vista did. Video card drivers, not so much. I am forced to use almost one year old nvidia drivers. Fine.
For the record, my machine is a mid way between work horse and light gaming machine, nothing to brag about in either direction.
Specs are
AMD 5600+ 2.9g dc
3 gigs pc6400 800mhz
Nvidia / evga 9500 gt 512 mb
some ecs motherboard
air cooled.

Well the video drivers have been iffy on me and would not let me use the manufacturers drivers. This has always been my special sweet spot, using EVGA drivers instead of nvidia drivers has always givin me a cooled advantage. but no, win 7 rc is forcing me to use the ones they have from the update service at Microsoft, if I install anything else I look at 8 bit graphics at best.

Well I tend to do my benchmarking at pc pitstop.com (full test) . to say the least, my scores drop dramatically over my vista scores. I usually use the old test , it’s hard to find but it’s there it’s a link in the description kinda hidden there. my scores have been i the 3000′s for about a year now. With windows seven they dropped to 1500. strangely it shows my 2d fps increased by nearly 100 fps. Well that’s cool…..
So I turn to my faithful typical benchmarking methods of real testing. :-)
I crack open every version of Grand Theft Auto and install them all.
On gtaiii I get the same hesitation I used to get about 6 years ago. While passing under bridges and through tree covered areas there is a lag that comes in spurts. with vice city, the yellow almost takes over the screen and the cut scenes are jittery just like it was the day the game came out and I was on out dated hardware. San Andreas, well not much better.
GTAIV For me to achieve the 23 FPS at best in game I had to turn everything off or all the way down. When I was on Vista I was seeing 35+ FPS with some things turned to medium. Yes I know my video card is not the best in the world, but it was the same one I was using on windows Vista and it makes a great “before and after” comparison.

Now for the lock out issues everyone complains about with windows Vista.
I head to MVPS Hosts site to update my hosts file to block bad sites and advertisements. Nothing fricken happened. Wouldn’t block anything, So I head to the ETC folder to modify the file by hand. HA! No administrator rights to modify that file. Meanwhile in the background I am playing myspace mobsters. I refresh a page and bam new advertisement, all my browsers drop and fricken notice comes up telling me my computer might be compromised, and it offers this virus scan. then it scans my computer anyway and says I have a virus then tells me to update. I freak out and try and close the page and notice, it’s not windows explorer, it’s Mozilla. it’s a fricken spam scam. See if I could have changed my hosts file, that never would have happened. so I head to bit defender to scan my disk onlline. would not allow me!!!!!! WTF!!!!!
So I head to emsi and get a-squared and do a scan, sure enough… I am infected with 4 types of Trojans. I am upset now.

The hardest thing for me to find, I still have not found it yet, is how in the blue hell do you turn it so that you can see your file extensions? Have they disabled so much user ability that they have turned that off? I feel as if I am being dumbed down and pacified with big shiny buttons.
You can like windows seven all you want, but I really have this whole thing figured out.
Either it’s going to turn out to be Mojave, or windows ME 2.0

still the same issue with Windows Seven that bothered me most with Windows Vista , No Ftp. You have to download Fire FTP for firefox and use that . You no longer have direct access with windows Explorer.  I find this unacceptable. It really feels like we are being dumbed down.

After some help, someone linked me to how to use notepad as administrator to modify files such as the hosts file
Here

If you have been trying to learn how to use the Commandline.txt
For GTAIV, just right click that file there and save the file to
your hard disk. Open the file and look at the content.
copy the file to your GTAIV main Directory and boot the game.

EXAMPLE
You will be playing the game at very low settings. I myself enjoy it
windowed.
The reason to use half memory instead of what everyone says about setting it twice memory

Is so that you are not maxing your resources. It makes more sense to me. You can edit as you wish.

but at least try it.

I just ctrl esc and use the mouse to drag the sides out and the corners out
enlarging the visual area. You can now actually play across two screens now.
-windowed
-height 600
-width 800
-refreshrate 60
-minspecaudio
-viewdistance 1
-detailquality 1
-shadowdensity 1
-renderquality 1
-texturequality 1
-availablevidmem .5

Once you get your pc version up and running feel free to swing by at gtaclans.com

Feel free to ask any questions.

Today April 21st, Microsoft released a new update to WINDOWS LIVE . The forums at GTAFORUMS.Com goes crazy.
Looks like Microsoft bundled some lines of code that totally trashed what few users and players of Grand Theft Auto IV, that Rockstar Games had left. The game seems to work fine in Multi- Player , but has traumatic effect on Single player mode. You can no longer tweak and adjust your game. The game stutters so bad and hangs up, that no one can get even four minutes of play time to test out said tweaks. It kind of looks intentional.
Picture this:
Rockstar games might have actually put the screws to Microsoft, for allowing cheats in thier online community, and well, looks like they might have barked up the wrong tree. Sad part is, they are contracted to them, so they can’t just drop the windows live program.

This of course is where the modders and tweakers need to come together. MTA-IV and Iv-mp need to band together and make something quick to save Rockstar in this.

Now this is pretty much speculation, but man it would be scary if it was true.
Xliveless is the way to go, but patches are hard to get and use once you do that.

If you feel that Microsoft needs to Address this, Sign below with a response.
Let our Text be read, we need to prove there are more than just a hand full of out there.

Call it a petition. Call it a group effort. I just consider it a gathering of upset customers.
We are customers of Microsoft, we are displeased.

Even if you do not agree with my opinion, let your’s be read and lets let Microsoft hear from us.
Just reply to this with your opinion on the matter.
Digg it for me

Clearly it will be Vice City. San Andreas is the final city each time and Liberty City is where you start.
On GTAIII Vice city is what happened after the Game coders smoothed out the code and repacked it to take less space, allowing them to pack more crap in one game.
GTAIII Took a hearty machine back in the day, as GTAIV take a Hearty Machine these days. Vice city took a slightly stronger computer on III, yet played twice as smooth. Vice city will play smoother again. If computer gamers are allowed a chance to ride the GTAIV tail to the end, then GTA PC Fans will be in for a re-occurring blast.
Will we see a yellow washed city again? I was not bothered by that in III , It gave the feel of a sunny city. Especially after Rainy Liberty City. More Boats, less garbage, more old people and malls. The only things I anticipate. I am ready for the announcement .
What I hope for, is a glimpse at an old burned out Tommy Vercetti, in a retirement home, along with the un named Guy from GTAIII, And Carl Johnson from San Andreas living up on the beach, with no role in the game other than showing he is still alive.

There was an interview with the creators of Grand Theft Auto, and they said that we will not see any persons returning in GTAIV Because they are all dead. Vice city in GTIII was a step back in time, and so was San Andreas, what will happen in that case? will they close the books for good and show us how they all die?
Buy the next game, Buy the pc version to get the real deal, and we will know what’s up.

Have Fun Good Luck
HFGL

TruXter

After all of the tweaking I have done, I can now get cocky about playing the game. And do what most people can not do with gtaiv. Liberty City never looked so dang pretty

http://gtaclans.com/truxter/dualmon/
yeah, I did it with a cell phone
so. … .. Sorry about the quality. and it was hard to do with one hand!
lol

Decided to drive to the swingset in Gtaiv on a motorcycle.
I pulled up to the leg of the swingset and bam.. my wheels disappeared. I kept trying to ride away, but that wouldn’t happen. It was as if I was stuck to the swingset. So I got off the bike and was about to just run away, but decided to see if the game sees the bike as being a dead bike. What I mean by that is , sometimes when you trash a vehicle, exit the vehicle and try again to mount/enter, the game will act as if it isn’t there. So I wanted to see what the game  saw it as, it let me on. The bike rolled backward about a foot or so then it froze. I exited again to see if it would happen again. Cool it did, but I was still stuck to the swingset. I kept doing it till the bike disconnected from the swingset, I then rode away with no wheels. On a hover craft like Harley bike thingy lol.

Of course I tried to save it to see what it is like next time I boot the game up. we’ll see when I reboot.

Images are found here at original post

http://gtaclans.com/index.php?topic=112.0

If you have a computer and plan to play  Grand Theft Auto iv  on pc.

People are  reading forums on how to resolve issues with their game. They are gathering information from people who do not know what they are talking about. I will help you with just a couple steps. First you have to understand that the person who claimed GTAIV pc has a memory leak, has no clue what he/she is talking about and should clearly be labeled the planets biggest idiot.  All planets need an idiot.

The fix, is the same fix for all games using a new architecture/engine. Here is the fix.

Go to the website for the manufacturer of your motherboard. Download all drivers for your motherboard.

Go to the website for the manufacturer of your video card.

Now before installing the new drivers, you must uninstall all the drivers you currently have installed.  I usually disabled the plug and play option in Control Panel\Administrative Tools\services. Of course I do this on Vista because it keeps trying to install some crummy drivers  when I reboot after an uninstall. You really shouldn’t need that, but if you do, you know how.

Ok after the uninstall reboot your computer, and now install your drivers one by one, rebooting after each driver installed. On the final driver install, instead of rebooting, shut down your pc. When the pc is off, unplug the power to it. Clean up all the dust in all of your heatsinks (cpu,gpu,northbridge,south etc) clean your memory sticks. Remove all dust out of your pc. Make sure your air flow is heavy through your case.

The way I do that is, at the back of the pc where you see the 80 mm fans. There is like a grill around those. Since I don’t have a 2 year old kid in my house, I snip those grills out. This drops my temperature by about 2-5 degrees C . Here’s more on the subject.

And the last thing for you. DON’T OVERCLOCK YOUR MACHINE, unless you know what you are doing.

I am a regular user at the gtaforums  located at gtaforums.com.  100% of the memory leak complaints there, have been resolved with driver issues,heat issues, or the moron tried to overclock and did not want to face the fact that his computer was the issue, not the game.

In the end, this help post will get you playing Grand Theft Auto IV, that simple. The game works fine. Maintain your rig or go back to the console gaming. The cause is not overclocking it’s self, but poor overclocking could be a factor. If your machine is overclocked, set your o/c items back to default and give the game a go. If you can get the game running with your parts clocked to normal, gradually work your way back up in o/c until you reach a stable setting.

How? As if you are overclocking your video card, move each slider (depending on the tool you are using) up by 5mhz, test the game, move up 5 more, test the game and so on till you get a crash. After crash, move sliders back three. When it stables out, move forward one, if it crashes move it back one. and so on. Helpful posts

Same with bios / cmos settings with memory and cpu. Except not with sliders of course. Yes it is tedious but it resolves your issue.

Here is a lesson in how to adjust your  settings for smooth video play

And here is the whole help page from Rockstar.

Note: You must have Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows XP Service Pack 3 installed PRIOR to installing and running
Grand Theft Auto IV PC.
Right-click ‘My Computer –> Properties’ to see if you have the latest Service Packs installed, and if not check Windows Update and download before trying to install the game.

To help you understand that. It means that if you installed the latest service pack for your operating system  AFTER you installed GTAIV. It would be wise if you uninstall the game and delete all folders now. and reinstall the game.

Somewhere there was talk of resetting your registry but I haven’t had to study that. I will look into it if needed.  Yes it sounds like a hassle, but it does tell you on the box what the required service pack would be.  Fyi  windows xp 64 , you have to have service pack 2, or it will tell you it’s an incompatible operating system. 64 is not listed in the req area :-(

It does work though.

I was surfing the forums at GTAFORUMS.com and stumbled upon a thread about a review of Grand Theft Auto iv for pc. Here is the review.

The “writer” cries about applications that hog resources. As if they are a whole other operating system running in the background. Sorry dude, I have gamed  every GTA game through Linux using wine ( with the exception of GTAIV,  will do soon though.) and I know resource hogging programs when I see them.

The “writer” complains about Rockstar Social Club as if it leaves a huge foot print.  Come on !!!!!!, it’s 28 mb at the most. Then the “writer” goes on crying that he had to create a login for MS Live. Oh come on dude. The game just won Game of the Year for the console versions. Really it’s ok to log in and see when your friends are on. No really, it will not hurt to see when people are ready to game with you.

The “writer” goes on to say that He will buy the xbox30 version instead, and rattles off something about pc gamers being treated like pirates.  Sorry clowns, but people pirate games for XBOX360  at 10 times the rate PC does.  Who are you fooling with this? Google it see for yourself.

My review of that review, concludes : Utter crap written by a moron who does not know how to tweak his own computer and no intentions of ever upgrading his hardware.  On that note, bit-tech.net = fail useless website. Nice work asshats.

For the record, I play the game . On a budget PC. $311 budget to be precise. NO overclocking involved.

AMD 5600 am2

Nvidia EVGA 9500 gt  512 mb ddr2

Ballistix 4gig memory  pc 6400 ddr2 800mhz fsb

Resolution  1440×900  Med/high 30,30,

Vista Ult

61FPS indoors

34fps outdoors

Some of this is using data from Charming Charlie from GTA Forums.Com

Here is a real review of the Grand Theft Auto IV PC from a real gamer.

The glitch is confirmed, it is there in the PC version also
one minute video, shouldn’t harm anyone to wait one minute.

for the record I have
amd2 5600 dual core
Nvidia 9500 gt 512 mb
4 gigs of Ballistix pc6400 ddr2 memory
Windows Vista Service pack 1
22 frames per second looks like that.

The pop ins didn’t happen until I converted the game.
Strange how that worked.

Anyhow I found where everyone went on the xbox 360 version and the playstation 3 version of the game, and decided I would drive there in a Banshee. I mean why not, it’s a fricken Banshee!!!
The swingset shreds that car fast.