After downloading this game in December 2012, I've been on a quest to find a way to be able to play it on my laptop! I have just discovered how to run GTA IV on my Toshiba Satellite P775-S7320 laptop that has Windows 7 Home Premium, 2nd Generation Intel core i7 CPU, 6GB RAM, Intel Graphics HD 3000 integrated GPU. As you know, GTA IV requires a minimum of 256 Mb of “dedicated” video card RAM (VRAM), but the Intel Graphics cards don’t dedicate RAM, they transfer CPU RAM “on demand” when needed. My HD 3000 GPU has a minimum of 64 Mb RAM, but can provide up to 1.5 GB of RAM “on demand”, but GTA IV doesn’t know how to use this capability, and the game barely ran on my laptop, with absolutely nothing showing but dark shadows and no details. Well, there IS a very effective and easy way to make GTA IV recognize the memory! 1. Open and run your Notepad as “Administrator” (right-click on “Notepad” and select “Run as administrator”. Next, copy the following text (yes, there is a “blank space” before the “dash” on each line, so copy it): -availablevidmem 12.0 -percentvidmem 100 -nomemrestrict -norestriction -novblank -norestriction 2. Then paste it in your Notepad. Now, click File > Save as and save the file with the name “commandline” as a .txt file(commandline.txt) inside the folder where you have the GTA IV.exe file located in your computer (e.g.; mine is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\). NOTE – The line “ -availablevidmem 12.0” is a memory “multiplier”; meaning that I’m multiplying my minimum video memory of 64 Mb by 12 times, making it 768 Mb (1.5 times the recommended memory of 512 Mb for GTA IV). Edit that multiplier to whatever will give a number of 768 for your computer. For example, if your Intel HD Graphics chip has a minimum of 128 Mb of memory, then your “multiplier” will be 6.0. It has been found increasing video memory to more than 768 MB will actually decrease performance, as it allocates CPU memory to act as video memory, and CPU memory is much slower than dedicated video memory (VRAM). The line “ -percentvidmem 100" tells GTA IV that 100% of the video memory (768 Mb) is to be used. The other settings in the file are just to take away the limitations and allow GTA to use all of the RAM, instead of letting windows steal half of it, and the other settings listed will allow you to set the graphics in the game higher than normally allowed. This is only useful if you have a super pc or laptop, but otherwise all the settings combined will make GTA IV run smoother.
Now, follow these steps to finish the optimization of your PC or Laptop so that it will run GTA IV at its best: A. Download the contig.zip file and extract (unzip) the contig.exe file that will basically defragment the huge GTA IV folder to make it easier accessible for your computer: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx B. Copy the contig.exe file to your GTA IV root (default installation) folder and then create a shortcut of it to your desktop. C. Right click on the contig.exe shortcut on your desktop, then select “Properties” and then type " -s" (without the quotes) to the end of the path listed in “Target Location”, making sure that you have typed a space between the end of the location path’s quotation marks and the “ -s”. (e.g.; "C:\Program Files (x86)\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\Contig.exe" -s). D. Run the contig.exe on your desktop and wait for it to finish, it should be working for about 20 minutes depending on your CPU speed. E. Finally, prior to loading GTA IV, press CTL+Alt+DEL keys and select “Start Task Manager”, then run the "LaunchGTAIV.exe” desktop shortcut either manually, or with Game Booster (remember to run the LaunchGTAIV.exe file, not the GTAIV.exe file, as that will cause camera shaking). Now, after GTA IV is running, press ALT+Tab keys, then while holding both the ALT key, press the Tab key until you’ve scrolled and selected the Task Manager. On the Task Manager, select the “Processes” tab, then scroll down and and change the priority of "GTAIV.exe" and "LAUNCHGTAIV.exe" to either “real time”, “high” ,OR “above normal” (different_from_pc_to_pc). ALWAYS make sure ALL computer drivers are fully up to date, especially graphic card drivers...... My laptop is only 1 year old, but Toshiba’s website didn’t show the latest Intel driver for it on its website, so I downloaded it from Intel’s site. If you’d like to see proof of my laptop running GTA IV, click on this link to videos I created using GTA IV’s Video Editor: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m3vnxy7m4ci5uhp/91wFIdGh4K One is a video of my character Nikko driving a SUV then speeding up to take a ramp for a stunt jump that will take him to another ramp that vaults him over a train. Another video is Nikko riding a motorcycle, as he rides on the top edge of a concrete barrier of the highway, does a wheelie, and gets some air! Check out my helicopters chasing & shooting boats!! Considering that before I “optimized” my laptop, I could not see anything but darkness when trying to play GTA IV, these videos are proof that laptops/PC’s with the 2nd generation Intel HD 3000 Graphics chip can run GTA IV! Additionally, I recommend the free software called Game Booster by Razor. It’s free to download at http://www.razerzone.com/gamebooster and generally helps most games improve on performance. Go to this website which reviews & explains how to use Game Booster:
http://tweakhunt.blogspot.com/2012/01/software-review-game-booster.html I have tested it with this version of GTA IV resulting in only a tiny bit less lag on my laptop (it also supposedly allows you to run GTA IV online and Multiple-Players). I’ve read it really improves performance for low end and/or older PC’s and laptops. Another step to optimize GTA IV to get better performance is to update it to version 1.0.4.0, or higher. The patch version 1.0.4.0 increased performance by making resource management adjustments based on the operating system detected: http://www.gamefront.com/files/13914788. Also, patch 1.0.4.0 is the most supported version of GTA IV by modders. Most forums state DO NOT ever upgrade to a higher version than 1.0.4.0. if you want to utilize the wide variety of mods and trainers created for GTA IV. However, for Windows 8 users, it is highly recommended to update to version 1.0.7.0, as that version utilizes Windows 8 for better performance. A lot of mods & trainers are being updated for this version, as well. A good place to find and download all the different patch versions is at: https://kat.ph/gta-iv-all-patches-crack-xlive-dll-fix-t5701568.html. 1) Download the patches and crack files to update to the version of your choice. 2) As a precaution, if you’re already playing GTA IV, ALWAYS make a complete backup copy of the entire GTA IV game folders, prior to running the patch. 3) Open and read my document “Grand Theft Auto IV Download & Install Instructions (Patch 1.0.4.0 & Razor Crack)”, and complete the steps to run the patch & install the crack files. Follow these steps for higher versions, as well. 4) Finally, run contig.exe, again, on your desktop that you installed in steps A thru D above, and wait for it to finish. BTW, if you want the very best and highest quality experience playing GTA IV, then you should have a very fast & powerful computer processor (Intel core i-series), with plenty of high-speed CPU RAM (8 GB), and a Display driver that has a minimum of 1024 Mb of “dedicated RAM” (VRAM). Unfortunately, any PC or laptop with the Intel HD Graphics integrated GPU, no matter how powerful (and mine is powerful!) will NOT be able to play GTA IV at its highest settings. Here are the settings I selected inside the game’s Graphics Options to get GTA IV to run decently at around 30 FPS (frames per second): Video Mode: 800 x 600 (60 Hz) Texture Quality: Medium Reflection Resolution: Medium Water Quality: Low Shadow Quality: Off Texture Filter Quality: Medium View Distance: 20 Detail Distance: 40 Vehicle Density: 40 Shadow Density: 1 Definition: On
VSync: On Changing those settings either up or down will affect how fast or slow the game runs. I don’t pretend to be an expert on optimization, so if anyone has more and/or better ways to improve PC or Laptops performance for GTA IV, specifically those with Intel HD Graphics chips, I’d appreciate it if you’d email me at
[email protected]. Have fun! ChopperBob
