How to run GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas properly.

Diabhal · 05-05-2008, 04:43 AM

People with fast computers are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The frame limiter effectively works as a VSync lock for the entire engine, making the entire game run at 25fps, which is nice for a PS2, but horrible for any modern gaming pc. The game will feel choppy.

Turning it off, however, (usually) leads to problems. Cars that won't reverse, players being unable to sprint, menu's that don't appear, long loading times, sound problems, texture corruption, you name it, the vast majority boils down to the frame limiter.

So we have the rock, your car won't reverse, you can't sprint, your sound sounds choppy, your menu doesn't appear, you have to wait half a minute after every cutscene, etc, etc, etc.

And we have the hard place. 25 fps. Which is in my opinion horrendous.

There is however a solution for this. Vsync.

1) Put your monitor frequency on 60 fps
2) Force Vsync on through your ATi/nVidia control panels.
3) Turn Frame Limiter off

And you have a problem free GTA running at a comfortable 60 FPS. The game won't feel choppy, albeit sometimes your input will suffer from a tiny bit of lag, but nothing that makes you want to go back to 25 fps.

Akris8506 · 05-11-2008, 01:05 PM

where do I go to do:

2) Force Vsync on through your ATi/nVidia control panels.

Under the control panel somewhere?

Diabhal · 05-11-2008, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akris8506

where do I go to do:

2) Force Vsync on through your ATi/nVidia control panels.

Under the control panel somewhere?

Yes, providing you have the latest control panel/center:

ATI:

Start the ATI Control Panel in Advanced mode

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7831/atixg3.th.jpg

The frequency can be found here:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/2...freqlz2.th.jpg

The Vertical Sync option can be found here:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5...synczz0.th.jpg

NVidia:

Frequency:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3...idiaei7.th.jpg

Vertical Sync
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/6...idianl0.th.jpg

With both ATI and NVidia you can change the desktop frequency using the system tray icon, however you'll need to use the control panel for the vertical sync anyway.

(Yes Imageshack is slow, curses.)

FulValBot (ITA) · 05-11-2008, 01:55 PM

remember that v-sync option is already included on gta3 menu...

Diabhal · 05-11-2008, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FulValBot (ITA)

remember that v-sync option is already included on gta3 menu...

And San Andreas, but the problem is that it'll only work if your VSync options are set to use the Application Preference. Also Vice City doesn't have the Vsync option, and will need to be forced.

Also, it's very important for the desktop frequence to be 60 Hz. I tried it with 75 Hz and the game started showing signs of the bugs again.

mjm01010101 · 05-12-2008, 10:15 AM

This didn't work for me under Vice City. I had to keep vsync to application control, frame limit on in GTA menu. I also had the game set to native LCD resolution,which is wide screen, and turn off wide screen. It made everything wide, but at least it was playable.

Incredibly frustrating that I discovered all this after playing half the game. I played with rate limit turned off for the first half and was thinking my cars all had damage (and therefore couldn't reverse,) and I did the RC Heli mission with this "feature." Do you know how many times I had to do missions over based on this bug?

ugh...

jimmysmitty · 06-09-2008, 10:15 AM

I have played all the GTAs on PC. Never had a problem on older PCs for GTA3. But on my new PC GTA3 is laggy and slow, but VC and SA are not.

I will try this when I get home. Cuz its hard to play the game when an explosion causes your game to lag. And I am running a Q6600 @ 3GHz, 4GB RAM and a HD2900Pro 1GB. Hopefully this does help cuz I miss playing GTA3 and launching cop cars with the fire truck.

xxavxx · 07-06-2008, 10:44 AM

It seems just turning the frame limiter on in both Vice City and San Andreas applications is what helped this game run for me with no problems thus far. Even forcing VSync through CCC and having frame limiter off in the games didn't work. I'll take what I can get - I just want to play the games that I paid for.

My specs: Core 2 Duo 2.66, 3GB RAM, Radeon 3870 OC, Win XP Pro

EVOL BABY · 07-07-2008, 12:29 AM

GTA Vice City freezes up. Any solutions? I'm running a dual core processors 1.8 gig and a gig of ram.

Th3Magic1an · 07-18-2008, 09:56 AM

This didn't help at all. GTA3 and vice city are 60fps all the time, but SA feels like crap and stuck at 25fps.

Has anyone actually had this working apart from Diabhal??.

Brian. · 07-28-2008, 12:28 PM

Horrendous? 25 FPS is the GTASA default, 30 for the other games, and
maximum was 30 without FL :P Nice post though, I can see how this can
help those bugs.

The rocking car/back end of admiral scraping the ground at the start
of VC is a driver issue

05-05-2008, 04:43 AM	#1
Diabhal Join Date: May 2008 Reputation: 0 Posts: 5	How to run GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas properly. People with fast computers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The frame limiter effectively works as a VSync lock for the entire engine, making the entire game run at 25fps, which is nice for a PS2, but horrible for any modern gaming pc. The game will feel choppy. Turning it off, however, (usually) leads to problems. Cars that won't reverse, players being unable to sprint, menu's that don't appear, long loading times, sound problems, texture corruption, you name it, the vast majority boils down to the frame limiter. So we have the rock, your car won't reverse, you can't sprint, your sound sounds choppy, your menu doesn't appear, you have to wait half a minute after every cutscene, etc, etc, etc. And we have the hard place. 25 fps. Which is in my opinion horrendous. There is however a solution for this. Vsync. 1) Put your monitor frequency on 60 fps 2) Force Vsync on through your ATi/nVidia control panels. 3) Turn Frame Limiter off And you have a problem free GTA running at a comfortable 60 FPS. The game won't feel choppy, albeit sometimes your input will suffer from a tiny bit of lag, but nothing that makes you want to go back to 25 fps.

05-12-2008, 10:15 AM	#6
mjm01010101 Join Date: May 2008 Reputation: 2 Posts: 99	This didn't work for me under Vice City. I had to keep vsync to application control, frame limit on in GTA menu. I also had the game set to native LCD resolution,which is wide screen, and turn off wide screen. It made everything wide, but at least it was playable. Incredibly frustrating that I discovered all this after playing half the game. I played with rate limit turned off for the first half and was thinking my cars all had damage (and therefore couldn't reverse,) and I did the RC Heli mission with this "feature." Do you know how many times I had to do missions over based on this bug? ugh... Last edited by mjm01010101 : 05-12-2008 at 10:20 AM. Reason: clarity

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05-11-2008, 01:05 PM	#2
Akris8506 Join Date: May 2008 Reputation: 0 Posts: 1	where do I go to do: 2) Force Vsync on through your ATi/nVidia control panels. Under the control panel somewhere?

05-11-2008, 01:55 PM	#4
FulValBot (ITA) Join Date: Oct 2007 Reputation: 25 Posts: 1,169	remember that v-sync option is already included on gta3 menu...

06-09-2008, 10:15 AM	#7
jimmysmitty Join Date: Apr 2008 Reputation: 36 Posts: 2,933	I have played all the GTAs on PC. Never had a problem on older PCs for GTA3. But on my new PC GTA3 is laggy and slow, but VC and SA are not. I will try this when I get home. Cuz its hard to play the game when an explosion causes your game to lag. And I am running a Q6600 @ 3GHz, 4GB RAM and a HD2900Pro 1GB. Hopefully this does help cuz I miss playing GTA3 and launching cop cars with the fire truck.

07-06-2008, 10:44 AM	#8
xxavxx Join Date: Jul 2008 Reputation: 0 Posts: 1	It seems just turning the frame limiter on in both Vice City and San Andreas applications is what helped this game run for me with no problems thus far. Even forcing VSync through CCC and having frame limiter off in the games didn't work. I'll take what I can get - I just want to play the games that I paid for. My specs: Core 2 Duo 2.66, 3GB RAM, Radeon 3870 OC, Win XP Pro

07-07-2008, 12:29 AM	#9
EVOL BABY Join Date: May 2007 Reputation: 1 Posts: 138	GTA Vice City freezes up. Any solutions? I'm running a dual core processors 1.8 gig and a gig of ram.

07-18-2008, 09:56 AM	#10
Th3Magic1an Join Date: Nov 2007 Reputation: 0 Posts: 39	This didn't help at all. GTA3 and vice city are 60fps all the time, but SA feels like crap and stuck at 25fps. Has anyone actually had this working apart from Diabhal??.

07-28-2008, 12:28 PM	#11
Brian. Join Date: Jul 2008 Reputation: 13 Posts: 197	Horrendous? 25 FPS is the GTASA default, 30 for the other games, and maximum was 30 without FL :P Nice post though, I can see how this can help those bugs. The rocking car/back end of admiral scraping the ground at the start of VC is a driver issue