GTA: SA Performance

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milez_away

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After all the hype about GTA:SA (i'm talking good game reviews, not that stoopid hot coffee controversy, though i will at some point get that patch) I finally got my hands on a copy of the game... looks nice... but it's DAWG SLOW (sorry couldn't resist that pun... hope it wasn't too painful :D ) It's playable, but barely, i dread to see what would happen when i get to a real fight scene. The first bicycle chase was pretty sluggish.

Anyway, i checked the recommended specs, i'm way above it.

I have

Athalon XP 2400+
1 GB RAM
Radeon 9200 SE

Anyone else have problems ? Any idea how to fix it so it's decently playable. (without an upgrade that is)
 
well there arent upgrades anyway so that wont help.

the 2 settings that affect graphical performance the most would be draw distance and texture quality. Try this, turn the res up to whatever you play with on other games and turn the drawing distance and texture detail ALL THE WAY DOWN. You'll find its nice then you can tweak it higher bit but bit till its optimal for your setup.

certain cards i played with had slow down in foggy/smoky areas but it should play ok with everything else even on **** cards.
 
draw distance on about 30% of the way, res @ 800 x 600 x 32. But i'll play around, i'd hate to have to resort to 640 x 480 x 16 (does it even go that low??)

i just realized something. I'm streaming radio off the DVD. But that should only affect driving.

i'll try playing with texture quality, thanks.
 
Yeah i bought it a few days ago. The first part to get on the bike was soooooo dam slow!! HAHA now im playing on full graphical settings. The draw distance doesnt seem to affect much. When theres smoke i have to turn my resolution down to 640 x 480 x 16. I dont really remember how i did it. Youv'e got a much better system then mine (*drools over Radeon 9200 SE *) but just mess around with the setting a bit, restart your computer and it will work well with good graphics. Dont despair........its a fu***ng good game.
 
just turn the detail down, don't touch the resolution or it'll look crap
 
FYI, the first city, specifically around your start point, is slower than most the rest of the game areas.

You'll notice, as you progress, that the other two cities are a lot less detailed, mainly because they consist of mostly city blocks, whereas CJ's area has a lot of hoods.

Bottom line, more polys need to be pushed.

On a 9200 radeon, your going to have to drop the settings waaaay down low and play in "crunchy graphics from the 90's" mode I'm afraid.

Time to upgrade that card, milez_away - I also have a 2400 and 1gig ram and recently snagged a 6600TD (cheaper brother of the 6600GT) for R1300 - they are cheaper now.

In fact, you should be able to get a 6600GT for R1500 if you shop around, but you'll stress trying to find an AGP one.

If you have the moola, it's well worth the upgrade for a 6600GT.
If your short on cash, try and snag a second hand radeon 9700 or a nvidia 4200 - unless your being ripped off, you shouldn't be charged more than R250 - that is, if you can find a second hand card like that !
 
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nah san fernando is also hectic because you have alot of fog and stuff
 
Yeah - that's true.

The worst level was the "fire in the building" - that bought my rig screaming to its knees, had to switch off all AA to get through it and it was still pig-slow.

In fact, after pretty much completing GTA:SA, I'd have to say Vice City is better.
It's a smaller game area, the graphics are not quite so polished, but the storyline, challenges and humour were more polished.
 
thanks for all your help guys, i'm gogin to do an machine clean, i suspect i have too much other crap in the background. But thanks for the "be patient" advice. Nice to know that the game will get faster later.

I've looked around for a 6600GT AGP, but i can't seem to find a decent one under R2000 (no cash so it has to be retail to use the credit card) I'm quite happy to spend R1500 max.

Vice City rocked. From what i've played on my buddy's PS2, SA seems to have too much stuff to do.
 
i never got that into vice city, i did a few missions, SA was hectic through but after a while it feels liek you're just tackling crap to find the next cool feature, i still like it though
 
Yeah - it's got some neat features - just getting on a bike and riding around is still fun, looking for jumps and stuff.

I'm currently trying to intercept a plane, possibly the most boring mission I've tried so far.

The plane your supposed to intercept starts waaaaaay of the map, so you fly out to sea for about 5 minutes then suddenly it appears, so you have to do a quick loop and try to catch it before it reaches the airport.

Tried that 3 times without success, think I'll try landing at the abandoned airstrip and wait for a while till I see the plane approaching and quickly take off to see if that works.

I'm still not reading any spoilers or cheat things, so I don't know what comes next - hoping that I'll get back to the first city and carry on taking over gang territory - that was kinda fun, if a little easy once you know how. Basically, forget about recruiting your homies to fight, they are useless, rather hang out on strategic buildings, cause a gang fight and nail them from up on a roof, gathering weapons between each wave.

What has really dissapointed me about the game is that once you hit the third city, any reason for having money is gone.

You make a bit of cash on the R5000 slots then just go right into the red by a million on the roulette until you win and gain a million, then save.

After doing that, I went and bought every available property on the map. Kinda took the fun out of it.
 
Yeah i have GTA SA on PC and Playstation. The mission ur on is faaar from the end though. Look at your map when your flying and youll see where the plane is. It quite cool when u get onto the plane. its easy to catch, just hold x down or whatever. There oads more to do in SA than in VC. Go to clubs in SA and complete all the dancing missions, do all thew races and get 6 mil, get the jet and get 6 stars and try see how long you live, play two player, get all the oysters, tags, photoes and horeshoes ect..............
 
bb_matt said:
Ahh - good.

I don't play every day (no time) - usually about 3 hours a week.
Click to expand...

Yeah people think that the missions are just: Los Santos, Contryside, San Fierro,
The Desert then Las Venturas.............But little do they know. The coolest missions are later on. BTW have you done the missions that that random geeky guy in San Fiearro gives you? The one bith Berckly and his model planes?
 
The model planes - the Z missions ? - ick, I'm leaving those.

They are K@K missions, the worst I've EVER played in all of the GTA series.
Those little model planes are impossible to fly when compared with the one in GTA:VC
 
AHHHH! I tried them for weeks!! How do you shoot them!! Worst missions! Dont try..........never try!
 
Shooting the planes down is easy on the PC version, but flying the little f@ckers is an exercise in gaming frustration. I think it's the angriest I've ever got with a game, so I don't intend to try again ! :D
 
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