Poor pc performance with GTA IV and Saints Row 2. What's the deal?

[Nurb]

I've seen reviews for both of theses games, among others, and the performance issues such as 20 FPS on higher end PCs pretty much seems inexcusable. I dropped out of the console side of things because the technology wasn't that big of a jump, so I'm sticking to PC till the new generation is out, and I'm a little disappointed that a quadcore with 4 gigs of ram and a 9800gx2 can't run the games smoothly, and doesn't offer widescreen resolutions.

Is anyone else more than a little annoyed about the shoddy ports that take 6+ months to release only to be buggy and frustrating to play? I think its hilarious that they release these poor ports and still complain about piracy. I'm starting to wish I didn't pay for these things.

 

[Rednog]

I don't see why people cry a ton over fps, its something like 15fps humans see things as fluid and more fps just lets us pick up more detail. That and no games are really designed to full use the quadcore, I've read some reviews where some performance goes down slightly in quadcore use. Also, you only get so much out of a second graphics card, such is the nature of using things in parallel.

 

[ForrestDixon]

*cough**cough* searchbutton*cough*

That is all.

Thats a little harsh but totally true. OH WELL.


Well, I would say that it is just best to get a console and just pick the port that looks and plays the best.

 

[geldonyetich]

*cough**cough* searchbutton*cough*

That is all.

Though I've seen a few messages mentioning a low FPS in GTA 4, this is the first thread I've seen that actually ask why are the FPS in some console games lower on the PC?

It's a good question. I know all you console fanboys are going to tell us that your lovely consoles are just better gaming systems, but actually that's not true. Go down the specifications of any console and what you've got there is just a cheap miniature PC. An up-to-date PC will have a video card capable of pushing out way more pixels than a console will, especially a year or so after that console's release.

So I'm left thinking the answer is simply this:

The developers aren't willing to optimize their engines to handle PC hardware.

Why? Well, if you want to humor a conspiracy theory, it's because PC piracy rate is off the hook, more copies of games are being pirated than sold, and the developers don't want to invest much time or effort into that market. They put just about as much effort into the PC port as they think people are willing to pay for their games: slim to none.

 

[Untamed Waters]

While our consoles are watered down PCs, note, that we never have install problems, FPS problems and the like that are related to hardware. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

 

[Nurb]

So I'm left thinking the answer is simply this:

The developers aren't willing to optimize their engines to handle PC hardware.

Why? Well, if you want to humor a conspiracy theory, it's because PC piracy rate is off the hook, more copies of games are being pirated than sold, and the developers don't want to invest much time or effort into that market. They put just about as much effort into the PC port as they think people are willing to pay for their games: slim to none.

But Piracy is mostly just a scapegoat, Ubisoft blamed it because their awful sequels didn't sell, and people not buying the PC version because of their poor work will be blamed on piracy too. Hell, all it does is make me wish I pirated it first to check it out instead of wasting my money on it.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

Saints Row 2 is inexcusable.

GTAIV on the other hand is designed from the beginning to scale with hardware - they didn't intend for anyone other than a select few to run it full power right off the bat. Turn the settings to xbox 360 levels (otherwise known as "medium") and it runs perfectly fine on any quad core machine with more than an 8800GT.

By fine I mean above 30fps constant, 40/50 achievable.

But you have to have a quad core. As GTAIV is basically an emulated 360 game, people have reported 3 cores being used almost 100%, but the 4th barely touched, when running GTAIV on a quad.

My dual core doesn't like it so much, although I do get 20fps+ which is more than enough for me.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

While our consoles are watered down PCs, note, that we never have install problems, FPS problems and the like that are related to hardware. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

Red Ring of Death, Yellow Light of Doom.

I will have a nice day, thank you :¬D

 

[Woe Is You]

But you have to have a quad core. As GTAIV is basically an emulated 360 game, people have reported 3 cores being used almost 100%, but the 4th barely touched, when running GTAIV on a quad.

And this isn't the sign of a crappy port? What the...

 

[Untamed Waters]

While our consoles are watered down PCs, note, that we never have install problems, FPS problems and the like that are related to hardware. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

Red Ring of Death, Yellow Light of Doom.

I will have a nice day, thank you :¬D

Never had RRoD, but nonetheless, free one year warranty, twenty five after that (Which isn't bad. The warranties on computers suck and cost a LOT more. If something major craps out, you're screwed)

 

[Untamed Waters]

While our consoles are watered down PCs, note, that we never have install problems, FPS problems and the like that are related to hardware. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

Red Ring of Death, Yellow Light of Doom.

I will have a nice day, thank you :¬D

Never had RRoD, but nonetheless, free one year warranty, twenty five dollars for each year after that (Which isn't bad. The warranties on computers suck and cost a LOT more. If something major craps out, you're screwed)

 

[Untamed Waters]

While our consoles are watered down PCs, note, that we never have install problems, FPS problems and the like that are related to hardware. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

Never?

Really? Are you sure?

If there's an FPS problem, that's devs fault. While there are hardware related difficulties to computers and consoles Console players don't have to worry about the software not being totally compatible with their console. If I want to play a game that's on my console, I buy it and I do so. If I want to buy a game for a PC but don't meet minimum specs then I either don't play the game or I go buy new hardware.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

But you have to have a quad core. As GTAIV is basically an emulated 360 game, people have reported 3 cores being used almost 100%, but the 4th barely touched, when running GTAIV on a quad.

And this isn't the sign of a crappy port? What the...

Not really no. Think about it, quad cores are stupidly common these days, so why not use them?

People need to get out of the mindset that games will never use all of a multi-core processor. If it is there, if it is possible and if it makes it easier for the team behind the port, why not use the cores?

People also need to remember that GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas were all massive performance hogs when they first arrived for PC. Probably the most forgotten thing about these games.

 

[Woe Is You]

People also need to remember that GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas were all massive performance hogs when they first arrived for PC. Probably the most forgotten thing about these games.

Honestly, I hadn't forgotten that either. Rockstar just doesn't have a good track record with PC ports.

Think about it for a second: if the whole idea that it's an "emulated X360 game" instead of a game that runs natively on its platform is even partly true, that alone is a sign that there's something horribly wrong with their porting process.

 

[Untamed Waters]

While our consoles are watered down PCs, note, that we never have install problems, FPS problems and the like that are related to hardware. Thank you very much and have a nice day.

Never?

Really? Are you sure?

If there's an FPS problem, that's devs fault. While there are hardware related difficulties to computers and consoles Console players don't have to worry about the software not being totally compatible with their console. If I want to play a game that's on my console, I buy it and I do so. If I want to buy a game for a PC but don't meet minimum specs then I either don't play the game or I go buy new hardware.

Err, all of that holds true for PCs too. Does your Xbox play Xbox 360 games? No?

I get your point, but it's kind of construed.

I'll admit I don't know a lot about computers, but if I have to go buy a new graphics card to play that one game you could drop anywhere between 100-280+ on one piece of equipment... And then comes in, will I be able to play my old games questions.