GTA IV on Core i3

Question

Is Core i3 530/540 enough to run GTA IV smoothly? What is the range of fps that I can expect?

The graphics card is probably immaterial, since I already have MSI 5770 Hawk which will pretty easily churn the voxels.

I have been getting conflicting results in many places -

http://www.behardware.com/articles/780-12/intel-core-i5-and-core-i3.html (says 26 fps)

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-desktop-cpu-charts-update-1/GTA-IV-1.0.3,1402.html (says 56 fps!)

I have GTA IV fully upgraded, i.e. version 1.0.7.0.

I currently have AMD Athlon 4000+, where I get 10-20 fps (when I am in the outside environment).

Answer 1

Depends on the full configuration of your computer and the settings on which you want to play GTA IV.

The results in the two sites differ because both benchmarks use different settings, the one at Tom's Hardware uses:

1280x1024 (Medium settings, Vsync off)

while the one on behardware:

Once again all the settings were pushed to a maximum, with the exception of the textures so as not to exceed available video memory, all at a res of 800x600.

I think any of the two family of processors can handle the game and the final recommendation is conditioned by what type of gamer are you and what type of budget do you have.

• If you are an avid gamer then the i5 is your partner, this processor will run games smoothly for years to come.

• If you have a tight budget and are not so keen on spending your time gaming then the i3 is for you.

It's up to you what you choose, but with medium settings both processor hold. Also as an additional information GTA IV is one of the games that is not highly optimized so any excessive use of settings will severely punish your FPS see behardware benchmark.

Answer 2

You can expect pretty big improvements over your current system. The i3 and i5s are pretty good cpus. But I would strongly recommend the cheapest 4 core i5, instead of i3 if you can afford it. And I think both links you showed are for integrated video.