Hello,

Earlier this week someone broke into my house and stole many electronics, including my Grand Theft auto IV. I said to myself, why not rebuying it on steam ? But there is one question i am asking myself. Is is slower if it isn't on a cd? (like on steam)?

Please give me your answers! no random guess please :/

I have the DVD Version and the Steam version, My DVD version is unplayable but the Steam version I get 25-30 FPS.

Also Steam offers automatic updates of Drivers and GTA IV so you don't need to do it manually, You can also use Steam to Defrag GTA IV making it run smoother.

Only bad side is that it takes a shitload of time to download.

But in my opinion, Steam version is better ^_^

To add to Storm's post, Steam can also redownload any files that might be corrupted in GTA IV, so if you add a mod and forget to backup you can fix your game.

Woah, thanks for the fast reply guys! I am really going to get it on steam :D. LCPDFR, you are soon mine > : D

Steam version doesn't improve FPS, and the "defrag" only makes load times a little bit faster - but yes, go with the Steam version.

For me the Steam version gave me way better FPS, My DVD version is unplayable and it's an ass to upgrade.

You should not see any speed difference on Steam vs disc, either way the game content is on your HDD/SDD. The only thing that would make it slower is bad fragmentation or a slow HDD(<6200rpm), the negative is the download time.

Last little question, just changed my graphic card to the following:

Card name: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series

Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.

Display Memory: 2794 MB

Dedicated Memory: 1012 MB

Shared Memory: 1781 MB

Will it run slowish? Thanks again :3

Upside of steam is that all of the games that you buy are tied to your account, as others have said above. Plus i like steam some what becuase of the communnity chat you can go into and maybe find some people in the chat to play multiplayer. Ohh and one of my fav features of steam is the in game browser, say your stuck in a game or want to do a glich you can just go to the browser and type in youtube without having to minimize.

-Kate

Edited August 15, 201114 yr by Kate

I have Ati MOBILITY Radeon HD 5650 1GB

I have a laptop card, I can run it so you should run it just fine ^^

What specific card in the 6800 series is it? The 6800 series is the same thing as the 5800 series but with better power management. There was no real performance boost until the 6900 series came out. Also, the two version of GTA IV will perform the same. GTA IV just uses the CD for validating that it's a legal copy. It doesn't have to read any significant amount of data off of it. STEAM is a good substitute for copy protection because it will be very hard to B.S. Valve into giving you a game that you didn't buy. Anyway, my point is everything that matters gets read from your hard drive. The only types of games that use the disc in a significant way anymore are game consoles.

Edited August 15, 201114 yr by unr3al

Thanks for the reply, it's the HD 6870

That card should pwn : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1wx8rFh5Xo

Gta starts at 2:08 man look at that resolution it's also big and you'll do even much better if you run lower resolution :)

Edited August 16, 201114 yr by MasacruAlex

That card should pwn

The HD 6870 is still not even close to the top, although it is a decently spec'd card. But running a lower resolution on a game should only be done in drastic measures if you can hardly play the game at your native resolution. The size differences at a lower resolution make me, at least, want to claw my eyes out. The HD 6870 does had decent power management though, Like Unr3al said. source.