I mean, isn't stuttering literally normal for this game? Game logic, resource streaming and things being mostly single-threaded aren't things that DXVK is magically going to improve.
Your google drive is private.
Would be more interesting with a video where dxvk hud is turned on.
Can be enabled by putting dxvk.hud = full in a file called dxvk.conf next to the exe
The problem here seems to be shader compilation stutter due to how the game manages its shaders combined with address space limits due to the fact that it's a 32 bit game.
@doitsujin Thank you for your feedback. I understand that stuttering can be common in GTA IV due to its engine design, but I wanted to report that I can reproduce it consistently, even while standing completely still.
Also, regarding the Google Drive link, I have updated the permissions so it should now be accessible.
@Blisto91 Thanks for the suggestion. I have uploaded an updated video with DXVK HUD enabled for better debugging.
video with DXVK hud enabled:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YaWtd83DrLLw6JAtMT17T1umdKdLfCJj/view?usp=drive_link
@K0bin The stuttering also occurs while standing completely still in the same location, even without moving the camera. Because of that, I'm not sure if this is only shader compilation stutter. The updated DXVK HUD video shows this behavior as well. It's hape
That sometimes happens, even when moving the mouse within the menu.
Pretty sure the more subtle periodic stutter is just caused by the game itself.
Doesn't this also happen on Windows with the regular D3D9 driver?
@K0bin How can I fix this?
Yes, it does happen with d3d9, but not in the same way. I mean, the stuttering isn't regular like in the videos; I suppose some stuttering is natural with d3d9 since the game performs poorly without DXVK.
With d3d9, I don't experience FPS drops when navigating menus or even when standing still.
I think the game runs "normally" (albeit poorly, as expected) without DXVK.
However, performance improves with DXVK, but the issue is that it causes the kind of regular stuttering seen in the videos.
Please help me fix this.
@K0bin It's strange. right?
With d3d9, I don't experience FPS drops when navigating menus or even when standing still.
Did you actually validate that with something like MSI Afterburner?
There's nothing special in DXVK happening when those stutters happen. From DXVKs perspective it's a normal frame like any other. It's almost certainly the game itself.
@K0bin yes. i tested with msi afterburner and i uploaded that too
video with msi afterburner :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qMaFNQashxs1cktBHZDmfQbLjrvDA8gO/view?usp=drive_link
@K0bin What do you think might be causing it, and how can I fix it?
please help me
video with msi afterburner
I'm seeing the same periodic stutters there.
Any additional stuttering with DXVK is shader compilation. The only way to avoid that right now is to buy an AMD GPU and use Linux.
@K0bin
but, I see many people online using Nvidia graphics cards on Windows who don't have this issue; the game runs very stably for them, without any stuttering. How do they do this?
I tested the build from PR #5772 (DXVK v3.0-34-gf37fddaa) using the x32 d3d9.dll.
Unfortunately, the same periodic stuttering is still present on my system. It behaves the same as before.
Video recorded with the new DLL:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BWe4sSw_pXzoXxkVxzWETpOtXo4eOi5V/view?usp=drive_link
Honestly I don't think your issues are even related to DXVK at this point.
As for the actual DXVK-related stutters, you can throw a dxvk.conf with dxvk.trackPipelineLifetime = False at the game, but there's a good chance that it'll crash after a while with that option.
4a34024f46eef5029534c147eff0313f1442a515 may also improve shader stuff slightly, but it's still reliant on the driver cache and I/O so there will likely still be stutter.
@doitsujin Thanks for the suggestion.
I tested dxvk.trackPipelineLifetime = False.
The game did not crash during my testing, but the periodic stuttering is still present. I couldn't notice any difference compared to the default behavior.
@doitsujin Thank you for taking the time to investigate this.
If you believe this issue is not related to DXVK, do you have any idea what could be causing it?
From what I've seen, most people using DXVK with GTA IV get a stable 60 FPS, but on my system I consistently get these periodic stutters. I tried to make my installation as clean as possible. I even removed FusionFix so that only the original game and DXVK remain, but the issue is still there.
Do you have any suggestions on what else I could check or what might be causing this?
I ran the game with Riva Tuner on Windows, then I ran the game on Windows with DXVK and Riva Tuner.
The stutter spikes are pretty much identical.
Here's the Nvidia D3D9 driver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpvSPK4Qn3E
Here's DXVK on Windows with the same Riva Tuner overlay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3_Kz06J5tk
Ignore the DXVK HUD and look at the Riva Tuner graph. Those two have different measuring methods so they can't be compared.
As I mentioned, it's very similar. It's within the margin of error.
So this is clearly a fault of the game which is not surprising because GTA IV is famous for having a horrible PC port.
Nothing you can do here besides playing a better game.
@K0bin I understand what you're saying, but I'm still trying to understand why this happens only on my setup.
From what I've seen, many GTA IV DXVK videos and guides show much more stable frame times than what I'm experiencing. That's why I'm trying to find out what is different on my system.
I've already removed FusionFix and tested with only the original game and DXVK, but the periodic stuttering is still there.
If this is not caused by DXVK itself, do you have any idea what else could cause this difference? Is there something specific that I should check?
If this is not caused by DXVK itself, do you have any idea what else could cause this difference
There is no difference on my system. The game behaves the same with and without DXVK.
There are the shader compilation stutters but we can't solve those right now due to the game being 32bit.
Maybe you installed it incorrectly. If you also installed FusionFix, that could be why it's stuttering. You might have replaced d3d9.dll instead of renaming it to vulkan.dll and replacing the vulkan.dll that comes with FusionFix
I see that you locked your FPS to 60. While this is good approach for minimizing CPU bottlenecks (and also physics bugs in this game), I would suggest you to not lock it via the game's or DXVK's FPS limiter. Instead, lock it via RTSS or NVCP and turn the other FPS locks off. Otherwise, I also get regular frame time spikes but, unlike yours, with more smaller ones in between them.
Greetings, @hosseinghasemi141-prog
I am DXVK-GPLALL developer. Please, can you check DXVK-GPLALL 2.6.8-2? I am interested in your feedback.
P.S.: To DXVK's Development Team: I don't have access to all the hardware and software in the world, so that is why I am writing here. Since I changed upstream DXVK FPS Limiter in the aforementioned release, and, as I understood, @hosseinghasemi141-prog uses DXVK FPS Limiter, I am interested in his feedback. I am sorry for any inconvenience.
@Digger1955 You remember what I told you about advertising your fork in every issue, right?
@K0bin
So you and your passionate followers (@mati865 and @Sangeki), which disliked my post and liked yours, can just move along and stop wasting my time.
P.S: Developer wrote to the developer - do not ask users for feedback - explains current state of things...
@Digger1955 or maybe we can just agree that effectively using project A's issue tracker as ad space for project B just isn't very nice and also doesn't move the discussion forward very much? Not like the discussion is around specific patches that actually address any of the given issues.
Not sure how this is even a discussion after politely being asked to stop by not one but two contributors at this point.
@doitsujin
Or you can keep your speculations to yourself and stop bothering me. I've got your point about not wanting me to post in your repository.
Not like the discussion is around specific patches that actually address any of the given issues.
I need feedback for this, you know.
Not sure how this is even a discussion after politely being asked to stop by not one but two contributors at this point.
There was nothing to stop. I needed feedback from specific people, for specific applications, about whether your issues apply to my fork. Nothing more, nothing less. If you can't understand that - that's your problems.
Stop wasting my time, go be useful by fixing some of DXVK issues.
Try adding correct complier and async threads for your CPU to dxvk.conf, for example this is what i used for AMD Ryzen 7 7700:
dxvk.numCompilerThreads = 10
dxvk.numAsyncThreads = 4
@FilipSm19
dxvk.numAsyncThreads doesn't exist in DXVK and we don't want people spamming about forks here.
d3d9.dllx2 2026-07vulkan.dllx1 2026-07
Update:
The Google Drive permissions have been fixed. The existing video link is now public and should be accessible.
Thank you for pointing that out.
Software information
Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition
System information
Bug description
I'm experiencing random frametime spikes / microstutters in Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition.
The game runs at a stable frame rate, but the frametime graph frequently shows short random spikes that cause noticeable stuttering.
The issue occurs:
The behaviour is consistent and can be seen in the attached video and frametime graph.
I noticed that the frametime spikes look very similar to those shown in Issue #1419, although I'm not sure if it's related.
Reproduction
Additional information
video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qMaFNQashxs1cktBHZDmfQbLjrvDA8gO/view?usp=drive_link
Update:
The Google Drive permissions have been fixed. The existing video link is now public and should be accessible.
Thank you for pointing that out.
video with DXVK hud enabled:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YaWtd83DrLLw6JAtMT17T1umdKdLfCJj/view?usp=drive_link