GTA 4 download for PC: System requirements, link, storage space needed, and more

GTA 4 is undoubtedly one of the most significant games in the open-world genre, if not the gaming industry as a whole. Rockstar pushed its boundaries and presented a game that was quite ahead of its time. This was reflected both in terms of technical advances, as well as the narrative itself.

Here's everything a PC gamer needs to know before downloading the game, including system requirements, where to buy from, and more.

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Required specifications for running GTA 4, download link, and some fixes

System requirements and download link

Minimum system requirements

• OS: Windows 7 (Service Pack 1 or above)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHz
• RAM: 1.5 GB
• Graphics card: 256 MB Nvidia 7900 / 256 MB ATI X1900
• Storage Space: 16 GB of Hard Disk Space

Recommended system requirements

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz, AMD Phenom X3 2.1GHz
• RAM: 2.5 GB
• Graphics card: 512 MB NVIDIA 8600 / 512 MB ATI 3870
• Storage Space: 18 GB of Hard Disk Space
• Sound Card: 5.1 Channel Audio Card

Players can buy and download GTA 4 from Steam. Here's a link that will take interested gamers directly to the game's store page:

Download it here.

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Issues with the PC port

GTA 4 was literally too ahead of its time when it came out. The PC version of the game was poorly optimized, which led to most players being unable to play the game. Rockstar had intended it to be future proof, and as such, even the most powerful gaming rigs couldn't run the game smoothly at max settings.

Even today, before attempting to download the game, most players like to double check the system requirements. Besides, since Steam merged all editions of the game into one, it can be a bit confusing to those players who are unaware of this change.

The two DLCs, namely 'The Lost and Damned' and 'The Ballad of Gay Tony,' were first compiled together as a standalone game called 'Episodes from Liberty City.' That version didn't have the base game. As of now, players can only download the Complete Edition. It has both the DLCs, but has several songs from the original soundtrack replaced with generic ones.

Players should note that the updated Complete Edition doesn't work with most available mods. Hence, those who wish to use mods in their game should downgrade to an earlier version, ideally to version 1.0.4.0, or 1.0.7.0. The former version supports all mods, whereas the latter might only support a few.

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How to increase performance

As mentioned before, the PC version of GTA 4 can be quite laggy, even on the most powerful builds. This, issue, however, is a thing of the past thanks to DXVK. Players need to download this plugin and follow the given steps to get a stable framerate in the game:

• To begin with, players must head to the GitHub page for DXVK and download the latest version of the plugin (link here).
• They must then place dxgi.dll and d3d9.dll (either the 32-bit or the 64-bit version) in their main GTA 4 directory.

Finally, players need to put a TXT file named "commandline.txt" in the main directory and add the following lines to it:

-availablevidmem xxxx -norestrictions -percentvidmem 100 -noprecache -refreshrate 60 -novblank -heapsize 2097152 -popupwindow

-width xxxx -height xxxx

The xxxx values need to be replaced with numbers that match the PC specifications. Players will also need another INI file named "stream.ini" in the same folder with the following lines inside:

virtual 409600

physical 409600

virtual_optimised 409600

physical_optimised 409600

DXVK ensures a smooth and lag-free experience in GTA 4, and considerably increases FPS. Surprisingly, the game's biggest rival, Saints Row 2, also suffers from the same issues on PC and can simply be fixed by pasting the DXVK plugin.

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Note: The links and edit procedure have been confirmed as reliable. However, users should create a backup of their game files before trying out the procedure.