First of all, this PC port of GTA IV is trash. First Generation RAGE engine is fundamentally broken on modern PCs and requires a lot of troubleshooting and mods to get it to be playable. The modding community recently solved this game. Follow Gillian's Modding Guide for GTA IV to save your sanity. FusionFix and DVXK vulkan mod fixes most issues for most people.

EDIT: Another tip; GTA IV breaks at high FPS. Lock your FPS to 60 and you can use Lossless Scaling to play the game at a stable and smooth 144fps or more.

GTA IV as a game is considered one of the best games of all time for a reason. For the time it was a mind blowing leap in graphics and in physics, and it still holds up in 2026. It's insane that it ran on 512mb of GDDR3 on an Xbox 360 and the fact that it was only in development for 4 years. There is an incredible amount of detail in this game that rivals RDR2. As an example, you can steal an ice cream truck and it has different songs you can play like a police siren. The story and characters are the best rockstar story along with Red Dead Redemption.

I don't care what anybody says, the driving in GTA IV is the best to me. Every car has different handling and weight to them, going fast and making a sharp turn can make you lose control of your vehicle, it's very realistic and satisfying. Pulling off a drift in this game is the best feeling. Also the car damage/deformation system is MUCH MUCH better than V. Cars actually bend out of shape and take damage if hit really hard, they blow up easier, and it's harder to drive a broken car because it reduces your speed and your ability to turn. It feels like Rockstar tuned back the physics and the car damage physics to streamline GTA online. GTA 4 is just a really fun game in general because of these systems.

There are so many interiors in the game that you can just explore. You can go to an internet cafe, go bowling, go play pool, go eat some food to restore your health at a restaurant. it makes the city feel more alive unlike GTA V with 0 overworld interiors, 0 food vendors. You can literally go into the hospital. A lot of props are destructible as well. It doesn't feel like there is any wasted space in the city. I also swear that the pedestrians behaviors in GTA 4 are much smarter over 5, each type of ped has their own personality, every single pedestrian and cars don't run and vanish and turn into a ghost town when you shoot somebody so you can go to another street and jack a car to get away. Female peds actually fight back too.

The physics in the game are over the top but crazy fun to play around with. Euphoria's implementation in this game is still top tier and never makes the game boring, and I wish more games used NaturalMotion's Euphoria. Peds don't have a default dying animation so every single gunfight is different. In fact, most peds will survive getting shot and try to get up and limp away to safety. A lot of this is just simply missing from V.

GTA 4 is the best singleplayer Grand Theft Auto. I hope that GTA 6 brings back some of the charm that made GTA 4 so great.

Download more FPS. Not magic but it's a really useful tool. In Dark Souls Remastered, I went from the 60 fps cap to 240fps, and I could definitely tell the difference. I use this the most in playing "The Binding of Isaac: Repentance" as I can tell the visual difference in the menus immediately. Also, try it with 60fps capped games on an emulator. It's crazy to play Switch games at 120fps.

NOTE: I own a Steam Deck but this program does not run on it! Be warned Steam Deck users if you're only buying it for the Deck.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE USING MSI AFTERBURNER

MSI Afterburner's Rivatuner Statistic Server (RTSS) displays the engine's framerate, aka OGL/D11/D12 reporting. To find your true FPS after scaling, do this:

1. Download HWinfo64
2. Go to Sensor Settings
3. "RTSS (OSD)"
4. Show the "Framerate (Presented)" on your overlay.
5. Voila, you now have the engine's framerate, and the monitor's framerate. My 3080ti boosts many 60fps capped games up to my monitor's refresh rate of 240.

Only con:
There is artifacting in motion which is akin to ghosting. This affects HUD elements and is less noticable in some games than others.

Worth full price. Can't wait to see future updates.

Edit: I noticed a lot of reviews saying "this is bad, don't work in alan wake/cyberpunk, im waiting for fsr 3". What are you doing?? Why would you want to implement frame generation to games that natively support it? This tool is a godsend for games that don't support FSR or DLSS FG.

The newest update eliminates all cons. No more ghosting, this is honestly the best application on Steam and I am happy to support it.