San Andreas Performance Mods

[Fatboy_Rob]

Hey guys, I remember a long time ago someone made a post here with some mods that made your game run faster, like removing clouds, shiny cars, etc.

I'm in huge need of something that will make my game run faster. I don't care if it looks like VC, I just wanna play at a 'playable' level, haha. I can barely get by driving in the desert/red county... My game boggs down if I even THINK about going towards LSPD. Haha.

Can you guys give me something that does that? Thanks.

-Hayden

[Kitsune]

Long time no see Hayden. Here's something I posted a while back:

I'm not exactly sure on how to deal with your graphics getting corrupted, but I do have some solutions to general lag issues.

GTA:SA Display Settings
Draw Distance - Minimum
Frame Limiter - On (needed for /fpslimit to work)
Visual FX Quality - Low
Anti Aliasing - Off
Resolution - As low as possible, at 16 bit

/fpslimit
You need to use a program like Fraps, so that you can see your FPS (frames per second) while playing. Basically, evaluate what your FPS averages as during game play, then set /fpslimit to slightly under that number. This is to prevent the lag that occurs when something happens during game play (loading new textures or objects for example), that your computer can't handle at the FPS you were previously on.

Low Quality Mod
The following mod includes some lower quality textures and effects that replace the default ones.

Task Manager Priority
While the game is running, ALT+TAB to your desktop, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to open your Task Manager, go to the tab that says Processes, loot for gta_sa.exe, right click on it, choose priority, and set the priority as high as possible. Depending on your computer configuration, setting it as Realtime may sometimes lead to minor issues, such as the sound cutting out from time to time. If you experience said problems, then just set the priority to the level before Realtime.

Game Booster
A program that increases game performance by disabling unneeded processes and services during game play. It can be downloaded here.

NVIDIA Control Panel
Assuming you don't already have the NVIDIA Control Panel, go to the NVIDIA website, check out the driver section, and download the latest one that supports your graphics card. In installing the latest driver, you're also installing the NVIDIA control panel, as it's all included. Since I'm not absolutely certain on the control panel version that you'd have, this is just a general guide with reference to the version that I'm using. Open the control panel (can be done by right clicking on a blank space on your desktop, then selecting NVIDIA Control Panel), make sure advanced view is selected (if relevant), go to the 3D settings and there should be something with reference to managing the 3D settings for particular programs. If it's not already there, add GTA:SA to the program list, then configure settings that are available. Each setting should show a detailed description, so for the most part, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure what you should change in order to increase performance. Some things to make sure you turn off are Anisotropic Filtering, Anti Aliasing and Vertical Sync.

[Wash]

As well as Kitsune's advice about the task manager priority: if you've got a multiple core processor (duel core, quad core, whatever), you can go to your task manager, find GTA SA whilst it's running under the processes tab, right click, set affinity to all processors (works for 7, not sure about Vista/XP).