PerroLoco, thanks for the tweak link, I'll look into it some time. As they come, the shadows do look off. Either you see them pixelized or you blur everything. I think the blurring hurts my eyes more, so pixelized it has been.

I've created a commandline.txt. I put in the first 2 lines, skipped the last 2. Works, I can select any graphics settings, not that I'm interested. I'm even putting Texture Detail on Low to save memory. It showed a maximum of 700+Mb now. I might try cranking it up a little higher, even. It did seem to last longer before lagging down on this trial run.

superweapons, -norestrictions might be unnecessary indeed but it's not out of control, we can still the configuration we want. We just have to keep in mind what our rigs are capable of, and not trust in the auto-configuration when running on this command.
I appreciate the heads-up about the probable fallout, but as it was it wasn't unacceptable, so I have to go with this. The -availablevidmemory command has helped, tho I still would like to try out with a pagefile tweak. Can't hurt to try, I'd like to test it out.

Thank you, everyone, I appreciate the input.

this info helped me to run gta4 with all graphics settings on max. using the system ram does an awesome job of making up for the lack of gpu vram.

i am only using the norestrictions and modified the availablevidmem to 2.0.

once again thanx as i knew my computer definately has much better specs than the xbox 360 or ps3

q6600
640gb hdd
8gb ddr2 system ram
nvidia 9800gt 1gb ddr3 gddr overclocked

Perro, I have trouble driving as well, not only because W-S-A-D work as if you got lead feet and always steer to the maximum, but also due to the lag.
You'll have to get used to it and do your best to not ram a car/post/corner every 2nd turn. Remember to break before a curve and not solely when turning.

I still get stuttering issues bad driving one block in game takes about 5 min real time sometimes it stutters some times not I have tried all high and all low don't make a diff. i have the g15 w lcd readout and I noticed when I did play my cpu percentage read 100% when glitching and 80% when not so I'm guessing my cpu sucks but I can play crisis on full specs with no problem I just want to play this dang game this was the reason I recently built this pc around x-mas time Rockstar is no help even computer shops suck and best buy well lets just say a 6 yr old knows more then those retards.A friend told me to get the I7 for a cpu but I don't have $1,019.99 for a dang cpu then buy a new mobo good god will it ever end.