Almost every major mod created between 2010 and 2020 was designed for 1.0.7.0.

This translates the game’s old DirectX 9 code to Vulkan. It is the single best way to fix stuttering and low FPS in GTA IV. Just drop the d3d9.dll into your game folder.

Downgrading GTA IV to 1.0.7.0 might feel like a lot of work, but the payoff is the definitive version of Liberty City. You’ll have the full soundtrack, a stable frame rate, and the ability to turn the game into a visual powerhouse with ENB presets.

Always launch the game via LaunchGTAIV.exe (as administrator) rather than through the Steam library once you've downgraded to avoid the launcher trying to "update" you back to the broken version!

While you can manually copy and paste files, the community has developed a sophisticated tool called the (created by Clonk_Work). This is the safest and easiest method.

Point the tool to your GTA IV installation directory.