http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500
Best sound quality. :) There's a newer version than what's listed there, too.
[quote]Since GTA4 seems so CPU-bound, partly because of the AI, could this be one of these games where the FOV has a greater impact on performance than the res alone ? I mean, in surround, you see lots more people/cars at the same time than on a single screen. So the CPU would limit performance before the GPU, which reduces average SLI gain.
AI and everything keeps going if they are not on your screen.
Not entirely true. GTA automatically discards a lot of what can't be seen. It's done this in previous GTA games and in GTA IV, as well. If you are standing still and looking around, you'll see the same things. If you start moving in a certain direction, though, it will automatically remove people, vehicles, etc. that are in the opposite direction that you're headed. It has certain cases where it does and does not do this. It also uses this for spawning in AI. You can look down a road and not see any vehicles at all. Turn around and walk the opposite direction and then cars will magically appear in the direction that none were. GTA is really efficient in the way it streams in data.
However, in the case of FOV, it probably won't make much of a difference because a wider FOV will still have the characters in your general "forward" direction, so they will be drawn, even if off-screen. There's still a certain range in which it streams that data in, too.
The best thing to do to lower CPU load is drop vehicle density down to 1 or something. Sure, you'll see a lot less cars, but that's a lot less AI the CPU has to control.