Gran Turismo 4 several issues

[jesalvein]

post the emulog anyways.
and your gsdx settings too, please.

[pandubz]

GT4 has a problem where it eats VRAM alive. Your performance issue at the start of a race is because the VRAM usage will spike to insane levels and, depending on how high your internal resolution is, possibly kill PCSX2. Note, this only happens when loading into the first race of your play session, and afterwards the problem does not return. Easiest way I have found around it, is while the loading screen is still going, watch for the spinner to freeze/stutter, then immediately hit F9 to toggle between hardware and software renderers. This reloads, GSdx, which in turn wipes VRAM, and lets the game continue normally. Afterwards, just hit F9 again to go back to your preferred renderer.

As for generally making the game look better...
- It is strongly recommended to use the ingame 480p setting, as this removes interlacing. The only interlacing modes that work perfectly in all situations for GT4 are the Blend modes, which sacrifice some visual clarity and introduce a slight blur. Also note the game does not save this setting to the memory card, so you will either need to set it manually each time you launch the game, or if you are like me and don't care about saving progress (using a 100% save and only playing Arcade Mode for fun), just setting up a savestate after enabling 480p, and reusing that over and over.
- Set your Internal Resolution to at least 3x. A RTX 2060 can handle 3x no problem. 4x, most likely. 6x, you may start running into trouble but worth a shot.
- Set Accurate Blending to Basic. There will be some issues with headlights clipping through geometry and some reflections on car surfaces may flicker, but these are only fixed by setting it to High, and this increases the GPU load quite a bit. You can try High if it bugs you, but be warned at a minimum the car previews (car model spinning on screen) will slow to a crawl due to the extensive blending used.
- Do not enable Large Framebuffer. This will only make GT4's VRAM problems even worse than they already are.
- This game does not need GSdx hacks. There are some tricks you can do if you want to get particular and fix things like the rims, but you should not need to enable any for graphics to look nice.

And some other general performance tips I have for the game:
- Note that races against AI where several cars are on screen, compared to single car time trials in Arcade Mode, generally have heavier graphics loads.
- Note that tracks which render large chunks at once (Twin Ring Motegi Road Course, Sarthe 1 and 2) may have heavier graphics loads.
- Note that night time tracks will have larger graphics loads.