Released on PC on April 14, 2015, Grand Theft Auto V is approaching its ninth anniversary, yet it continues to dominate, consistently ranking among the most-played games. With a 24-hour peak of 150k+ concurrent players, it stands shoulder to shoulder with other massive titles like Baldur’s Gate 3, Apex Legends, and Destiny 2. We decided to test GTA 5 graphics settings on cutting-edge hardware to see how it performs today, exploring whether any CPU or memory bottlenecks remain.
Our Test Setup
All tests were conducted on a PC with the following specs:
- CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K;
- Motherboard: ASUS Z790 Maximus Hero;
- Cooler: Lian Li Galahad 360;
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090;
- RAM: 16GB x2 DDR5-6000 CL30;
- PSU: Corsair RM1000e.
You might say that such a monster can handle literally any game, from GTA 5 to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. And you’d be right, but even today, GTA 5 has unique mods and optimizations, and you’ll need a PC at this level to test them.
Optimized Graphics Settings for GTA 5
First of all, in our opinion, the basis of visual game design has fallen, namely shadows, reflections, and ambient Occlusion. And this is what came out of it:
- Shadows: GTA 5 offers several shadow techniques, including NVIDIA PCSS, AMD CHS, and Rockstar’s soft shadows. We found that “Sharp” and “Softer” are the most performance-friendly options, with minimal impact on visual quality.
- Ambient Occlusion: This setting influences shadows created by diffuse lighting and is most noticeable along edges and corners. “Normal” and “High” deliver similar performance, with turning it off yielding a modest FPS gain.
- Reflection Quality: Controls the resolution of screen space reflections, with “Normal” through “Very High” offering similar performance. The “Ultra” setting is a bit more demanding, reducing FPS by 3-4 frames.
- Reflection MSAA: Improves reflection detail by including extra depth samples. The performance hit is minor, but it does enhance the overall reflection quality.
The maximum FPS we achieved for 4k Shadows Sotfer was 187.9. Other variations were not inferior to the first and did not fall below 180+ FPS.
Performance Test: Resolution Scaling in GTA 5
When tested on an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, GTA 5 produced comparable average frame rates across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. The game is clearly CPU-bound, as evidenced by slightly better frame times at lower resolutions (1080p and 1440p) compared to 4K.
Shader, Water, and Particle Effects
- Shader Quality: Affects lighting interactions with objects and also impacts texture clarity and water surfaces. The “Very High” and “High” settings perform similarly, with “Normal” yielding a 5-6 FPS improvement.
- Grass Quality: This setting dictates the complexity of vegetation. “Very High” features individual 3D strands for each plant, while “Normal” uses a simpler 2D model, yielding a significant performance boost.
- Water Quality: Sets the fidelity of water effects. Higher settings increase the density of waves and underwater effects, but “High” and “Very High” are almost identical in performance.
- Particle Quality: This setting affects the resolution of smoke, explosions, and other particle effects. It has a noticeable performance impact only during high-intensity moments like explosions.
Recommended Hardware
Depending on your preferences, capabilities and goals, we have divided the PC into three tiers with approximate builds. Take a look at them first:
- High-end: CPU: Intel Core i7-13700K / Ryzen 7 7700X | GPU: RTX 4070 Ti | Memory: 32GB;
- Mid-range: CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K / Ryzen 5 7600 | GPU: RTX 4070 | Memory: 16GB;
- Low-end: CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 / Ryzen 5 3600 | GPU: RTX 3060 | Memory: 16GB.
Today, mid-range PCs are a basic need for those who want to play all the new AAA games and enjoy the visual (albeit not the maximum) aspect. High-end PCs are suitable for all tasks, even those not related to gaming.
Low-end PCs, in general, today also have a place to be, but if you do not have the opportunity to update them immediately, it is better to do it gradually. Still, the gaming market does not stand, and if you are a fan of GTA V, then you are probably waiting for the next part, which will be much more demanding for your PC.
Despite its age, GTA 5 is still heavily CPU-bound, even at 4K. At lower resolutions (1080p, 1440p), the CPU significantly impacts the GPU’s workload, accounting for as much as 56% of the frame time.
At 4K with “Max” settings, the game uses around 7.1GB of VRAM, dropping to 5.8GB at 1440p and 5.5GB at 1080p. Lowering texture quality and disabling “High-Resolution Shadows” can help reduce VRAM usage and improve performance.
Steam Deck Settings
If PC gaming has taken a back seat to you today and you are the owner of Steam Deck, we haven’t forgotten about you. To ensure smooth performance on the Steam Deck, use these optimized settings:
- Resolution: 800p
- Texture Resolution: Very High
- Texture Filtering: 8x
- Shadows: Sharp
- Reflection Quality: Normal
- Reflection AA: 2x MSAA
- Shader Quality: High
- Grass Quality: Normal
- Ambient Occlusion: Normal
- Water Quality: Normal
- PostFX: Normal
- Anti-Aliasing: FXAA
- Tesselation: Normal
- Distance Scaling: 0
- Population Density: 0
- Population Variety: 100
- Extended Shadows: 0
- Extended Distance Scaling: 0
Steam Deck looks very interesting today and performs well in many games. Therefore, GTA 5 is no exception.
For PC gamers, the game is still relevant and does not slow down, even against the backdrop of the release of more recent innovations in the gaming industry. Considering that the game is over 10 years old and can challenge even the most high-end PCs, there are still opportunities for its improvement and will appear, at least until the release of GTA VI.
