Better graphics for GTA 5. Grand Theft Auto V. Graphics. Settings guide. Performance testing. The minimum set of iron

The system requirements of GTA 5, judging by the first trailer, promise to be very serious. And now, finally, the developers announced OFFICIAL system requirements that are published on their website. All that differs from them are rumors and fakes!

Official system requirements of GTA 5 :

GTA Online on PC will support the game on 30 players... Online will be available immediately with the release of GTA 5, GTA Online Heists will also be available.

The PC will have a higher level of detail running on 1080p @ 60fps @ 4K resolution... Will support systems with up to three monitors, as well as NVIDIA 3D Vision.
GTA V for PC includes a new editor that gives players a complete set of tools to edit and share gameplay videos directly to Social Club and YouTube.

Minimum requirements:

• OS: Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista 64 bit (NVIDIA video cards are recommended for Vista)
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 cores) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 cores) @ 2.5GHz
• RAM: 4 GB
• Video card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1 GB / AMD HD 4870 1 GB (DX 10, 10.1, 11 or higher)
• Sound card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• Disk space: 65 GB
• DVD drive

• OS: Windows 8.1, 8, 7 64 bit
• CPU: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 cores) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 cores)
• RAM: 8 GB
• Video card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB
• Sound card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• Disk space: 65 GB
• DVD drive

Pay attention to the requirements for 4 cores! It is possible that the owners of processors with fewer cores will not be able to run the game (more precisely, they can, but with the help of a separate program). So it was with the game FarCry 4, which we will talk about below, the owners of 2-core processors had to download Dual Core Fix to start the game, without it the game simply hung with a black screen.

Testing GTA 5 on different computers

Will your game run?

Will it go with me ??? To be honest, I don’t want to explain to everyone personally whether he will use GTA 5. There is an easier way: install FarCry 4. If you go to the maximum settings - there is nothing to worry about, if at the minimum with lags - then in GTA 5 the lags will be even stronger.

• OS: also 64-bit versions of Windows 8.1, 8, 7
• CPU... For Intel processors, you need more powerful, for AMD the requirements are the same. Intel® Core i5-2400S 2.5 GHz (i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ) or AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
• RAM: also 8 GB.
• DirectX: For FarCry 4 only version 11, for GTA 5 - DX 10, 10.1, 11
• Video card... The graphics requirements for GTA 5 are below. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB (NVIDIA GTX 660) or AMD Radeon R9 290X (AMD HD7870)

PS4 Features

Recently, the internet has been full of different system requirements. There are even those that the requirement of GTA 5 was taken, almost according to the maximum possible computer configurations. Judge for yourself how much income the publishers will have if the game gta5 is not bought by everyone because of the weak hardware. There were others who published the requirements of GTA5, where only 25 GB was allocated for the game, although about 50 GB is spent on PS4, but in fact it turned out that you need 65 GB... And nothing, fakes were actively disseminated.

Judging by the quality of the graphics according to the version for xbox 360 and PS 3, then the game GTA 5 could well run on computers 5 years ago. But with the release of the GTA 5 trailer on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, it became clear that the requirements would be much higher (the maximum requirements would not be lower than that of the hardware on the PS4 Xbox One, their characteristics are indicated below).

• Cpu: 8-core x86-64 AMD Jaguar processor - 1.6-2.75 GHz
• RAM: GDDR5 8GB (5500 MHz)
• GPU: Integrated, approximate analogue of Radeon HD7850 / 7870

Characteristics of the PS4 version of GTA 5.

• 1920 × 1080 resolution, 30 FPS, double buffering.
• 2xMSAA (2x anti-aliasing).
• Enlarged and bump maps.
• HDAO.
• Tessellation
• Reduced the delay in switching a character from single player to GTA Online.
• The number of pedestrians and vehicles on the roads has been increased.
• The best quality game videos.
• Best quality radio music.

Compared to the xbox 360 and PS3 versions, you can see the following improvements that increase the hardware requirements:

• Improved waves, ripples, water in rain and when passing cars.
• More grass, bushes will appear.
• Improvements to various structures. For enterprises, smoke pipes and workers will be added.
• More traffic on the roads.
• The interior of the cars has been significantly improved.
• The range of drawing, the range of shadows has been increased.
• Improved textures.

Max Payne 3 system requirements

With the release of Max Payne 3, more information has been added for comparison. In terms of graphics, the PC version looks prettier on powerful computers than on consoles. The resolution in Max is scalable, you can display it even on 6 monitors. In addition, Max Payne 3 supports DirectX 11 and, therefore, there are Tessellation, Hull, Gather4, Domain Shaders, Stream Output, FXAA, Geometry Shaders. But the developers promise that even owners of old cars will be able to play Max Payne 3.

Minimum Requirements

OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
CPU: Intel Dual Core 2.4 GHz or AMD Dual Core 2.6 GHz
Memory: 2GB
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 3400 512MB RAM or NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB RAM

OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
CPU: Intel Dual Core 3GHz or AMD equivalent
Memory: 3GB
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 4870 512MB RAM or NVIDIA GeForce 450 512MB RAM
As a result: 30 FPS with a resolution of 1920 × 1080

OS: Windows 7 / Vista (32 or 64 bit)
CPU: Intel i7 Quad Core 2.8GHz or AMD equivalent
Memory: 3GB
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB RAM or NVIDIA GeForce 480 1GB RAM
As a result: 60 FPS with a resolution of 1920 × 1080

Highest tested

OS: Windows 7 / Vista (64 bit)
CPU: AMD FX8150 8 Core x 3.6 GHz or Intel i7 3930K 6 Core x 3.06 GHz
Memory: 16 GB
Video card: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB RAM or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB RAM

We collect a PC for GTA 5

The developers at Rockstar have done a good job and have optimized great. The key to this is several dozen graphical settings. In addition to traditional ones, such as the quality of textures or shadows, anti-aliasing or filtering, the game also has proprietary parameters from Nvidia and AMD. However, we will not talk about them today and will talk about public settings.

Test stand

Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 4.4GHz;
- RAM: 64 GB;
- Video card: Nvidia GeForce TitanX SLI.

All data was captured on this high-performance PC, at 2880 * 1620 pixels. At lower resolutions, the gap / FPS number can grow.

DirectX version

Grand Theft Auto 5 offers players a choice of three DirectX versions: 10, 10.1, and 11. Versions 10 and 10.1 have been included by the developers for compatibility reasons so that owners of older graphics amplifiers can enjoy their game.

Since older versions of DirectX do not provide access to modern graphics options, their performance will be higher (by 22% and 14%, respectively). However, the version of the game running on API DirectX 11 shows better stability, image quality and almost no visual bugs.

Texture Quality

In this case, everything is standard - the higher the quality of the textures, the better the graphics. At the same time, "very high" quality is practically equivalent to "high", although in some cases the difference between them will be more than noticeable. The "normal" level of texture quality naturally offers a much more modest visual experience.

Distance Scaling

This setting significantly affects the visual quality as well as the number of frames per second. However, it is far from the fact that you will twist it all the way, since it affects perception and details literally climb into the frame - this can be seen with a very sharp camera change.

Close-up rendering quality is responsible for the number of polygons in buildings, cars and objects, adjusts the quality of the terrain, and also improves their overall detail. It will also make distant objects (mountains, skyscrapers) much better quality. High zoom ratios will also increase the number of objects in the frame, such as pedestrians and cars.

The performance impact of this setting should not be underestimated, and we recommend that you choose the ratio you like best. At the moment, only owners of very powerful computers will be able to overlook the effect of this parameter on performance, since it itself loads the system well, and also has a complex relationship with other key parameters, such as the quality and density of grass.

In addition, the quality of drawing, depending on the distance, dramatically changes the FPS from place to place, that is, in the city the load will be much higher than on the desert terrain and you can easily notice the FPS jerks yourself.

Extended Distance Scaling

As the name suggests, increasing the loading distance of more detailed objects has an even greater impact on FPS and the overall gaming experience. If the owners of average performance PCs can still cope with the "simple" rendering quality, then enable the improved quality only on those PCs whose performance is capable of capturing the imagination, for example, as in the case of our test bench equipped with two TetanX.

However, the price to pay for using the premium hardware itself will be a noticeable increase in the visual quality of objects, both near and far. Surprisingly, once Rockstar has been able to achieve this, the improved rendering is truly transformative, adding new detail and subtlety to every game object near the player, as well as enhancing the visual quality of distant objects.

Note that the increased loading distance also has a complex relationship with other graphical parameters and can bring the FPS to a slideshow if you find yourself in a mix of a huge group of pedestrians, a large number of cars, cops chasing you, and a series of explosions behind your back.

Grass Quality

You might find this setting has little effect on the performance of Grand Theft Auto 5, especially if you're in a city. However, as soon as you go into the forest or visit the rural area, you will find out how wrong you are. The quality and density of the grass will greatly reduce productivity, even on the most powerful systems.

For example, at "ultra" settings, huge fields with flowers, grass and bushes, together with a high level of rendering and detail, with improved shadows, will cut off almost 40% of the average FPS. It is possible that even a "normal" level of detail will be overwhelming for your PC - this setting has perhaps the greatest impact on performance in any situation in the game. Even if you twist it to a minimum, it will still continue to have its detrimental effect on FPS.

As you can see from the image, only an incredibly fast system of recent years will be able to cope with "ultra" quality, and even then not everywhere.

Shadow Quality

This feature works hand in hand with the High Definition Shadows feature (see below) to improve the clarity and accuracy of all shadows in the game. However, it also has a moderate impact on game performance, with the higher you select the tweak level, the more video memory is required, with the graphics level increasing proportionally.

High Resolution Shadows

This option speaks for itself, so by turning it on, you will get a qualitatively different level of shadow detail, but it only manifests itself if you turn the overall quality of the shadows to "High".

This option provides the most realistic shadow from any object, but it also has a big impact on performance, especially in the case of low-power systems. Therefore, we do not recommend enabling this function even for owners of powerful computers.

Extended Shadow Distance

This setting will expand the range of shadows rendering, improve their level of detail, add new shadows and increase the overall sharpness of all shadows.

Despite such a complex and voluminous work, the increased shadow rendering distance will eat no more than 10 FPS if you set it to its maximum value. But if you already have problems with the performance of your computer, then do not be discouraged, this function does not have such a critical value on the visualization.

Long Shadows

This setting provides more accurate rendering of shadows during sunrises and sunsets. You can easily disable it, since it has practically no noticeable effect on the graphics, but the FPS eats away.

Loading more detailed textures during flight (High Detail Streaming While Flying)

This setting adjusts the level of detail in the surrounding surfaces, reducing visual fidelity for better performance while you are in the air. By turning it to the maximum, you will lose 5-10 FPS, which also depends on your location (in the city the FPS will be lower) and other graphics settings.

If you do not like flying and jumping from a height, then you can safely turn off this setting and save a couple of unnecessary FPS by reducing the load on your computer.

Ignore Suggested Limits

When working, this setting is disabled by default, and it is needed in order to prevent the use of a larger amount of video memory than it actually is. We recommend not turning it on, because setting the exceeded volume, you may encounter crashes, strong brakes and a complete freeze of the game.

Global Ambient Occlusion Model

Currently, this parameter in the game settings is unavailable due to a bug, it is responsible for improved shading of the game world and everything in it. As soon as the bug is fixed after the next update of the game client, then we'll talk about this parameter.

Anisotropic Filtering

This setting improves the quality of both distant textures and those that are at an angle to the player's point of view. In GTA 5, this setting works as expected and has almost no effect on performance, absorbing, at most, 3-4 FPS.

Off	2x	4x	8x	16x

Population Density

Another game tweak that has a complex impact on overall performance. If you love streets filled with pedestrians and cars, then you need a powerful processor and a good graphics card. Rockstar has performed a number of optimizations to improve the performance of the game, but the population is still a resource-intensive option.

We recommend setting this parameter to 75%, which will allow you to feel the population of Los Santos and make sure that life in the city is in full swing. However, due to the large number of people and machines, there will be a lot more shadows, reflections and other post effects, which can significantly degrade game performance and may need to lower other graphical settings.

In general, it only depends on your preferences whether to choose better graphics or streets filled with people and cars.

Population Variety

This option is unique in that it has no performance impact, but can significantly affect visual quality. The simplest explanation for its operation is as follows: if the game files have 100 car models and 50 civilian models, then setting the population diversity to 50%, the game will load 50 car models and 25 civilian models into the memory of your video card.

That is, everything depends on the amount of video memory, and if you have 2 or less gigabytes, then we would not recommend setting the value above 50%, since, as it seems to us, this option can be neglected in favor of high quality textures and shadows.

Post FX Effects Settings

This option includes a whole group of effects: motion blur, HDR, lighting blur technologies, several types of glare, constant depth of field, twilight rays, volumetric effects.

The FPS gap between "normal" and "high" levels of Post FX effects is not that great, but as soon as you turn on the "very high" or "ultra" -level, the load on the PC grows. We can say that the difference in graphics when switching between these modes is as noticeable as the drop in FPS. Visually, night, sunrise and sunset are especially prominent - this is when most Post FX effects show themselves.

The increase in FPS when switching from "ultra" -level to "very high" can be up to 10 frames, similarly when switching from "very high" level to "high". The reason is that the game removes various effects, such as glare, motion blur, and so on, and at the "normal" level, the quality of the few remaining effects is reduced further.

However, this is not the case for everyone, and some players note a slight decrease in the number of FPS when switching from "normal" to "ultra" -level. Considering the loss of quality and the relatively small effect of this option on performance, we recommend using the "very high" level of Post FX for GTA 5.

In-Game Depth of Field Effects

Fans of blurry backgrounds in the distance and blurry surroundings when aiming will certainly be pleased with the DOF effects offered by the developers from Rockstar. This option can be activated if the PostFX setting is set to "Very High" or "Ultra".

Objectively, enabling depth of field helps stabilize FPS in cutscenes and in-game cutscenes, but there is the potential for annoying flickering when changing angles abruptly. At first you will see very blurry nearby objects, and then everything suddenly becomes very sharp, and only after a couple of seconds the image will settle. This problem is caused by technical flaws in the game itself and will probably be fixed in the future.

In terms of performance, you only pay a couple of FPS for these effects, which is not that much. Since the DOF effects are interactive and don't work all the time, you shouldn't notice any sagging. You can also reduce the PostFX setting to Very High to improve game performance.

Particles Quality

It turned out to be quite difficult to assess the impact of this setting on the performance of GTA 5 - explosions occur in different ways, game physics and the weather system introduce additional distortions, as well as post-effects.

However, the difference between low and high settings is insignificant from a visual point of view. This is not to say that at high settings the number of particles increases noticeably, but their quality increases. Therefore, turning everything to the "maximum", you will get 5-10 FPS less than with normal settings, and this will be noticeable only with a large number of explosions.

Reflection Quality

As the name suggests, Reflection Quality adjusts reflections on all game objects - cars, open bodies of water, mirrors, windows, puddles, and even polished floors.

The difference between "ultra" and "very high" can be determined by looking closely at the screenshots, since the visible changes are only seen in the open world and only at great distances.

The big difference between "very high" and "high" modes is that sharpness is removed and reflections are blurred. Regarding the difference between "high" and "normal" modes, reflections from all vehicles, mirrors, windows and buildings disappear, and what remains looks rather fuzzy.

In addition, for technical reasons, the "normal" reflection mode gives the picture graphic artifacts and makes the reflections flicker, which is especially noticeable at night, in the rain.

In terms of performance, the quality of reflections has a complex relationship with a number of other graphical settings and with the location of the player. In a city, in the midst of shiny vehicles, windows and buildings (creating mutual reflections), noticeable FPS drawdowns are possible.

We recommend that players set the reflections quality to "high", as this will allow you not only to enjoy the visual quality, but also will not require a lot of resources. In most cases, other parameters of the game should be sacrificed in favor of the quality of reflections.

Reflection MSAA

This feature reduces reflections caused by anti-aliasing technologies, but since the state of the game world is constantly changing, and most of it is in motion, you are unlikely to notice its benefits.

Considering the slightly improved picture quality, you can safely turn off this feature, regardless of which system you are playing on.

Water Quality

This setting has little effect on performance, however, water rendering is highly dependent on this setting, so we recommend setting the water quality to a “high” level.

For example, the difference between "very high" and just "high" levels is practically nonexistent, and will only be noticeable if you look closely at the screenshots. But at a "normal" level, water quality deteriorates noticeably, losing almost all details and transparency.

How much video memory does GTA 5 consume?

Above you could familiarize yourself with all the settings of GTA 5, but you are probably wondering how much video memory is needed for this game at minimum, medium and high graphics settings.

For a resolution of 1920 × 1080 (Full HD) pixels, at minimum settings, 1.066 MB is required. As follows from the table below, to enable maximum textures, you need an additional 1.335 MB, and another 1.211 MB is needed to activate 8x MSAA.

In general, GTA 5 consumes at least 1 GB of RAM, and for maximum settings it is desirable to have a video card with 4 GB of video memory.

Command Line Tweaks

In the game folder (Steam SteamApps Common Grand Theft Auto V), create a commandline.txt file, and add the following commands to it (one command - one line). The changes are activated on the second download of the GTA 5 game world.

"-Benchmark" (no quotes): Automatically loads the in-game benchmark instead of loading single or multiplayer modes.
"-BenchmarkFrameTimes": during the benchmark, the average frame rendering time will be shown, which will help to determine the presence of brakes;
"-BenchmarkIterations x": allows you to run the benchmark several times, with x being the number of runs;
"-BenchmarkPass x": instead of four benchmark test scenes, only one will be used;
"-Benchmarknoaudio": Mutes the sound during benchmarking;
"-DisableHyperthreading": disables Hyper Threading technology (only relevant for Intel Core i7);
-GoStraightToMP: loads the game directly into a randomly selected multiplayer match;
"-IgnoreDifferentVideoCard": prevents the game from resetting graphic settings if the video card is changed;
"-GPUCount": determines the number of video cards that the game can use;
"-ScOfflineOnly": Switches the Social Club program offline, which can speed up the load time of single-player mode and prevent you from recognizing your friends' spoilers ahead of time;
-StraightIntoFreemode: loads the game directly into a free multiplayer game;
"-PedLodBias 0.0-1.0f": Overrides Population Density, and allows the player to manually set the number of people on city streets and other areas of the game world, according to his tastes. Example: "-pedLodBias 0.7f".
"-VehicleLodBias 0.0-1.0f": Overrides Population Density, only sets not the number of civilians, but the number of cars, according to your tastes. We recommend using these two parameters together for maximum effect. Example: "-vehicleLodBias 0.3f".

You can remove the changes by simply deleting the line from the commandline.txt file, or by deleting it entirely.

And so, I have a GTX 770 graphics card on my pc, and this is a pretty strong graphics card, as you already know, but when I first started the game, the default settings were set to medium, to my surprise. Of course, I was disappointed and confused, but I found a way out and an answer to my question. Well, the solution here is one - setting up graphics manually in GTA 5.

Those who have already tried GTA 5 on their computers, probably noticed that it is simply impossible to change the settings and make them better if there is not enough video memory. But there is one way specifically for NVidia video cards, a way to bypass this annoying setting lock.

We will need the following:

1. GeForce Experience Utility;
2. Time;
3. Computer reboot.

GeForce Experience Utility can be downloaded from the official NVidia website. Run the downloaded and installed utility and select GTA 5 among the games in the list. Next to it there will be an optimization button, next to which is a picture of a wrench.

The slider needs to be moved to the extreme right position, that is, to set the focus on the quality of the game, not performance.

Now, by running GTA 5, the video memory will be unlocked and the graphics settings for the capabilities of your video card will be opened!

Thanks to a few simple steps, we get the ability to customize the graphics in GTA 5 to our individual, comfortable level. Perhaps, after setting the maximum values, the consumption of video memory will go beyond what is possible, but in reality this is not the case. In fact, its possible power is squeezed out of the video card.

At maximum settings, I made only a few adjustments:

• lowered anti-aliasing by x2;
• lowered the quality of the shadows from ultra to high.

Thus, gta 5 has become much brighter, although we sacrifice about 60 fps, it is better to play at ultra settings with fps of 50-60 and use your video card at full capacity than not to.

No one still understands why these restrictions were set, it is possible for the purchase of new video cards for 4 or more gigabytes, or maybe not.

The game does not "put pressure" on the processor and RAM, but at maximum settings, the whole emphasis is on the video card of your computer.

That's all you need to know about graphics settings in GTA 5 and bypassing its blocking... Well, we, in turn, offer free, find out more about pumping and why it is free.

How to increase FPS by delving into the settings

First of all, lower your requirements. Disable everything related to post-rendering, anti-aliasing (including FXAA and MSAA), object draw range, screen resolution and texture quality. The game has a special scale for the use of video memory (displayed directly in the settings window in the game), focusing on which you can easily select the appropriate settings for your system. Another important point is the choice of the DirectX version to use. DirectX 11 requires much more computer resources to run than DirectX 10.

If you set everything that is possible to the minimum and still did not get a comfortable number of displayed frames per second for the game, then do not despair! Let's try to dig into the software settings for your video card. In addition to the usual device management tools (like the NVidia Control Panel), there is also special software designed to optimize the performance of your video card in modern games. For NVidia video cards, such a program is called GeForce Expirience, AMD video cards use an analogue - AMD Catalyst or Radeon Software Crimson Edition. Both of these programs do an excellent job of optimizing the operation of the video card, which should significantly increase the FPS of GTA 5 PC.

Also, of course, it is worth ending all programs that consume computer resources. This refers to: browsers, streaming software, other games, and the like. If your GTA 5 slows down terribly, then look in the "task manager" and the quick access bar, most likely, there you will find a lot of programs that take away precious computing power from the game. There is an even more radical way (which, however, does not guarantee success): save all the information you need to some external medium and completely reinstall Windows. Believe me, even heaven, even Allah, does not know exactly how much various information junk has accumulated on your computer, especially if you have not really been cleaning up the system for a long time. The new, not yet clogged with garbage, the system will always work faster and more stable than the old and cluttered one.

Programs to increase FPS in GTA 5

FPS Booster

The FPS Booster GTA 5 is likely to be the answer to the age-old question: how to increase the FPS in GTA 5. This small utility disables some GTA 5 processes, and also increases the priority of the game when allocating computer resources. The program actually works, which was verified by us experimentally. GTA 5 FPS increased by an average of 20-30%, without any particularly noticeable deterioration in graphics. The latest version of FPS Booster is completely free to download from our website.

Extreme Low End PC Settings

This program, or rather, a GTA 5 mod for weak computers, allows you to lower the game settings even lower than the standard GTA 5 pc configuration tool allows. According to the author, this utility is able to provide a more or less comfortable game, even on computers with only 2 Gb of RAM, which is much lower than even the minimum requirements of GTA 5, officially announced by Rockstar Games. You can also download this program absolutely free of charge from our website. This patch for GTA 5 for weak computers will probably be your last chance, if nothing else has helped.

If even after all the above steps, you still could not play Grand Theft Auto 5 for your pleasure, then all that remains for us is to advise you to hand over your antique computer to some museum and still get something more modern ...

This section of the guide is divided into two parts. In the first part, you will find a detailed list with a description of all the graphical parameters present in the game. Many parameters will have an interactive comparison in a format that is very convenient for you, so that you can clearly assess the degree of influence on the picture quality. Note, however, that you will not find such a comparison for all parameters, because it is not possible to fully capture the effect of individual settings on the graphics using screenshots.
Also, each parameter will have a description of the degree of impact on performance, so that you can immediately understand which settings in the game should be tried to change in the first place if you are not satisfied with the current performance. Also, the influence of parameters on FPS in digital values ​​will be given.

In the second part, you will find various ways to optimize some settings and find the optimal ones for your system, based on the impact on the performance of each individual parameter, and you can also automate the game tuning process using a special program GeForce Experience for owners of NVIDIA graphics cards. All parameters will go in the chronological order
in which they are presented in the in-game settings menu of the Russian-language version of GTA 5, which means that the name of each parameter will be exactly the same as it is presented in the game.

Section Help

Use the table of contents below to quickly navigate to a description of a specific parameter, but we recommend that you read the description of each option carefully so that you can fully acquire all the necessary knowledge to optimize your game properly according to your expectations of satisfactory performance.

Part one: detailed description of graphics settings

General settings

Video memory

As well as its used quantity from the available one. This parameter shows how much video memory is currently consumed by the game to meet its needs. Don't be confused by the fact that the amount of consumed memory can significantly exceed the amount of available memory. More on this below.

Ignore suggested restrictions

In the days of GTA 4, many players could not adjust the graphics in the game to high settings only for the reason that the game itself did not allow them to do this, because they believed that if the video memory of your video card was not enough, then it was useless to try to do something and suggested In this case, be content with low settings, as long as the number of used video memory does not exceed the number of available ones. Why? Precautions to avoid performance problems, and very questionable. Then users removed this restriction using a special command for the file commandline, today Rockstar Games themselves offer you, if you have a head on your shoulders, turn off the memory limitation yourself. In theory, disabling this parameter can threaten performance problems, since in a situation when the available video memory runs out, the game begins to use expandable video memory, i.e. video memory from another source - RAM. Since RAM is much slower than video memory, there can be serious problems with loading textures or simply with freezes. In practice, however, no particular problems were noticed. The game feels great, even if it eats 2 times more memory than is available. However, too much difference between the available memory and the used memory can still lead to freezes and serious sagging during a long game (on average, more than an hour).

missing

DirectX version

This parameter allows you to select the DirectX version from three options: 10, 10.1 and 11.
The differences are that with a lower version, you will no longer have access to some graphic effects, such as, and. This parameter,
in fact, it does not significantly affect performance and the difference in FPS on different versions is minimal and,
oddly enough, the best stability and performance is mostly shown by
DirectX 11, though, owners of rather weak video cards say that switching to version 10 can help and get rid of some graphical artifacts and sagging, as well as raise FPS a little.
In any case, try changing the version if you are not satisfied with the 11th. Perhaps this will help you.

Impact on performance: the average
FPS difference: 8-10 FPS between 10 and 11 on outdated, weak video cards.

Screen type

Indicates how to display the game: full screen, windowed, or borderless window.
This option is self-explanatory. Just note that for some, playing in a window can give better performance and reduce the load time of the game itself. You can switch to full screen when the game is in windowed mode using the Alt + Enter keyboard shortcut.

Impact on performance: missing

Permission

The screen resolution at which the game will run. A lower resolution can significantly increase performance, but for the sake of significant damage to the picture. It is recommended to set the native resolution of your screen, or at least a multiple of the main one, so that the sharpness of the image is not lost.

Impact on performance: the average
FPS difference: depends on the individual characteristics of the computer components.

Format

Impact on performance: missing

Update frequency

The rate at which your monitor is able to refresh the screen. It is recommended to set the native frequency of the monitor.

Impact on performance: missing

Output Monitor

This option is needed for those who have more than one monitor installed. The parameter selects the screen on which the game image should be displayed. So, if you have two monitors, one can have a game, and the other a desktop, for example.

Impact on performance: missing

Anti-aliasing (FXAA, MSAA, TXAA)

It was decided to combine all anti-aliasing settings under one heading in the guide, since they are closely related and this is most convenient for you to appreciate the difference between the various modes of this setting. There are three types of anti-aliasing available in the game, each of which has different principles of work and impact on performance.

The first is the temporal anti-aliasing technology. FXAA, developed by NVIDIA, which is successfully used in many games and sometimes gives good results on objects close to the player, but long-range plans, as a rule, remain not too processed and, as a result, do not look the best. This is quite noticeable when using this type of anti-aliasing in GTA 5. The implementation itself leaves much to be desired, because this algorithm works very badly. Personally, I was most annoyed by the mini-map, which was all covered with "ladders" (distortion at the edges of objects or lines, aliasing), it literally hurt my eyes, therefore, another solution was found using this anti-aliasing, since it is, nevertheless, gives the best performance results.
It is detailed in the second part of this guide.

Next comes anti-aliasing MSAA, which has a more pronounced effect, but also requires significantly more video card resources. Unlike FXAA, this anti-aliasing is permanent, which means it is applied to the entire scene, including both near and far objects. Only available with DirectX 11.

The following is NVIDIA's exclusive Temporal Anti-Aliasing Technology TXAA, which is designed to significantly improve the quality of the picture in the game in the background. It should be noted that enabling this type of anti-aliasing is available only when MSAA is enabled, i.e. these algorithms work in pairs. MSAA coupled with TXAA can provide stunningly clear images, however, for this you need a top-level graphics card.

To assess the differences in the performance of various anti-aliasing algorithms, use our interactive comparison (it is recommended to look at full screen scale):

Impact on performance:

• FXAA - low
• MSAA - high(consumes lot video memory)
• TXAA - the average

FPS difference:

Vertical sync

Or V-Sync. The technology synchronizes the FPS in the game with the scan rate of the monitor and allows you to remove vertical distortion (jerking). A very useful feature as it becomes easier to perceive the image, as the picture acquires smoothness. Many people do not like this option because it limits FPS and supposedly kills performance a lot. This statement is only 50% erroneous, since disabling this function will allow you to find out the maximum FPS that the game can produce on your hardware, but during a normal game, disabling this function will do nothing, since your monitor is not able to show FPS above its sweep frequency. which means that you are not gaining anything if you hope to see 100 frames per second on a 60Hz monitor. Plus, it's also about the anatomy of the human eye, which is unable to perceive such high values.

The parameter has several meanings:

• 100% - FPS will be limited by the monitor frequency (60Hz - 60 FPS)
• 50% - FPS will be limited to 1/2 of the monitor frequency (60Hz - 30 FPS)
• Off - FPS is unlimited.

I personally recommend that you enable this option anyway. If you have a very powerful system and off. synchronization FPS in the game is 60 and above, then enable full synchronization, if the average FPS is below 60, then enable the option to 50%. In some cases, it is recommended to enable vertical sync on your video card.

Impact on performance: missing

Automatically pause the game in the background

Enabling this option forces the game to pause itself when you minimize the game with Alt + TAB or switch to another monitor if you have more than one. This is a very useful feature, as it allows you to avoid any changes in the gameplay without you being absent. when any application is minimized, it continues to work, even if the application window is not active at the moment and it seems to you that no changes are taking place.

Impact on performance: missing

City population

This parameter is a scale by filling in which you can adjust the number of pedestrians and traffic on the streets of Los Santos and Blaine County. The more this scale is filled, the more pedestrians and cars you will meet on your way. Unlike GTA 4, where this parameter significantly reduced performance, here the drop in frame rate as such is not felt. The discussed setting works closely with other parameters, such as: Population variety, Particle quality, Special effects setting, Reflection quality and finally Shadow quality... The thing is that pedestrians and traffic are game objects, which are also subject to the above parameters. Considering this fact, the most optimal value for this parameter will be 75% of the total filling of the scale. This value will avoid FPS losses as such, because the difference between 0% and 100% is only about 3-5 frames per second, and they begin to be lost when approaching the max. mark. At the recommended 75%, you will get the optimal amount of traffic and pedestrians on the street and practically not lose anything in performance, but again, the results may differ on different computers, so experiment, but do not be afraid of high values ​​of this parameter.

Impact on performance: low
FPS difference:

Population variety

A very interesting parameter. How? Yes, the fact that it has absolutely no effect on performance, but at the same time it consumes a fairly large amount of video memory. It affects the variety of pedestrians and traffic in the game world. So that you understand how to properly adjust it personally in your case, I will try to explain to you the mechanism of action of this setting: suppose that there are 100 types of transport in the game (in fact, there are more of them, this is just an example) and 50 types of pedestrians (similarly, this is an example ). With a value of 50% of the parameter under discussion, 50 types of transport and 25 types of pedestrians will be loaded into the memory of your video card, and then they will be distributed throughout the game world, that is, two times less than they actually are. Does this mean that the game will select 50 specific vehicles and only use them? No, it’s not like that. Vehicles will change at regular intervals, but at the same time you can only observe 50 of these cars at the same time in the game world, similar to pedestrians. If you increase the parameter City population, then the number of copies of those same 50 cars and 25 pedestrians will increase in the game world. Hopefully clear?

The very technology of duplication (copying) of transport and pedestrians works in such a way as to duplicate each subject in the game world (1 type of transport or pedestrian) 5 times in order to maintain a certain balance of diversity on the streets of Los Santos.
The higher the value of this parameter, the more unique pedestrians you can meet while walking along the city streets and the more unique types of transport you can overtake while rushing along the numerous city roads. As mentioned before, this parameter consumes video memory very much, but personally I think that if you have to sacrifice graphics for the sake of better performance, then it is better to neglect the quality of shadows or reflections (the main consumers of memory after textures) than the variety and richness of the game world ... Which is better: to be in a very beautiful (graphically) game world, but rather poor in population (empty), or to have a fairly lively city and village, but with a slightly less impressive picture? It's up to you and only you, but as I said, this parameter should still be left a priority.

Author's note: the video memory on my video card is 1 GB. I am using fairly high settings in general and the texture quality is set to "High", while the discussed parameter Population variety I have installed similarly City population, i.e. by 75%. In total, the game consumes 2181 MB of video memory. I cannot say that I am experiencing any serious problems in terms of performance due to such an excess of available video memory. The game works great even if the amount of video memory is much larger than the available one. What am I doing? In addition, you should not be afraid of this parameter and you should leave it at least 50%, otherwise the city starts to empty quite noticeably, or you meet the same cars and the same pedestrians, because the game begins to duplicate them all by 5 once. If you have 2 GB of memory, then all the more you should not limit this setting and it is advisable to set its percentage as high as possible. Experiment, friends.

Impact on performance: missing(but consumes lot video memory)

Focusing scale

It is the drawing distance. Yes, I also have no idea why the translators from 1C named this parameter with such a strange name, but still, the essence of the parameter does not change from the name. This setting affects the distance of drawing smaller parts of various objects in the in-game world.
I must say that when adjusting this parameter, I could not so much understand its meaning because of the strange name (I was looking for changes "in focus"), but because there were no serious drops in FPS. That at 100%, that at 0%, the number of frames per second changed by a maximum of 3-5 values. Remembering all the same GTA 4, where this parameter significantly affected the performance, a completely different picture is observed here. Actually, this is because the very detailing of those very small parts of objects does not change so much, since the game has a very high drawing distance for the entire map by default. To still find the very difference when changing this interesting in every sense of the option, I recommend using the following interactive comparison:

Impact on performance: low
FPS difference: 3-5 FPS between 0% and 100% respectively.

Texture quality

In principle, this parameter does not need any special explanations, since everything is very clear from the name. Affects the quality of all textures in the game. Most of all consumes video memory. It consumes very seriously, I must say. It does not affect performance in any way, although, nevertheless, there is a difference of 1-2 FPS, but it is so insignificant that I see no reason to take it into account. Regarding the amount of video memory and the value of this setting: if you have 1 GB of video memory, it is recommended to set it to "High", because with the texture quality "Standard" you will immediately forget that you are playing the PC version of the game. The textures will be like on the previous generation of consoles. As already mentioned a little earlier (you are reading everything, right?), The game works quite stably and with the amount of used video memory, which significantly exceeds the available one. Therefore, if you have 1 GB, feel free to set the option to the value "High". If you have 2 GB or more, you can set it to "Very High". According to the numerous reviews of both Russian and Western players (and not only), we can conclude that you will not see much difference in the quality of textures between the last two parameters (playing at resolutions up to 1080p when viewed from a third person). If you are playing at 4K resolution, then it already makes sense to set the maximum value for textures. This option is very closely related to the parameter Shader quality, since the latter includes Parallax Mapping technology, which has a very noticeable effect on the corresponding effects for textures. So, if your texture quality is set to "Standard", then you will not be able to fully appreciate the work of the above technology. So that you can visually assess the differences for different values ​​of the option Texture quality, we made an interactive comparison, choosing an amusement park on the pier as an object for comparison:

Author's note: in the screenshot with the "Standard" value, you can see that the FPS is 89 (which is much more than on other values), but I hasten to disappoint you, with many other tests it was found that there is no difference in FPS in a regular game and this inscription in the screenshot is nothing more than a measurement error.

Impact on performance: missing(but consumes lot video memory)

FPS difference: 1-2 FPS between "Standard" and "Very High" respectively.

Shader quality

First of all, this setting affects the quality and quantity of various light sources, the quality of textures (Parallax Mapping technology is used), on the water surface (glare on the water surface and the appearance of water effects), on the volume and naturalness of grass and trees, on the final result anisotropic filtering, sunlight, etc. This parameter, like many others, begins to actively show worse results when switching to the "Standard" value. Differences between "High" and "Very High" not so much noticeable, however, depending on the combination of time of day and weather conditions, you may feel some difference in the perception of the game world. It becomes slightly less "saturated" in terms of lighting and additional surface detail. Especially, such changes are very well felt in the desert and forests of Blaine County, due to the large number of surfaces where the Parallax Mapping effect is applied and where the play of light and shadow is active. You can use the interactive comparison below to visually assess the impact of this parameter on the quality of the graphics component.

This comparison shows the result of Parallax Mapping. As I said before, its impact is especially noticeable in Blaine County on surfaces like this, where every pebble and every bump can lose volume, which generally leads to a decrease in the feel of playing in the area. For weak and medium computers, it is recommended to leave this parameter at the "High" or "Very high" value, sacrificing 2-3 FPS, since the difference between these two values ​​is not that great, and when moving from "Standard" to the last two mentioned settings, you can notice a noticeable drop in FPS.

Impact on performance: the average
FPS difference: 6-8 FPS between Standard and High, 2-3 FPS between High and Very High.

Shadow quality

This parameter determines how clear and detailed the shadows will be, as well as how they will interact with the outside world when cast by other objects when illuminated by the latter (for example, headlights of a car). The higher the value of this setting, the higher the resolution will be the shadow map - the "texture" of the shadow, which is generated using a special algorithm and applied to the surface. As a consequence, the shadow itself will have more detail and no "stepping" (the result of scaling the low-resolution shadow map). This option, together with the " High-resolution shadows This parameter has a rather noticeable impact on performance and uses video memory, which means
its setting should be approached with special attention. If the value is "Very High" you will feel a very significant loss in FPS, while the quality, in contrast to the "High" value, will not change much. Such settings are more likely to be relevant for games at resolutions higher than 1080p, up to 4K. The optimal choice would be the "High" value, while the related parameter "Soft Shadows" should be left at Soft. This will allow you to get unobtrusive soft shadows with a small loss in performance. In case you are not satisfied with this combination, you can experiment with the values ​​of the soft shadows parameter, since it has less effect on performance than the main parameter. "Shadow quality".

Impact on performance: high
FPS difference:

Reflection quality

The parameter affects the detail, clarity and fidelity of the surrounding world in the reflections of objects such as car bodies, various shiny and reflective surfaces, puddles, water surfaces, glass and mirrors (in houses and hairdressers). It should be noted right away that the discussed parameter will make you sob to think carefully about choosing the optimal quality for reflections, since even at the "High" value, the latter do not inspire confidence and look like they came straight from the last generation of consoles. It must be admitted that they start to look more or less worthy only with the value "Very high", while not so much reducing the performance on computers of the middle and high class. Owners of weak systems should either diligently avoid encounters with reflective surfaces, especially mirrors (which, in principle, is unrealistic), or sacrifice other graphic charms in order to maintain a playable FPS. But I will not over-dramatize. So that you yourself can compare the quality of reflections with different settings, we have prepared an interactive comparison.