Grand Theft Auto V is not just a game but a real cultural and gaming milestone that has maintained its popularity for almost nine years. Despite its age, GTA 5 continues to be among the most popular projects on the Steam and Epic Games platforms. Every day, it gathers hundreds of thousands of players, and its 24-hour peak has reached 100-200k users combined. We decided to test GTA 5 on the most modern components to check how brilliantly thought-out this game is. Even today, it can compete with fresh AAA projects.
Relevance of the 2024 Hardware Tests
Although GTA 5 was released almost ten years ago, its technical performance remains outstanding. Rockstar’s developers continue to support the game with periodic GTA 5 graphics settings updates, bug fixes and so on, which contributes to its longevity on the market. However, like any old game, questions arise: How does it run on modern video cards and processors? Has it lost its relevance against the background of newer projects?
We conducted tests using the latest components to understand how well it functions on the most powerful PCs and what graphics settings may be optimal for different configurations. In addition, we looked at how the game runs on the Steam Deck, a console that has become a popular choice for gamers who prefer to play on the go.
GTA 5 Performance on the Latest Graphics Cards
Our tests were performed on a system with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card and an Intel Core i9-12900K processor. Let’s see how GTA 5 behaves at different resolutions.
1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions:
- Tests at these resolutions showed that despite the possibility of 4K graphics, the game remains limited primarily by the processor. Regardless of the resolution, performance remains stable on the RTX 4090, but at 1080p and 1440p, we see better frame rates and less system load.
- At maximum graphics settings, playing at 4K causes a noticeable drop in frame rate, but this is more due to the peculiarities of CPU optimization. At 1080p and 1440p, the performance difference isn’t that big, indicating that there’s a CPU bottleneck preventing the graphics card from fully exploiting its potential at these resolutions.
But that’s not the limit. There are a couple more things you can turn on and load the video card’s memory so that it will be “surprised” that a game that is more than 10 years old is doing this.
Graphics and Settings That Affect Performance
GTA 5 offers a variety of graphics settings that can be adjusted depending on the power of your PC. The main ones are:
Texture Quality and Filtering:
- High-resolution textures make the picture more detailed, but on weak PCs, the “Very High” setting can lead to high video memory usage. For optimal performance on medium-end systems, it is recommended to select “High”, and for high-end systems – “Very High.”
- Texture filtering (especially on perpendicular surfaces) plays an important role in the clarity of images at the edges of the screen. It is important to note that 16x filtering gives the best result with minimal performance loss.
Shadows and Reflection Quality:
- Shadow quality directly affects the realism of the scene and performance. High shadow settings can significantly reduce FPS. For optimization, it is recommended to set “Sharp” or “Softer” shadows on weaker systems.
- Reflection Quality also affects system resources. Setting it to “Ultra” worsens FPS, especially at 4K. For medium PCs, it is recommended to select “High” or “Very High.”
Ambient Occlusion (PostFX):
- Ambient Occlusion creates shadows in places where light cannot reach directly. In GTA 5, depth is added to scenes. Set it to “High” for a good balance between quality and performance.
- PostFX includes effects such as motion blur and light glare. Elements such as “motion blur” and “depth of field” do not significantly affect the image quality but can cause small FPS drops on weak PCs.
Last place goes to unnoticeable (sometimes) things that seem to play an insignificant role. We are talking about water and grass. Yeah, these guys can have a huge impact on FPS. So, if you’re not so much after aesthetics as you are after smooth gameplay, feel free to reduce the quality of water and grass to a minimum (or use mods to reduce them to almost 0).
GTA 5: Disadvantages and Limitations
GTA 5 remains heavily limited in terms of CPU performance. Even at 4K resolution and with powerful graphics cards, the CPU load remains high.
How to avoid this:
- Reducing Population Density and Distance Scaling significantly reduces the CPU load while improving frame stability in the game.
- Extended Distance Scaling and Extended Shadows are the most resource-intensive settings, so they should be reduced or disabled to improve performance.
According to our tests, with maximum settings enabled at 4K, GTA 5 uses up to 7.1 GB of video memory. For 1440p and 1080p, this number drops to 5.8 GB and 5.5 GB, respectively. Disabling High-Resolution Shadows and lowering texture settings will help reduce video memory consumption and improve stability.
Optimal Settings for GTA 5
|
PC Level |
High-End PC |
Mid-PC |
Low-end PC |
|
Resolution |
4K |
1440p |
1080p |
|
Textures |
Very High |
Very High |
High-Low |
|
Shadows |
Very High |
High |
Softest (or disabled) |
|
Filtering |
16х |
8x |
4x |
|
PostFX |
Ultra |
High |
Low (or disabled) |
|
Anisotropic Filtering |
8x |
2х |
2х (or disabled) |
In general, even for today’s PCs, which are not considered the most productive, GTA 5 runs quite smoothly and is not bad. Yes, if your PC is still at the level of the time the game was released, then perhaps you should review the settings and reduce them to a minimum. Do not forget that the game itself tells you how much video memory is used and what optimal settings are recommended for you.
Conclusion
GTA 5 continues to be one of the most popular titles on the market even after almost 11 years. Although the game (after hundreds of updates and upgrades) requires a solid processor and GPU, it can still please players if you configure its settings correctly. Be flexible with the settings, focusing on the characteristics of your PC, and you will be able to get a great gaming experience, regardless of whether you are playing on a high-end PC or device like Steam Deck or even Nintendo.
