Many people still have a weak computer at home, and the gaming industry does not stand still - games are becoming more and more demanding of PC resources and computing power. In this article you will learn how to optimize GTA 5 for playing on a weak computer so that you can at least somehow play it.

Changing the settings in settings.xml

The first thing we need to do is turn all the settings to the minimum, but this cannot be done through the game menu GTA V, so we will do everything manually. Download the ready-made settings file settings.xml and replace the original settings file with it (after saving it), it is located along the path: C:\Users\USER_NAME\Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\settings.xml. You just need to replace the name of the video card with yours, take it from the original settings.xml, the very last line. There are 3 options for settings for extensions in the archive, choose which one you need, if the computer is really a bucket, then choose 800x600.

Shadows will be removed, graphics will be reduced to a minimum, in general everything will be at the very minimum, the drawing distance will be minimal, but the FPS will increase.

GTA 5 FPS booster program

Second - let's launch GTA 5 through the program FPS booster, which will improve game performance by 20-30%.
How to use FPS booster: in the archive there is a file with detailed instructions, but I will describe it briefly. Download FPS booster, unpack it in any place, not necessarily in the game folder. Next, if you have a Steam version, then launch GTA 5 through the file “START_GTAV.bat” and follow the further instructions in the window that appears, if you downloaded the game from a torrent, then move the file "Non_Steam_GTAVLauncher.bat" from the standalone_scripts folder to the game folder and launch the game through it.
FPS booster terminates all unnecessary processes and services on the computer, even disables Explorer, freeing up precious resources for the game, which significantly increases playability and FPS on an old PC. After exiting the game, all services start again.

If you have followed the procedures described above, but still have not achieved a comfortable FPS, then nothing will help except upgrading your PC.

In-game settings

Detailed setting

Ignore memory limit - disable.

DirectX - setting 10, 11 direct gives us access to additional settings, such as msaa anti-aliasing, tessellation and grass quality.

Screen resolution and frequency - here we just set our resolution and 60 hz, because this is exactly the fps we will achieve.

Anti-aliasing fxaa - we must turn it on, it has almost no effect on performance, but the result of anti-aliasing is obvious, because this is standard anti-aliasing.

Anti-aliasing msaa - turn it off, with directive 10 it will not be available, one of the most demanding settings in the game, I recommend turning it off even on powerful video cards, for those who experience freezes, and the most interesting thing is that x2 and off have practically no visual difference, but about 20 are lost fps right away, so I recommend turning on only x8 for owners of top video cards, but we turn it off.

Vertical synchronization is a must and highly recommended, the picture looks much better and smoother with it at 60 fps than without it at 80 fps, but first we turn it off to test the overall fps.

Population, variety and focus - I fully explain why to the minimum, the population of the city at the minimum value is the standard, the city will not be empty, if you remember GTA 4, then by turning this slider to the minimum the city became dead, then this is the normal state of the city, so turn it off , the same thing applies to the diversity of the population, I would call this option “meaningless consumption of video memory”, and what about focusing, to be honest, I didn’t notice a difference with my settings, but at the maximum value it also produces infrequent game freezes, so turn it off.

Quality of textures - everything is simple here, 1 GB of video memory is only standard quality, for owners of video cards with a memory capacity of 2 GB or more, I advise you to try setting it to high, if 1 GB - set it to medium by default.

Shader quality - set to high - shaders make the textures in the field of view higher quality, but are not as demanding as textures, I would call them a cheap analogue of high quality textures.

The quality of the shadows is normal.

Reflection quality is standard, because We need to achieve FPS, and not peer at the reflections on the glass.

Water quality is standard, for the same reason as reflections.

The quality of particles, grass and special effects is standard.

Soft shadows - I recommend that owners of top-end and pre-top video cards set sharp shadows, that is, to the minimum this parameter, but we set either soft or as soft as possible, shadows of standard quality, they are very angular, there is a “ladder”, but just with this softness function shadows, they become with rounded edges and we see ladders very, very rarely, the quality of the shadows improves right before our eyes, although initially we set the shadows to the standard, in the end we get lower-quality shadows with a minimum of performance costs.

Anisotropic filtering - set to x16, a useful function, together with our high shaders it makes the picture pleasing to the eye.

AO shading - here we set it only based on our preferences, try all the options, this function does not particularly affect the FPS or the picture.

If it doesn't help

If all of the above did not help, and your FPS is jumping, then there may be problems with the OS or hardware.
Hardware problems are most likely either RAM, hard drive, or overheating. If we have a problem with the RAM, then we need to run it through the memtest program. Hard - free up disk space, do defragmentation (For the latter, I recommend O&O Defragmenter). It is better to deal with overheating step by step - first, clean the system unit from dust, replace the thermal paste on the processor, etc. It's better to read articles on this matter.

Settings in the system

Lower your graphics card's graphics settings

For NVIDIA video cards, you need to go to the “NVIDIA control panel” (usually right-click on the desktop) and in the “Adjust image settings” tab, move the slider to the “Performance” state.

The video card is one of the main components on which the FPS depends.
Now I will show you how to configure an NVIDIA video card.

First, let's look at the power supply:

Control Panel - Power Options - Set Sleep Mode - Change Advanced Power Settings - PCI Express - Link State Power Management - Value: Off.

Next, open the NVIDIA Control Panel, and in the "3D Settings" list, select "Manage 3D Settings", select grand theft auto v and specify these settings:
Anisotropic filtering: OFF
Vertical Sync: OFF
Background Light Shading: OFF
Maximum number of pre-prepared frames: 4
Threading optimization: ON (If multiple processors)
Power Management Mode: Maximum Performance Preferred
Anti-Aliasing - Gamma Correction: OFF
Antialiasing - Transparency: OFF
Triple Buffering: OFF
Texture Filtering - Anisotropic Sampling Optimization: OFF
Texture filtering - quality: High performance
Texture filtering - negative deviation UD: Snap
Texture Filtering - Trilinear Optimization: OFF

System performance

At this stage everything is simple. Go to “My Computer”, then “Properties”, “Additional System Parameters”, “Performance”, below “Parameters” and select the column “Ensure the best performance”

Permission

It is better to set the resolution to low. The higher the resolution, the lower the fps.

Solving some problems

If your mouse twitches when browsing, then this problem can be solved in this way:

Lags/freezes when driving a car:

1. First, lower the game's graphic settings. Very often this problem occurs due to enabled options that are not supported by the hardware. For example, switch DirectX, etc.

2. Uninstall old drivers for the video card through the Control Panel. After that, download the latest version of the drivers and install it.

3. If you have a licensed copy, check the integrity of the game cache in the game properties in the Steam library.

GTA V crashes. Game freezes:

1. Lower the graphics settings in the game. This will most likely allow you to avoid errors in processing game data, which often lead to crashes.

2. Run the game as administrator

3. Make sure that the game has enough resources - if necessary, increase the swap file.

4. For owners of licensed copies of the game, it is possible to check files for integrity in the game properties, in the Steam library.

5. Sometimes reinstalling the drivers for the video card helps. A clean installation is recommended.

6. The game may freeze if your hard drive is of poor quality and cannot provide the required data transfer speed.

7. Freezing may be caused by overheating of the computer. Keep an eye on this.

Textures disappear in GTA V. No textures:

1. Run GTA V as administrator.

2. Minimize the game and open the task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL)

3. Find the game process and set it to high priority by right-clicking.

4. If it doesn’t help, try increasing the paging file in the system settings, as well as lowering the graphics settings and screen resolution in the game.

GTA 5 cannot be saved. Problem with saves in GTA V:

1. Launch the game as administrator.

2. Check that the system user name is written in Latin letters.

Make sure that there is free space on drive C and the drive where the game is installed.

3. You must have Rockstar Social Club installed and logged in.

I hope your FPS has increased!
Thank you for reading this material, I hope I helped you.
Subscribe to my channel :)

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

GTA 5 official system requirements :

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.

On PC there will be a higher level of detail running on 1080p and 60 fps with 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 publish 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 (version no lower than DX 10, 10.1, 11)
• 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 2 GB / AMD HD7870 2 GB
• Sound card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• Disk space: 65 GB
• DVD drive

Pay attention to the requirements for 4 cores! It is possible that owners of processors with fewer cores will not be able to run the game (or rather, they will be able to, but with the help of a separate program). That's how it was with the game Far Cry 4, which we will talk about below, owners of 2-core processors had to download Dual Core Fix to launch the game, without it the game simply froze with a black screen.

Testing GTA 5 on different computers

Will the game work for you?

Will it work for me??? To be honest, I don’t want to personally explain to everyone whether GTA 5 will work for them. There is an easier way: install Far Cry 4. If it runs at maximum settings, there is nothing to worry about; if at minimum settings there are lags, then in GTA 5 the lags will be even worse.

• OS: also 64-bit versions of Windows 8.1, 8, 7
• CPU. For Intel processors you need more power, 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 lower. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2 GB (NVIDIA GTX 660) or AMD Radeon R9 290X (AMD HD7870)

PS4 Specifications

Recently, the Internet is full of different options for system requirements. There are even cases where the requirements for GTA 5 were taken almost according to the maximum possible computer configurations. Judge for yourself what income the publishers will have if the GTA5 game is not bought by everyone due to weak hardware. There were others who published GTA5 requirements, where only 25 GB were allocated for the game, although the PS4 takes about 50 GB, but in fact it turned out that it was necessary 65 GB. And nothing, fakes were actively spread.

If you judge the quality of graphics based on the version for xbox 360 And PS 3, then the GTA 5 game could easily run on computers that were 5 years old. But with the release of the GTA 5 trailer on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, it became clear that the requirements will be much higher (the maximum requirements will not be lower than the hardware on PS4 Xbox One, their characteristics are listed below).

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

Characteristics of the PS4 version of GTA 5.

• Resolution 1920x1080, 30 FPS, double buffering.
• 2xMSAA (2x anti-aliasing).
• Increased size and bump maps textures.
• HDAO.
• Tesselation.
• Reduced the delay when switching a character from single player to GTA Online.
• The number of pedestrians and vehicles on the roads has increased.
• Best quality game videos.
• The best quality music on the radio.

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

• Improved waves, water ripples, water in the rain and when cars pass.
• More grass and bushes will appear.
• Improvements to various structures. Smoking chimneys and workers will be added to businesses.
• More traffic on the roads.
• The interior of the cars has been significantly improved.
• Increased draw distance and shadow range.
• Improved textures.

Max Payne 3 System Requirements

With the release of Max Payne 3, more information was added for comparison. Graphically, the PC version on powerful computers looks more beautiful than on consoles. The resolution in Max is scalable, you can even display it on 6 monitors. In addition, Max Payne 3 supports DirectX 11 and, therefore, has 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
The result: 30 FPS with a resolution of 1920x1080

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
The result: 60 FPS with a resolution of 1920x1080

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

Building a PC for GTA 5

Graphics settings in GTA 5 are a sore subject for all people with weak and average system performance on personal computers. This is an incredibly beautiful and interesting game that any gamer wants to plunge into. That is why a detailed analysis of the settings with an overview of system requirements in the article will greatly help to achieve maximum FPS.

Minimum hardware set

In order for the game to simply launch with the lowest graphics settings, GTA 5 requires that the system meet the minimum requirements. In this list, the main role is played by the processor and video card. The computer must be equipped with an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 with a clock speed of 2.4 gigahertz or equivalent from AMD. The GPU must be from NVIDIA or AMD. The minimum models are 9800 GT and HD 4870 per gigabyte, respectively. Also important parameters are the presence of at least four gigabytes of RAM, as well as support for DirectX 10 technology.

To ensure that the graphics settings in GTA 5 do not have to be reset to a minimum, the personal computer must comply with the recommended system requirements. It is worth noting that there is enormous growth in all respects. For example, for smooth operation a processor will require at least a Core i5 3470 with a clock frequency of 3.2 gigahertz from Intel or an analogue from AMD.

The amount of RAM is no longer 4, but 8 gigabytes. 2 GB GTX 660 and HD7870 video cards from NVIDIA and AMD, respectively. As for operating systems, the minimum supported is Windows 7 of the first build, but 64-bit is required.

The need for a sound card that supports DirectX 10 does not go away. After complete installation, the game will occupy approximately 65 gigabytes of disk space. Users need to prepare their digital space in advance. These are the indicators you should focus on when setting up an application in terms of graphics.

First steps

Before taking on the graphics settings in GTA 5 in detail, you must first understand what system requirements the user’s computer meets. Based on this, making certain shawls will be much easier. It is worth noting that the developers made sure that gamers had the opportunity to create an almost unique set of parameters for their system.

There are a large number of parameters that affect performance. Tests during setup are best carried out in urban locations, at the docks near Trevor’s house, for example. It is in these places that the subsidence of personnel is recorded in the greatest number. If you can achieve a clear FPS indicator here, then there will definitely not be any problems in other locations. You should immediately pay attention to fxaa anti-aliasing, which is recommended to be left on average PCs, and for weaker ones - look at the tests. The parameter improves the picture, but has almost no effect on system loading, and this is its advantage.

Further settings

If you are adjusting graphics for weak PCs in GTA 5, then the option to ignore memory limitations must be disabled first. This function was created with a focus on video cards from the GTX 660, but with a small amount of memory. Such a GPU can pull the load, and therefore it would be logical for it to ignore the restrictions.

On weaker video cards, it may happen that 100% load appears without a peak in the video memory scale. This is the surest way to discover the slowdowns and loss of smoothness from the game in the open world.

With DirectX technology, things are also not so simple. After all, for medium and weak PCs it is necessary to install the tenth version of the OS. If you place the technology one step higher on your computer, additional settings will appear. But on a weak system you will still have to turn them off. At the same time, the “ten” saves two hundred megabytes of GPU memory, and the DirectX versions have almost no effect on the picture quality.

Three important parameters

If the graphics settings in GTA 5 on a PC are carried out for the weakest system, then you should pay attention to the screen resolution. Each monitor has its own number of points, but if you put it one level or several lower in the game, you can significantly improve the FPS. It is recommended to do this only as a last resort. After all, the quality of the picture deteriorates significantly.

Msaa smoothing is a very tricky item. But it is present only when installing the eleventh version of DirectX. It is recommended to turn it off even on powerful video cards if lags are observed. The parameter is the most demanding in terms of performance, and there is no noticeable difference between complete shutdown and x2. If you set it, then only on x8, provided you have the latest model video card. Vertical sync should be disabled for weaker PCs, but first you need to run a test. With it, the graphics look much more attractive, and therefore it is better to verify its impact on performance.

Textures and population in the city

If a player does not save graphics settings in GTA 5, then it is worth writing to the developers about this problem via Steam. With the presence of a pirated version, everything becomes worse, and you will have to look for another version. After all, optimal performance will not be achieved. The next parameter in the settings will be the texture quality. Medium should be left for video cards with a memory capacity of 1 gigabyte, and high should be set on models with 2 times more memory.

It is best to keep the population in the city to a minimum. The streets do not become dead, and the FPS indicator increases slightly due to this. The developers also provided the opportunity to make the people in the city as diverse as possible. Only the player will rarely pay attention to this, and such a function takes a lot of video memory. Therefore, lower this slider, together with the third one, which is responsible for focusing, to zero. You will not feel a significant difference from this action.

Shadow Operations

The optimal graphics settings in GTA 5 are considered to be those that will show a picture of good quality with a minimum of performance costs. The shadow parameter will help with this, which hides one small but useful feature. In the quality column, you should leave it at normal; you shouldn’t go higher, as slowdowns in the game will be guaranteed. Next you should go to the “Soft Shadows” item and set the maximum value there. If this is not done, then in the game world there will be angularity of objects, and in some cases even unevenness in the form of a ladder.

The shadow operations described above can help you avoid this with minimal performance overhead. Owners of the latest GPU models don't have to bother with this. For them, it is recommended to set the quality to high and sharp shadows in order to enjoy excellent picture quality in the game world.

Latest settings

Among the latest graphics settings in GTA 5 for medium-sized PCs, you need to set it to x16. Not a demanding indicator, but the picture quality improves significantly. In combination with this setting, you should set the quality of the shaders to high. They require significantly less resources for textures, and up close to the character the graphics are simply amazing.

Reflection, water, grass, etc. can be completely turned off at the time of testing the main indicators. Only after receiving an FPS indicator of 30 frames in problem areas can you proceed to adjusting these characteristics. In additional settings you need to disable everything. After all, this column was made for owners of TOP video cards. If you do everything according to the instructions and regularly do tests after saving the parameters, the user will be able to achieve smoothness for comfortable entertainment.

Maximum draw distance, particle quality, tessellation, grass quality... If you're trying to squeeze a couple more frames per second out of the new Grand Theft Auto V, you may be a little confused by some of the options in the settings. How much do they change the visual aspect of the game? How do they affect performance? What exactly are they?

Luckily, Nvidia has put together a handy GTA V graphics guide that explains all the visual settings and shows the difference in screenshots.

Of course, the higher the resolution, the more pleasant the game looks, but sometimes changing the settings does not make the difference so noticeable, but the increase in frame rate is significant. We missed the part of the guide where the company praises its products with all its might, but I am sure that it is not so important for players.

Of course, no one forbids you to reach everything yourself, relying on the method of scientific poking, but the manual will make your life much easier. After looking at the graphs, I'll likely lower the quality of the grass to achieve a consistent 60fps. True, all my short visits to Los Santos invariably end with the search for a pond where I can swim. Something is clearly wrong with me...

See translation of the guide below. Any questions can be asked in the comments below.

Grand Theft Auto V needs no introduction. It is one of the best-selling games of all time and has earned the highest critical acclaim of any game of the last decade. And now that the long-awaited PC version has finally been released, we offer you a detailed analysis of its technological content, which greets you in the face of a wide variety of graphics settings.

System requirements

Below are the official system requirements, showing how scalable Rockstar was able to make their game. Minimal ones allow you to run it even on old machines; If you want pictures like on consoles, then check out the recommended ones. However, to enjoy maximum graphics quality, you'll need something much faster.

Minimum

• OS: Windows Vista 64-Bit or later
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 or AMD Phenom 9850
• RAM: 4 GB
• Video card: GeForce 9800 GT 1 GB or AMD HD 4870
• DirectX: version 10 or later

• Processor: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2 GHz or AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
• RAM: 8 GB
• Video card: GeForce GTX 660 or AMD HD 7870

Testing Notes

In Los Santos and Blaine County, no two seconds are the same. Trees sway, unscripted events occur, people are randomly generated. All this creates the atmosphere of a living, breathing world, but at the same time it makes perfect comparison and testing difficult. To counteract this variability, each test was run multiple times, and multiple locations were selected to test each setting.

In such cases, we resorted to quick saves, director mode, and gameplay scenarios to simulate expected performance in the game. But sometimes you still had to use the built-in benchmark. The problem is that each of its four parts produces a 5 fps spread from test to test. To mitigate the impact of this variation, we generated a starting point as the average of 10 tests at maximum settings. Then, to determine the impact of individual settings on performance, we ran five more tests for each level of detail of the option being tested and took the average of them, making the numbers as accurate as possible.

To visually compare the settings that require a reboot, additional tests were carried out with video capture via ShadowPlay at the highest possible bitrate and a speed of 60 frames per second. We received three-minute videos of ~1.6 GB in size, from which we subsequently selected images. They differ slightly from each other, but we believe that this is the most accurate way to reflect the impact of such settings on graphics.

Regarding the results presented: If you have a previous-generation graphics card, expect a greater variation in performance at different detail levels. For example, GeForce GTX 900 series GPUs are faster at anti-aliasing and tessellation than the previous generation, so the difference between FXAA and MSAA or tessellation on/off will be less noticeable on them.

Finally, please note that while the built-in benchmark best reflects the impact of certain settings, actual performance may suffer greatly during action-heavy scenes at five stars or when walking through wooded areas. To help you measure performance more reliably, here's a helpful tip: Divide any benchmark readings in half for intense moments in a single player game or for playing with 29 other people in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Exclusive graphical improvements for the PC version

Like any multi-platform game, Grand Theft Auto V looks and runs better on PC. Improved texture quality, visibility range and other familiar features, and added several additional options to make high-end configurations sweat. Further enhancing the visual realism of the PC version, we worked closely with Rockstar to introduce Percentage Closer Soft Shadows, TXAA Anti-Aliasing and 3D Vision technologies. And using GeForce GTX graphics card technology, you can boost picture resolution with Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR), enjoy smooth gameplay with G-SYNC, and stream the game to SHIELD devices and your TV with GameStream.

Soft shadows PCSS

NVIDIA PCSS is a great solution for developers looking to implement realistic shadow softening in their games. As in reality, these shadows become more blurred as the distance from the illuminated object increases, increasing the realism of the image and immersion in the game.

In Grand Theft Auto V, PCSS is activated by selecting "NVIDIA PCSS" in the "Soft Shadows" option, and this is what it looks like:

The comparison on the left shows “AMD CHS” (Contact Hardening Shadows), a technology that “dynamically changes the sharpness of shadows depending on their distance from the light source and the objects that cast them,” making “soft shadow blur more realistic.” On the right is "NVIDIA PCSS". Both technologies perform better than the standard Softest, Softer, Soft, and Sharp options, but only PCSS truly offers realistic shadow rendering.

In the following example, notice how the PCSS shadows fall on the ivy near the trash cans without the foliage darkening unnaturally. Moreover, the shadows on the tinted window of the store are also softened, as expected.

And finally, an example of the interaction of several shadows cast from different distances:

For PCSS to deliver the best results, enable the following settings to maximize shadow quality and visibility on all surfaces:

• Shader Quality: Very High
• Shadow Quality: Very High
• Grass Quality: Ultra
• High Resolution Shadows: On

We'll look at these settings in more detail a little later.

Performance: Grand Theft Auto V has a lot of shadows, cast from different distances and heights. But turning on PCSS will accurately account for these distances, making the environment more realistic.

With all other settings at maximum, you can squeeze out a maximum of 6.4 fps from the Soft Shadows option, which is relatively low considering the overall improvement in the picture.

TXAA Anti-Aliasing

NVIDIA TXAA is an anti-aliasing technology specifically designed to solve the problem of "temporal aliasing", the displacement of anti-aliased edges when the camera is rotated or the player moves. Temporary aliasing, commonly referred to as creeping or flickering, is especially annoying in games with detailed images and lots of moving objects, and Grand Theft Auto V is a prime example of such a game. By combining MSAA anti-aliasing with special movie-style CG techniques and a temporal filter, TXAA effectively combats temporal aliasing while simultaneously smoothing geometry better than 8x MSAA.

In Grand Theft Auto V, TXAA is available alongside MSAA and FXAA, and for a total of seven anti-aliasing options, players will have plenty to choose from based on their preferences and performance considerations. The following is a comparison of each option (note that to enable TXAA, you must first select MSAA 2x or 4x and then set TXAA to “On”).

During the game, when everything is in motion, the temporary aliasing is much more noticeable than usual, as in any other open world game. As we said, TXAA is the only way to fight it. However, from the images we can only check the quality of the picture: in the case of FXAA, sometimes anti-aliasing is barely noticeable at all, small distant details are displayed incorrectly, and blur is observed in free spaces. MSAA, meanwhile, shows edges on some objects (possibly shader aliasing) and does not smooth others at all, which is also noticeable on TXAA, but to a lesser extent.

For those who use MSAA, we often recommend turning on FXAA as well, to effectively smooth out alpha textures used in foliage, chicken wire, and other small details that would be unprofitable to create as geometry. However, in this case, Grand Theft Auto V appears to use a shader or additional post-processing similar to World of Warcraft's "Multisample Alpha Test" to smooth out alpha textures while using MSAA. The advantage of this technique can be seen in the comparison below.

Owners of GeForce GTX 600, 700, 800, or 900 series video cards based on Kepler or Maxwell architecture should choose TXAA, which effectively removes temporary aliasing - one of the most annoying artifacts in any game. For best results, combine TXAA with DSR to eliminate any remaining aliasing.

If your video card does not allow the use of TXAA, then the best solution would be DSR in combination with FXAA, which traditionally performs better than MSAA at low resolutions.

Hardware anti-aliasing has a major impact on performance, but if you want the best picture quality, it's a price you pay.

Additional graphics settings

Ambient Occlusion

The diffuse shading effect adds contact shadows where two surfaces or two objects meet and where one object blocks the light from reaching the others. However, there are currently no AO shadows in Grand Theft Auto V due to an application bug. Hopefully this will be fixed in an upcoming update, at which point we will review the impact of this setting and update this guide.

The diffuse shading effect adds contact shadows where two surfaces or two objects meet and where one object blocks the light from reaching the others. However, now in Grand Theft Auto V this setting does not work quite correctly, it is expected that full functionality will soon be returned to it with the help of a fix. However, savvy players have found a way to get around this problem: change the Ambient Occlusion value, apply, change PostFX to Normal, apply, change PostFX back to Ultra (or another previous value).

This method allows us to demonstrate the difference between Ambient Occlusion High and Off, but Normal still doesn't seem to work, being completely indistinguishable from High. Rest assured, we will return to this setting when the official fix is ​​released.

The example above shows the expected effect of using Ambient Occlusion.

In uninhabited areas, Ambient Occlusion changes the brightness levels of overlapping shadows on the grass and ensures that the vegetation that falls under the shadow is properly shaded.

In the city we see a more realistic picture in the foreground and slight changes in the background.

The latest comparison demonstrates how Ambient Occlusion works at extreme distances, adding shadow to even barely visible objects.

Performance: In its current inferior state, Ambient Occlusion costs a few frames per second while significantly improving graphics, making it a must-have option.

We'll let you know if anything changes after the official fix is ​​released.

Anisotropic Filtering

Anisotropic filtering improves the display of textures that are located in the distance or at an angle to the camera. In Grand Theft Auto V it works as expected, with as little performance impact as you'd hope.

DirectX

Grand Theft Auto V offers three versions of DirectX: DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1, and DirectX 11. The first two are added mainly for compatibility reasons with older graphics cards that do not support DirectX 11. However, you may still be wondering if they will run faster , despite the fact that version 11 has more features, it is better optimized, and its performance in games is regularly improved in new versions of GeForce drivers.

Well, we checked this by disabling in advance in DirectX 11 mode functions that were not available in older versions.

Unsurprisingly, performance was better on DirectX 11, so we decided to include additional graphical improvements that do not work on older APIs.

Distance Scaling

This option in Grand Theft Auto V controls the level of detail, changing the amount of detail displayed at any given time and adjusting the quality of distant objects when they first enter the frame. High values ​​increase the quality of buildings and surrounding terrain, increase the number of objects, cars and pedestrians, and more accurately display all game elements when the distance between them and the player changes.

To maintain the game's impressive range of vision, large objects such as tall buildings and mountains are always visible, but with varying degrees of rendering depending on the player's location. When the player gets closer to them, Distance Scaling increases their detail.

The most noticeable effect of this setting is the reduction in the likelihood of objects suddenly appearing in the player's field of view. You can easily experience this unpleasant phenomenon by reducing Distance Scaling and driving around the city at high speed, or running a benchmark. Choose the level of detail based on how much it annoys you.

Performance: The impact of Distance Scaling can vary greatly from location to location and is highly dependent on all other options. For example, with a low Population Density value, the effect of Distance Scaling will not be too drastic, because there will be fewer cars and pedestrians on the streets. But if Grass Quality is turned up to the limit, and you are somewhere in the forest, performance will immediately drop.

For the test, we chose a location with a variety of game elements, where the influence of Distance Scaling turned out to be moderate. But, as already mentioned, everything greatly depends on other game settings, the environment and the gameplay scenario.

Considering the prohibitive level of sharply appearing objects at low values, Distance Scaling is one of the most important and priority settings. Just be prepared to change it when entering a new location by adjusting the other options.

Extended Distance Scaling

As the name suggests, this is an expanded version of Distance Scaling, adding more detail within its sphere of influence and far beyond. This is particularly evident in our first set of comparisons, where all objects have become more detailed; New details also appeared on the hill near the Vinewood sign.

Performance: The high level of detail of each game object is expected to greatly reduce performance. And again, a lot depends on the location and other settings.

Of all the options, Extended Distance Scaling has the most detrimental effect on performance when there are a lot of people, cars, police, grass and explosions around, which is not possible to accurately test. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to use it only on the most powerful computers.

Extended Shadow Distance

In addition to extending shadow distance, Extended Shadow Distance increases shadow quality, adds new shadows, and improves their fidelity, turning rough, blurry shadows into well-formed, detailed shadows.

Performance: Despite being placed in the Advanced Graphics menu, even a high level of this setting has a negligible impact on performance in any scene and at any resolution.

Extended Shadow Distance is not a necessary option, but if you have the performance to spare, it's worth enabling to display shadows under cars and some objects at medium to high distances and to improve the quality of all shadows.

Grass Quality

In the initial stages of Grand Theft Auto V, this setting has little effect on performance, but once you get out of the city and into nature, the difference will immediately become noticeable. In such places, the frame rate drops noticeably even on the most powerful configurations.

On Ultra, vast areas are filled with foliage, flowers and grass with a high level of detail and potentially high-resolution and Very High quality shadows, depending on your settings. On Very High, the amount of distant vegetation is reduced, the remainder has no shadows, and some closer objects have fewer additional shadows. Objects and textures are already starting to appear harshly in front of the eyes, and this gets even worse at lower detail levels. Further, at High the vast majority of shadows are removed, and at Normal almost all vegetation is removed.

Take a couple of steps back and most of the grass on the hill falls out of sight, instantly increasing productivity.

Our final example demonstrates the difference in levels of detail over extended terrain.

Performance: Grass Quality is the most power-hungry option of all, and remains so even with low shadow settings.

Only the fastest systems can handle Ultra, and Very High can only handle new hardware. In other cases, you should stop at High, because at Normal there is almost nothing left of the grass.

High Detail Streaming While Flying

This option works similar to the level of detail for flights, increasing picture quality at the expense of performance. Without it, the number of suddenly appearing objects increases, but it is worth noting that in flight this is inevitable in any case. However, when you disable the option, this becomes more noticeable.

Performance: The impact of this setting, like many others in Grand Theft Auto V, is highly dependent on location and other settings, and in this case, also on altitude.

In the gaming benchmark the difference remains within 4 fps, but when playing in the city it is already more significant. If you're a frequent flyer, this setting is worth turning on, but if flying isn't your thing, you can safely leave it out for extra performance on those rare occasions when you do take to the skies.

High Resolution Shadows

Everything is clear from the name - the setting increases the detail of shadows. However, this is only really noticeable at Sharp in soft shadows. The example below demonstrates how the quality of shadows changes depending on the surface on which they fall and their distance from their subject and from the player.

Please note that for this option to work, Shadow Quality must be set to Very High.

Performance: This is an advanced shadow option that offers maximum realism. However, taking into account its relatively strong influence on performance, owners of weak systems are better off choosing Soft Shadows with the Soft value. This will not only mask the lack of fidelity in the shadows, but will also help hide the aliasing that occurs when High Resolution Shadows is turned off.

In some cases, High Resolution Shadows have a greater impact on performance. As a rule, this applies to wooded areas with an abundance of vegetation of Ultra and Very High quality.

Ignore Suggested Limits

By default, this option prevents players from setting settings higher than the available amount of video memory. By setting it to On, you can enable any settings. Please note that this can lead to significant performance degradation, stuttering (when data is uploaded/loaded into video memory) and crashes. Most users are better off leaving this option disabled.

In-Game Depth of Field Effects

This option is useful if you like a stylish blur of the background and other elements when getting into a car, turning a corner or aiming. Its use, by analogy with Motion Blur, is a matter of taste. The option becomes available when the PostFX quality is set to Very High or Ultra. In theory, it works well in intermediate cutscenes and fixes the player's attention on important events, but in reality it sometimes incorrectly blurs the entire screen during the game, and then switches back to a sharp picture too quickly.

Performance: Depth of field effects will cost you at most 1.6 fps in game, plus a couple more frames per second in cutscenes, but due to their non-interactive nature, this is usually not noticed.

To slightly increase performance without sacrificing image quality, you can turn PostFX down to Very High – we’ll talk about how this option works a little further.

Long Shadows

Long Shadows is responsible for more reliable shadows during sunsets and sunrises (the time can be set manually in Director mode). True, the effect is so insignificant that not everyone will accurately determine the difference even with a direct comparison.

Performance: The effect is not the most obvious, so you can safely disable the option, saving a couple of fps.

Particles Quality

Correctly assessing this option is not an easy task. All explosions in the game are different from each other, and physics and weather enhance these differences. We can say for sure that Particles Quality makes explosions and other effects more voluminous and detailed, and at High and Very High values ​​shadows appear on particles.

Our example is far from ideal, but of all the screenshots and videos, it most clearly demonstrates the effect of the option. Note the flames around the white van on the left and the overall quality of the explosions.

Performance: The most suitable particle testing tool is the game benchmark, despite its variability, so its results are shown in the graph.

In general, when unscrewing the option, the quality of the effects and the number of particles increases slightly. During large firefights and alternating explosions, the number of particles on the screen increases, but we never noticed a huge impact on performance. Even in the most intense scenes, the frame rate drops by a maximum of 6-10 fps.

Population Density

Take a closer look at this option if you want Los Santos to be full of life and its streets filled with people. However, as with Particles Quality, it is difficult to evaluate due to the randomness factor, and the changes do not take effect until you leave or travel far enough from your current location. Therefore, here we again have to use a benchmark.

Quite expectedly, along with increasing the settings, the number of pedestrians around the player also increases (at 50%, several people are displayed a little further away). Regarding transport, there is much more variability - at maximum settings, the amount of traffic changes dramatically from one test to another. At 0% we noticed one single car at a very long distance, so we decided to check the placement of cars in other scenes. It turned out that the transport does not necessarily appear in the immediate vicinity of the player; sometimes it appears at the very border of the coverage area of ​​the Distance Scaling and Extended Distance Scaling options. In comparison, pedestrians almost always appear at short to medium distances.

The second stage of comparisons more accurately shows the effect of the option on traffic density. The most eagle-eyed readers may notice cars on the next section of the highway, behind the rise, at all levels of detail. Since they are not really visible, they have almost no impact on performance, but they help make the world come to life (remember, the distance they are displayed depends on two Distance Scaling settings). As they get closer, the game will show them in more detail or remove them from view, depending on the Density setting, which can be a little annoying when flying. On the road, you won't notice it, so it's a pretty neat trick for making the world more believable. Everything looks especially beautiful at night, when cars drive with their lights on, creating the atmosphere of a bustling metropolis.

Performance: Calculating the impact of Population Density on performance is an equally challenging task. The benchmark shows a difference of several fps, but in real gaming situations this spread can be doubled. or even triple it.

Based on our tests, we recommend 75% as a happy medium. The roads and sidewalks will be fairly busy, leaving you with a small amount of performance left over for other effects. However, note that as the number of pedestrians and vehicles increases, the effects of reflections, shadows and post-effects will affect the frame rate much more seriously. You may have to reduce their quality at high Population Density if performance gets too low.

Population Variety

This option is unique in that it does not affect performance, but does have a noticeable effect on the overall realism of the game. The easiest way to explain it is this: if there are 100 different vehicles and 50 different pedestrians in the game, then 50% Population Variety will load 50 cars and 25 pedestrians into video memory, which will then be randomly distributed throughout the game world. At 100% Population Density, this will result in duplicate copies in every scene, which will interfere with immersion in the game. A high Population Variety value will reduce the number of “clones” and add variety to the traffic flow.

According to generally accepted design rules, each model of a pedestrian or car consists of the same number of polygons, so that the cost of rendering five different people corresponds to the cost of rendering one person five times. Each model and texture set requires a certain amount of video memory, and Population Variety allows Grand Theft Auto V to load more unique resources into memory.

Thus, this option depends only on the memory of your video card, and Population Density determines performance. For those with only 2GB available, it's best to compromise on memory-intensive settings, and in our opinion, quality shadows and textures are more important than Population Density.

Post FX

Post-effects such as motion blur (optional), bloom, lens flare, constant background depth of field and HDR are the main components of this option, but sometimes you will also see twilight rays (“God Rays”), haze and other volumetric effects . Note that In-Game Depth of Field Effects and Motion Blur require Ultra or Very High settings to work.

Turning it down to Very High reduces the quality and intensity of the bloom on certain lighting objects, such as headlights, and, if you look closely, the fidelity of other effects is also slightly reduced. At High the quality is even lower, and some reflections also disappear. Finally, on Normal, the quality of the effects completely drops, and bloom is completely turned off.

Performance: Interestingly, some players have reported significant performance gains when lowering Post FX from Ultra to Very High, seeing increases of up to 10 fps. This goes against our own tests, even when we select the same locations and test the same video cards with the same settings as these players. We are perplexed as to why this happens, and we advise you to personally test this option on your computer.

We tested Post FX in a foggy city location filled with lights and traffic during twilight, which created an excellent combination of many intense effects. At other times of the day and under other weather conditions, the difference between Normal and Ultra was only 3-5 fps.

Given the degradation of the image on Normal and the minor impact on performance (in our tests), we recommend the Very High setting to maintain performance with decent image quality.

Reflection Quality

This option is responsible for the quality of reflections on cars, glossy floors, glass, puddles, the surface of ponds and mirrors in bedrooms and hairdressing salons.

Wipe down your microscope and you can see the difference between Ultra and Very High in our example. The differences between Very High and High are already more noticeable - the reliability of the reflections decreases. On Normal they lose a lot of detail, and reflections on other surfaces disappear completely, which you'll notice instantly in the next set of comparisons.

In open spaces, the difference between the different settings becomes more obvious: going from Ultra to Very High softens large reflections, High blurs them even more, and Normal fades them from vehicles, windows and buildings. Moreover, the few remaining reflections on the floor and water begin to twitch.

On a rainy night, the lack of reflections on Normal is especially detrimental.

In homes and hairdressing salons, the option manifests itself most noticeably, because there you can get close to the mirrors, and the surroundings are reflected accurately, and not approximately, as on the building from the other example.

Performance: Similar to many other settings, the impact of Reflection Quality can vary greatly. More cars, windows, water and houses mean more reflections, and high Distance Scaling values ​​result in more reflected detail. For our test, we chose a rainy walk through the city center with lots of traffic and skyscrapers.

At certain points in the game, Very High and Ultra settings significantly reduce performance, and Normal has a terrible impact on image quality, so we recommend that players stick to at least High, perhaps even at the expense of other settings. And if you seriously care about your hair, you will have to set it to Very High for clear reflections in hairdressing salons.

Reflection MSAA

This option smoothes out reflections, but since the entire game world—and you yourself—is always in motion, you're unlikely to feel any visual benefit.

The car dealership example demonstrates that there is virtually no difference between regular and smoothed reflections. The most noticeable differences we found are shown in the example below, and even compared to 8x MSAA, the picture barely wins in quality.

And finally, an example in which at High the effect of the Parallax Occlusion Mapping technique disappears, which causes excessive relief of almost all surfaces in the game.

Performance: Lowering the setting from Very High to High has a minimal effect on the graphics, but on Normal almost all scenes look worse, especially in places where anisotropic filtering stops working correctly. Therefore, most players should stick to High.

If you still have to set it to Normal, try to compensate for the lack of anisotropic filtering by turning it on in the NVIDIA control panel.

Shadow Quality

Shadow Quality works hand in hand with High Resolution Shadows to enhance the clarity and fidelity of all shadows - just as Distance Scaling works with Extended Distance Scaling to enhance the level of detail. Therefore, as with high-resolution shadows, Shadow Quality performs better with soft shadows set to Sharp.

Performance: Shadow Quality has a moderate impact on performance, and high settings consume a lot of VRAM, but with graphics improvements across the board, it's worth it.

You may be quite happy with the High value if Soft Shadows is set to something other than Sharp, since blurry shadows mask aliasing and loss of detail.

Tessellation

Tessellation typically adds geometric detail to surfaces, objects, and characters. In Max Payne 3, the latest RAGE engine game to be released on PC, tessellation added some curves to Max's ears, clothing, and car tires. Grand Theft Auto V uses it just as sparingly, adding detail to some trees, bushes, wires and bodies of water.

Of all the above, only the tessellation of trees is noticeable during the game, and only it has a sufficient visual effect for comparison in screenshots.

With each step of increasing the tuning, less and less new geometry is added, to the point where at Very High the improvements are almost impossible to detect (if you're interested, they can be found closer to the bottom of the right tree in the foreground and at the bottom of the tree in front of the basketball court).

Performance: The impact of tessellation depends on the number of tessellated objects near the player, but overall it has almost no impact on performance.

Performance: There are no hidden functions in the Texture Quality option, so performance remains virtually identical at any value.

If you have a large performance headroom and little video memory, you can set the option to High, adding more visual effects instead.

Water Quality

Our exploration of Grand Theft Auto V's abundance of settings ends with water quality.

As you can see for yourself, Very High and High produce almost the same picture, only the quality of the ripples changes slightly, and this can only be noticed after prolonged observation. On Normal, almost all details are lost and the reliability of transparency and caustic simulation deteriorates, as well as the reflectivity of the water surface is reduced.

Performance: Sacrificing the quality of all the puddles, pools and ponds in the game can gain very little extra frames per second, so we recommend setting Water Quality to at least High on all systems.

Individual video memory consumption

Now you know how many different options there are in the game and you are probably already trying to figure out the optimal combination. But do you have enough video memory? You can check this in the game, but it only shows the total amount, not the cost of each setting individually. For this reason, we've compiled our largest graph yet, showing the VRAM consumption of each setting at 1920x1080 resolution, starting at a minimum of 1066 MB. Please note: Ambient Occlusion – High, Soft Shadows – Soft, Softer and Softest consume 1 MB each, but are not included in this graph, nor are settings that consume no memory at all.

Note that you'll need an additional 1,335 MB for the very best textures at this resolution, and another 1,211 MB for MSAA 8x. In total, you will need a video card with 4 GB of memory to crank up all settings to the maximum in 1920x1080 mode, and the TITAN X can handle this at higher resolutions.

Grand Theft Auto V on PC: Worth the wait

Multi-platform games almost always look and perform better on PC, and we rightfully add “definitive edition” to their name. But the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V, made with such love by Rockstar, clearly deserves more. You have access to rich graphics settings for a wide variety of configurations, an abundance of control and review options, as well as completely new functionality like the Rockstar Editor and Director Mode. There is little more one could ask for or dream of - the range of features and options can put many PC exclusives to shame.

As such, Grand Theft Auto V undeniably represents Rockstar's true vision, simulating a living, breathing world full of detail, with incredible draw distances, cinematic effects that enhance the immersive story experience, and the ability for fans to create and share their own stories. With the highly scalable engine and game settings, almost anyone can enjoy the game, usually at a higher resolution and frame rate compared to other platforms.

If you still haven't purchased Grand Theft Auto V, buy it now from Steam or other authorized distributors; By the time you get bored with single player, multiplayer and chases, the modding community is sure to have something in store that will drag you back to Los Santos.