GTA V on PC. It's been two decades, but many still remember wreaking havoc in the original and GTA 2 like it was just yesterday. Both games turned out to be bombs. Rockstar really blew our minds when they switched from 2D graphics to a 3D engine in GTA III in 2001, allowing players to experience the open world of the game and create mischief in the vastness of Liberty City in third-person mode.

Having found a winning formula, Rockstar released two more crime simulators - Vice City a year later, and then San Andreas a couple of years later. Both games ran on the Renderware engine, like GTA III, but in 2008, with the release of the fourth part of GTA, enormous changes were made to both the gameplay itself and the graphics. All this was possible thanks to a new engine developed by Rockstar itself - RAGE.

Traditionally, the release of the PC version of GTA IV was delayed from the spring until the holidays of 2008, although the game was released on computers with advanced features such as motion density control, draw distance control, a playback editor, a custom radio station for players' own music, and the ability to play simultaneously online. up to 32 players instead of 16.

Now, 7 years after the release of GTA IV, fans were literally begging for the release of GTA V on PC, which had already been available to PS3 and Xbox 360 owners for 18 months. Undoubtedly, such popularity of the game is in no small part due to the colossal $265 million spent on development and marketing. Finally, after the November release of GTA 5 for the current generation of consoles, gamers this week got their chance to play in Rockstar's sandbox.

On the other hand, Rockstar has made many improvements to the PC version, including improved resolution, detail, traffic density, increased draw distance, improved AI, new animals, as well as an expanded damage system and advanced weather conditions.

While this all looks very good on paper, some of Rockstar's previous ports have been disappointing - GTA IV being one of them. Although Max Payne 3 in this case was a special project. At first glance, GTA 5 really looks like a well-optimized port on PC, but this can only be known for sure after some tests.

To test the game, we will use the latest drivers for AMD and NVidia video cards, 26 graphics adapters that support DirectX 11 in various price ranges. Our system was equipped with a Core i7-5960X processor. This powerful processor was chosen to completely eliminate any impact of insufficient CPU power on video adapters. We did not use Fraps for testing, relying entirely on the benchmark test built into the game.

Testing methodology

To use GTA V's built-in benchmark tool, launch the game and go to the Graphics menu. Then press "tab" to start testing.

Attention: for the test to work correctly, you must complete the first mission of the story as Franklin.

Make sure to set the graphics options you want to test before you start testing. The benchmark itself is a sequence of five unique scenes in Los Santos that simulate a wide range of current gameplay scenarios. Test results will be saved here: My Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\benchmarks.

To make the test results more accurate, we decided to take the average frame rate of five scenes. However, like the ever-changing world of GTA 5, the tests never show the same values. Therefore, we decided to run the test for each video card three times and take the average value.

In total, we ran the graphics test in GTA 5 more than 350 times. Yeah, it's been a long week ;)

GTA 5 was tested in three resolutions: 1920x1080, 2560x1600 and 3840x2160. We tested the graphics at normal and very high texture settings. Additionally, the game was also tested with FXAA and MSAA x4 enabled, as well as advanced graphics settings.

Texture quality set to "Normal"

Texture quality set to "Very High"

Advanced graphics settings enabled

Antialiasing MSAAx4 "Enabled"

General characteristics of the system on which GTA 5 was tested (we do not take the video card, since they changed): Intel Core i7-5960X (3.00GHz); x4 4GB Kingston Predator DDR4-2400 (CAS 12-13-13-24); Asrock X99 Extreme6 (Intel X99); Silverstone Strider Series (700w); Crucial MX200 1TB (SATA 6Gb/s).

Below are the test results with different resolutions and anti-aliasing and texture settings:

As before, when playing at 1080 resolution, GTA 5 requires maximum graphics settings, except for textures and anti-aliasing. In this test, FXAA and SMAA anti-aliasing are disabled and textures are set to Normal. Resolution 1920x1080 pixels.

For an average of 60 FPS, gamers will need a Radeon HD 7970 or GeForce GTX 680 video card, although they can play more comfortably with a GTX 960 and HD 7950/R9 270X

Mid-class graphics adapters of the current generation, such as the R9 285, showed 60+ FPS without any problems. Video cards of a higher class have even exceeded 80 FPS.

Here we can observe that when increasing the resolution to 2560x1600, it becomes more difficult for video cards to maintain a stable 60 frames per second. The R9 290X and GTX 970 averaged 59 FPS, while mid-range GPUs like the GTX 770 and R9 285 only managed 45 FPS, while the GTX 960 and R9 270X managed 40 FPS.

As expected, the GTX Titan X is the fastest single-chip GPU to date, delivering a phenomenal 84 frames per second, making it 24% faster than the GTX 980 and over 40% faster than the R9 290X.

Below are two tests on very high texture settings:

With a resolution of 2560x1600 and very high texture settings:

Increasing the texture quality to the maximum value exceeded the 3 gigabyte VRAM limit, so we had to enable the option to ignore restrictions in order to test those video cards with a memory buffer of less than three gigabytes.

At a resolution of 2560x1600, we see quite good performance from the R9 290X and GTX 970. By the way, both video cards showed only 2 FPS less than with the texture settings set to “Normal”.

To give the GTX Titan X some competition, we decided to use two R9 295 graphics cards, which allowed us to outperform the Titan X by a full 1 frame per second.

With a resolution of 3840x2160

Those who want to play GTA 5 in 4K resolution will need a powerful graphics adapter. The same R9 290X was only able to produce 33 FPS, and the GTX 980 – 39 FPS. The GTX Titan X achieved 47 FPS, and the two R9 295X2 cards achieved 51 FPS.

Advanced graphics settings

In resolution 2560x1600:

Enabling advanced graphics features reduces the GTX 980's performance by 18% and the R9 290X by 24% to 45fps. The R9 295X2 is still good at 59 FPS, but the GTX Titan X is faster at 64 FPS.

In resolution 3840x2160

At 4K resolution, the GTX 980 and R9 290X were virtually destroyed, delivering only 30 FPS. The GTX Titan X lost 38% performance when going from 2560x1600 to 3840x2160, while the R9 295X2 and GTX 980 SLI dropped less than 30% in performance.

Rockstar Games seems to have learned from the mistakes of the past: if the game Grand Theft Auto 4 seemed like a clumsy console port, especially for AMD video cards, now it simply “flies” on high-end video cards. We just showed all this in ours. Even on the latest mainstream graphics cards, such as the AMD Radeon R9 280X or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, GTA V runs without much stuttering.

Modern generation consoles display the game in 1080p resolution with a frame rate of 30 fps; in complex and dynamic scenes, the frame rate can drop significantly, but on the mentioned video cards you will get twice as much fps. In addition, Rockstar Games has announced support for 4K, but for such a resolution you will need a very powerful system, as you can see in. A resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels at normal speed remains the lot of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X video card. However, such a video card will cost 1,115 euros. The closest competitor is the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 with two GPUs for 43.3 thousand rubles (700 euros) produces 55 frames per second. To play GTA V acceptably, in our opinion, a frame rate of 35 to 40 fps is required. A comfortable game starts at 50 fps.

But not every gamer has a brand new video card from AMD or NVIDIA in their system; even last year’s high-end models are not cheap today. Many users are content with video cards that are several generations behind. For this reason, we are back again to test the GTA V game, but this time we will evaluate the performance on video cards for the mass market and on video cards of previous generations. The result can be called encouraging: an upgrade is not always required.

Great graphics settings options

But the reason is not that the video cards are fast enough. The game has many settings that allow you to optimize the PC version of GTA V for the performance of your system. The graphics settings menu has options that affect not only picture quality, but also performance. You can adjust water quality, texture size, shader quality, grass and particle detail, tessellation, reflections, and post-processing effects. Depending on the level of detail and image enhancement modes, GTA V at 2,560 x 1,600 pixels on high-end systems runs from 25 to approximately 150 fps - higher frame rates are possible as the resolution or level of detail is reduced.

If we turn up the detail level to the maximum and set the maximum AA and AF values, then at a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 video card in our configuration gives less than 25 fps, which can hardly be called an acceptable level. At a medium level of detail at the same resolution, the frame rate increases to approximately 60 fps. With low detail levels and no AA/AF we can achieve almost 150fps. With the same settings on the AMD Radeon R9 290X video card, we get from 20 to 140 fps, that is, a little less.

This range of graphics settings allows you to get acceptable performance on almost any video card!

Grand Theft Auto 5

2.560 x 1.600

149.1 XX

140.1 XX

65.4 XX

59.2 XX

24.5 XX

Frames per second

More is better

Visibility range has a fairly significant impact on performance. Compared to the version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the developers have doubled the range. If you turn the additional graphics settings to maximum, you can see for kilometers into the distance. Many objects at a great distance are displayed as outlines or even quite detailed models. If you're having performance issues, it makes sense to reduce your viewing range - but you won't lose much since you'll still be spending most of the game in downtown Los Santos.

In GTA V we got a significant visibility range

Additional graphics settings can eat up available video memory and cost a significant portion of performance. The approximate level of memory consumption shows that the game adapts well to the settings. In any case, depending on the video card used, additional graphics settings can be bypassed altogether. You can easily overdrive the graphics quality settings for your video card, making it impossible to play. For example, increased visibility range eats up a lot of performance. If you turn the slider here to the maximum, then objects will be visible with a very large viewing radius. Judging by our experience, it only makes sense to take this step with modern high-end video cards. In any case, you will spend most of your time in Los Santos.

"Ladders" on the edges of objects are a thing of the past

If you've played GTA V on a console, you're probably familiar with the "ladder" effect of the RAGE engine - this is especially true for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Without enabling AA/AF, this negative effect is also noticeable on PC, so we recommend adding at least a minimal smoothing. FXAA in GTA V will cost a very small performance penalty, but the results will be only slightly better. The combination of MSAA and FXAA performs much better. Depending on the video card, quadruple MSAA and FXAA results in a performance drop of 40-60 percent. A higher level of smoothing does not make much sense. Visually you get a small gain, but the drop in performance is very significant. MSAA with reflections, it seems to us, can also be safely ignored.

There are significant differences between the minimum and maximum anti-aliasing levels, which are visible in the screenshots below. Pay attention to the fence, the roof of the first house and skyscrapers in the distance - everything is displayed more clearly and accurately, but the level of anti-aliasing is especially noticeable in motion. So it's better to find a balance between the level of anti-aliasing and performance.

Smoothing: maximum (left), minimum (right)

Grand Theft Auto 5

2.560 x 1.600, Maximum

54.7 XX

52.2XX

35.9XX

Before purchasing, almost everyone thought about whether their computer could handle it or whether it was worth postponing the purchase for future hardware. We will try to tell in this article all the subtleties and points about this.

I’ll answer the question right away will gta 5 work? or not - will do. The game has been so optimized that even laptops from 2007 can run it. But the question arises: will the graphics be playable? It’s quite possible to play at low settings and with poor rendering; there’s no talk of a comfortable game here.

Let's move on to tips for testing your PC for performance for GTA 5:

1) First, you can try installing a pirated version of the game and see how it behaves on your computer. Please note that in any case, a licensed copy will perform several times faster and better than unlicensed content.

2) Try and set all graphics to maximum. If the game works correctly, then GTA 5 will run on medium or minimum settings - you don’t have to worry.

3) VERY IMPORTANT ADVICE!. If I still convinced you to buy gta 5, then do it in Steam. Because on Steam, if the game does not work correctly, you can ask for a refund, but if you purchased the game on the sites, then there will definitely not be a refund there!

4) Owners of an Nvidia video card can close this article right now and go buy the game, and owners of an AMD video card - I advise you to think several times about buying the game.

5) The list will be supplemented, and if you learned something new from this article, then subscribe to us on social networks and leave a positive comment..

Games these days are increasingly demanding on hardware, but before you run to the store, you want to find out if this or that work of game developers will work without upgrading the hardware? So, first of all, you need to check the system requirements; this method is time-tested and does not give any failures, unlike various tests.

Minimum system requirements for GTA 5

CPU	Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz
RAM
Video card	NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB
Sound card	100% DirectX 10 compatible
HDD	minimum 65GB of free space

Minimum software set:

• Operating system: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2 (works stably on Vista GTA 5 if an Nvidia video adapter is installed)
• DirectX version: DX 10,DX 10.1,DX 11.
• For a comfortable game, you can install drivers that video card manufacturers released specifically for the release of the PC version of GTA 5: GEFORCE GAME READY DRIVER FOR GRAND THEFT AUTO V.
• We also highly recommend installing Microsoft Visual C++.

CPU	Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)
RAM
Video card	NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB
Sound card	100% DirectX 10 compatible
HDD	minimum 65GB of free space

If you still don’t have the time or desire, and perhaps even information about the hardware, which is far from uncommon nowadays, then it is possible to test your computer for compatibility with the game online.

Nvidia graphics adapter test

First of all, I would like to consider the online test that is provided by Nvidia on its official website at http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/pc-games/grand-theft-auto-v/gpu-analyzer . Although the test is provided by Nvidia, you can check compatibility even if you have AMD. So, the main thing to remember is that you won't be able to check compatibility in the Google Chrome browser because they have stopped supporting NPAPI for Java applets. In simple terms, the verification process requires a Java module, which does not work in Chrome. You can use another browser - for example, Internet Explorer or Opera.

If the Java package is not installed, then after clicking Check Now, you will be prompted to download the latest version of this module from the official website of the developer.

After downloading and installing Java, you will be able to check the compatibility of the GPU with the game. Therefore, again follow the link provided above and click CHECK NOW. If the video card is weak, you will see a message similar to what is shown in the picture.

If everything is in order, the frame will be green and the view will be as follows:

However, testing only the graphics card does not provide comprehensive answers, so if the graphics card is suitable, then you can move on to the next test.

Can You Run It?

A very common test that operates on the website http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri?itemId=12455. After the transition, you need to click on the “Can you run it?” button.

In the pop-up window that appears, there are two options to choose from:

• View Requirements – if you choose this method, you will be shown the system requirements and there will be no test. The same requirements are presented in the table above.
• Desktop App - as is clear from the description and name, the user is invited to download a small application weighing 5 megabytes, which will help to find out the characteristics of your hardware. Select this item and click Start.

The program automatically starts scanning the system, all you have to do is wait without taking any action. Once the scan is complete, you will be redirected to a site with the results. Depending on the hardware, the results will be different, however, the report is comprehensive. These were the results on my laptop:

From these red signs it is immediately clear that it does not meet the system requirements of the game, however, the main points are described below, exactly how much and what needs to be added for the game to start:

And if your PC or part of its components is compatible with the game, then instead of a crossed out circle, you will see a checkmark:

You can also choose whether to compare PCs with minimum system requirements or with recommended ones. This is done by switching tabs on the results page:

Test on Steam

In addition to other tests, it is possible to check the PC for compatibility with the game via Steam, although reviews of such testing are not the most flattering, for the following reason - the necessary accuracy is not achieved: sometimes it can be shown that the PC is suitable with a 256 megabyte video card. However, if other methods are not suitable for some reason, do the following:

1. Launch Steam.
2. Press the key combination WIN (the button that opens the start menu) and R on the keyboard.
3. In the window that appears, paste the following: steam://checksysreqs/271590.

Test stand, testing methodology

Energy-saving CPU technologies are disabled in all tests. In the NVIDIA driver settings, the CPU is selected as the processor for PhysX calculations. In AMD settings, the Tesselation setting is moved from AMD Optimized to Use application settings.

Frame rates were recorded using the built-in GTA 5 benchmark. Testing was carried out at resolutions of 1920 × 1080, 2560 × 1440 and 3840 × 2160 in three graphics quality modes. The most gentle mode includes minimal quality settings, with a few exceptions that have little effect on performance (for example, anisotropic filtering is enabled). In High Quality mode, detail settings are set to maximum, but the Extended Graphics section is left at its default values, and full-screen anti-aliasing is disabled. In the “ultra-high quality” mode, the settings in the Extended Graphics section are set to maximum and MSAA 4x anti-aliasing is enabled.

Graphics quality
	Low	High	Ultra-high
FXAA	Off	Off	Off
MSAA	Off	Off	X4
Vsync	Off	Off	Off
Population Density	100%	100%	100%
Population Variety	100%	100%	100%
Distance Scaling	100%	100%	100%
Texture Quality	Normal	Very High	Very High
Shader Quality	Normal	Very High	Very High
Shadow Quality	Normal	Very High	Very High
Reflection Quality	Normal	Ultra	Ultra
Reflection MSAA	Off	Very High	Very High
Water Quality	Normal	Very High	Very High
Particles Quality	Normal	Very High	Very High
Grass Quality	Normal	Ultra	Ultra
Soft Shadows	Sharp	Softest	Softest
Post FX	Normal	Ultra	Ultra
Motion Blur Strength	0%	0%	0%
In-Game Depth Of Field Effects	Normal	Very High	Very High
Anisotropic Filtering	X16	X16	X16
Ambient Occlusion	Normal	Very High	Very High
Tesselation	Normal	Very High	Very High
Long Shadows	Off	Off	On
High Resolution Shadows	Off	Off	On
High Detail Streaming While Flying	Off	Off	On
Extended Distance Scaling	0%	0%	100%
Extended Shadows Distance	0%	0%	100%

⇡ Test participants

The testing presents the results of the following video adapters.

• AMD Radeon R9 290X (1000/5000 MHz, 4 GB), Uber Mode;
• AMD Radeon R9 270 (925/5600 MHz, 2 GB);
• AMD Radeon R7 250X (1000/4500 MHz, 2 GB);
• AMD Radeon R7 250 (1050/4600 MHz, 2 GB);
• AMD Radeon R7 240 (780/4500 MHz, 2 GB);

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 (1058/5000 MHz, 1 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 (810/1800 MHz, 1 GB).

⇡ Test results

Tests with different image settings were run in such a sequence as to identify a) maximum resolution, b) maximum graphics settings, which provide either 60 FPS and higher, or at least 30 FPS.

Each chart shows graphics cards that achieve at least 30 FPS at the appropriate settings, but are unable to deliver 60 FPS or more at higher resolutions with the same graphics quality. In other words, each diagram represents a list of video adapters that, in GTA V with the appropriate settings, either a) do not allow increasing the resolution while maintaining the minimum acceptable frame rate; b) they cope well enough that there is no point in reducing the resolution.

Low graphics quality

• The entry ticket to the world of GTA V from AMD adapters is the Radeon R7 240 - the slowest “red” video card among the test participants.
• At the time of testing, we did not have NVIDIA adapters from the 700 line younger than the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, so we took the GeForce GT 630 with GDDR3 memory as the lower reference point. He was unable to reach the required 30 FPS, and since the GeForce GTX 730 (or rather, one of its versions) is built on the same GPU, it will not cope with the task. But the GeForce GTX 740, judging by its characteristics, is quite suitable for the role of the most affordable NVIDIA video card for playing GTA V.
• The GTX 650 and R7 250 are approaching the 60 FPS border, and the GTX 750 Ti and R7 250X are already reaching this level.

• The GTX 650 and R7 250 are enough to keep the average FPS from dropping below 30 at WQHD resolution.
• The GTX 750 Ti is the only NVIDIA card in the "around 60 FPS and above" category on this chart. The rest of the positions at the top belong to AMD, starting with the R7 260X.

High quality graphics

• Radeon R7 260X and GeForce GTX 760 are the weakest cards suitable for playing GTA V with high settings and Full HD resolution. Moreover, the GTX 760 is, of course, much faster than the R7 260X.
• The GTX 770 and, with a stretch, the R9 280 allow you to play at 60 frames per second.

• WQHD mode with such graphics quality is already a serious test for mid-range gaming video cards. The game includes top accelerators, including such monsters as GeForce GTX TITAN X and Radeon R9 295X2.
• The Radeon R9 270 and GeForce GTX 760 meet the minimum performance criteria, while the R9 290X and either the GeForce GTX 780 Ti or GTX 970 are needed to achieve frame rates of 60 FPS.

Ultra high quality graphics

• Ultra-high settings in Full HD mode are easier for test participants than just high settings at a resolution of 3840 × 2160. Even the GTX 770 and R9 280 provide the minimum acceptable frame rate.
• But only the GeForce GTX TITAN X and Radeon R9 295X2, which are equivalent in performance in this test, are capable of 60 FPS.

⇡ Conclusions

GTA V is, although not the heaviest game of recent years, but still a very, very demanding project in terms of GPU computing power at high graphics settings. A resolution of 1920 × 1080 with full-screen anti-aliasing and maximum detail is more or less playable on a GeForce GTX 770 and AMD Radeon R9 280, or even better to have a GTX 980 or even a TITAN X or Radeon R9 295X2. The last three are suitable even for a resolution of 2560 × 1440.

Without full-screen anti-aliasing and some additional options that eat up performance and VRAM space, owners of the GeForce GTX 770 and AMD Radeon R9 280X can count on comfortable gaming at 1920 × 1080. For 2560 × 1440, it is advisable to have something no worse than the GTX 780 Ti or Radeon R9 290X. And a resolution of 3840 × 2160 again requires a TITAN X or Radeon R9 295X2.

At low graphics settings, GTA V looks unsightly, but is accessible to owners of very weak computers. Even a GeForce GTX 740 or Radeon R7 240 will allow you to play at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 with an acceptable frame rate, and on a GTX 650 or R7 250 the game already runs quite smoothly.

This article uses screenshots from geforce.com.