It's no secret that the fifth part of the legendary GTA series of games turned out to be a real masterpiece and created a sensation in the world computer games. She made an already great project ideal, gave players new opportunities, and incredibly expanded game world and provided a much more exciting and varied plot. However, unfortunately, not all gamers are able to enjoy the gameplay, because the game’s demands on the computer are simply sky-high. And if you do not have the most modern components of your PC, then there is a possibility that this game will slow down very much. If you want to avoid this and still play GTA 5, optimization is your best option. The fact is that you can configure both the game itself and your system in such a way as to improve the performance of this masterpiece and make it work on your computer. How to do it? In the case of GTA 5, optimization can be multi-level, but you do not have to use all the levels - just constantly check if you have achieved the desired result before moving on to the next stage.

Game graphics settings

In GTA 5, optimization usually starts with settings directly in the game itself. If you want to get the perfect image that will blow your mind, then you will need to set all the settings to maximum and you will be able to admire the amazing quality of the graphic performance. However, this joy will not be granted to everyone - as was said earlier, the requirements of this game are very high. That's why you need to optimize - this means that you will lower the graphics and other settings in the game to improve its performance. So you sacrifice graphics to be able to play on a weaker computer. Naturally, this step is not suitable for everyone - some people do not like to reduce graphic settings, because they believe that they paid money for the game for a reason, but to get the most out of it. Moreover, in some cases, in-game settings alone will not do. And then for GTA 5 optimization takes on a much greater scope.

Drivers

The first step to enjoying the game is to update all drivers, especially for your video card. Optimizing GTA 5 for weak PCs may well work, since users do not always update the drivers themselves, and if the game performance is not too high, then there is a possibility that after updating the drivers it will improve. In fact, it has been reported that some gamers have even been able to fix persistent crashes and freezes using drivers alone, so this step should be high on your list. You can update drivers either manually, that is, by downloading them and installing them yourself, or using a special software. So, optimization of GTA 5 for weak PCs will go much faster.

GeForce Shield

This point applies exclusively to owners nVidia video cards because it is associated with services GeForce Experience. If you have studied all the requirements necessary for GTA 5 and they correspond to your computer, but at the same time this project still does not want to work well, then the reason may be in the service that automatically tries to stream game process without notifying you about it. Naturally, such an operation takes up an impressive part of your computer’s resources, so there is significantly less left for the game itself than we would like. So make sure that the streaming feature is disabled, and if it is enabled, change the settings and prevent it from ever being automatically activated. If you want to stream your gameplay, you can do it manually in the way that is most convenient for you. As already mentioned, the requirements in GTA 5 are very high, so it is unlikely that you will be interested in streaming at all on a weak computer.

Installation paths

As you know very well, the developers of this game force users to register in their special program Social Club to be able to safely play licensed versions of projects. However, the problem with the fifth part may arise due to the fact that the program and the game, which are related to each other, are on different drives your computer. This slows down the gameplay, and you should take care of it - optimizing GTA 5 for a laptop or weak computer means that you transfer the program to the same disk where your game is stored. However, this is not so easy to do, because the game will continue to refer to the previous location of the program, and instead of a faster process, you will get no process at all. To avoid this, you need to command line arrange a link between the new location of the program and the old one. This will help, and you won't even need a patch to optimize GTA 5, since everything can be done by yourself.

High priority game

How else can GTA 5 be optimized? AMD video cards do not have the same problems as nVidia models, so you should pay attention not to video memory, but to something completely different. The fact is that operating system automatically distributes priorities to programs running simultaneously, that is, the higher a program is in the priority list, the more resources it gets. And your game may not be in first place, which will deprive it of the necessary resources. This situation can be corrected by manually setting GTA 5 to the highest priority. If you have the necessary knowledge, you can even create your own config that will automatically give it the highest priority when you launch the game, so you don't have to do it manually every time. This is another process that goes into optimization in the case of the GTA 5 game. The PC also has such a thing as a page file, and you will have to work with that as well.

Swap file

So, you have already gone through many steps of the process called GTA 5 optimization. Have NVidia cards had problems? They have already been decided. The drivers were not installed? Everything is already in order. What else can you do to make this game function much better for you? You can increase for the disk the game is located on. The fact is that it requires a very large amount of memory to run, and you need to create an appropriate reserve, which is the paging file. It is usually set to medium standard level, but you should at least double it to make it max. This will provide much more impressive performance for your game. You don't even need a program to optimize GTA 5, since you have already managed to learn everything without any untested third-party files.

Dual channel memory mode

This item is quite simple to correct, but is not very clear for those users who do not understand how computers, in principle, function. There is nothing wrong with this, because not everyone has to be a genius and understand the entire internals of your PC, for most people this is a common tool. However, if you need to optimize its performance, then you need to either understand the issue yourself, or trust professionals or practical guides which they make up. So if the performance of this game is low, you should check the settings of your random access memory and make sure that it works in dual-channel mode. There is no point in explaining what it is and what the difference is this mode from others, this information will not help speed up the game, just correct this flaw and enjoy the result.

RAM frequency

Many gamers are guided solely by the amount of RAM, where there is one rule - the more, the better. And this, in principle, is the correct approach, since basically it is the volume that plays a decisive role. However, if there is a question about optimization, and your RAM seems to meet the requirements, but does not show the result you need, then it is worth thinking about some other parameters. For example, when you restart your computer, you can go to BIOS settings, where you can find the item “RAM frequency” - here you need to adjust the frequency in accordance with that declared by the manufacturer. The fact is that an incorrectly set frequency can negatively affect the functioning of your RAM.

Radio

Another reason why your game may be unnecessarily slow is the radio. The game contains a large number of different radio stations, which are supplied with the project client. You can turn them on in your car and enjoy listening without compromising your performance. But there is a feature that allows you to add your own songs to listen to in the game, and this is what can negatively affect how you play the game is on. You need to abandon your own music and remove from the folder all the files you added there. But that's not all - you will need to run a manual search in this folder so that the game can make sure that there is nothing there, since otherwise it will still send requests there, which will take up your computer's resources.

Grass and other beauties

As mentioned earlier, this game has incredibly detailed graphics, the landscapes here are simply beautiful, and even the movement of grass and foliage is literally amazing. But all this can negatively affect performance even if you turn all settings in the game to minimum. Here everything can lie in one MSAA setting item, which greatly slows down the performance in order to make the elements of the surrounding world more realistic. Edit this setting, and you will immediately notice an increase in productivity.

Autorun

Well, the last thing you need to do is clear the autorun menu. This menu is responsible for which programs automatically start when you turn on the computer. They all consume resources and are placed in the priority queue higher than the game that launches later. Clean the autorun menu and periodically check if anything unwanted appears in it to ensure that GTA 5 functions perfectly on your computer. That's it, optimizing your computer for playing GTA 5 has come to an end - you can enjoy the results.

Now I will tell you how to Optimize a weak computer for GTA 4
Everyone knows that GTA 4 requires powerful computer for her full-fledged work. But not everyone has strong computers and not everyone will spend a lot of money on buying a strong computer just to play GTA 4.

In this article I will tell you how to optimize GTA 4 for a very weak computers namely, to reduce the number of freezes during the game and increase the number of fps (frames per second).

After the operations described below in this article are completed, your GTA IV will work even on the weakest computer, such as:

512 RAM
1 core 2.8 GHz
radeon 2400 hd video card

As you can see, the hardware is very weak but the game runs fine and the fps is fully playable!

And so, let's begin:

1. Update all drivers:

Microsoft. NET Framework 3.5 SP1
DirectX (preferably installed 11th)
Video card drivers are very important, for me personally it increases fps.
It is advisable to update sound drivers.
2. Very important:

Download and install CacheBoost 4.0. After installing the program, restart your computer and at the same time, you will see in the lower right corner (where the clock is) a symbol that shows how much free RAM is left, and at the same time the program will clear the memory.

3. Download and install:
GTAIV PC Update 1.0.1.0 (a patch that is needed to fully optimize GTA 4).
Download GTA IV Render Flag Customizer (a mod that disables rendering).
Renders are for example: shadows, water, drawing distance, etc. Disabling renders greatly increases fps and speeds up the game, since shadows or draw distances heavily load the processor.
Download and install the GameBooster program
This program closes unnecessary programs that take up precious memory, frees up about 50 mb and these 50 mb are enough to reduce lag in GTA 4.

4.Creating the commandline.txt file

Create a commandline.txt file in the root folder of the game, open this file and enter the following values ​​and then save.
availablevidmem 2
noprecache
nomemrestrict
norestrictions
novblank
Now let's look at what these values ​​mean

Availablevidmem 2 (number 2 - for video cards with 256 megabytes of memory, respectively, for video cards with 128 megabytes you need to set the number “1”, for 512 - “3”, for 1024 - “4” and so on. Some put values ​​like “1.4 "and others. I haven’t tried it, but it helps some. By the way, the team helps many with solving the problem with textures)
-noprecache (there are no digital values, the command disables preliminary caching of files, which helps some with wild freezes. It also increases performance, again for some)
-nomemrestrict (disables memory restrictions, therefore does not play a special role in performance)
-norestrictions (command to open hidden settings, affects FPS)
-novblank (disables vertical sync. ViSynh is still relatively unnoticeable to the human eye, but for its stealth it consumes more resources than it should, so feel free to prescribe it)
-minspecaudio (running the game with minimal sound quality. The deterioration in quality is almost not noticeable, except that I stopped hearing the bass effect from cars passing by, but this is not so important. But, the load on the processor in the form of sound processing is reduced, for some Very useful command)

I hope the article helped you! Be sure to leave your comments, ask questions, or report problems here! If something doesn’t work out for you, we will definitely help!

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 it with it original file settings (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: the archive contains a file with detailed instructions, but I’ll 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.

If you experience FPS freezes in GTA V and you have a monitor with G-SYNC support, just try to turn it on. They say it eliminates it completely. Well, for those who, like me, don’t have this technology, welcome to the guide.

Inherent Guidance

READ THE LAST SECTION OF THIS GUIDE IMMEDIATELY

GoTo "What's the trick?" It contains the summary of the entire manual. Everything between this section and the last is now useless observations and reasoning. If I have time, I will remove unnecessary things or even rewrite the manual.

Texture loading instead of FPS micro-freezes (FPS drops to 0)

I'll tell you about the most interesting things right away :)
I did not test this setting without all the other tweaks, which will be discussed later, but I noticed that it sharply nullifies all micro-freezes, but sometimes textures are loaded on the fly instead, for example bushes - first the simpler texture is displayed, then the normal one.
It's about the parameter "Image Resolution Scale". When I set the value 5/4 (1.250) , FPS stuttering is gone. Before this, I had already applied some of the tweaks, which will be discussed further, but that’s not the point. If I set the default value, the friezes return. I checked it many times by turning it on, off, restarting and not restarting the game.
You can use other values, but everything above 5/4 (1.250) will reduce FPS, and anything lower will degrade image quality.

My configuration on which it worked

Processor: Intel Pentium G4500 @ 3.50GHz (built-in GPU disabled in BIOS)
Video card: Palit GeForce® GTX 980 Super JetStream 4Gb
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-VH (MS-7996) with latest version BIOS 2.30
RAM: DIMM DDR4, 8GB (2x4GB), Kingston HyperX Savage Black, HX421C13SBK2/8 2133 MHz Dual channel CL13
OS: Windows 10 x64 with all updates as of January 20, 2016.
SSD: 512 Gb OCZ Agility 4

Windows 10, GTA V and Steam on SSD.

The video card is connected to a Samsung UE40ES7507U TV (60Hz) via HDMI in PC mode through a Pioneer VCX-421 AV receiver with the video signal passing through.

Game settings in the panel NVidia control

More details about this + general optimization tweaks that you can’t do without in another guide - which is essentially an integral part of this guide.

Here I will only give screenshots of the settings. Please note that the settings must be specified for gta5.exe, NOT for gtavlauncher.exe.

However, if you use ShadowPlay but don't need or particularly need the background recording feature, I would recommend turning it off. Especially if you have an SSD, as this can contribute to its accelerated wear:

Regarding autoloading, everything is simple - nothing extra. This is what it looks like for me.

I’ll tell you straight away that I found it on the Internet and it really helped me

It's no secret that the PC port was extremely unsuccessful. Almost the only way to achieve good performance is to buy a new top computer. But even after this, the game consumes enough resources that it can slow down quite a bit. We all came to the conclusion: “I’d rather buy a console...”.
But there are many ways to increase game performance, which I will tell you about:

The game is too processor-dependent, and does not load the video card and RAM as much as the processor. This is due to the fact that consoles use the most processor resources, unlike PCs. What am I talking about? Besides, RockStar Games only ported the game and that’s it, but they forgot or didn’t want to configure it correctly for PC. So the architecture for accessing resources remains the same as that of consoles.

1.Install all patches. (Corrects many bugs and stabilizes the game. Also adds access to additional game parameters).

2.Update all programs and drivers used by the game (additional reliability and stability, and in many cases slightly improved performance):
- Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
- DirectX
- Video card drivers
- Sound card drivers
- Install update packages for Windows Vista– SP1, for XP – SP3 (This applies to those who simply changed the value in the registry).

3. After installing updates, I recommend cleaning your computer with programs such as Ccleaner (www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/) or other utilities. (I always recommend using these).

4. Also, when you update your drivers, not only remove the old ones (in many cases they are automatically deleted during the update), but also clean your computer with programs like Cleaner Pro (www.3dnews.ru/download/driver...Driver_Cleaner) or similar. (If everything is installed correctly, then traces of old drivers will not interfere again and + additional stability).

5.The problem of poor performance is caused by the "Proactive Defense" module of Kaspersky Anti-Virus (7.0). You must either disable Proactive Protection before playing, or add the files LaunchGTAIV.exe and GTAIV.exe with maximum permissions to the "Exclusion Rules" and "Trusted Applications" (Settings> Threats and Exclusions> Trusted Zone). I also advise owners of other antiviruses to do the same. (After such an operation, cut scenes should be more stable, and in general, if the antivirus does not access the game launch files, then the processor will load less and, accordingly, + FPS).

6.You can turn off (remove the process during the game) RockStar Social just in case. (Helps some with texture issues and frees up some resources).

7.As I wrote at the very beginning, the game is processor dependent. Therefore, I highly recommend removing all unnecessary processes before starting. I also recommend removing all unnecessary downloads from startup. But this must be done CONSCIOUSLY. The same function is available in CCleaner, but it is more convenient. (If you previously had a lot of programs running during the game, then after disabling them, more processor resources appear for the game, which entails increased performance).

8. Many people have stumbled upon a “wonderful” program for increase FPS GTA4UP. This is a virus disguised as a program that increases FPS in GTA IV. After installation, errors, disappearance of machines and other difficulties are possible. I think that smart people are reading this and will not say after reading: “But I’ll try anyway, maybe it will work out.”

9.It also wouldn’t hurt to defragment HDD. (if before defragmentation the fragments hard drive sat there anyhow, then searched on the hard drive necessary files took longer to play. After the procedure, in this situation, the time to access files increases and +FPS. But of course, only if before that the hard drive was a complete mess).

10. There is also one utility for defragmenting RAM, MMSoft RAM. just completely defragment your RAM before playing (it won’t take much time) and stability will increase. After this, my game performance even improves a little, but only if my computer had been running for several hours before. If you launched the game immediately after the start, then defragmentation of the RAM will not be required. Everything should be stable anyway.

11.Create a notepad file in the root folder of the commandline game. Then you can enter these parameters in it to achieve better performance:

Nomemrestrict (disables memory limitation; therefore, it does not play a special role in performance, unless of course you want to set the graphics, as they say, “to maximum”).

Norestrictions (command for opening hidden settings, affects FPS in the same way as the previous command, that is, almost nothing).

Availablevidmem 2 (number 1 - for video cards with a memory capacity of 128 megabytes, respectively, for video cards with 256 megabytes you need to set the number “2”, for 512 - “3”, for 1024 - “4” and so on. Some put values ​​like “ 1.4" and others. I haven’t tried it, but it helps some. The team helps many people with solving problems with textures. But if you have errors with insufficient video memory and crashes after writing a line, delete it. These errors should disappear).

Noprecache (no numerical values, the command disables pre-caching of files, which helps improve performance).

Novblank (disables vertical synchronization. This setting in many cases is relatively unnoticeable to the human eye, but for its stealth it eats up a lot of resources. When I turned it off right in the game settings with the latest patch, for some reason the performance dropped sharply by ~6-8FPS).

Minspecaudio (runs the game with minimal sound quality. The deterioration in quality is almost not noticeable, unless you hear the bass effect from cars passing by, but this is not that important. But the load on the processor in the form of sound processing is reduced, for some a very useful command) .

Also, if you have a problem with windowed modes, I recommend these two parameters:

Fullscreen (Force launch in full screen mode).

Windowed (Force launch in windowed mode).

An example of writing lines in the commandline:

Norestrictions
-nomemrestrict
-noprecache
-minspecaudio

This is how it is written for me. That is, you need to write it like this: - (dash), then write the parameter without spaces. Write the next parameter in the same way, but below it.

12. Now let's move on to the in-game settings:

In the "Game" option, set the "record clips" option to "NO". This is for those who do not intend to record clips and videos from the game and who want to achieve greater productivity. (CPU and RAM resources are released).

Resolution: Well, everything seems to be clear here. I only advise reducing the resolution only to those who have weak video cards. It is also better to set the scan frequency to the one that is not only in the monitor, but also in Windows.

Aspect ratio: I advise you to set the aspect ratio to the same as on your monitor, and not auto. This is so that if you decide to lower the resolution, the picture will be immediately adjusted to the monitor. For example, when I set it to 1360x768 with the aspect ratio “auto”, I had a black stripe on the left.

Texture quality: I recommend not setting min. quality because the textures become very blurry, and the difference from the min. up to max. very large, but relative to FPS it does not increase much. Therefore, for those who have a low resolution, I advise you to set the texture quality to medium. Personally, I set mine to high because I play at a resolution of 1440x900.

Reflection Resolution: The difference between a very high value and just a high value is small and not particularly noticeable. And you can win a little FPS. You can also put average or low settings. as this parameter deteriorates, reflections on machine bodies become less clear, but this is not as important as the difference between the lowest and the highest on average is almost 6~10FPS, so feel free to set the settings to medium or low. But it depends on the situation on the monitor. If you see a lot of cars and other things in front of you, then the difference will be only a few FPS, but we still win!

Water quality: FPS almost does not change from low to the best value (depending on the video card, the parameter does not load the processor). But for some reason, maybe it seems to me that the water is somehow more realistic at low settings, but when I looked from the bridge, the reflection from the water became unnatural. So decide for yourself what you want to set - low or high.

Shadow quality: If you turn off the parameter, shadows even from houses will disappear. If you change the parameter from very high to just high, then the difference in FPS will not be particularly noticeable (I generally had a difference of 2-3 FPS), but the shadows from the pillars will become a little like a “spray” in Paint. I advise you to leave the parameter at very high or just high settings.

Texture filtering quality: Best and very high are almost the same. Moreover, when I set the best first, and then the average, the difference was only 1 FPS. It turns out that you can leave the most advanced settings in this parameter.

View Distance: The difference between 50 and 100 is small, but when increasing from 50 to 100, performance drops by 2-3FPS.

Depth of detail: With this parameter, things are the same as with the previous one. From 50 to 100 there is only 2-3FPS difference. But the level of the parameter is also not particularly important as performance.

Transport stream: Well, everything is simple here - it mainly loads the processor. I set the value to 50 (previously it was 100) and gained a little FPS due to the fact that fewer cars began to appear on the screen.

Shadow intensity: Feel free to set it to 0! The parameter is responsible for shadows from car headlights. This parameter is generally not needed for those who want performance. And what does it matter even if you leave it at 1 - then with the headlights on, even if there is nothing to cast shadows from, the performance will drop by 6-8FPS!

Depth of field of view: This parameter does not affect performance in any way, only if you turn it off, everything becomes blurry and blurry. A bit like smoothing. You can use it like this: Lower the resolution and enable the option. Then the serration and ladder partially disappear. You can also use the letter “P” (Latin) to switch the parameter (on/off) directly from the game without entering the settings menu.

Vertical Sync: This option is controversial. It doesn’t seem to affect anything, but it’s different for everyone - for some, FPS increases when turned off, and for others, it drops. Decide for yourself here.

13. If you are not satisfied with all this, then the only option left is overclocking. At first I overclocked the video card and did not achieve anything because the game does not have enough of my video card, but the processor. Here complete instructions overclocking the processor.