The fifth numbered part of Grand Theft Auto, having successfully emptied the wallets of console players, after a long delay, came to personal computers. A large open world and three crazy bandit heroes await those who are ready to share their adventures. But today we will not talk about how GTA 5 can entertain the player, and not about the features of the gameplay. It will be about performance and fine-tuning of graphic parameters.
GTA V offers a varied game world with completely different locations - business districts of the metropolis, slums, industrial complexes, mountain ranges, forests and deserts. Huge scale, great variety and detailed study of the environment. You can enjoy some of the views from the lower screenshots in 2560x1440 resolution.
The game pleases with good clear textures and relief surfaces, for which parallax mapping is actively used. Even ordinary lawns have a raised texture rather than using the usual painted texture.
As a clear illustration of the work of parallax mapping, here is a screenshot, which at the same time clearly shows the work of the effect of changing the depth of field, which is actively used in the game.
Thanks to this lens effect, backgrounds are blurred, allowing for a more natural perception of the overall panorama.
The time of day and weather in the game changes. All objects cast correct soft shadows away from the sun. Cute sunrises and sunsets are complemented by rainbow effects.
The drawing range of objects is very high. By default, there is a noticeable change in the clarity of details as you move away from the camera. When using additional settings, the effect is neutralized. This will be discussed in more detail below.
General physics of interaction of objects at the traditional level for such games. The surroundings are mostly static, but the pillars and display cases are beating. In story missions with big explosions, GTA 5 shows a good show with a bunch of bits and pieces. Control and physical model of car behavior at the usual GTA level, without any complications. In particular, only very serious damage affects the behavior of the machine. Externally, the cars look great - they shine in the sun, reflect all surrounding buildings and lights on a smooth glossy surface.
Water surfaces look nice, but nothing more. In Watch Dogs, the water was more beautiful and livelier.
If you make a general comparison of graphics with Watch Dogs, then you can feel the technological advantage of the Ubisoft game. But GTA V has a more meticulous attention to detail and more external variety.
The computer version of GTA 5 has a lot of graphical settings. Not all of them are clear to the average player. Some do not always directly indicate the effect that they have on the overall picture quality. Sometimes the very meaning of the settings is lost due to the free translation of specific names. We will help you sort out all their diversity. Let's see how the individual parameters affect the image, and how it affects performance. Based on the results, it will be possible to draw conclusions about which settings are most critical for performance, which ones hit the visual beauty a lot, and which ones do not. Such information will be relevant for owners of mid-range video cards and below. On the basis of our guide, it will be possible to select the optimal ratio of parameters that will increase performance with minimal loss of picture quality.
Those who want to get the most out of the game will not be forgotten either. There will be a comparison of different anti-aliasing modes. Let's find out which of them are the most successful, which are the most resource-intensive. Let's explore the impact of "advanced image settings" that raise the graphics bar beyond what the game offers by default.
Test configurations
Main test bench:
- processor: Intel Core i7-3930K (3, [email protected], 4 GHz, 12 MB);
- cooler: Thermalright Venomous X;
- motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Formula / Battlefield 3 (Intel X79 Express);
- memory: Kingston KHX2133C11D3K4 / 16GX (4x4 GB, [email protected] MHz, 10-11-10-28-1T);
- system drive: WD3200AAKS (320 GB, SATA II)
- power supply unit: Seasonic SS-750KM (750 W);
- monitor: ASUS PB278Q (2560x1440, 27 ″);
- geForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 350.12;
- driver of other Radeon: ATI Catalyst 15.4 beta.
For tests of processors, an additional test bench with the following configuration was used:
- processor # 1: Intel Pentium G3258 (3.2 GHz nominal, 3 MB);
- processor # 2: Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5 GHz nominal, 8 MB);
- motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary (Intel Z97);
- memory: GoodRAM GY1600D364L10 / 16GDC (2x8 GB, 1600 MHz, 10-10-10-28-2T);
- system drive: ADATA SX900 256 GB (256 GB, SATA 6 Gb / s);
- power supply unit: Chieftec CTG-750C (750 W);
- monitor: LG 23MP75HM-P (1920x1080, 23 ″);
- operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64;
- geForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 350.12.
Testing was carried out using the built-in benchmark, which includes five test scenes. The average fps for each scene was taken into account and the final average value was calculated. To reduce the error, four benchmark runs were performed. Note that the test results are not displayed in the game, all data is saved at c: \\ Users \\ Username \\ Documents \\ Rockstar Games \\ GTA V \\ Benchmarks as a text file.
The logs also record the minimum fps for each test scene. But these values \u200b\u200bare too unstable and differ with each new run. At the same time, even in the case of real "lags", noticeable to the naked eye, these values \u200b\u200bwere slightly different from the minimum fps on the cards, which produced a smooth picture. We ended up using Fraps for additional monitoring. And the minimum fps on the graphs is the average minimum value at the end of each of the four runs of the benchmark, recorded by the program.
When considering the effect of settings on performance, one video card will be used - an unreferenced GeForce GTX 760 2GB with frequencies at the level of standard versions. The order of testing is as follows: the configuration of the maximum graphics settings without anti-aliasing at a resolution of 1920x1080 is taken, one of the parameters is changed, performance is tested at different quality levels of this parameter, comparative visual materials are provided with a demonstration of the difference in picture quality. Then all parameters are set back to the initial maximum value, and the change of another parameter with the corresponding tests begins.
Actively ignoring constraints, which allows you to use the most difficult parameters. All tests were carried out in the DirectX 11 rendering mode, since this API has long been the main one, even for budget graphics solutions. But the game also supports DirectX 10.1 and DirectX 10.
The order of studying individual parameters corresponds to their order in the game menu. An exception was made for the shadow settings, of which there are several, and they are to a certain extent interconnected. After considering the main parameters of the graphics, we will move on to additional ones, where a phased joint inclusion of all items will be performed.
The next stage of the article is comparative tests of different AMD and NVIDIA video cards with high graphics quality. In the end, there will be testing of processor dependence using Intel CPUs of different price categories.
Anti-aliasing modes
The game supports FXAA and MSAA anti-aliasing. For users of GeForce video cards, TXAA anti-aliasing is also available. The latter is activated after enabling MSAA in the settings as an additional option. Urban surroundings and industrial landscapes are always full of straight lines, so that the stepped edges of objects are clearly visible here. The stepped outlines of the car against the background of a light road surface are no less visible. So you can't do without anti-aliasing. You can evaluate the effect of activating different anti-aliasing methods in comparison with the mode without anti-aliasing from the lower screenshots.
The color saturation of the car in the foreground changes slightly due to the subtle fog effect. We do not pay attention to this, we carefully study the surrounding objects and elements. For clarity, let's compare the same fragments of each screenshot.
I would like to note the good quality of FXAA, which is not the case in all games. The worst effect of smoothing "steps" at the boundaries of objects is given by MSAA in 2x mode, which is quite expected. Switching multisampling to 4x mode improves the picture. The transition to TXAA provides even smoother edges. And from this point of view, this mode is the most effective. But with it, the overall picture is blurred a little, the clarity of details is lost. Compare the road surface, grass and shingles in the larger screenshots - these are the elements that make the difference most clearly. The relief texture of grass with TXAA is generally lost. FXAA gives a clearer picture.
The best balance between anti-aliasing and clarity is provided by MSAA 4x. Note the crane and the neighboring house in the background. With MSAA, they are clearer, even the inscription on the poster appears, which is not at all visible with FXAA.
Note also that the game has an interesting parameter "MSAA for reflections". It is logical to assume that it affects the smoothing of the edges of reflections, which are most often seen on the surface of cars. In practice, we did not detect any difference in reflections with and without MSAA 4x. Perhaps we are talking about reflections on other surfaces. It is possible that the very effect of this smoothing is poorly expressed.
It's time to take a look at how all of these modes affect performance. Experienced graphics card - GeForce GTX 760.
Activating FXAA relative to the mode without anti-aliasing gives a drop in fps by only 4%. Enabling MSAA 2x relative to the mode without anti-aliasing on the test card results in a performance drop of 21% in the minimum setting and up to 30% in the average game frame rate. Switching to MSAA 4x gives a 16% reduction relative to the simpler multisampling mode. TXAA 4x is given 3-4% harder. If we additionally enable an anti-aliasing mode for reflections of a similar quality to MSAA 4x, then we get the frame rate on the same level as the TXAA mode, which is 46-57% lower than the initial level without AA.
FXAA has a good visual impact and minimal impact on performance. MSAA is slightly better in terms of clarity, but the performance losses are impressive. Such a serious decrease in fps may be due to insufficient memory. Even without anti-aliasing, the game demonstrates that it will use about 2.5 GB at 1920x1080.
Population
Three points are related to the density of people on the streets of the city. These are Population Density, Population Variety, and Distance Scaling. Each has its own scale with 10 gradations. The first two points are quite obvious - they regulate the number of people on the streets and the use of various models for them. Distance Scaling is probably the distance they will appear. We gradually reduced all parameters from the maximum to half (we will consider it 100% and 50%). Based on the results of several minutes of playing in different modes, one can state the minimum difference in the number of people on the streets. Presumably, this also affects the traffic density on the roads. You don't notice any of this unless you deliberately focus on the task at hand.
At the bottom left is a screenshot of the mode when all parameters are at maximum. On the right is an image of a similar place, when all three parameters are reduced to 50%.
We did not lower these parameters to zero, since even a change from 100% to 50% did not give any significant difference in the frame rate, which is clearly seen in the lower graph.
Reducing "population" and "diversity" has no effect. Changing the distance leads to a meager increase in fps. The result is expected, because a weak adjustment of the population density will not affect the workload of the GPU. This is more relevant for the CPU. Decreasing these parameters can have a positive effect on weak CPUs. On more or less modern systems, you can immediately set them to maximum.
Texture quality
It's time to experiment with Texture Quality. As noted above, in Ultra quality in Full HD without anti-aliasing, the game already consumes up to 2.5 GB of video memory. It is logical to assume that graphics cards with 2 GB may experience problems because of this. And reducing the quality of textures for ordinary users will seem the most obvious solution to increase productivity. But is it? Let's figure it out now.
First, let's compare the image quality at the highest, highest and standard texture levels.
Texture quality very high
Texture quality high
Texture Quality Normal
Not everything is different. The first screenshots show a gradual decrease in the clarity of the elements of the environment - patterns on the carpet and sofa, paintings on the wall, a slight change in the texture of jeans. In the second scene, the difference in the quality of the textures of the sidewalks and the road surface is striking.
The effect of texture quality on overall performance is minimal. When switching from maximum to high, it is almost invisible. Switching to standard mode gives a ridiculous gain of a couple of percent, and this despite the fact that in this mode the consumption of video memory finally drops below the 2 GB bar. So the quality of textures can be set to the highest position even on average video cards.
Shader quality
Next in line is the Shader Quality parameter. Three levels - from standard to very high. In theory, using simpler shaders should dramatically affect the quality of all surfaces.
Texture Shader Very High
Texture shader high
Texture Shader Normal
In fact, changing this parameter only affects the surface of the earth. As you decrease from a maximum level to a high level, the effect of the raised surfaces becomes weaker. In normal mode, the ground and grass completely lose volume - everything is flat. And even the clarity of surfaces is drastically reduced, as when the quality of textures decreases.
Between Very High and High, the difference is less than 3%. Switching to the simplest mode gives a noticeable performance increase, at the level of 12-14% relative to High. And for the first time, we see an increase in the minimum fps with a decrease in a specific graphics parameter. Hence, it is highly critical to overall performance. But the image quality also suffers greatly from the minimum shader level. It makes sense to use the standard shader level only on very weak video cards.
Reflection quality
This parameter (Reflection Quality) affects all reflective surfaces - cars, shop windows, windows, etc. Four levels of quality. You can evaluate their impact on the overall picture by looking at the screenshots below. The rest of the graphics parameters are at the maximum level without anti-aliasing. Half of the screenshots are at 1920x1080, half at 2560x1440.
Reflection Ultra
Reflection Very High
Reflection High
Reflection Normal
In the first scene, we turn our attention to the surface of the cars and the shop window. As the Reflection Quality decreases, the reflections gradually lose their sharpness and become more blurry. And at the standard level (Normal) they practically disappear, there are only glare and frosted glass windows. At the same time, even the advertising stretch on the left side of the frame looks different - the effect of iridescent gloss near the inscriptions is lost. In the night scene, everything is similar - the reflections of the lights on the surface of the cars lose their shape, and then completely disappear.
It should be noted that highly detailed reflections fully correspond to real objects of the environment. This is not Watch Dodgs, when the windows of the buildings reflected not the opposite side of the street, but some standard image for everyone.
Reflections have a significant impact on performance as well. The decrease in quality from the highest level to a very high one is most strongly affected - an increase in fps by 8-11%. And again there is an increase in the minimum fps, which is the most critical. There is little difference in frame rate between standard and high, but the picture is completely different. So we do not recommend lowering this parameter to a minimum.
Water quality
Everything is quite obvious. Changing Water Quality affects the display of water. Three levels of quality, which can be assessed by the below screenshots.
Water very high
Water high
Water Normal
The difference between the maximum and average levels is difficult to see. But the standard mode is fundamentally different - the details of the waves are easier, there are less reflections and glare.
Higher water quality regimes have no effect on overall productivity. Enabling the simplest display mode allows you to win up to 3%.
Particle quality
A parameter that controls the amount of particles. Originally called Particles Quality. Its influence is quite obvious, only the particles themselves in the game are not enough, except perhaps sparks and fragments during collisions or explosions. There are no wind-blown foliage and newspapers in GTA 5. So it's not easy to tell the difference between the maximum particle level and the minimum.
Here we will do without comparative screenshots. And even in testing we will limit ourselves to extreme values \u200b\u200b- a very high level and standard.
The minimum difference. So it makes sense to reduce this parameter only on very weak systems.
Grass quality
The Grass Quality parameter affects the display of grass. Four discrete values \u200b\u200b- from standard to ultra. For comparison, we have combined in one image fragments of the same frame from the built-in game benchmark.
Decreasing the quality of the grass by one value slightly affects its density. Further decline is accompanied by the disappearance of fern shadows. In the simplest mode, the large grass disappears. This parameter does not in any way affect the density and quality of the shrub, does not affect moss and small grass, which is implemented using embossed texturing technologies.
Significant impact on minimum fps. Hence, the quality of the grass is very important to the overall performance. Switching from maximum quality to very high quality allows you to increase the minimum fps by 12%, the next decrease gives an increase of another 8%. Between the extreme positions of quality (Ultra and Normal) there is a difference of 29% in the minimum setting and 9% in the average game frame rate. Special effects and post-processing
Let's combine several parameters into one benchmarking test. In Russian translation, the Post FX parameter, which is responsible for the quality of post-processing, is called special effects. This concerns the motion blur effect and the depth of field effect. There is still a weakly pronounced lens effect like chromatic aberration. At the maximum level of post-effects, it is possible to manually set the intensity of the Motion Blur and activate / deactivate Depth of Field. In our tests, we used Motion Blur at 50% intensity. Although in GTA it is not aggressive, so there will be no strong blurring of objects even at 100%.
The effect of changing the depth of field is used very actively. In a balanced position, it only slightly blurs the background.
The blur distance depends on the gaze and constantly changes, creating the effect of gradually adapting the gaze to focus on specific objects. With a sharp change in gaze, the depth of the focal length gradually changes from a minimum to a higher. If the camera is aimed at a close object, then a slight blur will hide objects at a medium distance, increasing the effect of concentration. All this is implemented very realistically and without particularly aggressive blurring, without creating discomfort in the game.
When the special effects are lowered from the highest to the highest level, Depth of Field is automatically disabled. Dropping to the minimum (standard) level prevents Motion Blur from being activated.
Testing was carried out at maximum effect level with 50% Motion Blur. The next position is to lower the special effects by one point with the Motion Blur turned off completely. The next downgrade by one more point is accompanied by an obvious disconnection of Depth of Field. Next comes the minimum level of special effects.
Motion blur has little impact on overall performance. But disabling DOF with a corresponding decrease in the overall level of post-effects gives a sharp jump in performance at the level of 14-22%. Given the widespread use of the depth of field effect, this effect on performance is quite expected.
Tessellation
Not without tessellation support. During our acquaintance with the game, we noticed its influence only on trees and palms. And, most likely, the possibilities of tessellation in the game are limited to this.
Tessellation Very High
Tessellation high
Tessellation Normal
Tessellation Off
As the quality of tessellation decreases, the trunk of a palm tree loses its complex geometric structure, becoming completely smooth without this mode. At the same time, the influence of tessellation on the geometry of the tree trunk located in the background is also noticeable, although the effect is not so obvious. There is almost no difference between the highest and highest quality tessellations. Only with a very careful study of the screenshots can you notice the complexity of the geometry in some areas.
In our benchmarking test, we missed the high setting level.
No difference between different tessellation levels. And even disabling it has little effect on the overall performance level. So feel free to set this parameter to a high or maximum level. It makes sense to reduce tessellation on older DirectX 11 video cards, which are much weaker in processing tessellated surfaces than modern solutions.
Shadow quality
Let's move on to studying shadows. The Shadow Quality parameter affects the overall quality and detail of shadows.
Shadow very high
Shadow high
Shadow Normal
As the parameter decreases, the detail of the shadows decreases, they become more blurry. In standard mode, their saturation is additionally lost, shadows from small details disappear altogether (note the shadows of the armrests and a weak shadow at the edge of the pool).
Another parameter important for overall performance. Lowering it to a high level increases the minimum fps by 8%. Reducing the quality of the shadows further results in a smaller increase in frame rate.
With the maximum quality of the shadows, you can increase the distance to load the detailed shadows in the advanced graphics settings. When the quality is reduced, this option is disabled. With an average quality of shadows, it makes no sense to chase the effect of soft shadows. If the quality is low, you can also opt out of global shading.
Soft shadows
The game supports several levels of implementation of the soft shadow effect with the ability to use NVIDIA PCSS or AMD CHS technologies. This effect itself adds realism, because in diffused sunlight, shadows do not have clear edges. In NVIDIA PCSS, shadows are calculated using even more complex algorithms, taking into account the removal of the shadow from its source. Therefore, for example, the upper part of the column shadow will be lighter than its lower part.
Soft Shadows NVIDIA PCSS
Soft Shadows AMD CHS
Soft shadows very high
Soft shadows high
Soft shadows
Soft shadows off
From the selected scene, you can immediately see that the detail of the shadow changes with distance from the character. It is also noteworthy that the soft shadows of AMD CHS easily worked on the GeForce, although a slightly pronounced quadratic structure does not make this mode the best. With NVIDIA PCSS, shadows are softer and softer, and there is no clear transition from detailed shadows to less detailed ones. With the usual algorithm for processing soft shadows in the “maximally soft” mode, the clarity is slightly higher in comparison with NVIDIA PCSS, the effect of changing the palm shadow detail is also smoothed well. As the degree of softness decreases, the difference in detail changes becomes more pronounced. When the soft shadows are completely turned off, the part of the shadow on the wall crumbles into squares, and the general feeling of a living shadow is completely lost. But notice that the quadratic structure shows up clearly on the vertical surface. In the distant section of the shadow on the ground, which we observe from a high angle, this is hardly noticeable.
We know from past games that NVIDIA PCSS can slightly change the overall shading pattern at long ranges. Let's see how this affects GTA.
Soft Shadows NVIDIA PCSS
Soft shadows very high
At close range, the shadow is softer. At an average distance, the shadow from a tree with PCSS is not so solid, there are gaps in the crown - this is a plus. But the shadow from the roof of the house on the right is overgrown with a comb - this is a minus. With PCSS, the shading intensity of distant trees decreases, their tops become lighter. That is, it looks different, but the overall impression depends on subjective impressions. Comparison of performance will help determine.
NVIDIA PCSS and AMD CHS are the most resource-intensive modes that consume up to 7% of the performance relative to the usual mode for the highest quality soft shadows. So it is better to stop at this option, and not bother with questions of studying shadows under a magnifying glass. If you want, you can try one of the methods from NVIDIA and AMD, suddenly you like it more. A further decrease in the quality of soft shadows gives a meager performance gain.
AO shading
The game allows you to use high quality Ambient Occlusion, in normal mode and without AO. It is difficult to make the same screenshots due to the need to restart the game to apply the new parameters. So there may be some deviations in the position of the camera. But the overall impact of global shading can be estimated from such illustrations. These screenshots are in 2560x1440 resolution to better see small details.
Ambient Occlusion High
Ambient Occlusion Normal
Ambient Occlusion Off
Global shading adds additional shadows and penumbraes, taking into account the influence of objects on each other. With Ambient Occlusion, light shadows appear at the junction of the walls, where the furniture meets the walls. The intensity of the shadows in the area above the stove increases, and the lower part of the kitchen table also darkens slightly. Such details slightly enhance the overall sense of volume in the virtual world. It's a pity that there is no support for NVIDIA's HBAO + mode, which has proven itself well in other games.
Low impact on overall performance. Switching between AO modes gives a difference of less than 4%. There is even less difference between turning off AO completely and the poor quality of this shading.
Additional settings
The Advanced Graphics section is useful for those who want to get more out of the game than is offered by default. Initially, all the parameters in this section are disabled, you need to activate them manually. Let's look at their purpose first.
Long Shadows all of a sudden make the shadows ... longer. The only practical sense that can be seen in this, more realistic shadows in the morning and evening, when the sun is low on the horizon. But this parameter does not fundamentally change anything, during the day we did not notice any difference.
High Resolution Shadows is an important parameter that affects shadow detail. Did you not like the shadow of a palm tree crumbling into squares in the "soft shadows" section? Then we will immediately activate this item!
Loading more detailed textures during flight (High Detail Streaming While Fly) - increases the detail of visible objects when flying by air.
Extended Distance Scaling - Adjusts the LOD, allowing you to increase the detail distance of objects. A very important parameter for improving general perception. Adjustable using a scale from zero to maximum with 10 discrete gradations.
Length of shadows (Extended Shadows Distance) - the scale sets the distance for loading detailed shadows. Increasing this parameter will improve shadow detail at medium distances and add new shadows from distant objects.
All these parameters are interrelated, since it is their combination that gives the most noticeable effect of visual improvement of the picture. Without turning on high-res shadows, it doesn't make much sense to wind up the display distance of detailed shadows. Without increasing the last two parameters, there will be no significant picture improvement when High Detail Streaming While Fly is activated. But if you turn on everything, then the picture in flight is completely different.
For comparison, here are screenshots of the same scene with additional parameters and without them.
With additional settings, shadows on distant trees immediately appear. There is a clear division into shaded and light zones at distant buildings. More details to the point that without additional parameters, one of the buildings in the center of the frame loses its roof. More details in the farthest shot (look at the skyscraper under construction on the left). Some confusion is caused only by the comparison of the upper right corner. With additional settings, the shape of the trees on the slope is clearer, new bushes appear, but the grass effect disappears. Apart from this slight oversight, the first screenshot is better in every way.
In dynamics, the difference is seen no worse, if not better. Compare videos of the built-in benchmark with and without the maximum quality of additional options. Pay particular attention to the last airplane test. Without additional settings, a clear border of the zone is visible, only at the intersection of which shadows and new details appear. It comes to the point that even the wires of the power line are visible only after activating all the Advanced Graphics options.
Advanced Graphics Settings On
Advanced Graphics Settings Off
The positive impact on graphics quality is clear. Now let's examine the impact of these parameters on performance. First, we will consistently include the first three points. Then we will additionally increase the "shadow length" parameter to 50% and 100%, then we will additionally increase the distance for loading detailed objects.
The activation of the first item does not affect the overall performance. High-resolution shadows reduce the frame rate by 30% at once at minimum fps with a difference of 8% in average fps. Loading detailed textures in flight, without adjusting the last parameters, has little effect on fps. Extended Shadows Distance reduces performance by a few percent. But the reaction to an increase in the loading distance of detailed objects is extremely critical. The minimum fps drops sharply by half, and noticeable slowdowns begin in some test scenes. In this mode, the game already reports up to 3.3 GB of video memory reservation instead of 2.5 GB at the same resolution without additional settings.
As a compromise, you can set the detail distance of objects and shadows to half of the maximum (lower values \u200b\u200bin the diagram). In this case, the overall performance will be higher. Compared to the initial settings mode, this gives a performance drop of 56/21% (min / avg fps).
Comparison of graphics cards performance
Let's move on to comparing different graphics accelerators in Grand Theft Auto 5. First, we will test a group of video adapters from AMD and NVIDIA at maximum quality settings without activating the advanced settings options.
First comparison with MSAA 4x anti-aliasing in Full HD.
Immediately striking are the close results of the GeForce GTX 770 with 2 GB and the Radeon R9 280X with 3 GB on board. And this is in a mode that requires more than 3 GB of video memory. On the GeForce GTX 980, the peak memory load reached 3400 MB, while the Radeon R9 290X was 100 MB less. The reference GeForce GTX 780 is slightly inferior to the Radeon R9 290 in Uber mode. The performance of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is 1-4% faster than the AMD flagship, and the GeForce GTX 980 is another 9-10% faster. The GeForce GTX 760 and GeForce GTX 960 have the lowest scores, but in this test they have no direct competitor from AMD.
Now let's see how our members cope with the higher 2560x1440 resolution. Against the background of the top results, it is clear that junior representatives will be too tough with such a mode with MSAA, so we will test them with FXAA.
Overall results are better than lower resolution with MSAA. There is a slight lead for the Radeon R9 280X over the GeForce GTX 770. The new GeForce GTX 960 falls short of the GeForce GTX 760, but both will need overclocking to deliver a comfortable level of performance.
Now let's look at the performance of senior participants in high definition with multisampling.
GeForce GTX 780 Ti and GeForce GTX 980 are faster than the Radeon R9 290X. Taking into account the minimum fps below 30 frames, overclocking or reducing the quality of anti-aliasing will be required to achieve a comfortable level. The leader NVIDIA uses up to 3.5 GB of video memory, AMD representatives have a little less memory load.
The most pleasant picture is ensured by the activation of all the additional settings. But will the participants cope with such a difficult regime? Let's find out now. We choose Full HD resolution, set FXAA and turn on additional parameters to the maximum. We exclude the younger participants from the comparison due to the deliberately low results.
Even the Radeon R9 280X has decent average frame rates, but very serious drawdowns in minimum fps. In the red camp, only the Radeon R9 290X's results come close to a comfortable level. But the ideal option would be the GeForce GTX 980, which is 6% better than the leader AMD in the minimum parameter, and in the average game frame rate it is more productive by an impressive 29%. Peak load of video memory at the level of 3370-3330 MB.
Let's use MSAA.
Performance drops dramatically. Even the GeForce GTX 980 drops to 25 fps at minimum fps, but maintains a very high average frame rate. GeForce GTX 780 Ti outperforms Radeon R9 290X in average fps, but loses one frame at minimum. The memory load reaches 3600 MB.
Let's try to switch to 2560x1440, but with a more gentle anti-aliasing mode.
The GeForce GTX 980 is still confidently leading. The predecessor GeForce GTX 780 Ti lags behind by 11-14%, and the Radeon R9 290X is weaker by 5-20%. Load video memory up to 3.6 GB.
As a small addition, we offer a comparison of "retirees" in the face of the GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon R9 6970. For clarity, let's add a GeForce GTX 760 to them. The tests were carried out at 1920x1080 with maximum graphics quality with anti-aliasing turned off. The second test mode assumes additional reduction of post-processing and complete disabling of the effect of depth of field. In both cases, all advanced settings are disabled.
One could say that the old people are about the same level. They have a negligible difference in minimum fps, GeForce GTX 580 wins only in average fps. But in reality, on the Radeon HD 6970, the image is jerky even in the simpler second mode, and this very noticeably spoils the sensations. Although the GeForce GTX 580 does not show serious advantages in graphics, the game on this video adapter is much smoother and more comfortable.
Comparison of processor performance
Now is the time to figure out which processor can handle the game at an acceptable level of performance. During the fourth part, it was processor dependence that became the cornerstone for many players. It got to funny situations when the owners of dual-core processors, who by default were doomed to unsatisfactory low performance, had fierce arguments about the required amount of video memory.
To get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe impact of processor potential on overall performance, we took several Intel models:
- Intel Pentium G3258 (3.2 GHz, 3MB L3 cache) LGA1150;
- Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5GHz @ 3.9GHz Turbo, 8MB L3 cache) LGA1150;
- Intel Core i7-3930K (3.2GHz @ 3.8GHz Turbo, 12MB L3 cache) LGA2011.
For all processors, a GeForce GTX 760 video card was used. The test mode assumes the maximum settings of the main section of the graphic settings without anti-aliasing, reducing the level of special effects to "high" and completely disabling the depth of field effect.
Based on the testing results, it is clear that two cores are too small. With a good average fps level, we can occasionally observe terrible "brakes", which can be clearly seen from the level of the minimum fps. Increasing the L3 cache gives an acceleration of 5-7%, but does not solve the problem. Only by activating Hyper Treading can you achieve an acceptable level of performance. Real four cores give up to 34% advantage over two HT cores. With four cores, Hyper Treading is no longer useful. The six cores of the Intel Core i7-3930K also do not provide any advantage. Overclocking top-end processors makes no sense, except when using the most productive video cards. Overclocking a dual-core processor also does not bring much benefit, but for another reason - an increase in frequency does not save you from catastrophic fps drops.
conclusions
It's time to take stock. Let's start with lovers of visual beauty and owners of top-end configurations. If you want to get the most out of the game, be sure to activate the advanced graphics settings. If this hits performance hard, try increasing the distance of loading detailed objects and shadows not to the maximum, but to lower values. It is these parameters that most noticeably affect the final fps. Among the anti-aliasing modes, the best is MSAA, with which there is no loss of clarity of small details. But it is also the most resource-intensive. FXAA is the optimal choice, providing good anti-aliasing quality with minimal performance loss.
To achieve better performance, you will first have to abandon additional settings and anti-aliasing. Although we would recommend using FXAA even for those who have to slightly lower the graphics quality. At the same time, you can experiment with the detailed shadows from the advanced settings. For example, to get a good increase in fps by turning off the effect of depth of field and a slight decrease in the quality of reflections, trying to complement this by turning on detailed shadows and slightly increasing the distance of details of objects. But you need to understand that such experiments require a video card more powerful than the GeForce GTX 760.
If we are talking about a low-power map, then along with reflections and post-effects, you can partially sacrifice the quality of the grass. If necessary, you can safely set many parameters one point below the maximum level. This is often fraught with minimal loss in image quality. All shadow settings can play an important role. As mentioned above, they are interrelated. If your goal is to achieve the highest possible fps, then in addition to a serious decrease in the quality of shadows, you can sacrifice the effect of soft shadows and turn off Ambient Occlusion. But a complete reduction in all shadow parameters will noticeably affect the image quality. It is also highly discouraged to lower the quality of textures, shaders and reflections to a minimum - it hits the graphics a lot. It makes sense to resort to this only on the weakest systems.
Among Intel processors, the Core i3 is the minimum option to play. You will not be able to play normally on dual-core models. The best option even for a mid-range graphics card is a full-fledged quad-core Core i5, which will not become a performance limiter.
The developers at Rockstar have done a good job and have optimized great. The key to this is several dozen graphical settings. In addition to traditional ones, such as the quality of textures or shadows, anti-aliasing or filtering, the game also has proprietary parameters from Nvidia and AMD. However, we will not talk about them today and will talk about the public settings.
Test stand
Processor: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 4.4GHz;
- RAM: 64 GB;
- Video card: Nvidia GeForce TitanX SLI.
All data was captured on this high performance PC at 2880 * 1620 pixels. At lower resolutions, the gap / FPS number can grow.
DirectX version
Grand Theft Auto 5 offers players a choice of three DirectX versions: 10, 10.1, and 11. Versions 10 and 10.1 have been included by the developers for compatibility reasons, so that owners of older graphics amplifiers can enjoy their game.
Since older versions of DirectX do not provide access to modern graphics options, their performance will be higher (by 22% and 14%, respectively). However, the version of the game running on API DirectX 11 shows better stability, image quality and almost no visual bugs.
Texture Quality
In this case, everything is standard - the higher the quality of the textures, the better the graphics. At the same time, "very high" quality is practically equivalent to "high", although in some cases the difference between them will be more than noticeable. The "normal" level of texture quality naturally offers a much more modest visual experience.
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| Very high | High | Fine |
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| Very high | High | Fine |
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| Very high | High | Fine |
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| Very high | High | Fine |
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| Very high | High | Fine |
Rendering quality depending on distance (Distance Scaling)
This setting significantly affects the visual quality as well as the number of frames per second. However, it is far from the fact that you will twist it all the way, since it affects perception and details literally creep into the frame - this can be seen with a very sharp camera change.
Close-up rendering quality is responsible for the number of polygons in buildings, cars and objects, adjusts the quality of the terrain, and also improves their overall detail. It will also make distant objects (mountains, skyscrapers) much better quality. High zoom ratios will also increase the number of objects in the frame, such as pedestrians and cars.
The performance impact of this setting should not be underestimated, and we recommend that you choose the ratio you like best. At the moment, only owners of very powerful computers will not notice the effect of this parameter on performance, since it itself loads the system well, and also has a complex relationship with other key parameters, such as the quality and density of grass.
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| 100% | 70% | 50% | 30% | 0% |
In addition, the quality of drawing, depending on the distance, dramatically changes the FPS from place to place, that is, in a city the load will be much higher than in a desert area and you can easily notice the FPS jerks yourself.
Increased distance of loading more detailed objects (Extended Distance Scaling)
As the name suggests, increasing the loading distance of more detailed objects has an even greater impact on FPS and the overall gaming experience. If the owners of average performance PCs can still cope with the "simple" rendering quality, then enable the improved quality only on those PCs whose performance is capable of capturing the imagination, for example, as in the case of our test stand equipped with two TetanX.
However, the price to pay for using the premium hardware itself will be a noticeable increase in the visual quality of objects, both near and far. Surprisingly, once Rockstar has been able to do this, the improved rendering is truly transformative, adding new detail and subtlety to every game object near the player, as well as increasing the visual quality of distant objects.
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| 100% | 70% | 50% | 30% | 0% |
Note that the increased distance of loading also enters into a complex relationship with other graphical parameters and can bring the FPS to a slideshow if you find yourself in a batch of a huge group of pedestrians, a large number of cars, cops chasing you, and a series of explosions behind your back.
Grass Quality
You might find this setting has little effect on Grand Theft Auto 5's performance, especially if you're in a city. However, as soon as you go into the forest or visit the rural area, you will find out how wrong you are. The quality and density of the grass dramatically reduces productivity, even on the most powerful systems.
For example, at "ultra" settings, huge fields of flowers, grass and bushes, together with a high level of rendering and detail, with improved shadows, will cut off almost 40% of the average FPS. It is possible that even a "normal" level of detail will be overwhelming for your PC - this setting has perhaps the greatest impact on performance in any situation in the game. Even if you twist it to a minimum, it will still continue to have its detrimental effect on FPS.
As you can see from the image, only the incredibly fast system of recent years will be able to cope with "ultra" quality, and even then not everywhere.
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| Ultra | Very high | High | Fine |
Shadow Quality
This feature works hand-in-hand with the High Definition Shadows feature (see below) to improve the clarity and accuracy of all shadows in the game. However, it also has a moderate impact on game performance, with the higher you select the tweak level, the more video memory is required, with the graphics level increasing proportionally.
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| Very high | High | Fine |
High Resolution Shadows
This option speaks for itself, so by enabling it, you will get a qualitatively different level of shadow detail, but it only manifests itself if you turn the overall quality of the shadows to "High".
This option provides the most realistic shadow from any objects, but it also has a big impact on performance, especially in the case of low-power systems. Therefore, we do not recommend enabling this function even for owners of powerful computers.
Extended Shadow Distance
This setting will expand the range of shadows rendering, improve their level of detail, add new shadows and increase the overall sharpness of all shadows.
Despite such a complex and voluminous work, the increased shadow rendering distance will eat no more than 10 FPS if you set it to the maximum value. But if you already have problems with the performance of your computer, then do not be discouraged, this function does not have such a critical value on visualization.
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| 100% | 70% | 50% | 30% | 0% |
Long Shadows
This setting provides more accurate rendering of shadows during sunrises and sunsets. You can easily disable it, since it has practically no noticeable effect on the graphics, but FPS eats away.
Loading more detailed textures while flying (High Detail Streaming While Flying)
This setting adjusts the level of detail in the surrounding surfaces, reducing visual fidelity for better performance while you are in the air. By turning it to the maximum, you will lose 5-10 FPS, which also depends on your location (in the city the FPS will be lower) and other graphics settings.
If you do not like flying and jumping from a height, then you can safely disable this setting and save a couple of useful FPS by reducing the load on your computer.
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| Included | Turned off | Included | Turned off |
Ignore Suggested Limits
When working, this setting is disabled by default, but it is needed in order to prevent the use of a larger amount of video memory than it actually is. We recommend not turning it on, because setting the exceeded volume, you may experience crashes, strong brakes and a complete freeze of the game.
Global shading model (Ambient Occlusion)
Currently, this parameter is not available in the game settings due to a bug; it is responsible for improved shading of the game world and everything in it. As soon as the bug is fixed after the next update of the game client, then we'll talk about this parameter.
Anisotropic Filtering
This setting improves the quality of both distant textures and those that are at an angle to the player's point of view. In GTA 5, this setting works as expected and has practically no effect on performance, absorbing, at most, 3-4 FPS.
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| Off | 2x | 4x | 8x | 16x |
Population Density
Another game tweak that has a complex impact on overall performance. If you love streets filled with pedestrians and cars, then you need a powerful processor and a good graphics card. Rockstar has performed a number of optimizations to improve game performance, but population is still a resource-intensive option.
We recommend setting this parameter to 75%, which will allow you to get a feel for the population of Los Santos and make sure that life in the city is in full swing. However, due to the large number of people and cars, there will be a lot more shadows, reflections and other post effects, which can significantly reduce game performance and may need to lower other graphical settings.
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| 100% | 50% | 0% |
In general, it depends only on your preferences whether to choose a better graphics or streets filled with people and cars.
Population Variety
This option is unique in that it has no effect on performance, but can significantly affect visual quality. The simplest explanation for its operation is as follows: if the game files contain 100 car models and 50 civilian models, then setting the population diversity to 50%, the game will load 50 car models and 25 civilian models into the memory of your video card.
That is, everything depends on the amount of video memory, and if you have 2 or less gigabytes, then we would not recommend setting the value above 50%, since, as it seems to us, this option can be neglected in favor of high quality textures and shadows.
Post FX Effects Settings
This option includes a whole group of effects: motion blur, HDR, lighting blur technologies, several types of glare, constant depth of field, twilight rays, volumetric effects.
The FPS gap between "normal" and "high" levels of Post FX effects is not that great, but as soon as you turn on the "very high" or "ultra" level, the load on the PC grows. We can say that the difference in graphics when switching between these modes is as noticeable as the drop in FPS. Visually, night, sunrise and sunset are especially prominent - that's when most Post FX effects show themselves.
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| Ultra | Very high | High | Fine |
The increase in FPS when switching from "ultra" -level to "very high" can be up to 10 frames, similarly when moving from "very high" level to "high". The reason is that the game removes various effects, such as glare, motion blur, and so on, and at the "normal" level, the quality of the few remaining effects is reduced further.
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| Ultra | Very high | High | Fine |
However, this is not the case for everyone, and some players note a slight decrease in the number of FPS when switching from "normal" to "ultra" -level. Given the loss of quality and the relatively small performance impact of this option, we recommend using the "very high" level of Post FX for GTA 5.
In-Game Depth of Field Effects
Fans of blurry backgrounds in the distance and blurry surroundings when aiming will certainly be pleased with the DOF effects offered by the developers from Rockstar. This option can be activated if the PostFX setting is set to "Very High" or "Ultra".
Objectively, enabling depth of field helps stabilize FPS in cutscenes and in-game cutscenes, but there is the potential for annoying flicker when changing angles abruptly. At first, you will see very blurry nearby objects, and then everything suddenly becomes very sharp, and only after a couple of seconds the image will settle. This problem is caused by technical flaws in the game itself and will probably be fixed in the future.
In terms of performance, you only pay a couple of FPS for these effects, which is not that much. Since the DOF effects are interactive and don't work all the time, you shouldn't notice any sagging. You can also reduce the PostFX setting to Very High to improve game performance.
Particles Quality
It turned out to be quite difficult to assess the impact of this setting on the performance of GTA 5 - explosions occur in different ways, the game physics and the weather system introduce additional distortions, as well as post-effects.
However, the difference between low and high settings is visually negligible. This is not to say that at high settings the number of particles increases significantly, but their quality increases. Therefore, turning everything to the "maximum", you will get 5-10 FPS less than with normal settings, and this will be noticeable only with a large number of explosions.
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| Very high | High | Fine |
Reflection Quality
As the name suggests, Reflection Quality adjusts reflections on all game objects - cars, open bodies of water, mirrors, windows, puddles and even polished floors.
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| Ultra | Very high | High | Fine |
The difference between "ultra" and "very high" can be determined by looking closely at the screenshots, since the visible changes are only seen in the open world and only at great distances.
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| Ultra | Very high | High | Fine |
The big difference between "very high" and "high" modes is that sharpness is removed and reflections are blurred. As for the difference between "high" and "normal" modes, reflections from all vehicles, mirrors, windows and buildings disappear, and what remains looks rather blurry.
In addition, for technical reasons, the "normal" reflections mode gives the picture graphic artifacts and makes the reflections flicker, which is especially noticeable at night, in the rain.
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| Ultra | Very high | High | Fine |
In terms of performance, the quality of reflections has a complex relationship with a number of other graphical settings and with the location of the player. In a city, in the midst of shiny vehicles, windows and buildings (creating mutual reflections), noticeable FPS drawdowns are possible.
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| Ultra | Very high | High | Fine |
We recommend that players set the reflections quality to "high", as this will allow you not only to enjoy the visual quality, but also will not require large resources. In most cases, other parameters of the game should be sacrificed for the quality of reflections.
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| Ultra | Very high | High | Fine |
Reflection MSAA
This feature reduces reflections caused by anti-aliasing technologies, but since the state of the game world is constantly changing, and most of it is in motion, you will hardly notice its benefits.
Considering the slightly improved image quality, you can safely turn off this feature, regardless of which system you are playing on.
Water Quality
This setting has little effect on performance, but water rendering is very dependent on this setting, so we recommend setting the water quality to a “high” level.
For example, the difference between "very high" and just "high" levels is practically nonexistent, and will only be noticeable if you carefully examine the screenshots. But at a "normal" level, water quality deteriorates markedly, losing almost all details and transparency.
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| Very high | High | Fine |
How much video memory does GTA 5 consume?
Above you could familiarize yourself with all the settings of GTA 5, but you are probably wondering how much video memory is needed for this game at minimum, medium and high graphics settings.
For a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) pixels, at minimum settings, 1.066 MB is required. As follows from the table below, to enable maximum textures, you need an additional 1.335 MB, and another 1.211 MB is needed to activate 8x MSAA.
In general, GTA 5 consumes at least 1 GB of RAM, and for maximum settings it is desirable to have a video card with 4 GB of video memory.
Command Line Tweaks
In the game folder (Steam SteamApps Common Grand Theft Auto V), create a commandline.txt file, and add the following commands to it (one command - one line). The changes are activated on the second download of the GTA 5 game world.
"-Benchmark" (no quotes): Automatically loads the in-game benchmark instead of loading single or multiplayer modes.
"-BenchmarkFrameTimes": during the benchmark, the average frame rendering time will be shown, which will help determine the presence of brakes;
"-BenchmarkIterations x": allows you to run the benchmark several times, with x being the number of runs;
"-BenchmarkPass x": instead of four benchmark test scenes, only one will be used;
"-Benchmarknoaudio": Mutes the sound during benchmarking;
"-DisableHyperthreading": disables Hyper Threading technology (only relevant for Intel Core i7);
-GoStraightToMP: loads the game directly into a randomly selected multiplayer match;
"-IgnoreDifferentVideoCard": prevents the game from resetting graphic settings if the video card is changed;
"-GPUCount": defines the number of video cards that the game can use;
"-ScOfflineOnly": Switches the Social Club program offline, which can speed up the load time of single-player mode and prevent you from recognizing your friends' spoilers ahead of time;
-StraightIntoFreemode: loads the game directly into a free multiplayer game;
"-PedLodBias 0.0-1.0f": Overrides the Population Density parameter, and allows the player to manually set the number of people on city streets and other parts of the game world, according to his tastes. Example: "-pedLodBias 0.7f".
"-VehicleLodBias 0.0-1.0f": Overrides Population Density, only sets not the number of civilians, but the number of cars, according to your tastes. We recommend using these two parameters together for maximum effect. Example: "-vehicleLodBias 0.3f".
You can remove the changes by simply deleting the line from the commandline.txt file, or by deleting it entirely.
Setting in the game
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 what we will achieve FPS.
Anti-aliasing fxaa - we must enable it, it has almost no effect on performance, but the result of anti-aliasing is on the face, because this is standard anti-aliasing.
Msaa anti-aliasing - turn it off, it will be unavailable with directive 10, one of the most demanding game settings, I recommend turning it off even on powerful video cards, for those who experience freezes, and what is most interesting is that x2 and off have practically no visual difference, but about 20 is lost FPS immediately, so I recommend enabling only x8 for owners of top video cards, we disable it.
Vertical sync is a must and strongly recommend, the picture looks much better and smoother with it at 60 fps than without it at 80 fps, but first turn it off, for the general fps test.
Population, variety and focus - I explain completely to a minimum why, the population of the city at the minimum value is the standard, the city will not be empty, if you recall gta 4, then after setting this slider to the minimum, the city became dead, immediately this is the normal state of the city, so turn it off , the same things are true with the diversity of the population, I would call this option "senseless eating up video memory", but what about focusing, to be honest, I did not notice the difference in my settings, but at the maximum value it also gives out not frequent freezes of the game, therefore turn off.
The quality of textures - everything is simple here, 1 GB of video memory is only a standard quality, I advise owners of video cards with 2 gb of memory and more to try to set high ones, if 1 gb - set the average by default.
The quality of shaders - set high - shaders make textures in the field of view of higher quality, but 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 into reflections on glass.
Water quality is standard, for the same reason as reflections.
Particle, grass and special effects quality is standard.
Soft shadows - owners of top-end and pre-top video cards recommend setting sharp shadows, that is, at the minimum this parameter, we set either softly or as softly as possible, shadows of standard quality, they are very angular, there is a "ladder", but just this soft function shadows, they become with rounded edges and we already see ladders very, very rarely, the quality of the shadows improves right before our eyes, although initially we set the shadows to the standard, as a result we get less high-quality shadows with a minimum of performance costs.
Anisotropic filtering - we set x16, a useful function, together with our high shaders makes the picture pleasing to the eye.
AO shading - here we set only based on our preferences, try all the options, this function does not particularly affect not the FPS, not the picture.
If it doesn't help
If all of the above did not help, and your FPS are jumping, then there may be problems with the OS or hardware.
Hardware problems are most likely either RAM, hard drive, or overheating. If we sin on the RAM, then it must be run through the memtest program. Hard - free up disk space, do defragmentation (I recommend O&O Defragmenter for the latter). It is better to deal with overheating in stages - first, clean the system unit from dust, replace the thermal paste on the processor, etc. Better to read articles on this case.
System setup
Turn down your graphics card's graphics settings
For NVIDIA video cards, you need to go to the "NVIDIA control panel" (usually right-clicking 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 set up an NVIDIA graphics card.
First, let's figure out the power supply:
Control Panel - Power Options - Sleep Mode Setting - Change Advanced Power Options - 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 pulse: OFF
Backlight Shading: OFF
Maximum number of pre-trained personnel: 4
Streaming Optimization: ON (If multiple processors)
Power management mode: Maximum performance mode preferred
Anti-Aliasing - Gamma Correction: OFF
Anti-Aliasing - Transparency: OFF
Triple buffering: OFF
Texture Filtering - Anisotropic Sampling Optimization: OFF
Texture Filtering - Quality: High Performance
Filtering textures - negative deviation of UD: Snap
Texture Filtering - Trilinear Optimization: OFF
System speed
At this stage, everything is simple. Go to "My Computer", then "Properties", "Additional System Parameters", "Performance", below "Parameters" and select the column "Provide the best performance"
Resolution
It is better to set the resolution small. The higher the resolution, the lower the fps.
Solving some problems
If your mouse twitches when reviewing, then this problem can be solved in this way:
Lags / friezes when driving a car:
1. First, lower the graphics settings of the game. Very often this problem occurs due to the included options that are not supported by the hardware. For example, switch DirectX, etc.
2. Remove the 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, then 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 avoid errors in the processing of game data, which often lead to crashes.
2. Run the game as administrator
3. Make sure the game has enough resources - if necessary, increase the paging file.
4. For owners of licensed copies of the game, it is possible to check the files for integrity in the game properties, in the Steam library.
5. Sometimes reinstalling the drivers for the video card helps. A "clean" install is recommended.
6. The game may freeze if your hard drive is of poor quality and cannot provide the required data transfer rate.
7. Freezing may be caused by overheating of the computer. Watch this.
Textures are missing 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 give it high priority by right-clicking.
4. If it does not 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 is not saved. Problem with saving in GTA V:
1. Run the game as administrator.
2. Check that the system username is written in Latin letters.
Make sure that there is free space on the C drive and the drive where the game is installed.
3. You must have the Rockstar Social Club installed and be logged in.
Hope your FPS has increased!
Thank you for reading this material, I hope I helped you.
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This section of the guide is divided into two parts. In the first part, you will find a detailed list with a description of all the graphical parameters present in the game. Many parameters will have an interactive comparison in a format that is very convenient for you, so that you can clearly assess the degree of influence on the picture quality. Note, however, that you will not find such a comparison for all parameters, because it is not possible to fully capture the effect of individual settings on the graphics using screenshots.
Also, each parameter will have a description of the degree of impact on performance, so that you can immediately understand which settings in the game should be tried to change in the first place if you are not satisfied with the current performance. Also, the effect of parameters on FPS in digital values \u200b\u200bwill be given.
In the second part, you will find various ways to optimize some settings and find the optimal ones for your system, based on the impact on performance of each individual parameter, and you can also automate the game tuning process using the special GeForce Experience program for NVIDIA video card owners. All parameters will go in the chronological order
in which they are presented in the in-game settings menu of the Russian-language version of GTA 5, which means that the name of each parameter will be exactly the same as it is presented in the game.
Section Help
Use the table of contents below to quickly navigate to a description of a specific parameter, but we recommend that you read the description of each option carefully so that you can fully acquire all the necessary knowledge to optimize your game properly according to your expectations of satisfactory performance.
Part one: detailed description of graphic settings
General settings
Video memory
And also its used quantity from available. This parameter shows how much the game currently consumes video memory to meet its needs. Don't be confused by the fact that the amount of consumed memory can significantly exceed the amount of available memory. More on this below.
Ignore suggested restrictions
In the days of GTA 4, many players could not adjust the graphics in the game to high settings only for the reason that the game itself did not allow them to do this, because they believed that if the video memory of your video card was not enough, then it was useless to try to do something and suggested In this case, be content with low settings, if only the number of used video memory does not exceed the number of available ones. Why? Precautions to avoid performance issues that are highly questionable. Then users removed this restriction using a special command for the file commandline, today Rockstar Games themselves offer you, if you have a head on your shoulders, turn off the memory limitation yourself. In theory, disabling this parameter can threaten performance problems, since in a situation when the available video memory runs out, the game starts using expandable video memory, i.e. video memory from another source - RAM. Since RAM is much slower than video memory, there may be serious problems with loading textures or simply with freezes. In practice, however, no particular problems were noticed. The game feels great, even if it eats 2 times more memory than is available. However, too much difference between the available memory and the used memory can still lead to freezes and serious sagging during a long game (on average, more than an hour).
is absent
DirectX version
This parameter allows you to select the DirectX version from three options: 10, 10.1 and 11.
The differences are that with a lower version, you will no longer have access to some graphical effects, like, and. This parameter,
in fact, it does not significantly affect performance and the difference in FPS on different versions is minimal and,
oddly enough, the best stability and performance is mostly shown by
DirectX 11, though, owners of rather weak video cards say that switching to version 10 can help and get rid of some graphical artifacts and sagging, as well as raise FPS a little.
In any case, try changing the version if you are not satisfied with the 11th. Perhaps this will help you.
Impact on performance: the average
FPS difference:8-10 FPS between 10 and 11 on outdated, weak video cards.
Screen type
Indicates how to display the game: full screen, windowed, or borderless window.
This option is self-explanatory. I will just note that for some, playing in a window can give better performance and reduce the load time of the game itself. You can switch to full screen when the game is in windowed mode using the Alt + Enter keyboard shortcut.
Impact on performance: is absent
Resolution
The screen resolution at which the game will run. A lower resolution can significantly increase performance, but for the sake of significant damage to the picture. It is recommended to set the native resolution of your screen, or at least a multiple of the main one, so that the sharpness of the image is not lost.
Impact on performance: the average
FPS difference:depends on the individual characteristics of the computer components.
Format
Impact on performance: is absent
Update frequency
The rate at which your monitor is able to refresh the screen. It is recommended to set the native frequency of the monitor.
Impact on performance: is absent
Output Monitor
This option is needed for those who have more than one monitor installed. The parameter selects the screen on which the game image should be displayed. So, if you have two monitors, one can have a game, and the other a desktop, for example.
Impact on performance: is absent
Anti-aliasing (FXAA, MSAA, TXAA)
It was decided to combine all anti-aliasing settings under one heading in the guide, since they are closely related and this is most convenient for you to appreciate the difference between the various modes of this setting. In total, three types of anti-aliasing are available in the game, each of which has different principles of operation and impact on performance.
The first is the temporal anti-aliasing technology. FXAA, developed by NVIDIA, which is successfully used in many games and sometimes gives good results on objects close to the player, but long-range plans, as a rule, remain not too processed and, as a result, do not look the best. This is quite noticeable when using this type of anti-aliasing in GTA 5. The implementation itself leaves much to be desired, because this algorithm works very badly. Personally, I was most annoyed by the mini-map, which was all covered with "ladders" (distortion at the edges of objects or lines, aliasing), it literally hurt my eyes, therefore, another solution was found using this anti-aliasing, since it is, nevertheless, gives the best performance results.
It is detailed in the second part of this guide.
Next comes smoothing MSAA, which has a more pronounced effect, but also requires significantly more video card resources. Unlike FXAA, this anti-aliasing is permanent, which means it is applied to the entire scene, including both near and far objects. Only available with DirectX 11.
The following is NVIDIA's exclusive Temporal Anti-Aliasing Technology TXAA , which is designed to significantly improve the quality of the picture in the game in the background. It should be noted that enabling this type of anti-aliasing is available only when MSAA is enabled, i.e. these algorithms work in pairs. MSAA coupled with TXAA can provide stunningly clear images, however, for this you need a top-level graphics card.
To assess the differences in the performance of various anti-aliasing algorithms, use our interactive comparison (it is recommended to look at full screen scale):
Impact on performance:
- FXAA - low
- MSAA - high (consumes lot video memory)
- TXAA - the average
FPS difference:
Vertical sync
Or V-Sync. The technology synchronizes the FPS in the game with the scan rate of the monitor and allows you to remove vertical distortion (jerking). A very useful feature as it becomes easier to perceive the image as the picture acquires smoothness. Many do not like this option because it limits FPS and supposedly kills performance a lot. This statement is only 50% erroneous, since disabling this function will allow you to find out the maximum FPS that the game can produce on your hardware, but during a normal game, disabling this function will do nothing, since your monitor is not able to show FPS above its sweep frequency. which means you are not gaining anything if you hope to see 100 frames per second on a 60Hz monitor. Plus, it's also about the anatomy of the human eye, which is not able to perceive such high values.
The parameter has several meanings:
- 100% - FPS will be limited by the monitor frequency (60Hz - 60 FPS)
- 50% - FPS will be limited to 1/2 of the monitor frequency (60Hz - 30 FPS)
- Off - FPS is unlimited.
I personally recommend that you enable this option anyway. If you have a very powerful system and off. Synchronization FPS in the game is 60 and above, then enable full synchronization, if the average FPS is below 60, then enable the option to 50%. In some cases, it is recommended to enable vertical sync on your video card.
Impact on performance: is absent
Automatically pause the game in the background
Enabling this option forces the game to pause itself when you minimize the game with Alt + TAB or switch to another monitor if you have more than one. This is a very useful feature, as it allows you to avoid any changes in the gameplay without you being absent. when any application is minimized, it continues to work, even if the application window is not active at the moment and it seems to you that no changes are taking place.
Impact on performance: is absent
City population
This parameter is a scale by filling in which you can adjust the number of pedestrians and traffic on the streets of Los Santos and Blaine County. The more this scale is filled, the more pedestrians and cars you will meet on your way. Unlike GTA 4, where this parameter significantly reduced performance, there is no drop in the frame rate as such. The discussed setting works closely with other parameters, such as: Population variety, Particle quality, Special effects setting, Reflection quality and finally Shadow quality... The point is that pedestrians and traffic are game objects that are also subject to the above parameters. Given this fact, the most optimal value for this parameter will be 75% of the total filling of the scale. This value will avoid FPS losses as such, because the difference between 0% and 100% is only about 3-5 frames per second, and they begin to be lost when approaching max. mark. At the recommended 75%, you will get the optimal amount of traffic and pedestrians on the street and practically not lose anything in performance, but again, the results may differ on different computers, so experiment, but do not be afraid of high values \u200b\u200bof this parameter.
Impact on performance: low
FPS difference:
Population variety
A very interesting parameter. Than? Yes, the fact that it has absolutely no effect on performance, but at the same time consumes a fairly large amount of video memory. It affects the variety of pedestrians and traffic in the game world. So that you understand how to properly adjust it personally in your case, I will try to explain to you the mechanism of action of this setting: suppose that there are 100 types of transport in the game (in fact, there are more of them, this is just an example) and 50 types of pedestrians (similarly, this is an example ). With a value of 50% of the parameter under discussion, 50 types of transport and 25 types of pedestrians will be loaded into the memory of your video card, and then they will be distributed throughout the game world, that is, two times less than they actually are. Does this mean that the game will select 50 specific vehicles and only use them? No, it is not. Vehicles will change at regular intervals, but at the same time you can only observe 50 of these cars at the same time in the game world, similar to pedestrians. If you increase the parameter City population, then in the game world the number of copies of those same 50 cars and 25 pedestrians will increase. Hopefully clear?
The very technology of duplication (copying) of transport and pedestrians works in such a way as to duplicate each subject in the game world (1 type of transport or pedestrian) 5 times in order to maintain a certain balance of diversity on the streets of Los Santos.
The higher the value of this parameter, the more unique pedestrians you can meet while walking along the city streets and the more unique types of transport you can overtake while rushing along the numerous city roads. As mentioned before, this parameter consumes video memory very much, but personally I think that if you have to sacrifice graphics for the sake of better performance, then it is better to neglect the quality of shadows or reflections (the main consumers of memory after textures) than the variety and richness of the game world ... Which is better: to be in a very beautiful (graphically) game world, but rather poor in population (empty), or to have a fairly lively city and village, but with a slightly less impressive picture? It's up to you and only you, but as I said, this parameter should still be left a priority.
Author's note: the video memory on my video card is 1 GB. I am using a fairly high setting in general and the texture quality is set to "High", while the discussed parameter Population variety I have installed similarly City population, i.e. by 75%. In total, the game consumes 2181 MB of video memory. I cannot say that I am experiencing any serious problems in terms of performance due to such an excess of available video memory. The game works great even if the amount of video memory is much larger than the available one. Why am I? In addition, you should not be afraid of this parameter and you should leave it at least 50%, otherwise the city starts to empty quite noticeably, or you meet the same cars and the same pedestrians, because the game begins to duplicate them all by 5 time. If you have 2 GB of memory, then all the more you should not limit this setting and it is desirable to set its percentage as high as possible. Experiment, friends.
Impact on performance: is absent (but consumes lot video memory)
Focusing scale
It is the drawing distance. Yes, I also have no idea why the translators from 1C called this parameter with such a strange name, but still, the essence of the parameter does not change from the name. This setting affects the distance of drawing smaller parts of various objects in the in-game world.
I must say that when adjusting this parameter, I could not so much understand its meaning because of the strange name (I was looking for changes "in focus"), but because there were no serious drops in FPS. That at 100%, that at 0%, the number of frames per second changed by a maximum of 3-5 values. Remembering all the same GTA 4, where this parameter significantly influenced performance, a completely different picture is observed here. Actually, this is because the very detailing of those very small parts of objects does not change so much, since the game has a very high drawing distance of the entire map by default. To still find the same difference when changing this interesting in every sense option, I recommend using the following interactive comparison:
Impact on performance: low
FPS difference:3-5 FPS between 0% and 100% respectively.
Texture quality
In principle, this parameter does not need any special explanations, since everything is very clear from the name. Affects the quality of all textures in the game. Most of all consumes video memory. It consumes very seriously, I must say. It does not affect performance in any way, although, nevertheless, there is a difference of 1-2 FPS, but it is so insignificant that I see no reason to take it into account. Regarding the amount of video memory and the value of this setting: if you have 1 GB of video memory, it is recommended to set it to "High", because with the texture quality "Standard" you will immediately forget that you are playing the PC version of the game. The textures will be like on the previous generation of consoles. As already mentioned a little earlier (you are reading everything, right?), The game works quite stably and with the amount of used video memory, which significantly exceeds the available one. Therefore, if you have 1 GB, feel free to set the option to "High". If you have 2 GB or more, you can set it to "Very High". According to numerous reviews of both Russian and Western players (and not only), we can conclude that you will not see much difference in the quality of textures between the last two parameters (playing at resolutions up to 1080p when viewed from a third person). If you are playing at 4K resolution, then it already makes sense to set the maximum value for textures. This option is very closely related to the parameter Shader quality, since the latter includes the Parallax Mapping technology, which very noticeably affects the corresponding effects for textures. So, if your texture quality is set to "Standard", then you will not be able to fully appreciate the work of the above technology. So that you can visually evaluate the differences for different values \u200b\u200bof the option Texture quality, we made an interactive comparison, choosing an amusement park on the pier as an object for comparison:
Author's note: in the screenshot with the "Standard" value, you can notice that the FPS is 89 (which is much more than on other values), but I hasten to disappoint you, with many other tests it was found that there is no difference in FPS in a regular game and this inscription in the screenshot is nothing more than a measurement error.
Impact on performance: is absent (but consumes lot video memory)
FPS difference:1-2 FPS between "Standard" and "Very High" respectively.
Shader quality
First of all, this setting affects the quality and quantity of various light sources, the quality of textures (Parallax Mapping technology is used), on the water surface (glare on the water surface and the appearance of water effects), on the volume and naturalness of grass and trees, on the final result anisotropic filtering, sun rays, etc. This parameter, like many others, begins to actively show worse results when switching to the "Standard" value. Differences between High and Very High not so much noticeable, however, depending on the combination of time of day and weather conditions, you may feel some difference in the perception of the game world. It becomes slightly less "saturated" in terms of lighting and additional surface detail. Especially, such changes are very well felt in the desert and forests of Blaine County, due to the large number of surfaces where the Parallax Mapping effect is applied and where the play of light and shadow is active. You can use the interactive comparison below to visually assess the impact of this parameter on the quality of the graphics component.
This comparison shows the result of Parallax Mapping. As I said before, its impact is especially noticeable in Blaine County on surfaces like this, where every pebble and every bump can lose volume, which generally leads to a decrease in the feel of playing in the area. For weak and medium computers, it is recommended to leave this parameter at the "High" or "Very high" value, sacrificing 2-3 FPS, because the difference between these two values \u200b\u200bis not that great, and when moving from "Standard" to the last two mentioned settings, you can notice a noticeable drop in FPS.
Impact on performance: the average
FPS difference:6-8 FPS between "Standard" and "High", 2-3 FPS between "High" and "Very High".
Shadow quality
This parameter determines how clear and detailed the shadows will be, as well as how they will interact with the outside world when cast by other objects when illuminated by the latter (for example, car headlights). The higher the value of this setting, the higher the resolution will be the shadow map - the "texture" of the shadow, which is generated using a special algorithm and applied to the surface. As a consequence, the shadow itself will have more detail and no "stepping" (the result of scaling the low-resolution shadow map). This option, together with the " High resolution shadows This parameter has a rather noticeable impact on performance and uses video memory, which means
its setting should be approached with special attention. If the value is "Very High" you will feel a very significant loss in FPS, while the quality, in contrast to the "High" value, will not change much. Such settings are more likely to be relevant for playing at resolutions higher than 1080p, up to 4K. The optimal choice would be the "High" value, while the related parameter "Soft Shadows" should be left at Soft. This will allow for unobtrusive soft shadows with a small loss in performance. In case you are not satisfied with this combination, you can experiment with the values \u200b\u200bof the soft shadows parameter, since it has less effect on performance than the main parameter. "Shadow quality".
Impact on performance: high
FPS difference:
Reflection quality
The parameter affects the detail, clarity and fidelity of the surrounding world in the reflections of objects such as car bodies, various shiny and reflective surfaces, puddles, water surfaces, glass and mirrors (in houses and hairdressers). It should be noted right away that the discussed parameter will make you sob to think carefully about choosing the optimal quality for reflections, since even at the "High" value, the latter do not inspire confidence and look like they came straight from the last generation of consoles. It must be admitted that they begin to look more or less worthy only with the value "Very high", while not so much reducing the performance on computers of the middle and high class. Owners of weak systems should either diligently avoid encounters with reflective surfaces, especially mirrors (which, in principle, is unrealistic), or else sacrifice other graphical delights in order to maintain a playable FPS. But I will not over-dramatize. So that you yourself can compare the quality of reflections with different settings, we have prepared an interactive comparison.
For those who do not want to spend many hours tweaking the graphics of GTA V, we did this job for you.
So, detailed graphics settings for GTA 5 for an optimal quality / performance ratio.
In the format: Characteristic - the recommended value and explanation.
Ignore suggested restrictions - On.
Otherwise, we will not be allowed to customize everything as we wish.
DirectX version -choose DX11
if you choose DX10, you will not see beautiful thickets in the forest and tessellation will be unavailable, which makes flat textures volumetric
Screen type - Full screen
Resolution -put your native permission
Format -put your screen format or Automatically
Update frequency – according to your monitor
Output Monitor -if you have one monitor, choose 1
Anti-Aliasing FXAA - On.
this is standard anti-aliasing that has almost no effect on FPS
Antialiasing MSAA - Off.
enable it only on top-end video cards. MSAA is an FPS killer.
Automatically pause the game in the background - On.
City population - remove
or the middle, almost no effect on FPS
Population variety - remove
eats up video memory well, but increases the realism of the city
Focusing scale - remove
very slightly improves visibility in the distance, and therefore it makes no sense to increase it
Texture quality - Pts. h.
if video memory allows, at lower textures are very blurry
Shader quality - High
the difference between high and very high is practically invisible, and it saves resources
Shadow Quality - High
standard ones are too angular, very tall are too demanding and do not make sense without the inclusion of soft shadows
Reflection quality - High
the eye difference between high and ultra is not so significant and FPS underestimates strongly, standard ones about nothing at all
MSSA for reflections - Off
smoothing reflections visually does not greatly improve the picture, and FPS is significantly reduced
Water quality - High
standard looks bad and very high is not much better than high
Particle quality - High
does not particularly affect the picture, it does not greatly affect performance
Grass quality - High
on a standard land it will be very deserted and you will not see thickets in the forest
Soft Shadows - Softly
a higher value makes sense if you have set the default shadow settings
Setting up special effects - High
everything higher loads the system heavily, and the difference is almost invisible to the eye
Motion blur - remove
reduces FPS and reduces visibility
Depth of field effect - Off
works only on a very high setting of special effects together with which it greatly reduces the frame rate
Anisotropic filtering - X16
FPS does not significantly reduce and without it there will be soap, not asphalt
AO Shading - Off
you can turn it on, since it does not really give anything
Tessellation GTA 5 - Off
the inclusion makes the textures of tree trunks more voluminous, if the FPS allows it, you can turn it on for those who care about palm trees) On stones, etc. does not affect in any way.
Additional picture settings
recommend all switch off.
It makes sense to use them only on top-end video cards to improve the overall picture.
Also, for the sake of experiment, try to install the drivers on the video card, not the latest version (which came out specifically for GTA 5), but the penultimate final release of Nvidia or AMD drivers.
There are cases when the game adds about 5 FPS on such drivers!
The above settings even on a laptop (GeForce GT555 2GB DDR5, Core i7, 8 RAM) give a good picture and a sufficient number of frames for a comfortable game.
(Average 30 FPS, sometimes 40, sometimes drops to 25)
It is worth recalling that all consoles, both PS and Xbox, issue a maximum of 30 FPS in GTA 5.
For a more visual demonstration of the difference between different graphic settings in GTA5, we recommend watching this video:
Enthusiasts and advanced gamers with GeForce video cards, you can go even further and read the instructions for setting up GTA 5 from Nvidia. True in English.
Using them, you can even more clearly assess the importance of a particular parameter and decide whether it is worth enabling it and donating FPS or not. Presented graphical settings in the form of an image with a slider. Which you can move and clearly see the difference in the picture.
It is worth noting that Nvidia releases such guides only for top games. Which receive the "Game of the Year" nomination. From this we can assume that GTA V will receive this award!
According to Nvidia, this Rockstar game has the highest rating in the last decade!
