Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide

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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
Table of Contents
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1. Performance 101: 9 Tweaks to Optimize Your PCs and Laptops Performance 5
2. Get the NVIDIA & AMD GTA V Drivers 6
3. Tweak the In-Game Settings 7
4. Check out the Hidden Parameters 12
5. Run The Benchmark Tool 13
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3. The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide
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It took about 1 ½ years, but GTA V is finally out on PC and – as expected – the graphics are a
big step up from PS4 and Xbox One releases (providing your PC can handle the game well
enough!)
In addition, the PC version lets you scale up to 4K and supports graphics buzzwords like G-
Sync, Multi-Frame Anti-Aliasing, PCSS (Percentage Closer Soft Shadows) and more eyecandy
that only modern computers are capable of.
In our guide, we’ll help you improve the graphics and get the best possible framerate (FPS),
even for slightly older PCs.
Above: Want to have your GTA V look like this and run super-smooth? That’s why we’re here!
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Can your PC run GTA V?
Rockstar states the below as the absolute minimum system requirements for GTA V.
• OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2*
(*NVIDIA video card recommended if running Vista OS)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs)
@ 2.5GHz
• Memory: 4GB
• Video Card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB (DX 10, 10.1, 11)
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• HDD Space: 65GB
• DVD Drive
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
Frankly, I’d not dream of playing with these settings (which would perform worse than a PS3 or Xbox
360). So let’s have a look at Rockstar’s “recommended configuration”:
• OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1
• Processor: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)
• Memory: 8GB
• Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
• HDD Space: 65GB
• DVD Drive
Again, this seems a bit basic to me. But if you’ve got a machine similar to this spec, don’t worry I can
show you how to squeeze the most out of it!
I’m testing GTA V on both a decently equipped laptop (not meant for gaming) with a Core i5 2.4 GHz, 4
GB RAM and an Intel Iris Pro graphics chip as well as a gaming PC with a Core i7 3.8 GHz, 16 GB of RAM
and a GeForce 970 GTX which I overclocked by about 15%.
But no matter whether you got an older laptop or a high-end gaming PC: In the following steps, we’re
helping you get a better picture quality and smoother framerates.
At the end of this article, we’ll look at some of the most popular troubleshooting techniques available
as a lot of users have been complaining about the game not working for them.
Let’s get ready for Los Santos!
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
1. Performance 101: 9 Tweaks to Optimize Your PCs and Laptops
Performance
Before you start tweaking performance settings for GTA V, I recommend that you follow the 9 essential
steps to boost your PC or laptop speed that I published a while ago. This covers the basic steps to get
your machine in top shape, including how to:
• Upgrade your graphics drivers and even use beta drivers
• Overclock your graphics card (safely!)
• Use our AVG PC TuneUp to turn off all performance-sapping background activity
• Defrag your hard disk
• …and more!
As GTA V takes its toll on your hardware, you got to be sure that it’s tweaked to its absolute limit
before you jump into the game-specific settings.
After performing these nine tweaks, GTA V’s performance went up noticeably. On my laptop I went
from 22 frames per second to a slightly smoother 26.7 fps. While this isn’t a massive jump, obviously, I
also noticed that loading times decreased and the occasional stutter got reduced to a minimum when
playing the game (and not the benchmark):
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
2. Get the NVIDIA & AMD GTA V Drivers
Both NVIDIA and AMD (ATI) have published drivers specifically optimized for GTA V which don’t just
solve some of the startup problems users have been complaining about on day one but also improve
performance, particularly on resolutions above 1080p and in SLI configurations. Here are the direct
links:
- AMD users click here to download the latest drivers. As of the writing of this article (April 14th,
launch day), version 15.4 is available as a Beta driver.
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- NVIDIA users click here to grab the latest drivers from the oRcial page. Version 350.12 has
been optimized for GTA V particularly so that or any newer driver will be perfect.
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- Intel Iris: Owners of the mobile or desktop Intel HD Graphics chip, should go to this thread
(jump to the latest page) and find the latest drivers to get optimal performance or the official
Intel site (which sometimes don’t have the very latest beta drivers that help improve
gameplay).
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
3. Tweak the In-Game Settings
Let’s talk about some of the graphical tips and tricks that you can use to get the best possible image
quality in GTA V. We’ll also help you figure out which of these settings tax your PC the most so you may
want to steer away from them if you’re running an older system.
First of all, you need to go to the “Game” menu and from here jump to “Graphics”. Here you’ll find
settings that will enhance the look of the game, such as texture quality, reflection quality or anti-
aliasing settings.
Obviously, if you go from “Normal” (the lowest setting) to higher settings, you will usually get a much
nicer image but it comes at the loss of performance. Simple as that. Now, one good indicator for the
performance impact you can expect, have a look at the “Video Memory” bar at the top:
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On one of my test laptops, going from the lowest settings to the highest meant a difference in picture
like this:
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
Lowest Setting:
Highest Setting:
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
As you can see, the skyscraper, the street, the grass and the house on the left have clearly more details
on the higher setting, but it was basically unplayable at less than 10fps on the laptop whereas the
Normal settings actually produced a playable framerate of between 22-29 fps on a Intel Iris HD Pro.
Now, when going to a completely different beast of a machine, the picture can look as good as this:
To reduce the memory usage (Vram) while still allowing for decent quality, I suggest you tweak the
following settings:
- Use MSAA instead of FXAA: Both anti-aliasing techniques are quite similar and only on close
observation will you notice that MSĀ (Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing) looks a bit better. However, it
comes at the cost of performance so I would suggest to turn off FXĀ and try one of the MSĀ
settings (2x or 4x).
- Vsync: This turns off the framerate limitation and improves performance in some cases, but it
may introduce some “tearing”.
- Population Density: This one is a no-brainer if you’re struggling for performance while not
wanting to impact the image quality. Population Density controls the amount of people and
cars in the world of GTA V. Try lowering the setting to zero and see what kind of an impact it
has; in my example it made the game much more playable on my laptop whereas I didn’t notice
any major difference on my gaming machine. The same applies to “Population Variety” as this
increases the load on the CPU and RAM, while only making the environment seem a bit more
alive. Have a look and judge for yourself whether this is worth it.
Image credit: Rockstar Games
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
- Texture Quality: This probably has the most visible impact on the quality of what you see:
On the left you see the Normal settings when on the right you’ll see the Very High settings.
Quite a difference, particularly when you look at the grass, the ground and the sidewalk in the
upper right.
However, the highest setting can easily double your Vram usage and half-performance so only
apply this setting if you’re running a decent rig.
- Reflection MSAA: This setting controls the smoothness of reflections, which is particularly
visible on cars or on rainy streets. Frankly, I didn’t see that much of a difference but noticed a
5fps boost when turning it off altogether, so I recommend you do that, too, on lower
configurations.
- Resolution: Obviously, this has one of the biggest impacts on performance. If you’re playing on
a big Full HD or 4K screen, you will want to run it at its native resolution (1920x1080 or 3840 x
2160), but especially 4K requires you to have a GeForce 970 GTX, 980, Titan or a SLI
configuration to run smoothly. The guys over at Guru3D.com have already prepared
benchmarks for all different graphics card which give you an impression of what performance
to expect:
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
- High Resolution Shadows (under “Advanced Graphics”): Both this setting and the Extended
Shadows Distance did not significantly improve picture quality but actually decreased
performance quite noticeably as Vram usage rose to dangerous levels (+600-800 MB on my
machine). If you don’t care how detailed shadows look, these settings should be kept at an
absolute minimum. If you’ve got the horsepower then this should all go to the maximum, of
course.
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
4. Check out the Hidden Parameters
As most games, GTA V comes with a set of parameters that you can use to start the game. While most
of these are available in the game’s settings menu, some aren’t. I’ll show you the ones I’ve not seen in
the menus yet and that may be worth looking at. These parameters can be added in a file called
"commandline.txt" file in the root of the game folder. If it’s not there, you can create it by right clicking
in the game install folder (such as E:GamessteamappscommonGrand Theft Auto V), select New and
select Text Document. Rename this file to commandline.txt.
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- disableHyperthreading: Most modern processors have “virtual cores” that allow for better
multitasking. While I didn’t see any benefits in my testing, I’ve read that this can help people
with older machines.
- hdr: This setting isn’t explained but Rockstar Support claims it “sets the whole rendering
pipeline to 16-Bit”. When I enabled it I couldn’t see any HDR-esque effects, but maybe you have
a better eye than me?
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
- noquattransform: I had to read up on what quaterion transformations are first. Simply put,
this is a technique for rotating objects in 3D space and it’s the fastest method out there.
However, from what I read it can also introduce some errors. If you see some objects floating in
space, you may want to try this parameter.
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- adapter: if you use this setting followed by a number between 0 and 4, you can pick the
graphics card that you want GTA V to use. For example, if you have an integrated chipset
(adapter 0) and for some reason GTA V only uses this, you can use “-adapter 1” to force it to go
with your discrete graphics.
More parameters can be found over at Rockstars Support page, but most of them can be set in the GTA
menu.
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5. Run The Benchmark Tool
Thankfully, GTA V offers a nice benchmarking application which helps you figure out the impact of your
settings. To run it, go to the Graphics menu and simply hit the TAB key on your keyboard. This will start
a series of tests (which we’ve also run, see our first tip) that will help you determine which settings
have the most impact on your performance:
Once the test is complete, you’ll find the full results in your Windows’ Documents folder under
Rockstar GamesGTA VBenchmarks.
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The Ultimate GTA V Performance Guide!
6. Enjoy The Game
While I couldn’t enjoy the game on day 1 due to some of the bugs that kept me from playing on
anything other than my laptop (and not my glorious gaming rig), I am now finally up and running at
maximum resolution on a finely-tuned machine. And guess what: GTA V is even more fun than to me
than it was on the PS3 in 2013. Los Santos, here I come…
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Image credit: Rockstar Games