Gta 5 detailed settings. Grand Theft Auto V. Graphics. Settings guide. Performance testing. The amount of motion blur

The parameter controls various special post-processing effects in the game, such as: glow (bloom), speed effect (motion blur, blur), glare from the sun and light, depth of field (DoF), HDR simulation on some surfaces, sun rays (God Rays), haze (heat, air distortion), volumetric smoke, fog and wind effects. As you can see, quite an impressive list. It should be said right away that some of the listed effects, namely "depth of field" and "speed effect (motion blur)" are available only when the value is "Very high." parameter under discussion. At values ​​below, they will be unavailable. It is quite difficult to show the full range of changeable effects using screenshots, since they are mostly random in nature, but still some can be seen all the time. For example, glow (bloom) and fog (in appropriate weather.). To visually show you the changes in these effects, use our interactive comparison:

As you can see, the lower the setting value, the less dense the fog looks and the glow of the sky decreases, plus the sun's rays lose quality. To show you some pretty cool effects like sun glare and glare, we made one more comparison:

In this comparison, only two settings were presented, since the effects displayed in the screenshots take place only on the values ​​\u200b\u200bof "Very high." and "Highest Degree". They are absent on other settings.

The parameter significantly reduces performance on the "Highest" and "Very high" settings. Sometimes, the difference between individual values ​​reaches 10-15 FPS (according to numerous reviews of Western players) on medium and weak machines. On the "High" value, a fairly wide range of special effects is preserved, but the FPS is not significantly reduced. The difference in FPS can vary quite a lot depending on the models of video cards (the difference decreases on top models), but nevertheless, you can see the generalized values ​​​​below.

high
FPS difference: on top-end computers, the influence of the parameter will be medium or low, but on medium and relatively weak computers, the spread can be much larger.

The amount of motion blur

Customization for everyone's personal preference. Whoever likes it. Only available when "Super Fine" is selected. parameter " Setting up special effects". Adjusts the degree of the "speed effect", better known as Motion Blur. The more the scale is filled, the more the surrounding world will be blurred when moving at high speeds. The optimal value of the option is 50% or lower (again, as you like).

Performance impact: absent

Depth of field effect

If you like the background blur effect in the game when you move around in a vehicle or use a scope on a weapon, then enable this option. We remind you that, like Motion Blur (the degree of motion blur), this effect is only available at "Very High." and "Highest Degree" of "Special Effects Adjustment."
Objectively, using this effect helps to focus on certain objects or scenes during gameplay. Customize the option to your liking without fear of losing performance. To see the effect of including depth of field, use the interactive comparison:

Performance impact: absent

FPS difference: 1-2 FPS between "Off" values and "on" respectively.

Anisotropic filtering

This technology is known to everyone and is used wherever possible. Allows you to maintain the sharpness of textures when looking at the latter from different angles in relation to the player. For example, if you are looking straight ahead, the texture of the road on your side near the edges of the monitor will not blur, but will remain sharp. To better understand how this option works specifically in GTA 5, use our interactive comparison:

It is worth noting that the use of this technology inside the game may not completely process surfaces, so we recommend that you enable anisotropic filtering through your video card driver to get even more clarity and sharpness of textures at any angle and on any textures.

Performance impact: absent(in fact, there is, but too insignificant)

FPS difference: 1-2 FPS between "Off" values and "16x" respectively.

AO shading

Or Ambient Occlusion. To many, this technology will be better known as SSAO, although this is only one of its options, but it is he who is used in the game. This technology, in my opinion, allows you to significantly transform any game and give an incredible level of authenticity to game scenes, if all other aspects, such as lighting and detailing, are done at the proper level. The technology works as follows: at the junction of two objects (for example, a wall and a floor) where a direct stream of light cannot reach and where a shadow generated by the game engine cannot appear, the global shading technology creates this very shadow. In this way, various objects with complex detail come to life, as even the smallest bends begin to cast a shadow and the reliability of an object or scene is dramatically increased. This technology does not create real shadows, which would greatly burden the system, it creates fixed shadows at the joints, which disappear when illuminated by a dynamic light source (for example, car headlights or a flashlight on a weapon). There are several types of this technology that differ in more thoughtful behavior and quality of shading. In GTA 5, as already mentioned, one of the simplest variations is used, but this does not prevent her from transforming the picture quite a lot. To understand the difference in the quality of game scenes when using this option, use the interactive comparison:

Many Western players complained that this option simply does not work for any value. Of course, a way out was found, so if you find yourself in such a situation, follow these steps:

1. Set the desired setting value "A.O. Shading"(recommended "High")
2. Save your changes
3. Parameter "Setting up special effects" change to "Standard"
4. Save your changes
5. Parameter "Setting up special effects" return to the value that was set before making changes in paragraph 3.
6. Save your changes.

In the opinion of the author of this guide, this setting should be enabled in any scenario, since it has almost no effect on performance, but it gives amazing quality of game scenes, especially in Blaine County, where the technology creates shadows for grass and stones. Looks very cool, I guarantee it.

Performance impact: low
FPS difference: 2-4 FPS between "Off" values and "high" respectively.

tessellation

This option is only available with DirectX 11. The technology creates additional geometric details for objects, making them more voluminous and smoother. In GTA 5, this technology mainly affects trees, some urban entities such as cables and wires, the water surface and stones. During normal play, the differences when using this option are not so noticeable, but still can give a somewhat greater gaming experience. The setting has a fairly low performance impact. To show the effect of using this technology, we offer you an interactive comparison, where beautiful palm trees are the object of comparison:

There are only two comparison screenshots in the comparison, since the difference between the rest of the settings is barely distinguishable.

Performance impact: low
FPS difference: 3-4 FPS between "Off" values and "Very high." respectively.

Advanced Image Settings

long shadows

When this option is activated, the game shadows will become more "finished" in the sense that they will be cast completely from the object, i.e. from the lowest point to the highest point of the game model. If not entirely clear, then imagine a lamppost with a height of 2500 mm (2.5 meters). With the option disabled long shadows"The shadow cast by the pillar will be ~2000 mm, from the bottom of the pillar to the top of 2000 mm. With this option enabled, the shadow will be cast to the full 2500 mm of the height of the mercury column. Also, when the discussed parameter is enabled, the shadows will be cast at a greater distance from the source than if the parameter was turned off. Of course, the column is taken just as a convenient and example, and the disabled option of long shadows will in no case "cut off" its height and as a result you will not see an inferior shadow from the column. The option acts very selectively and in all these changes in the length of the shadows can be seen especially well during dawn and dusk, since you know from the school course (if you went to classes) that depending on the angle of light falling on the object, the length of the shadow cast by the object changes. During normal daytime hours, the change in this option may not be as noticeable and it will take some effort to see the difference in the length of the shadows.Based on this, it can be said that the setting is turned on and off to your own taste. If you don't mind sacrificing a couple of frames per second for the sake of more spectacular shadows at sunrise and sunset, then enable this option. If every frame counts, turn off the option. So that you can visually see the differences when using the discussed parameter, we offer an interactive comparison with screenshots taken during sunset:

Performance impact: low
FPS difference: 2-3 FPS between "Off" values and "On" respectively.

High resolution shadows

Boolean continuation of parameter " ". Adds even more resolution to shadow maps, as a result of which their quality becomes as high as possible (provided that the parent parameter Shadow Quality is set to the maximum value). Changes when this option is turned on are best seen with the "Sharp" parameter " ". When using other shadow softening methods, you will practically not see a difference in the final result. The setting does not hit performance so much, but nevertheless, if you are not the owner of a high-end computer and use shadow softening algorithms, such as proprietary NVIDIA PCSS or AMD CHS , then this setting won't make much of a difference to you and is best left off.To compare the output quality of shadows using the setting in question, welcome to our interactive comparison ("Soft Shadows" set to "Sharp"):

Performance impact: average
FPS difference: 5-7 FPS between "Off" values and "On" respectively.

Loading more detailed textures while flying

With the translation of this option, translators from 1C also tried. In the original, this parameter is called " High Detail Streaming While Flying", which means loading not more detailed textures, but objects. Yes, exactly objects, which means that during the flight more detailed objects of the game world will be drawn. This is especially true for various billboards, large bushes on the ground, roofs of houses, fences and all sorts of fences, etc. In a word, everything that is especially striking during the flight and creates an overall pattern of the terrain, making it more alive at a cursory glance, which is generally possible during the flight. remains at a comfortable level, therefore, it is recommended to enable this setting.

Performance impact: low
FPS difference: 3-5 FPS between "Off" values and "On" respectively.

Increased loading distance for more detailed objects

The setting is a child of the " " parameter and logically continues its action, but, unlike the parent, has a much greater impact on graphics quality and performance. If changes in the Focus Scale parameter were practically not noticeable at a cursory glance at the overall game landscape, then with a change in the child parameter, the situation is completely different. The setting is presented in the form of a scale, and starting from the smallest values ​​of its filling, you will notice more and more obvious and incredible effects of the parameter on the quality of detailing of objects at long distances. This is especially noticeable in the landscapes of Blaine County, where a huge number of objects are located, which noticeably add to the detail with an increase in the value of the parameter under discussion. Among all the parameters, this one has the greatest impact on performance by all criteria, since it can significantly lower FPS and at the same time "eat" a very significant amount of video memory, therefore, this setting is more suitable for owners of top-end computers with a large amount of video memory. Below is an interactive comparison that shows the changes in background detail:

Performance impact: high(consumes a lot of video memory)

FPS difference:

Shadow length

Finally, the last parameter from that rather impressive list that we have analyzed will be the setting responsible for the distance at which shadows will be drawn without loss in quality, due to the reduction in the size of the shadow map. In the original, the parameter is called " Extended Shadow Distance" (hello, translators from 1C!). In its meaning, the option is close to the settings that regulate the distance of drawing objects, only here shadows act as objects. The more the setting scale is filled, the further away from the player the shadows will retain their original detail, set by the parameters responsible for the quality of the shadows.The option does not hit performance so much, but nevertheless, it is intended more for top-end systems in terms of configurations than for medium and, especially, weak machines.Further, as always, you can familiarize yourself with with an interactive comparison demonstrating the effect of the setting on in-game shadows:

Performance impact: low
FPS difference: 3-5 FPS between "0%" and "100%" respectively.

Part two:

Alternative graphics settings and optimal graphics settings

This part of the section will look at various ways in which you can improve the quality of graphics without losing performance, and in some cases even improving it. A kind of "gluttony" rating of the settings will be given, based on which you can find out which graphic settings should be changed first of all if you are not satisfied with the current performance of the game. Also, instructions will be given on automating the process of setting up a game for the lazy using special software from NVIDIA.

It is worth noting that all the ways and methods that will be discussed below were created and written for owners of video cards NVIDIA GeForce, therefore, if you are the owner of the equipment from AMD, you will need to follow all the instructions in the program AMD Catalyst Control Center in the same way as it happens in the program NVIDIA Control Panel. These programs are similar in principle, so it will not be difficult for you to adapt the instructions for yourself. Go!

Rating of graphics settings by impact on performance

What is the first thing you do when you start the game and start playing, you find noticeably low performance, or, more simply, "brakes"? Of course, you start to fight in hysterics, go to the graphics settings menu and start lowering them. The question is, which settings will you lower first? Many users try to act logically and based on their experience in setting up other games and try to guess which settings can kill performance the most and which ones should be changed first. This is probably the most correct and competent approach to setting up the game, since by simply lowering everyone and everything, you may win a fairly large increase in performance, but you will still return to manually setting each parameter, because no one wants to look at terrible graphics , right? Although, of course, there are exceptions to this rule in pursuit of the mythical maximum FPS to the detriment of the graphic part.

So that you don’t worry about which setting to lower first of all in order to win more FPS or what to do if the game “slows down”, we have prepared for you the so-called rating of graphic settings according to their impact on performance, based on the impact each individual setting on FPS and on the amount of video memory.

To begin with, I advise you to familiarize yourself with what parameters are the most "gluttonous" in relation to the video memory of your video adapter (click on the picture to enlarge):

Based on these values, you can figure out for yourself which of the settings should be lowered in order to "keep within" the amount of video memory that you have, or simply in order to minimize the use of the latter, since, as before, the amount of video memory used can significantly exceed the available one, but the smaller the difference between these values, the less likely the occurrence of "freezes".

Further, I present to your attention the same rating of parameters, which was mentioned at the beginning.
All parameters are presented in descending order, that is: the most "gluttonous" and demanding settings go first, and then, in descending order, there are parameters that have practically no effect on performance.

Parameters that have a high impact on performance are highlighted in red.
orange - medium, green - low, respectively.

You can get detailed information about each parameter from the list by simply clicking on the line with its name. This action will take you to the corresponding heading from the first part of this section of the guide. I remind you that most of the parameters have an interactive comparison in case you cannot decide whether to lower the values ​​of one or another parameter without knowing exactly how it will affect the graphical component.

Alternative method to enable FXAA

As already mentioned in the title, MSAA gives excellent image quality, but significantly reduces performance (1st place in the "gluttony" rating). In turn, anti-aliasing built on the FXAA algorithm gives excellent performance, but terrible in its in-game implementation. That is why it was decided to resort to another way to enable anti-aliasing - programmatically, through the 3D settings of the driver for the video card.

How to do it step by step:

One-Click Optimization with GeForce Experience

Relatively recently, a powerful tool for optimizing game settings called GeForce Experience was born from the bowels of NVIDIA. This program contains specially created profiles for more than 250 games and allows you to choose the optimal settings for the game based on the performance of your computer in just one click! In addition, the program can automatically check for driver updates for your video adapter and various NVIDIA software.

This is a great solution for those players who do not want to bother with a long game setup, but want to immediately start the gameplay. You can choose between high performance or maximum quality, and the program will automatically select the necessary settings profiles, which are constantly updated through a special "cloud".

You can download the program on the official NVIDIA website, or you can install it along with the driver for the video card. After installation and first launch, the program will automatically check for updates for the video adapter driver and download the necessary game profiles, after which it will scan your system for games. Upon completion, the found games will be shown on the left side of the program window.

Next, you will only need to select a game from the list (in our case, this Grand Theft Auto 5) and in the right part of the window click on the green button "Optimize". The program will set the optimal settings for the game and save them. If you want to determine for yourself what you need - high performance or excellent graphics, then click on key icon next to the button "Optimize" and with the help slider set the required balance between quality and performance.

DSR technology in GTA 5

Dynamic super resolution allows you to calculate the picture in games in higher resolution,
and then scale the result to the resolution of your monitor, providing graphics in
4K on HD screen. The technology works perfectly in GTA 5 and allows you to get the best possible picture quality, even if you do not have a monitor for ultra-high resolutions, like 4K.
With the inclusion of DSR technology, graphics add to everything: textures become sharper, the need for anti-aliasing disappears due to the fact that now game models are displayed in ultra-high resolution, all vegetation looks more elaborate and clear, the quality of game effects in general increases, the detailing of distant plans is significantly transformed in Game.

This technology is intended for users with top configurations of computers with the latest generation graphics cards marked GTX.

DSR is enabled and configured in the driver's 3D settings. If the system is connected to a suitable monitor, then you can select a multiplier in relation to the display's "native" resolution. It causes the corresponding settings to appear in the games, which can be selected. NVIDIA has implemented a special filter that allows you to perform fractional scaling without losing image quality.

DSR support in the driver will be available for monitors with the following resolutions:

• 2560x1600
• 2560 x 1440
• 1920x1080

That is, 4K monitors will no longer have this option. So NVIDIA itself thought out in which native resolutions DSR makes sense, and in which it does not. In any case, downsampling to a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels is hardly reasonable today, since video cards simply do not have the appropriate resources to render at higher resolutions.

You can enable this technology by selecting the lines in the list of application parameters
"DSR-Factors" And " DSR-Smoothness and setting them to the desired values.

"DSR-Smothness" allows you to adjust the level of the Gaussian filter, that is, the level of smoothing (blurring). Adjustment will be useful if you want to achieve optimal picture quality. Each gamer reacts to the level of anti-aliasing differently, and between games the optimal level of DSR also differs. Therefore, it makes sense to use this setting if you plan to play with active dynamic super-resolution. We recommend a value of around 30% as the most optimal.
We also recommend taking a look at our little interactive comparison when using DSR.

This section of the guide consists of two parts. In the first part you will find a detailed list with a description of all the graphics options present in the game. Many parameters will have an interactive comparison in a format that is very convenient for you, so that you can visually assess the degree of impact on image quality. I 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 you should try to change first of all if you are not satisfied with the current performance. Also, the influence of parameters on FPS in digital values ​​will be given.

In the second part, you will find various ways to optimize some settings and choose the best ones for your system, based on the impact on the performance of each individual parameter, and you will also be able to automate the process of setting up the game using the special GeForce Experience program for owners of NVIDIA graphics cards. All parameters will go in the chronological order
in which they are presented in the in-game settings menu of the Russian 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 particular option, but we recommend that you carefully read the description of each option so that you can fully acquire all the necessary knowledge to optimize your game properly in accordance with your notions of satisfactory performance.

Part one: detailed description of graphic settings

General settings

video memory

As well as its used amount from the available. This parameter shows how much video memory the game is currently consuming to meet its needs. Don't be confused by the fact that the amount of memory consumed can significantly exceed the amount available. More on this below.

Ignore suggested restrictions

In the days of GTA 4, many players could not set the graphics in the game to high settings for the sole reason that the game itself did not allow them to do this, because it believed that if the video memory of your video card was not enough, then it was useless to try to do something and offered to In this case, be content with low settings, as long as the amount of video memory used does not exceed the amount available. Why? Precautions to avoid performance problems, moreover, are very dubious. Then users removed this restriction using a special command for the file command line, today Rockstar Games themselves offer you, if you have a head on your shoulders, to turn off the memory limit yourself. In theory, disabling this option can lead to performance problems, because in a situation where 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 friezes. In practice, 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 available memory and used memory can still lead to friezes and serious lag during long games (more than an hour on average).

absent

DirectX Version

This option allows you to select the DirectX version from three options: 10, 10.1 and 11.
The differences are that with a lower version, some graphic effects, like , and , will no longer be available to you. This parameter
in fact, it does not affect performance so much and the difference in FPS on different versions is minimal and,
strange as it may seem, the best stability and performance in most shows
DirectX 11, though, owners of rather weak graphics cards say that switching to version 10 can help and get rid of some graphic artifacts and sagging, as well as slightly increase FPS.
In any case, try to change the version if you are not satisfied with the 11th. Perhaps this will help you.

Performance impact: average
FPS difference: 8-10 FPS between 10 and 11 versions on outdated, weak video cards.

Screen type

Specifies whether to display the game in full screen mode, in a window, or in a borderless window.
The option does not need much explanation. I will only note that for some, playing in a window can give better performance and reduce the loading time of the game itself. You can switch to full screen when the game is running in windowed mode using the keyboard shortcut Alt + Enter.

Performance impact: absent

Permission

The screen resolution at which the game will run. A lower resolution can significantly increase performance, but for the sake of significant image damage. 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 does not disappear.

Performance impact: average
FPS difference: depends on the individual characteristics of the components of the computer.

Format

Performance impact: absent

Update frequency

The rate at which your monitor is able to refresh the image on the screen. It is recommended to set the native frequency of the monitor.

Performance impact: absent

output monitor

This option is needed for those who have more than one monitor installed. The parameter selects the screen on which the image of the game should be displayed. So, if you have two monitors, one can have a game, and the other desktop, for example.

Performance impact: 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 be able to appreciate the difference between the different 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.

First comes 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 distant 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" (distortions along the edges of objects or lines, stairsteps), it literally cut my eyes, therefore, another way was found using this anti-aliasing, since it, nevertheless, gives the best performance results.
It is detailed in the second part of this guide.

Smoothing is next. 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 the inclusion of this type of anti-aliasing is available only when MSAA is enabled, i.e. these algorithms work in pairs. MSAA coupled with TXAA is capable of delivering a stunningly clear picture, however, for this you need a top-level graphics card.

To appreciate the differences in the performance of different anti-aliasing algorithms, use our interactive comparison (it is recommended to view in full screen scale):

Performance impact:

• FXAA- low
• MSAA- high(consumes a lot of video memory)
• TXAA- average

FPS difference:

Vertical Sync

Or v-sync. The technology synchronizes the FPS in the game with the monitor's refresh rate and allows you to remove vertical distortion (jerks). A very useful feature, because. it becomes easier to perceive the image, as the picture becomes smooth. Many do not like this option because it limits FPS and supposedly kills performance a lot. This statement is only 50% wrong, since disabling this function will allow you to find out the maximum FPS that the game can give out on your hardware, but during a normal game, disabling this function will not do anything, since your monitor is not able to show FPS above its refresh rate, which means that you win nothing if you hope to see 100 frames per second on a 60Hz monitor. Plus, it's also in 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 monitor frequency (60Hz - 60 FPS)
• 50% - FPS will be limited to 1/2 monitor frequency (60Hz - 30 FPS)
• Off - FPS is not limited.

Personally, I recommend that you enable this option anyway. If you have a very powerful system and with Off. FPS synchronization in the game is 60 and above, then enable full synchronization, if the average FPS is below 60, then enable the option by 50%. In some cases, it is recommended to enable vertical sync on your graphics card.

Performance impact: absent

Automatically pause the game in the background

Enabling this option causes the game to put itself into pause mode when you minimize the game via Alt+TAB or switch to another monitor if you have more than one. A very useful feature, since it allows you to avoid any changes in the gameplay without your absence, because. when any application is minimized, it continues to work even if the application window is not currently active and it seems to you that no changes are taking place.

Performance impact: absent

City population

This parameter is a scale that you can fill in to control the amount 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 setting reduced performance quite a bit, here there is no drop in frame rate as such. The setting under discussion interacts closely with other options, such as: Population Variation, Particle Quality, FX Adjustment, Reflection Quality and finally Shadow quality. The thing is that pedestrians and traffic are game objects, which are also subject to the above parameters. Given this fact, the most optimal value for this parameter would be 75% of the total scale occupancy. 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 lose nothing in performance, but again, the results may vary on different computers, so experiment, but do not be afraid of high values ​​of this parameter.

Performance impact: low
FPS difference:

Variety of population

A very interesting setting. How? Yes, the fact that it absolutely does not affect 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. In order for you to 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, this is just an example) and 50 types of pedestrians (similarly, this is an example ). With a value of 50% of the discussed parameter, 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, half as much as it actually is. Does this mean the game will choose 50 specific vehicles and only use them? No, it's not. Vehicles will change at certain intervals, but at the same time you can watch only 50 of these vehicles in the game world at one time, similarly with 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. I hope you understand?

The very technology of duplication (copying) of vehicles 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 will be able to meet while walking along the streets of the city and the more unique modes of transport you will be able to overtake, rushing along the numerous roads of the city. As mentioned before, this parameter consumes video memory very much, but I personally think that if you have to sacrifice graphics for the sake of greater performance, then it is better to neglect the quality of shadows or reflections (the main consumers of memory after textures) than the diversity 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 to decide, but as I said, this parameter should still be left a priority.

Author's note: The amount of video memory on my video card is 1 GB. I'm using fairly high settings in general and the texture quality is set to "High", with the setting being discussed Variety of population i have the same setup City population, i.e. by 75%. In total, the game consumes 2181 MB of video memory. I can't say that I'm experiencing any serious performance problems due to this excess of available video memory. The game runs great even if the amount of video memory is much larger than available. 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 become quite noticeably empty, or you meet the same cars and the same pedestrians, because the game starts duplicating them all by 5 once. If you have 2 GB of memory, then all the more you should not limit this setting and it is advisable to set its percentage as high as possible. Experiment, friends.

Performance impact: absent(but consumes a lot of video memory)

Focusing scale

It's the draw distance. Yes, I also have no idea why the translators from 1C called this parameter such a strange name, but still, the essence of the parameter does not change from the name. This setting affects the draw distance of smaller parts of various objects in the in-game world.
I must say that when adjusting this parameter, I not so much could not understand its meaning because of the strange name (I was looking for a change "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 the same GTA 4, where this parameter significantly affected performance, there is a completely different picture here. Actually, this is because the detailing of those very small parts of objects does not change so much, since the game has a very high distance for drawing the entire map by default. To still find the very difference when changing this interesting option in every sense, I recommend using the following interactive comparison:

Performance impact: low
FPS difference: 3-5 FPS between 0% and 100% respectively.

Texture quality

In principle, this parameter does not need special explanations, since everything is very clear from the name. Affects the quality of all textures in the game. It consumes the most 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 it was already written a little earlier (you read everything, right?), the game works quite stably even with the amount of used video memory significantly exceeding 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 put "Very high". Based on numerous reviews from both Russian and Western players (and not only), we can conclude that you won’t see much difference in texture quality between the last two parameters (when playing at resolutions up to 1080p in 3rd person view). If you are playing in 4K resolution, then it already makes sense to set the maximum value for textures. This option is very closely related to the option Shader quality, since the latter includes Parallax Mapping technology, which very noticeably affects the corresponding effects for textures. So, if you have the texture quality set to "Standard", then you will not be able to fully appreciate the work of the technology mentioned above. So that you can visually evaluate the differences for different values ​​of the option Texture quality, we made an interactive comparison, choosing the amusement park on the pier as the object for comparison:

Author's note: in the screenshot with the "Standard" value, you can see that the FPS is 89 (which is much higher 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.

Performance impact: absent(but consumes a lot of 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), the surface of the water (glare on the water surface and the appearance of water effects), the volume and naturalness of grass and trees, and the final result. anisotropic filtering, sunlight, etc. This parameter, like many others, begins to actively show the worst results when switching to the "Standard" value. Differences between "Fine" and "Super Fine" are not so noticeable, however, depending on the combination of time of day and weather conditions, you may experience some difference in the perception of the game world. It becomes slightly less "saturated" in terms of lighting and additional detailing of surfaces. Especially, such changes are felt very well 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 actively taking place. To visually evaluate the impact of this parameter on the quality of the graphical component, you can use the interactive comparison below.

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 in general leads to a decrease in the feeling of playing in the area. For weak and medium computers, it is recommended to leave this setting at "High" or "Very high", sacrificing 2-3 FPS, because. the difference when going between these two values ​​is not that high, and when going from "Standard" to the last two settings mentioned, you may notice a noticeable drop in FPS.

Performance impact: average
FPS difference: 6-8 FPS between "Standard" and "High", 2-3 FPS between "High" and "Very High".

Shadow quality

This setting determines how sharp and detailed shadows will be, as well as how they will interact with the surrounding world when cast by other objects when illuminated by the latter (for example, car headlights). The greater the value of this setting, the greater the resolution will be the shadow map - the "texture" of the shadow, which is generated using a special algorithm and superimposed on the surface. As a result, the shadow itself will have more detail and no "jaggies" (the result of scaling a low resolution shadow map). This option, together with the " High-Resolution Shadows This option has a fairly significant impact on performance and uses video memory, which means that
its setting should be approached with special attention. When set to "Super Fine." you will feel a very significant loss in FPS, while the quality, unlike the "High" value, will not change much. Such settings are more likely to be relevant for playing at resolutions above 1080p, up to 4K. The optimal choice would be the value "High", while the related parameter "Soft Shadows" should be left at "Soft". This will allow you to get unobtrusive soft shadows with a small performance penalty. In case this combination does not suit you, you can experiment with the values ​​of the soft shadows parameter, since it has a smaller impact on performance than the main parameter. Shadow quality.

Performance impact: high
FPS difference:

Reflection quality

The parameter affects the detail, clarity and accuracy of the reproduction of the surrounding world in the reflections of such objects as: car bodies, various shiny and reflective surfaces, puddles, water surfaces, glass and mirrors (in houses and hairdressing salons). It is worth noting right away that the parameter under discussion will make you sob and think carefully about choosing the optimal quality for reflections, because 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 at the "Very high" value, while not reducing performance so much on mid-range and high-end computers. Owners of weak systems should either diligently avoid encounters with reflective surfaces, especially mirrors (which is basically unrealistic), or sacrifice other graphic charms for the sake of maintaining a playable FPS. But I won't over-dramatize. So that you can compare the quality of reflections with different settings yourself, we have prepared an interactive comparison.

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

Minimum set of iron

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

In order for the graphics settings in GTA 5 not to be reset to a minimum, the personal computer must meet the recommended system requirements. It is worth noting that there is a huge increase in all parameters here. For example, a processor for smooth operation will require at least a Core i5 3470 clocked at 3.2 GHz from Intel or an equivalent from AMD.

The amount of RAM is no longer 4, but 8 gigabytes. Video cards GTX 660 and HD7870 for 2 gigabytes from manufacturers NVIDIA and AMD, respectively. As for operating systems, Windows 7 of the first assembly is minimally supported, but always 64-bit.

The need for a sound card with support for DirectX 10 does not disappear. Disk space after a full installation of the game will occupy approximately 65 gigabytes. Users need to prepare the digital space in advance. It is these indicators that you should focus on when setting up an application in terms of graphics.

First steps

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

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

Further settings

If you are adjusting graphics for weak PCs in GTA 5, then the option to ignore memory limits must be disabled first. This function is designed for graphics cards from GTX 660 models, but with a small amount of memory. Such a GPU can pull the load, and therefore it will be logical for it to ignore the restrictions.

On weaker video cards, it may happen that 100% load appears without a peak in the video memory scale. This is a sure way to find stutters and smoothness in an open world game.

Not everything is so simple with DirectX technology either. Indeed, for medium and weak PCs, it is imperative to install the tenth version of the OS. If you place the technology one step higher on the computer, then additional settings will appear. But on a weak system, they still have to be disabled. At the same time, the “ten” saves two hundred megabytes of GPU memory, and DirectX versions have almost no effect on the picture quality.

Three Important Parameters

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

msaa anti-aliasing is a very tricky point. But it is present only when installing the eleventh version of DirectX. It is recommended to turn it off even on powerful video cards if lags are observed. The parameter is the most demanding in terms of performance, while the difference between a complete shutdown and x2 is not felt. If you set it, then only on x8, provided that you have a video card of the latest models. V-sync for weak PCs should be disabled, but first you need to test. With it, the graphics look much more attractive, and therefore it is better to be convinced of its impact on performance.

Textures and population in the city

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

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

Operations with shadows

The optimal graphics settings in GTA 5 are those that, with a minimum of performance costs, will show a picture of good quality. The shadow parameter will help with this, which hides one small but useful feature. In the column, the quality should be left normal, you should not climb higher, since braking in the game will be guaranteed. Next, go to the "Soft Shadows" item and set the maximum indicator there. If this is not done, then in the game world there will be an angularity of objects, and in some cases even unevenness in the form of a ladder.

The shadow operations described above will help you avoid this with minimal performance overhead. Owners of the latest graphics processors do not have to bother with this. For them, it is recommended to set the quality to high and sharp shadows in order to enjoy the excellent quality of the picture in the game world.

Latest Options

Among the latest graphics settings in GTA 5 for medium PCs, you need to set it to x16. Not a demanding indicator, but the picture quality improves significantly. Together with this setting, you should set the shader quality to high. They require much less resources for textures, and near the character, the graphics are simply amazing.

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

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

GTA 5 official system requirements :

GTA Online on PC will support the game on 30 players. Online will be available immediately with the release of GTA 5, GTA Online Robbery will also be available.

On PC there will be a higher level of detail running on 1080p and 60 fps with 4K resolution. Will support systems with up to three monitors, as well as NVIDIA 3D Vision.
GTA V for PC includes a new editor that gives players a complete set of tools to edit and publish gameplay videos directly to Social Club and YouTube.

Minimum requirements:

• OS: Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista 64 bit (NVIDIA video cards are recommended for Vista)
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 cores) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 cores) @ 2.5GHz
• RAM: 4 GB
• Video card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1 GB / AMD HD 4870 1 GB (version no lower than DX 10, 10.1, 11)
• Sound card: 100% compatible with DirectX 10
• Disk space: 65 GB
• DVD drive

• OS: Windows 8.1, 8, 7 64 bit
• CPU: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 cores) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 cores)
• RAM: 8 GB
• Video card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2 GB / AMD HD7870 2 GB
• Sound card: 100% compatible with DirectX 10
• Disk space: 65 GB
• DVD drive

Pay attention to the requirements of 4 cores! It is possible that owners of processors with fewer cores will not be able to run the game (more precisely, they can, but with the help of a separate program). So it was with the game Far Cry 4, which we will talk about below, the owners of 2-core processors had to download Dual Core Fix to start the game, without it the game would just freeze with a black screen.

Testing GTA 5 on different computers

Will your game work?

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

• OS: also 64-bit versions of Windows 8.1, 8, 7
• CPU. For Intel processors you need more powerful, for AMD the requirements are the same. Intel® Core i5-2400S 2.5 GHz (i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ) or AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
• RAM: also 8 GB.
• DirectX: For FarCry 4 only version 11, for GTA 5 - DX 10, 10.1, 11
• video card. Graphics requirements for GTA 5 are lower. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2 GB (NVIDIA GTX 660) or AMD Radeon R9 290X (AMD HD7870)

PS4 Specifications

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

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

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

Characteristics of the PS4 version of GTA 5.

• Resolution 1920×1080, 30 FPS, double buffering.
• 2xMSAA (2x anti-aliasing).
• Increased in size and relief (bump maps) textures.
• HDAO.
• Tessellation.
• Decreased latency when switching characters from single player to GTA Online.
• Increased the number of pedestrians and vehicles on the roads.
• The best quality of gaming videos.
• The best quality of music in the radio.

Compared to the xbox 360 and PS3 version, you can notice the following improvements that increase the requirements for hardware:

• Improved waves, water ripples, water in the rain and when passing cars.
• There will be more grass, bushes.
• Improvements to various structures. For enterprises, smoking pipes and workers will be added.
• More traffic on the roads.
• Significantly improved interior of cars.
• Increased draw distance, shadow range.
• Improved textures.

Max Payne 3 system requirements

With the release of Max Payne 3, more information has been added for comparison. Graphically, the PC version on powerful computers looks more beautiful than on consoles. The resolution in Max is scalable, you can even display it on 6 monitors. In addition, Max Payne 3 supports DirectX 11 and, therefore, there are Tessellation, Hull, Gather4, Domain Shaders, Stream Output, FXAA, Geometry Shaders. But the developers promise that even owners of old cars will be able to play Max Payne 3.

Minimum Requirements

OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
CPU: Intel Dual Core 2.4GHz or AMD Dual Core 2.6GHz
Memory: 2GB
video card: AMD Radeon HD 3400 512MB RAM or NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512MB RAM

OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
CPU: Intel Dual Core 3GHz or equivalent AMD
Memory: 3GB
video card: AMD Radeon HD 4870 512MB RAM or NVIDIA GeForce 450 512MB RAM
Bottom line: 30 FPS at 1920x1080

OS: Windows 7/Vista (32 or 64 bit)
CPU: Intel i7 Quad Core 2.8GHz or equivalent AMD
Memory: 3GB
video card: AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB RAM or NVIDIA GeForce 480 1GB RAM
Result: 60 FPS at 1920x1080

The highest tested

OS: Windows 7/Vista (64bit)
CPU: AMD FX8150 8 Core x 3.6GHz or Intel i7 3930K 6 Core x 3.06GHz
Memory: 16 GB
video card: AMD Radeon HD 7970 3GB RAM or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB RAM

Building a PC for GTA 5

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

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

Of course, the higher the resolution, the more pleasant the game looks, but sometimes the difference is not so striking from changing the settings, and the frame rate increase is significant. We skipped the part of the guide where the company praises its products with might and main, but I'm sure that it is not so important for the players.

Of course, no one forbids you to reach everything yourself, putting on the method of scientific poke, but the guide will make your life much easier. After reviewing the graphs, I will likely lower the quality of the grass to achieve a stable 60fps. True, all my short visits to Los Santos invariably end up looking for a pond where I can swim. There is clearly something wrong with me...

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

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

System requirements

Below are the official system requirements showing how scalable Rockstar has been able to make their game. The minimum ones allow you to run it even on older machines; if you want pictures, like on consoles, then check out the recommended ones. However, to enjoy maximum graphics quality, you will need something much faster.

Minimum

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

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

Testing Notes

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

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

For a visual comparison of the settings that require a reboot, additional tests were carried out with video capture via ShadowPlay at the highest possible bitrate and 60 frames per second. We received ~1.6 GB three-minute clips, from which images were subsequently selected. They are slightly different from each other, but we believe that this is the most accurate way to reflect the effect of such settings on graphics.

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

Finally, please note that while the built-in benchmark best reflects the impact of certain settings, actual performance can be severely degraded during five-star action-packed scenes or walking through wooded areas. To be more reliable in measuring performance, here's a handy tip: halve any benchmark score for high-intensity moments in single player, or for playing with 29 other people in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Exclusive graphical enhancements to the PC version

Like any multi-platform game, Grand Theft Auto V looks and works best on PC. Improved texture quality, visibility range and other familiar things, and added a few additional options to make high-end configurations sweat. To further enhance the visual realism of the PC version, we have worked closely with Rockstar to introduce Percentage Closer Soft Shadows, TXAA Anti-Aliasing and 3D Vision. And with GeForce GTX graphics technology, you can upscale your picture with Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR), enjoy smooth gameplay with G-SYNC, and stream your game to SHIELD devices and your TV with GameStream.

Soft shadows PCSS

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

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

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

In the following example, notice how the shadows of the PCSS fall on the ivy next to the garbage cans without unnatural darkening of the foliage. Moreover, the shadows on the tinted window of the store are also softened, as expected.

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

For PCSS to show the best results, enable the following settings for maximum shadow quality on all surfaces and their visibility range:

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

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

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

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

Anti-aliasing TXAA

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

In Grand Theft Auto V, TXAA is available alongside MSAA and FXAA, with a total of seven anti-aliasing options, giving players plenty to choose from based on their preferences and performance considerations. Below is a comparison of all options (note that to enable TXAA, you must first select MSAA 2x or 4x and then set TXAA to "On").

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

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

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

If your video card does not allow TXAA, then the best solution is DSR combined with FXAA, which traditionally outperforms MSAA at low resolutions.

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

Additional graphics settings

ambient occlusion

The diffuse shading effect adds contact shadows where two surfaces or two objects meet and where one object blocks light from reaching others. However, AO shadows are currently not available in Grand Theft Auto V due to an application bug. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next update, after which we will look at the impact of this setting and update this guide.

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

This method allows us to demonstrate the difference between Ambient Occlusion High and Off, but Normal still doesn't seem to work at all, no different from High. Rest assured, we will return to this setting when the official fix is ​​released.

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

In unpopulated areas, Ambient Occlusion modifies the brightness levels of overlapping grass shadows and achieves proper shading of the shadowed vegetation.

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

The last comparison shows how Ambient Occlusion works at extreme distances, adding shadows to even barely visible objects.

Performance: In its current degraded state, Ambient Occlusion manages to hit a few frames per second while greatly improving graphics, making it one of the must-have options.

We will let you know if anything changes after the release of the official fix.

Anisotropic Filtering

Anisotropic filtering improves the display of textures located far away or at an angle to the camera. In Grand Theft Auto V it works as expected with minimal performance impact as you might expect.

DirectX

Grand Theft Auto V offers three versions of DirectX: DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1, and DirectX 11. The first two are added mainly for compatibility with older video cards without DirectX 11 support. However, you might still be wondering if they will run faster , although version 11 has more features, it is better optimized and its performance in games is regularly improved in new versions of GeForce drivers.

Well, we tested this by disabling features in DirectX 11 mode that were not available to older versions.

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

distance scaling

This option in Grand Theft Auto V is responsible for the level of detail, changing the amount of detail displayed at a given moment in time and adjusting the quality of distant objects when they first enter the frame. Higher values ​​increase the quality of buildings and surroundings, increase the number of objects, vehicles, and pedestrians, and render all game elements more faithfully when the distance between them and the player changes.

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

The most noticeable effect of this tweak is to reduce the chance of objects suddenly appearing in the player's field of view. You can easily experience this annoying phenomenon by lowering the Distance Scaling and driving through the city at high speed, or by running a benchmark. Choose a level of detail value based on how much it annoys you.

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

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

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

Extended Distance Scaling

As the name suggests, this is an extended version of Distance Scaling, adding more detail in its sphere of influence and far beyond. In particular, this can be seen in our first set of comparisons, where all objects have become more detailed; new details also appeared on the hill near the Vinewood sign.

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

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

Extended Shadow Distance

In addition to shadow rendering distance, Extended Shadow Distance increases shadow quality, adds new shadows, and enhances their fidelity, turning rough, blurry shadows into correct, detailed ones.

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

Extended Shadow Distance is not a must, but if you have some headroom, it's worth turning on to show shadows under cars and some objects at medium to high distances and to improve the quality of all shadows.

Grass Quality

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

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

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

Our last example demonstrates the difference in detail levels over a long area.

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

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

High Detail Streaming While Flying

This option works similar to the level of detail for flights, increasing image quality at the expense of performance. Without it, the number of sharply emerging objects increases, but it is worth noting that in flight this is inevitable anyway. However, when the option is disabled, this becomes more noticeable.

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

In the gaming benchmark, the difference remains within 4 fps, but during the game in the city it is already more significant. If you're a frequent flyer, this setting is worth turning on, but if flying isn't your thing, feel free to leave it off for added performance on those rare occasions when you do find yourself taking to the skies.

High Resolution Shadows

Everything is clear from the name - the setting increases the detail of the shadows. However, this is only really noticeable with the Sharp value in soft shadows. The example below shows how the quality of shadows changes depending on the surface they fall on and how far away they are from their object and the player.

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

Performance: This is an advanced shadow option that offers maximum realism. However, given its relatively strong impact on performance, owners of weak systems are better off with Soft Shadows. This will not only mask the lack of shadow fidelity, but also help to hide the aliasing that occurs when High Resolution Shadows is disabled.

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

Ignore Suggested Limits

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

In Game Depth of Field Effects

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

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

To slightly increase performance without sacrificing image quality, you can reduce PostFX to Very High - we will talk about this option a little later.

long shadows

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

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

Particle Quality

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

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

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

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

Population Density

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

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

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

Performance: Calculating the impact of Population Density on performance is just as tricky. The benchmark shows a difference of several fps, but in real gaming situations this spread can be doubled. and even triple.

Based on our tests, we recommend 75% as the "golden mean". Roads and sidewalks will be decently filled, leaving you with a small margin of productivity for other effects. However, note that as the number of pedestrians and vehicles increases, the effects of reflections, shadows and post-effects will affect the frame rate much more seriously. You may need to lower their quality at high Population Density if performance gets too low.

Population Variety

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

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

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

PostFX

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

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

Performance: Curiously, some players are reporting significant performance gains when dropping Post FX from Ultra to Very High, up to 10 fps. This goes against our own tests, even when we select the same locations and test the same graphics cards with the same settings as these players. We are at a loss as to why this happens, and we advise you to personally test this option on your computer.

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

Considering the picture degradation on Normal and the slight impact on performance (in our tests), we recommend Very High to maintain performance with decent image quality.

Reflection Quality

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

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

In open spaces, the difference between the different settings becomes more obvious: lowering from Ultra to Very High softens large reflections, at High they blur even more, and at Normal they disappear from vehicles, windows and buildings. Moreover, the few reflections left on the floor and water begin to twitch.

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

In homes and hairdressing salons, the option manifests itself most noticeably, because there you can come close to the mirrors, and the environment is reflected reliably, and not approximately, as in the building from another example.

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

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

Reflection MSAA

This option smoothes reflections, but since the entire game world - and you yourself - is constantly moving, you are unlikely to feel any visual advantage.

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

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

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

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

shadow quality

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

Performance: Shadow Quality has a modest impact on performance, and high values ​​consume a lot of VRAM, but given the overall improvement in graphics, it's worth it.

You may be fine with a High setting if Soft Shadows is set to something other than Sharp, as blurry shadows mask aliasing and detail reduction.

Tessellation

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

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

Less and less new geometry is added with each step of tuning up, to the point that at Very High the improvements are almost impossible to detect (if interested, they can be found towards the bottom of the right tree in the foreground and at the bottom of the tree in front of the basketball court).

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

Performance: There are no hidden features in the Texture Quality option, so performance is almost identical at any setting.

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

water quality

Our exploration of Grand Theft Auto V's abundance of customization culminates in water quality.

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

Performance: By sacrificing the quality of all the puddles, pools and ponds in the game, you can gain very few extra frames per second, so we advise setting Water Quality to at least High on any systems.

Individual video memory consumption

Now you know how many different options there are in the game and you are probably already trying to fish out the optimal combination. But do you have enough video memory? You can check this in the game, but it only shows the total amount, without the cost of each individual setting. That's why we've put together our largest ever chart showing the VRAM consumption of each setting at 1920x1080 starting at a low of 1066MB. Please note: Ambient Occlusion - High, Soft Shadows - Soft, Softer and Softest consume 1 MB each, but are not included in this graph, as well as settings that do not consume memory at all.

Note that you will need an additional 1335MB for the very best textures at this resolution and another 1211MB for MSAA 8x. In total, you'll need a graphics card with 4 GB of memory to crank all the settings to the maximum in 1920x1080 mode, and the TITAN X can handle it at higher resolutions as well.

Grand Theft Auto V on PC: Worth the Wait

Almost always, multi-platform games look and work better on PC, and we rightfully add “definitive edition” to their name. But with such love, Rockstar's PC version of Grand Theft Auto V clearly deserves more. You have access to rich graphics settings for a variety of configurations, an abundance of control and review options, as well as brand new features such as Rockstar Editor and Director Mode. There was little more to ask for and dream of - the range of features and options put many PC-exclusives to shame.

Thus, Grand Theft Auto V undeniably embodies the true vision of Rockstar, simulating a living, breathing world full of detail, with incredible draw distance, cinematic effects that enhance the experience of a compelling story, and the ability for fans to create and share their own stories. With the high scalability of the engine and game settings, almost everyone can enjoy the game, usually at a higher resolution and frame rate compared to other platforms.

If you still haven't purchased Grand Theft Auto V, buy it now on Steam or other authorized resellers; by the time you get bored of singleplayer, multiplayer and chases, the modding community will have something in store to pull you back to Los Santos.