Performance testing. Grand Theft Auto V. Graphics. Settings Guide. Performance testing Low graphics GTA 5

Many people still have a weak computer at home, and the gaming industry does not stand still - games are becoming more and more demanding of PC resources and computing power. In this article you will learn how to optimize GTA 5 for playing on a weak computer so that you can at least somehow play it.

Changing the settings in settings.xml

The first thing we need to do is turn all the settings to the minimum, but this cannot be done through the game menu GTA V, so we will do everything manually. Download the ready-made settings file settings.xml and replace the original settings file with it (after saving it), it is located along the path: C:\Users\USER_NAME\Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\settings.xml. You just need to replace the name of the video card with yours, take it from the original settings.xml, the very last line. In the archive there are 3 options for settings for extensions, choose which one you need, if the computer is a real bucket, then choose 800x600.

Shadows will be removed, graphics will be reduced to a minimum, in general everything will be at the very minimum, the drawing distance will be minimal, but the FPS will increase.

GTA 5 FPS booster program

Second - let's launch GTA 5 through the program FPS booster, which will improve game performance by 20-30%.
How to use FPS booster: in the archive there is a file with detailed instructions, but I will describe it briefly. Download FPS booster, unpack it in any place, not necessarily in the game folder. Next, if you have a Steam version, then launch GTA 5 through the file “START_GTAV.bat” and follow the further instructions in the window that appears, if you downloaded the game from a torrent, then move the file "Non_Steam_GTAVLauncher.bat" from the standalone_scripts folder to the game folder and launch the game through it.
FPS booster terminates all unnecessary processes and services on the computer, even disables Explorer, freeing up precious resources for the game, which significantly increases playability and FPS on an old PC. After exiting the game, all services start again.

If you have followed the procedures described above, but still have not achieved a comfortable FPS, then nothing will help except upgrading your PC.

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, you may be a little confused by some of the options in the settings. How much do they change the visual aspect of the game? How do they affect performance? What exactly are they?

Luckily, Nvidia has put together a handy GTA V graphics guide 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 changing the settings does not make the difference so noticeable, but the increase in frame rate is significant. We missed the part of the guide where the company praises its products with all its might, but I am sure that it is not so important for players.

Of course, no one forbids you to reach everything yourself, relying on the method of scientific poking, but the manual will make your life much easier. After looking at the graphs, I'll likely lower the quality of the grass to achieve a consistent 60fps. True, all my short visits to Los Santos invariably end with the search for a pond where I can swim. Something is clearly wrong with me...

See 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 best-selling games of all time and has earned the highest critical acclaim of 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 content, which greets you in the face of a wide variety of graphics settings.

System requirements

Below are the official system requirements, showing how scalable Rockstar was able to make their game. Minimal ones allow you to run it even on old machines; If you want pictures like on consoles, then check out the recommended ones. However, to enjoy maximum graphics quality, you'll 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 the atmosphere of a living, breathing world, but at the same time it makes perfect comparison and testing difficult. To counteract this variability, each test was run multiple times, and multiple locations were selected to test each setting.

In such cases, we resorted to quick saves, director mode, and gameplay scenarios to simulate 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 5 fps spread from test to test. To mitigate the impact of this variation, we generated a starting point as the average of 10 tests at maximum settings. Then, to determine the impact of individual settings on performance, we ran five more tests for each level of detail of the option being tested and took the average of them, making the numbers as accurate as possible.

To visually compare the settings that require a reboot, additional tests were carried out with video capture via ShadowPlay at the highest possible bitrate and a speed of 60 frames per second. We received three-minute videos of ~1.6 GB in size, from which we subsequently selected images. They differ slightly from each other, but we believe that this is the most accurate way to reflect the impact of such settings on graphics.

Regarding the results presented: If you have a previous-generation graphics card, expect a greater variation in performance at different detail levels. For example, GeForce GTX 900 series GPUs are faster at anti-aliasing and tessellation than the previous generation, 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 may suffer greatly during action-heavy scenes at five stars or when walking through wooded areas. To help you measure performance more reliably, here's a helpful tip: Divide any benchmark readings in half for intense moments in a single player game or for playing with 29 other people in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Exclusive graphical improvements for the PC version

Like any multi-platform game, Grand Theft Auto V looks and runs better on PC. Improved texture quality, visibility range and other familiar features, and added several additional options to make high-end configurations sweat. Further enhancing the visual realism of the PC version, we worked closely with Rockstar to introduce Percentage Closer Soft Shadows, TXAA Anti-Aliasing and 3D Vision technologies. And using GeForce GTX graphics card technology, you can boost picture resolution with Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR), enjoy smooth gameplay with G-SYNC, and stream the game to SHIELD devices and your TV with GameStream.

Soft shadows PCSS

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

In Grand Theft Auto V, PCSS is activated by selecting "NVIDIA PCSS" 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 shadow 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 truly offers realistic shadow rendering.

In the following example, notice how the PCSS shadows fall on the ivy near the trash cans without the foliage darkening unnaturally. 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 deliver the best results, enable the following settings to maximize shadow quality and visibility on all surfaces:

• 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 turning on PCSS will accurately account for these distances, making the environment more realistic.

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

TXAA Anti-Aliasing

NVIDIA TXAA is an anti-aliasing technology specifically designed to solve the problem of "temporal aliasing", the displacement of anti-aliased edges when the camera is rotated or the player moves. Temporary 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. By combining MSAA anti-aliasing with special movie-style CG techniques and a temporal filter, TXAA effectively combats temporal aliasing while simultaneously smoothing geometry better than 8x MSAA.

In Grand Theft Auto V, TXAA is available alongside MSAA and FXAA, for a total of seven anti-aliasing options, giving players plenty to choose from based on their preferences and performance considerations. The following is a comparison of each option (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, the temporary aliasing is much more noticeable than usual, just like in any other open world game. As we said, TXAA is the only way to fight it. However, from the images we can only check the quality of the picture: in the case of FXAA, sometimes anti-aliasing is barely noticeable at all, small distant details are displayed incorrectly, and blur is observed in free spaces. MSAA, meanwhile, shows edges on some objects (possibly 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, chicken wire, and other small details that would be unprofitable to create as geometry. However, in this case, Grand Theft Auto V appears to use a shader or additional post-processing similar to World of Warcraft's "Multisample Alpha Test" to smooth out alpha textures while using MSAA. The advantage of this technique can be seen in the comparison below.

Owners of GeForce GTX 600, 700, 800, or 900 series video cards based on Kepler or Maxwell architecture should opt for TXAA, which effectively removes temporary 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 the use of TXAA, then the best solution would be DSR in combination with FXAA, which traditionally performs better than MSAA at low resolutions.

Hardware anti-aliasing has a major impact on performance, but if you want the best picture quality, it's a price you 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 the light from reaching the others. However, there are currently no AO shadows in Grand Theft Auto V due to an application bug. Hopefully this will be fixed in an upcoming update, at which point we will review 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 the light from reaching the others. However, now in Grand Theft Auto V this setting does not work quite correctly, it is expected that full functionality will soon be returned to it with the help of a fix. However, savvy players have found a way to get around this problem: change the Ambient Occlusion value, 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, being completely indistinguishable from High. Rest assured, we will return to this setting when the official fix is ​​released.

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

In uninhabited areas, Ambient Occlusion changes the brightness levels of overlapping shadows on the grass and ensures that the vegetation that falls under the shadow is properly shaded.

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

The latest comparison demonstrates how Ambient Occlusion works at extreme distances, adding shadow to even barely visible objects.

Performance: In its current inferior state, Ambient Occlusion costs a few frames per second while significantly improving graphics, making it a must-have option.

We'll let you know if anything changes after the official fix is ​​released.

Anisotropic Filtering

Anisotropic filtering improves the display of textures that are located in the distance or at an angle to the camera. In Grand Theft Auto V it works as expected, with as little performance impact as you'd hope.

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 reasons with older graphics cards that do not support DirectX 11. However, you may still be wondering if they will run faster , despite the fact that 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 checked this by disabling in advance in DirectX 11 mode functions that were not available in older versions.

Unsurprisingly, performance was better 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 controls the level of detail, changing the amount of detail displayed at any given time and adjusting the quality of distant objects when they first enter the frame. High values ​​increase the quality of buildings and surrounding terrain, increase the number of objects, cars and pedestrians, and more accurately display all game elements when the distance between them and the player changes.

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

The most noticeable effect of this setting is the reduction in the likelihood of objects suddenly appearing in the player's field of view. You can easily experience this unpleasant phenomenon by reducing Distance Scaling and driving around the city at high speed, or running a benchmark. Choose the level of detail 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 value, the effect of Distance Scaling will not be too drastic, 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 greatly depends on other game settings, the environment and the gameplay scenario.

Considering the prohibitive 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 entering a new location by adjusting the other options.

Extended Distance Scaling

As the name suggests, this is an expanded version of Distance Scaling, adding more detail within its sphere of influence and far beyond. This is particularly evident 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 of each game object is expected to greatly reduce 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 accurately test. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to use it only on the most powerful computers.

Extended Shadow Distance

In addition to extending shadow distance, Extended Shadow Distance increases shadow quality, adds new shadows, and improves their fidelity, turning rough, blurry shadows into well-formed, detailed shadows.

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

Extended Shadow Distance is not a necessary option, but if you have the performance to spare, it is worth enabling to display 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 once you get out of the city and into nature, the difference will immediately become noticeable. In such places, the frame rate drops noticeably even on the most powerful configurations.

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

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

Our final example demonstrates the difference in levels of detail over extended terrain.

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

Only the fastest systems can handle Ultra, and Very High can only handle new hardware. In other cases, you should stop at High, because at 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 picture quality at the expense of performance. Without it, the number of suddenly appearing objects increases, but it is worth noting that in flight this is inevitable in any case. However, when you disable the option, this becomes more noticeable.

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

In the gaming benchmark the difference remains within 4 fps, but when playing 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, you can safely leave it out for extra performance on those rare occasions when you do take to the skies.

High Resolution Shadows

Everything is clear from the name - the setting increases the detail of shadows. However, this is only really noticeable at Sharp in soft shadows. The example below demonstrates how the quality of shadows changes depending on the surface on which they fall and their distance from their subject and from the player.

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

Performance: This is an advanced shadow option that offers maximum realism. However, taking into account its relatively strong influence on performance, owners of weak systems are better off choosing Soft Shadows with the Soft value. This will not only mask the lack of fidelity in the shadows, but will also help hide the aliasing that occurs when High Resolution Shadows is turned off.

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

Ignore Suggested Limits

By default, this option prevents players from setting settings higher than the available amount of video memory. By setting it to On, you can enable any settings. Please note that this can lead to significant performance degradation, stuttering (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 is useful if you like a stylish blur of the background and other elements when 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 intermediate cutscenes and fixes the player's attention on important events, but in reality it sometimes incorrectly blurs the entire screen during the game, and then switches back to a sharp picture too quickly.

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

To slightly increase performance without sacrificing image quality, you can turn PostFX down to Very High – we’ll talk about how this option works a little further.

Long Shadows

Long Shadows is responsible for more reliable shadows during sunsets and sunrises (the time can be set manually in Director 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.

Particles Quality

Correctly assessing this option is not an easy task. All explosions in the game are different from each other, and physics and weather enhance 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 ​​shadows appear on particles.

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 overall quality of the explosions.

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

In general, when unscrewing the option, the quality of the effects and the number of particles increases slightly. During large 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 drops 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 leave or travel far enough from your current location. Therefore, here we again have to use a benchmark.

Quite expectedly, along with increasing the settings, the number of pedestrians around the player also increases (at 50%, several people are displayed a little further away). Regarding transport, there is much more variability - 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 the transport does not necessarily appear in the immediate vicinity of the player; sometimes it appears at the very border of the coverage area of ​​the Distance Scaling and Extended Distance Scaling options. In comparison, pedestrians almost always appear at short to medium distances.

The second stage of comparisons more accurately shows the effect of the option on traffic density. The most eagle-eyed readers may notice 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 impact on performance, but they help make the world come to life (remember, the distance they are displayed depends on two Distance Scaling settings). As they get closer, the game will show them in more detail or remove them from view, depending on the Density setting, which can be a little annoying when flying. On the road, you won't notice it, so it's a pretty neat trick for making the world more believable. Everything looks especially beautiful at night, when cars drive with their lights on, creating the atmosphere of a bustling metropolis.

Performance: Calculating the impact of Population Density on performance is an equally challenging task. The benchmark shows a difference of several fps, but in real gaming situations this spread can be doubled. or even triple it.

Based on our tests, we recommend 75% as a happy medium. The roads and sidewalks will be fairly busy, leaving you with a small amount of performance left over 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 have to reduce 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 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 duplicate copies in every scene, which will interfere with immersion in 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 rendering five different people corresponds to the cost of rendering one person five times. Each model and texture set requires a certain amount of video memory, and Population Variety allows Grand Theft Auto V to load more unique resources into memory.

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

Post FX

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 (“God Rays”), haze and other volumetric effects . Note that In-Game Depth of Field Effects and Motion Blur require Ultra or Very High settings to work.

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

Performance: Interestingly, some players have reported significant performance gains when lowering Post FX from Ultra to Very High, seeing increases of up to 10 fps. This goes against our own tests, even when we select the same locations and test the same video cards with the same settings as these players. We are perplexed as to why this happens, and we advise you to personally test this option on your computer.

We tested Post FX in a foggy city location 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.

Given the degradation of the image on Normal and the minor impact on performance (in our tests), we recommend the Very High setting to maintain performance with decent image quality.

Reflection Quality

This option is responsible for the quality of reflections on cars, glossy floors, glass, puddles, the surface of ponds 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 the reflections decreases. On Normal they lose a lot of detail, and reflections on other surfaces disappear completely, which you'll notice instantly in the next set of comparisons.

In open spaces, the difference between the different settings becomes more obvious: going from Ultra to Very High softens large reflections, High blurs them even more, and Normal fades them from vehicles, windows and buildings. Moreover, the few remaining reflections 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 get close to the mirrors, and the surroundings are reflected accurately, and not approximately, as on the building from the other example.

Performance: Similar to 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 a rainy walk through the city center with lots of traffic and skyscrapers.

At certain points in the game, Very High and Ultra settings significantly reduce performance, and Normal has a terrible impact on image quality, so we recommend that players stick to at least High, 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 out reflections, but since the entire game world—and you yourself—is always in motion, you're unlikely to feel any visual benefit.

The car dealership example demonstrates that there is virtually no difference between regular and smoothed 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 at High the effect of the Parallax Occlusion Mapping technique disappears, which causes excessive relief of almost all surfaces in the game.

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

If you still have to set it to Normal, try to compensate for the lack of anisotropic filtering by turning it on 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 enhance the level of detail. Therefore, as with high-resolution shadows, Shadow Quality performs better with soft shadows set to Sharp.

Performance: Shadow Quality has a moderate impact on performance, and high settings consume a lot of VRAM, but with graphics improvements across the board, it's worth it.

You may be quite happy with the High value if Soft Shadows is set to something other than Sharp, since blurry shadows mask aliasing and loss of detail.

Tessellation

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

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

With each step of increasing the tuning, less and less new geometry is added, to the point where at Very High the improvements are almost impossible to detect (if you're interested, they can be found closer to the bottom of the right tree in the foreground and at the bottom of the tree in front of the basketball court).

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

Performance: There are no hidden functions in the Texture Quality option, so performance remains virtually identical at any value.

If you have a large 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 settings ends with water quality.

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

Performance: Sacrificing the quality of all the puddles, pools and ponds in the game can gain very little extra frames per second, so we recommend setting Water Quality to at least High on all systems.

Individual video memory consumption

Now you know how many different options there are in the game and you are probably already trying to figure 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, not the cost of each setting individually. For this reason, we've compiled our largest graph yet, showing the VRAM consumption of each setting at 1920x1080 resolution, starting at a minimum of 1066 MB. Please note: Ambient Occlusion – High, Soft Shadows – Soft, Softer and Softest consume 1 MB each, but are not included in this graph, nor are settings that consume no memory at all.

Note that you'll need an additional 1,335 MB for the very best textures at this resolution, and another 1,211 MB for MSAA 8x. In total, you will need a video card with 4 GB of memory to crank up all settings to the maximum in 1920x1080 mode, and the TITAN X can handle this at higher resolutions.

Grand Theft Auto V on PC: Worth the wait

Multi-platform games almost always look and perform better on PC, and we rightfully add “definitive edition” to their name. But the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V, made with such love by Rockstar, clearly deserves more. You have access to rich graphics settings for a wide variety of configurations, an abundance of control and review options, as well as completely new functionality like the Rockstar Editor and Director Mode. There is little more one could ask for or dream of - the range of features and options can put many PC exclusives to shame.

As such, Grand Theft Auto V undeniably represents Rockstar's true vision, simulating a living, breathing world full of detail, with incredible draw distances, cinematic effects that enhance the immersive story experience, and the ability for fans to create and share their own stories. With the highly scalable engine and game settings, almost anyone 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 distributors; By the time you get bored with single player, multiplayer and chases, the modding community is sure to have something in store that will drag you back to Los Santos.

Performance issues Grand Theft Auto 5 on a personal computer? Have you already tried all the most popular methods for solving problems, but still haven’t achieved any results? In that case, you have come to the right place! In this article we will tell you about various little-known tricks that will help you squeeze out GTA 5 maximum!

Attention! Before using the tips below, be sure to back up the files you change and make sure you understand what you're doing. Remember, the editors of our site are not responsible for possible problems caused by user errors!

Before moving directly to the tips, you need to check whether your computer meets the system requirements of the project, and they, by the way, are extremely high:

• OS: Windows 7 SP1/8.1/10 (x64 only);
• CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 @ 3.1 GHz | AMD Phenom II X4 945 @ 3.0 GHz;
• RAM: 8 GB;
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660Ti 2 GB | AMD Radeon HD 7870 2 GB or better;
• DirectX version: 11;
• HDD: 45 GB.

The recommended system requirements are significantly higher in terms of requirements for all computer components:

• OS: Windows 10 (x64 only);
• CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 3.5 GHz | AMD FX 9550 @ 4.7 GHz;
• RAM: 16 GB;
• Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 3.5+0.5 GB | AMD Radeon HD RX 480 4 GB;
• DirectX version: 12;
• HDD: 55 GB.

If your hardware meets the minimum requirements, then you've done half the job. Now you can move on to the problem solving stage.

Files, drivers and libraries

Before you start looking for your problem, you need to update your video card driver to the latest version:

A prerequisite for the successful functioning of any game is the availability of the latest drivers for all devices in the system. Download the utility Driver Updater to easily and quickly download the latest drivers and install them with one click:

• download Driver Updater and run the program;
• scan the system (usually it takes no more than five minutes);
• Update outdated drivers with one click.

It is possible that you will need to update supporting software such as DirectX, Microsoft .NET Framework, and Microsoft Visual C++: Helper DLLs:

• (Download )
• (Download )
• (Download )
• (Download )

If you have done all this and the problem remains, you can look for it in the list below.

Automatically set to process GTA 5 high priority

Improve productivity GTA 5 can be opened by opening the task manager and setting the process to " GTA 5 "high priority. Rockstar Social Club and GTALauncher, in turn, are best switched to low priority.

There are several ways to automate the above steps.

In order to use the first method, create a .txt file and write the following in it:

start steam://rungameid/271590
timeout 60
wmic process where name=”GTA5.exe” CALL setpriority “high priority”
wmic process where name=”gtavlauncher.exe” CALL setpriority “idle”
wmic process where name=”subprocess.exe” CALL setpriority “idle”

Then save this file with the .bat extension, and then launch the game from it. Priorities will automatically be set correctly immediately after the game loads.

The second method works with absolutely any PC version GTA 5. Create a .txt file and write the following in it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
“CpuPriorityClass”=dword:00000003
“CpuPriorityClass”=dword:00000005
“CpuPriorityClass”=dword:00000005

Then save this file with the extension .reg. After this, we recommend making a backup copy of your registry data. Then run the created file as an administrator and agree to add new files to the registry. After this you can play safely. The created .reg file does not need to be stored.

Installation location

The next paragraph is intended for those who have GTA 5 and Rockstar Social Club are installed on different partitions of the hard drive. Just move them to the same partition and performance should improve.

If you decide to move Rockstar Social Club, you will need to make one small change. First, you need to know where the files were originally located and where you want to move them. Let's say you want to move the Rockstar Games folder from “C:Program Files” to the “G” partition. This is just an example. The initial data may differ, but the algorithm of actions is always the same.

After you move the folder to a new location, write the following on the command line:

mklink /d “C:Program FilesRockstar Games” “G:Rockstar Games”

Then press Enter.

Note. It is best to run the Command Prompt as an administrator.

Setting up the swap file

GTA 5 requires a fairly large amount of RAM, so it won't hurt to increase the size of the page file.

To do this, you need to open the control panel, go to the “System” tab and select “Advanced system settings”. There you need to click on “Performance”. In the window that opens, select “Advanced”, and then go to the “Virtual Memory” tab, where we click “Change”.
Here you need to set the settings for the hard drive partition on which you installed GTA 5. The Initial Size value controls the amount of virtual memory the system recommends, while the Maximum Size value doubles the amount of virtual memory.

Adjusting these settings should resolve performance issues GTA 5 caused by the page file.

Problem with GeForce Experience

This tweak can help players using Nvidia's GeForce Experience technology. GeForce Experience can be connected to your stream via Nvidia Shield, even when you don't want to use it.

In order to solve the problem, open the “Start” menu and find the “Services” tab. Open it and disable "Nvidia Streamer Service". Make sure "Startup Type" is disabled.

For the changes to take effect, restart your computer.

Multi-channel memory architecture

If your PC has multiple RAM sticks, then to ensure maximum performance, they should operate in dual-channel mode. You'll need to find your motherboard's manual and make sure everything is connected and configured correctly.

Custom radio

It's sad, but adding your own radio tracks can slightly harm performance GTA 5. Just delete all MP3 files you added to the game yourself. This can help save a few frames per second.

MSAA and grass

If you have problems displaying vegetation, disable MSAA. This should eliminate them and increase overall productivity. In addition, you can try reducing the quality of the grass itself.

Crash when aiming from a car

If the game crashes when you try to aim from a vehicle, open the game settings, go to “Save and launch”, and then enable the “Landing Page” setting.

All these little tricks should help players with weak hardware slightly improve the performance of the PC version

This parameter adjusts various special post-processing effects in the game, such as: glow (bloom, bloom), speed effect (motion blur), sun glare and flare, depth of field (DoF), simulated HDR 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’s worth saying right away that some of the listed effects, namely “depth of field” and “speed effect (motion blur)” are only available with the “Very high” value. the parameter under discussion. At values ​​lower they will not be available. It is quite problematic to show the entire range of changeable effects using screenshots, since they are mostly random in nature, but still some can be observed constantly. For example, glow (bloom) and fog (in appropriate weather conditions). To show you the changes in these effects, check out 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 interesting effects, like sun flare and flare, we made another comparison:

In this comparison, only two settings were presented, since the effects shown in the screenshots occur only at the “Very High” values. and "Highest degree". They are absent for other settings.

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

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

Motion Blur Level

Customization to everyone's personal preference. Whoever likes it. Only available when set to "Very High." 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 blur when moving at high speeds. The optimal value for 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 on a vehicle or use the sight 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 the "Special Effects Settings" parameter.
Objectively, using this effect helps to focus on certain objects or scenes during gameplay. Configure the option at your discretion without fear of losing performance. To see the effect that turning on depth of field has, use this 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 to your side near the edges of the monitor will not blur, but will remain clear. To better understand the mechanism of action of this option specifically in GTA 5, use our interactive comparison:

It is worth noting that using this technology inside a game may not fully process surfaces, so we recommend that you enable anisotropic filtering through your video card driver to obtain even greater clarity and sharpness of textures at any angle and on any texture.

Performance Impact: absent(actually there is, but it’s 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, it is the one used in the game. This technology, in my opinion, can 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 floor), where a direct stream of light cannot enter and where a shadow generated by the game engine cannot appear, global shading technology creates this very shadow. Thus, various objects that are complex in detail come to life, since even the smallest curves begin to cast a shadow and the reliability of the object or scene increases dramatically. This technology does not create real shadows, which would greatly load 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, characterized by more thoughtful behavior and quality of shading. GTA 5, as already mentioned, uses one of the simplest variations, but this does not prevent it from significantly transforming the picture. 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 at any value. Of course, a way out was found, so if you find yourself in such a situation, follow these steps:

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

In the opinion of the author of this guide, this parameter should be enabled in any case, since it has virtually no effect on performance, but provides amazing quality of game scenes, especially in Blaine County, where the technology creates shadows for grass and stones. It looks very cool, I guarantee it.

Performance Impact: low
FPS difference: 2-4 FPS between "Off" values and "High" respectively.

Tessellation

This option is available only 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 objects such as cables and wires, water surfaces and stones. During normal play, the differences when using this option are not as noticeable, but can still provide a slightly greater gaming experience. This setting has a fairly low impact on performance. To show the effect of using this technology, we offer you an interactive comparison, where the objects of comparison are beautiful palm trees:

There are only two comparison screenshots in the comparison, since the difference between the other settings is barely noticeable.

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

Advanced Picture Settings

Long Shadows

When this option is activated, the game shadows will become more “complete” 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 it’s not entirely clear, imagine a lamppost 2500 mm (2.5 meters) high. When the option is disabled " Long Shadows"The shadow cast by the pillar will have a size of ~2000 mm, from the bottom of the pillar to the upper limit of 2000 mm. When this option is 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, shadows will be cast at a greater distance from the source than if the option was turned off. Of course, the pillar is taken simply as a convenient example, and turning off the 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 pillar. The option acts very selectively and in mainly affects vegetation. All these changes in the length of shadows can be seen especially well during dawn and sunset, since you know from the school course (if you took lessons) that depending on the angle of incidence of light on an object, the length of the shadow cast by the object changes. During normal daytime hours, changing 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, you can say that the setting is turned on and off at your own discretion. If you don't mind sacrificing a couple of frames per second for the sake of more spectacular shadows at sunrises and sunsets, then enable this option. If every frame counts, turn off the option. So that you can clearly 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 Definition Shadows

Logical continuation of the parameter " ". Adds even greater 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 enabling this option are best seen when the parameter is set to "Sharp". ". When using other methods of shadow softening, you will see virtually no difference in the final result. The setting does not impact performance as much, but nevertheless, if you do not own a top-end computer and use shadow softening algorithms, such as proprietary NVIDIA PCSS or AMD CHS , then this option will not have a strong meaning for you and it is better to leave it turned off. To compare the output quality of shadows when using the discussed setting, you are welcome to our interactive comparison ("Soft Shadows" is set to "Sharp"):

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

Loading more detailed textures during flight

Translators from 1C also did their best to translate this option. 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, and so on. In a word, everything that especially catches the eye during flight and creates the overall pattern of the terrain, making it more alive with a quick glance, which is generally possible during the flight. The detail of the surface is quite transformed, and at the same time, performance. remains at a comfortable level, therefore, it is recommended to enable this setting. However, the option is still more subjective in nature and you should configure it only at your own discretion. Next, as always, an interactive comparison is presented to your attention:

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 effect, but, unlike its parent, has a much greater impact on the quality of graphics and performance. If changes in the Focus Scale parameter were practically not noticeable at a quick 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 detail 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 increase in detail as the value of the parameter under discussion increases. Among all the parameters, this one has the greatest impact on performance by all criteria, since it can significantly reduce FPS and at the same time “eat up” 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 can help you track changes in detail in the background:

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

FPS difference:

Shadow length

Finally, the last parameter from the rather impressive list that we have discussed will be the setting responsible for the distance at which shadows will be drawn without loss of quality as a result of reducing 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 greater the distance from the player the shadows will retain their original detail, specified by the parameters responsible for the quality of shadows. The option does not impact performance as much, but nevertheless, it is intended more for top-configured systems than for average and, especially, weak machines. Further, as always, you can familiarize yourself with. An interactive comparison demonstrating the effect of the setting on in-game shadows:

Performance Impact: low
FPS difference: 3-5 FPS between the values ​​"0%" and "100%" respectively.

Part two:

Alternative graphics settings methods and optimal graphics settings

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

It is worth noting that all the methods and methods discussed below were created and written for video card owners NVIDIA GeForce therefore, if you own equipment from AMD, you will need to follow all instructions in the program AMD Catalyst Control Center similar to how it happens in the program NVIDIA Control Panel. These programs are similar in principle, so it will be easy for you to adapt the instructions to suit you. Go!

Rating of graphics settings by impact on performance

What is the first thing you do when you launch a game and start playing and find noticeably low performance, or, more simply put, “slowdown”? Of course, you start getting hysterical, 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 downgrading 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 graphics part.

So that you don’t torment yourself over which setting to lower first 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 for FPS and the amount of video memory.

To begin with, I advise you to familiarize yourself with which 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 find out for yourself which of the settings should be lowered in order to “fit 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 it is that “freezes” will occur.

Next, I present to your attention the same rating of parameters that was mentioned at the beginning.
All parameters are presented in descending order, that is: first come the most “gluttonous” and demanding settings, and then, descending, 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. Let me remind you that most parameters have an interactive comparison in case you cannot decide whether to lower the values ​​of a particular parameter, not knowing exactly how it will affect the graphical component.

Alternative method to enable FXAA anti-aliasing

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

How to do this 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 select 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 an excellent solution for those players who do not want to bother with a long game setup, but want to immediately start playing the game. 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 from the official NVIDIA website, or install it along with the driver for the video card. After installation and the 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 it is Grand Theft Auto 5) and on the right side 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 ratio between quality and productivity.

DSR technology in GTA 5

Dynamic super resolution allows you to calculate images in games at a higher resolution,
and then scale the resulting result to the resolution of your monitor, providing graphics in
4K on HD screen. The technology works great in GTA 5 and allows you to get the highest quality picture possible, even if you don't have a monitor for ultra-high resolutions like 4K.
With the inclusion of DSR technology, graphics improve in everything: textures become clearer, the need for anti-aliasing disappears due to the fact that now game models are displayed in ultra-high resolution, all vegetation looks more detailed and clear, the quality of game effects in general improves, the detail of distant plans is significantly transformed in Game.

This technology is intended for users who have top-end computer configurations with the latest generation video cards marked GTX.

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

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

• 2560 x 1600
• 2560 x 1440
• 1920 x 1080

That is, 4K monitors will no longer have this option. So NVIDIA itself thought through which native resolutions DSR makes sense and 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 - Smothness" and setting them to the desired values.

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

The fifth serialized part of Grand Theft Auto, having successfully emptied the wallets of console players, came to personal computers after a long delay. A large open world and a trio of crazy bandit heroes await those who are ready to share their adventures. But today we will not talk about how GTA 5 can entertain the player, and not about the gameplay features. We will talk about performance and fine-tuning graphics parameters.

GTA V offers a diverse game world with completely different locations - business districts of the metropolis, slums, industrial complexes, mountain ranges, forests and deserts. Huge scale, great variety and detailed elaboration of the environment. You can enjoy some of the views in the lower screenshots in a resolution of 2560x1440.

The game pleases with good clear textures and relief surfaces, for which parallax mapping is actively used. Even ordinary lawns have a relief structure, rather than using the usual hand-drawn texture.

As a clear illustration of the work of parallax mapping, we present a screenshot, which at the same time clearly shows the operation of the effect of changing the depth of field, which is actively used in the game.

This lens effect blurs backgrounds, allowing for a more natural-looking overall panorama.

The time of day and weather in the game change. All objects cast regular soft shadows away from the sun. Cute sunrises and sunsets are complemented by rainbow effects.

The range of drawing objects is very high. By default, there is a clear change in detail clarity as you move away from the camera. When using additional settings, the effect is leveled out. This will be discussed in more detail below.

General physics of object interaction at a level traditional for such games. The environment is mostly static, but pillars and storefronts break. In story missions that involve big explosions, GTA 5 puts on a pretty good show with a lot of scraps. Control and physical model of car behavior are at the usual GTA level, without any complications. In particular, only very serious damage affects the behavior of the machine. Externally, the cars look great - they shine in the sun, reflecting all the surrounding buildings and lights on a smooth glossy surface.

The water surfaces look nice, but nothing more. In Watch Dogs, the water was more beautiful and more alive.

If we make a general comparison of graphics with Watch Dogs, we can feel the technological advantage of the Ubisoft game. But GTA V has a more meticulous attention to detail and more external variety.

The PC version of GTA 5 has a lot of graphic settings. Not all of them are understandable to the average player. The name of some does not always directly indicate the effect they have on the overall quality of the picture. Sometimes the very meaning of the settings is lost due to the loose translation of specific names. We will help you understand all their diversity. Let's see how individual parameters affect the image and how this affects performance. Based on the results, it will be possible to draw conclusions about which settings are most critical for performance, which ones have a big impact on visual beauty, and which ones don’t. Such information will be relevant for owners of mid-level and lower video cards. Based on our guide, it will be possible to select the optimal ratio of parameters, allowing you to increase productivity with minimal loss of picture quality.

Those who want to get the most out of the game will not be forgotten either. There will be a comparison of different anti-aliasing modes. Let's find out which of them are the most successful and which are the most resource-intensive. Let's study the impact of "additional image settings", which allow you to raise the graphics bar above the level that the game offers by default.

Test configurations

Main test bench:

• processor: Intel Core i7-3930K ([email protected] GHz, 12 MB);
• cooler: Thermalright Venomous X;
• motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Formula/Battlefield 3 (Intel X79 Express);
• memory: Kingston KHX2133C11D3K4/16GX (4x4 GB, DDR3-2133@1866 MHz, 10-11-10-28-1T);
• system disk: WD3200AAKS (320 GB, SATA II)
• power supply: Seasonic SS-750KM (750 W);
• monitor: ASUS PB278Q (2560x1440, 27″);

• GeForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 350.12;
• driver for other Radeons: ATI Catalyst 15.4 beta.

This system was used to test the performance of different graphics modes.

For processor tests, an additional test bench with the following configuration was used:

• processor No. 1: Intel Pentium G3258 (3.2 GHz nominal, 3 MB);
• processor No. 2: Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5 GHz nominal, 8 MB);
• motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary (Intel Z97);
• memory: GoodRAM GY1600D364L10/16GDC (2x8 GB, 1600 MHz, 10-10-10-28-2T);
• system disk: ADATA SX900 256 GB (256 GB, SATA 6 Gbit/s);
• power supply: Chieftec CTG-750C (750 W);
• monitor: LG 23MP75HM-P (1920x1080, 23″);

• operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64;
• GeForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 350.12.

Testing methodology

Testing was carried out using the built-in benchmark, which includes five test scenes. The average fps for each scene was taken into account and the final average was calculated. To reduce the error, four benchmark runs were performed. Please note that test results are not displayed in the game; all data is stored at c:\Users\Username\Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\Benchmarks as a text file.

The logs also record the minimum fps for each test scene. But these values ​​are too unstable and differ with each new run. Moreover, even in the case of real “lags”, noticeable to the naked eye, these values ​​differed little from the minimum fps on cards that produced a smooth picture. We ended up using Fraps for additional monitoring. And the minimum fps on the graphs is the average minimum value based on the results of each of the four runs of the benchmark, recorded by the program.

When considering the impact of settings on performance, one video card will be used - a non-reference GeForce GTX 760 2GB with frequencies at the level of standard versions. The testing procedure is as follows: take the configuration of maximum graphics settings without anti-aliasing at a resolution of 1920x1080, change one of the parameters, test performance at different quality levels of this parameter, and provide comparative visual materials demonstrating the difference in picture quality. Then all parameters are again set to the initial maximum value, and another parameter is changed with the corresponding tests.

Actively ignores restrictions, which allows you to use the most difficult parameters. All tests were carried out in DirectX 11 rendering mode, since this API has long been the main one even for budget graphics solutions. But the game also supports DirectX 10.1 and DirectX 10.

The order of studying individual parameters corresponds to their order in the game menu. An exception is made for shadow settings, of which there are several, and they are interconnected to a certain extent. After considering the main graphics parameters, we will move on to the additional ones, where we will step-by-step include all the points together.

The next stage of the article is comparative tests of different AMD and NVIDIA video cards with high graphics quality. At the end there will be testing of processor dependence using Intel CPUs of different price categories.

Antialiasing Modes

The game supports FXAA and MSAA anti-aliasing. Users of GeForce video cards also have access to TXAA anti-aliasing. The latter is activated after enabling MSAA in the settings as an additional option. Urban surroundings and industrial landscapes are always replete with straight lines, so that the stepped edges of objects are clearly visible here. The stepped outlines of the car against the background of the light road surface are no less visible. So you can’t do without antialiasing. You can evaluate the effect of activating different anti-aliasing methods in comparison with the mode without anti-aliasing in the lower screenshots.

The color saturation of the car in the foreground changes slightly due to the subtle fog effect. We do not pay attention to this, carefully study the surrounding objects and elements. For greater clarity, let’s compare identical fragments of each screenshot.

I would immediately like to note the good quality of FXAA, which is not the case in all games. The worst effect of smoothing “steps” at the boundaries of objects is obtained by MSAA in 2x mode, which is quite expected. Switching multisampling to 4x mode improves the picture. Moving to TXAA provides even smoother edges. And from this point of view, this mode is the most effective. But with it, the overall picture becomes a little blurry, and the clarity of details is lost. Compare the road surface, grass and tiles in large screenshots - the difference is most clearly visible in these elements. The relief texture of grass with TXAA is completely lost. FXAA gives a clearer picture.

MSAA 4x provides the best balance between edge smoothing and clarity. Note the crane and neighboring house in the background. With MSAA they are clearer, even the inscription on the poster shows through, which is not at all visible with FXAA.

Let us also note that the game has an interesting “MSAA for reflections” parameter. It is logical to assume that it affects the smoothing of the edges of reflections, which are most often visible on the surface of cars. In practice, we did not detect any difference in reflections with and without MSAA 4x. Perhaps we are talking about reflections on other surfaces. It is possible that the effect of this smoothing itself is weakly expressed.

It's time to take a look at how all these modes affect performance. Experienced video card - GeForce GTX 760.

Activating FXAA relative to the mode without anti-aliasing gives a drop in fps of only 4%. Enabling MSAA 2x relative to the mode without anti-aliasing on the test card gives a performance drop of 21% at the minimum setting and up to 30% at the average game frame rate. Switching to MSAA 4x gives a 16% reduction compared to the simpler multisampling mode. TXAA 4x is heavier by another 3-4%. If we additionally enable an anti-aliasing mode for reflections of similar quality to MSAA 4x, then we get a frame rate at the same level as the TXAA mode, which is 46-57% lower than the initial level without AA.

FXAA gives a good visual effect and minimal impact on performance. MSAA is slightly better in terms of clarity, but the performance penalty is significant. Such a serious decrease in fps may also be due to insufficient memory. Even without anti-aliasing, the game shows that around 2.5 GB will be used at 1920x1080 resolution.

Population

Three points are related to the density of people on city streets. These are Population Density, Population Variety and Distance Scaling. Each has its own scale with 10 gradations. The first two points are quite obvious - they regulate the number of people on the streets and the use of various models for them. Distance Scaling probably sets the distance at which they appear. We gradually reduced all parameters from maximum to half (we will count this as 100% and 50%). Based on the results of several minutes of playing in different modes, we can state a minimal difference in the number of people on the streets. Presumably this also affects the traffic density on the roads. You don’t notice any of this unless you deliberately concentrate on a given task.

Below left is a screenshot of the mode when all parameters are at maximum. On the right is an image of a similar location with all three parameters reduced to 50%.

We did not lower these parameters to zero, since even changing from 100% to 50% did not give any significant difference in the frame rate, which is clearly visible in the bottom graph.

Reducing “population” and “diversity” has no effect. Changing the distance leads to a slight increase in fps. The result is expected, because a weak adjustment of population density will not affect the load on the GPU. This is more relevant for the central processor. Reducing these parameters can have a positive effect on weak CPUs. On more or less modern systems, you can immediately set them to maximum.

Texture quality

It's time to experiment with Texture Quality. As noted above, with Ultra quality in Full HD without anti-aliasing, the game already consumes up to 2.5 GB of video memory. It's logical to assume that 2GB graphics cards might experience problems because of this. And reducing the quality of textures for ordinary users will seem like the most obvious solution to improve performance. But is it? Let's figure it out now.

First, let's compare the image quality at the highest, high and standard texture levels.

Texture Quality Very High

Texture Quality High

Texture Quality Normal

There are not differences in everything. The first screenshots show a gradual decrease in the clarity of environmental elements - patterns on the carpet and sofa, paintings on the wall, a slight change in the texture of jeans. In the second scene, the difference in the quality of the textures of the sidewalks and the road surface is striking.

The impact of texture quality on overall performance is minimal. When switching from maximum to high it is almost not noticeable. Switching to standard mode gives a ridiculous gain of a couple of percent, and this despite the fact that in this mode, video memory consumption finally drops below the 2 GB level. So texture quality can be set to the highest level even on average video cards.

Shader quality

Next up is the Shader Quality parameter. Three levels - from standard to very high. In theory, using simpler shaders should have a dramatic effect on the quality of all surfaces

Texture Shader Very High

Texture Shader High

Texture Shader Normal

In fact, changing this parameter only affects the surface of the earth. When reduced from maximum to high, the effect of embossed surfaces becomes weaker. In normal mode, the ground and grass completely lose volume - everything is flat. And even the clarity of surfaces decreases sharply, as if the quality of textures is reduced.

The difference between Very High and High is less than 3%. Switching to the simplest mode gives a noticeable increase in performance, at a level of 12-14% relative to High. Moreover, for the first time we see an increase in the minimum fps when a specific graphics parameter is reduced. Therefore, it is quite critical to overall performance. But the image quality suffers greatly from the minimum level of shaders. It only makes sense to use a standard shader level on very weak video cards.

Reflection quality

This parameter (Reflection Quality) affects all reflective surfaces - cars, shop windows, windows, etc. Four quality levels. You can evaluate their influence on the overall picture in the lower screenshots. We remind you that the remaining graphics parameters are at the maximum level without anti-aliasing. Half of the screenshots are in 1920x1080 resolution, half in 2560x1440.

Reflection Ultra

Reflection Very High

Reflection High

Reflection Normal

In the first scene, we pay attention to the surface of the cars and the display case. As Reflection Quality decreases, reflections gradually lose clarity and become more blurry. And at the standard level (Normal) they actually disappear, there are only reflections and frosted glass windows. At the same time, even the advertising banner on the left side of the frame looks different - the iridescent gloss effect of the inscriptions is lost. In the night scene, everything is similar - the reflections of the lights on the surface of the cars lose their shape, and then disappear altogether.

It should be noted that highly detailed reflections fully correspond to real objects in the environment. This is not Watch Dodgs, when the windows of buildings reflected not the opposite side of the street, but some kind of image that was standard for everyone.

Reflections also have a significant impact on performance. The most dramatic effect is the decrease in quality from the highest level to very high - an increase in fps at the level of 8-11%. Moreover, again there is an increase in the minimum fps, which is the most critical. There is a small difference in frame rate between the standard level and the high level, but the image is completely different. So we do not recommend lowering this parameter to a minimum.

Water quality

Everything is quite obvious. Changing Water Quality affects the display of water. Three quality levels, which can be assessed in the lower screenshots.

Water Very High

Water High

Water Normal

The difference between the maximum and average levels is difficult to notice. But the standard mode is radically different - the detailing of waves is simpler, there are fewer reflections and glare.

Higher water quality regimes do not affect the overall performance in any way. Enabling the simplest mode for displaying it allows you to win up to 3%.

Particle quality

Parameter that regulates the number of particles. The original is called Particles Quality. Its influence is quite obvious, but there are not enough particles in the game, except for sparks and fragments during collisions or explosions. There are no wind-driven leaves or newspapers in GTA 5. So it is not easy to notice the difference between the maximum particle level and the minimum.

Here we will do without comparative screenshots. And even in testing we will limit ourselves to extreme values ​​- a very high level and a standard one.

Minimal difference. So it makes sense to reduce this parameter only on very weak systems.

Grass quality

The Grass Quality parameter affects the display of grass. Four discrete values ​​- from standard level to ultra. For comparison, we combined fragments of the same frame from the built-in gaming benchmark into one image.

Lowering the grass quality by one value slightly affects its density. A further decrease is accompanied by the disappearance of shadows from ferns. In the easiest mode, large grass disappears. The parameter does not affect the density and quality of the bush in any way, nor does it affect moss and small grass, which is implemented using relief texturing technologies.

Significant impact on minimum fps. Therefore, the quality of the grass is very important for overall productivity. Switching from maximum quality to very high allows you to increase the minimum fps by 12%, the next decrease gives an increase of another 8%. Between the extreme quality settings (Ultra and Normal) there is a difference of 29% in the minimum parameter and 9% in the average game frame rate. Special effects and post-processing

Let's combine several parameters into one comparative test. In Russian translation, special effects are the Post FX parameter, which is responsible for the quality of post-processing. This applies to the Motion Blur effect and the Depth of Field effect. A faint lens effect like chromatic aberration is also noticeable. At the maximum level of post-effects, it is possible to manually set the Motion Blur intensity and activate/deactivate Depth of Field. In our tests we used Motion Blur at 50% intensity. Although in GTA it is not aggressive, so there will not be strong blurring of objects even at 100%.

The effect of changing the depth of field is used very actively. In a balanced position, it only slightly blurs the background.

The blur distance is gaze dependent and constantly changes, creating the effect of the gaze gradually adapting to focus on certain objects. With a sudden change of view, the depth of the focal length gradually changes from minimal to higher. If the camera is aimed at a close object, then a slight blur will hide objects at a medium distance, enhancing the effect of concentration. All this is implemented very realistically and without particularly aggressive blur, without creating discomfort in the game.

When reducing special effects from the highest level to high, the Depth of Field is automatically disabled. Reducing it to the minimum (standard) level does not allow Motion Blur to be enabled.

Testing was carried out at the maximum effect level with Motion Blur at 50%. The next position is to lower the special effects by one point when Motion Blur is completely turned off. The next drop by another point is accompanied by the obvious shutdown of Depth of Field. Next comes the minimum level of special effects.

Motion smearing has little impact on overall performance. But disabling DOF with a corresponding decrease in the overall level of post-effects gives a sharp jump in performance at the level of 14-22%. Given the widespread use of the depth of field effect, this impact on performance is quite expected.

Tessellation

There was also support for tessellation. During our acquaintance with the game, we noticed its influence only on trees and palms. And, most likely, the possibilities of tessellation in the game are limited to this.

Tessellation Very High

Tessellation High

Tessellation Normal

Tessellation Off

As the tessellation quality decreases, the palm trunk loses its complex geometric structure, becoming completely smooth without this mode. At the same time, the influence of tessellation on the geometry of the tree trunk located in the background is noticeable, although the effect is not so obvious. There is virtually no difference between highest and highest tessellation quality. Only with a very careful study of the screenshots can you notice the complication of the geometry in some areas.

In comparison testing, we skipped the high settings level.

No difference between different levels of tessellation. And even disabling it has little effect on the overall level of performance. So feel free to set this parameter to high or maximum level. Reducing tessellation makes sense on older DirectX 11 video cards, which are much weaker in processing tessellated surfaces than modern solutions.

Shadow quality

Let's move on to studying shadows. The Shadow Quality parameter affects the overall quality and detail of shadows.

Shadow Very High

Shadow High

Shadow Normal

As the parameter decreases, the detail of the shadows decreases and they become more blurry. In standard mode, their saturation is additionally lost, shadows from small details disappear completely (pay attention to the shadows of the armrests and the faint shadow at the edge of the pool).

Another important parameter for overall performance. Lowering it to high increases the minimum fps by 8%. Further reduction in shadow quality results in a smaller increase in frame rate.

With maximum shadow quality, you can increase the distance for loading detailed shadows in the additional graphic settings. When the quality decreases, this option is disabled. If the quality of the shadows is average, there is no point in chasing the effect of soft shadows. If the quality is low, you can refuse global shading.

Soft shadows

The game supports several levels of implementation of the soft shadow effect with the ability to use NVIDIA PCSS or AMD CHS technologies. This effect itself adds realism, because in diffuse sunlight the shadows do not have clear edges. In NVIDIA PCSS, shadows are calculated using even more complex algorithms, taking into account the distance of the shadow from its source. Therefore, for example, the upper part of the shadow from a column will be lighter than its lower part.

Soft Shadows NVIDIA PCSS

Soft Shadows AMD CHS

Soft Shadows Very High

Soft Shadows High

Soft Shadows

Soft Shadows Off

From the selected scene you can immediately see that the detail of the shadow changes as it moves away from the character. It is also noteworthy that the soft shadows of AMD CHS worked easily on the GeForce, although the slightly pronounced quadratic structure does not make this mode the best. With NVIDIA PCSS, shadows are softer and blurrier; a clear transition from a detailed shadow to a less detailed one is not noticeable. With the usual algorithm for processing soft shadows in the “softest possible” mode, the clarity is slightly higher compared to NVIDIA PCSS, and the effect of changing the detail of the shadow of a palm tree is also well smoothed out. As the softness level decreases, the difference in detail becomes more pronounced. When soft shadows are completely turned off, the shadow area on the wall crumbles into squares, and the overall feeling of a living shadow is completely lost. But notice that the quadratic structure clearly appears on the vertical surface. In a distant area of ​​shadow on the ground, which we observe from a high angle, this is almost not noticeable.

Based on the experience of past games, we know that with NVIDIA PCSS the overall shading pattern at long distances may change slightly. Let's see how this affects GTA.

Soft Shadows NVIDIA PCSS

Soft Shadows Very High

At a closer distance the shadow is softer. At an average distance, the shadow from a tree with PCSS is not so continuous; there are gaps in the crown - this is a plus. But the shadow from the roof of the house on the right is overgrown with a comb - this is a minus. With PCSS, the intensity of shading of distant trees decreases, their tops become lighter. That is, it looks different, but the overall impression depends on subjective impressions. Comparing performance will help you decide.

NVIDIA PCSS and AMD CHS are the most resource-intensive modes, which consume up to 7% of performance relative to the usual mode of the highest quality soft shadows. So it’s better to stick with this option and not worry about studying shadows under a magnifying glass. If you wish, you can try one of the methods from NVIDIA and AMD, maybe you like it better. Further reduction in the quality of soft shadows gives a meager performance increase.

AO Shading

The game allows you to use high quality Ambient Occlusion, in normal mode and without AO. It is difficult to take identical screenshots due to the need to restart the game to apply new settings. So there may be some deviations in camera position. But the overall impact of global shading can be assessed from illustrations like these. These screenshots are in 2560x1440 resolution to better see small details.

Ambient Occlusion High

Ambient Occlusion Normal

Ambient Occlusion Off

Global shading adds additional shadows and penumbraes, taking into account the influence of objects on each other. With Ambient Occlusion, light shadows appear at the junction of walls, where furniture touches the walls. The intensity of shadows in the area above the stove increases, and the lower part of the kitchen table also becomes slightly darker. Such details slightly enhance the overall sense of volume of the virtual world. It's a pity that there is no support for NVIDIA's HBAO+ mode, which has proven itself well in other games.

The impact on overall performance is weak. Switching between AO modes gives a difference of less than 4%. There's even less of a difference between turning AO off completely and the quality of that shading being poor.

Additional settings

The Advanced Graphics section is relevant for those who want to get more from the game than what is offered by default. Initially, all parameters in this section are disabled; you need to activate them manually. First, let's look at their purpose.

Long Shadows suddenly make shadows... longer. The only practical meaning that can be seen in this is more realistic shadows in the morning and evening, when the sun is low above the horizon. But this parameter does not radically change anything; during the day we did not notice any difference.

High Resolution Shadows is an important parameter that affects the detail of shadows. Didn't you like the palm tree shadow scattered into squares in the "soft shadows" section? Then let’s immediately activate this item!

Uploading more detailed textures during flight (High Detail Streaming While Fly) - increases the detail of visible objects when flying by air.

Extended Distance Scaling – adjusts LOD, allowing you to increase the distance of object detail. A very important parameter for improving overall perception. Adjustable using a scale from zero to maximum with 10 discrete gradations.

Shadows length (Extended Shadows Distance) - using the scale, you set the distance for loading detailed shadows. Increasing this parameter will improve the detail of shadows at medium distances and add new shadows from distant objects.

All these parameters are interconnected, since it is their combination that gives the most noticeable effect of visually improving the picture. Without enabling high-resolution shadows, there is little point in increasing the display distance of detailed shadows. Without increasing the last two parameters there will be no significant improvement in the image when activating High Detail Streaming While Fly. But if you turn everything on, the picture in flight is completely different.

For comparison, here are screenshots of the same scene with and without additional parameters.

With additional settings, shadows on distant trees immediately appear. There is a clear division into shaded and light zones near distant buildings. More details, to the point that without additional parameters, one of the buildings in the center of the frame loses its roof. There are more details in the farthest shot (we look at the skyscraper under construction on the left side). Some confusion is caused only by the comparison of the upper right corner. With additional settings, the shape of the trees on the slope becomes clearer, new bushes appear, but the grass effect disappears. Apart from this small omission, the first screenshot is better in every way.

In dynamics, the difference is visible no worse, if not better. Compare built-in benchmark videos with and without additional options at maximum quality. Pay special attention to the last airplane test. Without additional settings, a clear zone boundary is visible, only at the intersection of which shadows and new details appear. It gets to the point that even the power line wires are visible only after activating all the Advanced Graphics options.

Advanced Graphics Settings On

Advanced Graphics Settings Off

Everything is clear about the positive impact on graphics quality. Now let's study the impact of the considered parameters on performance. First, we will sequentially include the first three points. Then we will further increase the “shadow length” parameter to 50% and 100%, then we will further increase the loading distance of detailed objects.

Activating the first item does not affect overall performance. High-resolution shadows immediately reduce the frame rate by 30% in minimum fps with a difference of 8% in average fps. Loading detailed textures in flight, without adjusting the last parameters, has little effect on fps. Extended Shadows Distance reduces performance by several percent. But the reaction to increasing the loading distance of detailed objects is extremely critical. The minimum fps drops sharply by half, and noticeable stuttering begins in some test scenes. In this mode, the game already reports up to 3.3 GB of video memory reserved instead of 2.5 GB at the same resolution without additional settings.

As a compromise, you can set the detail distance of objects and shadows to half of the maximum (lower values ​​in the diagram). In this case, the overall performance will be higher. Relative to the initial settings mode, this gives a performance drop of 56/21% (min/avg fps).

Video card performance comparison

Let's move on to comparing different graphics accelerators in Grand Theft Auto 5. First, a group of video adapters from AMD and NVIDIA will be tested at maximum quality settings without activating additional settings options.

First comparison with MSAA 4x anti-aliasing in Full HD.

The close results of the GeForce GTX 770 with 2 GB and the Radeon R9 280X with 3 GB on board are immediately striking. And this is in a mode that requires more than 3 GB of video memory. On the GeForce GTX 980, the peak memory load reached 3400 MB, while the Radeon R9 290X was 100 MB less. The reference GeForce GTX 780 is slightly inferior to the Radeon R9 290 in Uber mode. The performance of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is 1-4% higher than that of AMD's flagship, and the GeForce GTX 980 is another 9-10% faster. The GeForce GTX 760 and GeForce GTX 960 have the lowest scores, but in this test they do not have direct competition from AMD.

Let's now see how our participants cope with the higher resolution of 2560x1440. Based on the top results, it is clear that the younger representatives will not be able to cope with this mode with MSAA, so we will test them with FXAA.

Overall results are better than lower resolutions with MSAA. The Radeon R9 280X appears to have a slight advantage over the GeForce GTX 770. The new GeForce GTX 960 is slightly ahead of the GeForce GTX 760, but both will need overclocking to provide a comfortable level of performance.

Now let's look at the performance of the senior participants in high resolution with multisampling.

GeForce GTX 780 Ti and GeForce GTX 980 are more powerful than Radeon R9 290X. Taking into account the minimum fps below 30 frames, to achieve a comfortable level you will need to overclock or reduce the quality of anti-aliasing. The leader NVIDIA uses up to 3.5 GB of video memory, while the AMD representatives use slightly less memory.

The most pleasant picture is ensured by activating all the additional settings. But will the participants cope with such a difficult regime? Let's find out now. Select Full HD resolution, set FXAA and turn on additional parameters to maximum. We exclude younger participants from comparison due to obviously low results.

Even the Radeon R9 280X has good average frame rates, but very serious drops in minimum fps. In the red camp, only the Radeon R9 290X achieves results close to a comfortable level. But the ideal option would be the GeForce GTX 980, which is 6% better than the leader AMD in terms of the minimum parameter, and in terms of average game frame rates it is more productive by an impressive 29%. Peak video memory load is at 3370-3330 MB.

Let's use MSAA.

Productivity drops seriously. Even the GeForce GTX 980 drops to 25 fps in minimum fps, but maintains a very high average frame rate. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti beats the Radeon R9 290X in terms of average fps, but loses one frame in terms of the minimum. Memory loading reaches 3600 MB.

Let's try to switch to a resolution of 2560x1440, but with a more gentle anti-aliasing mode.

The GeForce GTX 980 is still confidently in the lead. The predecessor GeForce GTX 780 Ti lags behind by 11-14%, and the Radeon R9 290X is weaker by 5-20%. Video memory loading up to 3.6 GB.

As a small addition, we offer a comparison of the “pensioners” represented by the GeForce GTX 580 and Radeon R9 6970. For clarity, let’s add the GeForce GTX 760 to them. Tests were carried out in a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum graphics quality with anti-aliasing disabled. The second test mode involves an additional reduction in post-processing and completely disabling the depth of field effect. In both cases, all advanced settings options are disabled.

One could say that the old people are approximately at the same level. They have a negligible difference in minimum fps; GeForce GTX 580 wins only in average fps. But in reality, on the Radeon HD 6970 the image is jerky even in the simpler second mode, and this very noticeably spoils the experience. Although the GeForce GTX 580 does not demonstrate significant advantages in graphics, the game on this video adapter is much smoother and more comfortable.

Processor performance comparison

It's time to find out which processor can handle the game at an acceptable level of performance. During the fourth part, it was processor dependence that became the cornerstone for many players. It came to funny situations when owners of dual-core processors, who by default were doomed to unsatisfactorily low performance, had particularly heated debates about the required amount of video memory.

To get an idea of ​​the impact of processor potential on overall performance, we took several Intel models:

• Intel Pentium G3258 (3.2 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache) LGA1150;
• Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5 GHz @ Turbo 3.9 GHz, 8 MB L3 cache) LGA1150;
• Intel Core i7-3930K (3.2 GHz @ Turbo 3.8 GHz, 12 MB L3 cache) LGA2011.

The Core i7-4770K will be tested with different core configurations at the lower end of the spectrum at 3.2 GHz. By bringing Pentium and Core to the same frequency and the same number of cores, it will be possible to identify the impact of the L3 cache on performance. Then the remaining cores and Hyper Threading will gradually be turned on, which will show the influence of these factors. A representative of another platform, Intel Core i7-3930K, was tested at a fixed frequency of 3.2 GHz and overclocked to 4.4 GHz. The Pentium G3258 was also tested for overclocking.

For all processors, a GeForce GTX 760 video card was used. The test mode assumes maximum settings for the main section of graphics settings without anti-aliasing, reducing the level of special effects to “high” and completely disabling the depth of field effect.

Based on the testing results, it is clear that two cores are catastrophically few. With a good level of average fps, terrible “brakes” are periodically observed, which is clearly visible from the level of minimum fps. Increasing the L3 cache gives a speedup of 5-7%, but does not solve the problem. Only activating Hyper Treading allows you to achieve an acceptable level of performance. Real four cores give an advantage of up to 34% compared to two cores with HT. With four cores, Hyper Treading no longer brings any benefit. The six cores of the Intel Core i7-3930K also do not provide any advantage. Overclocking top processors makes no sense, except when using the most powerful video cards. Overclocking a dual-core processor also does not bring much benefit, but for a different reason - increasing the frequency does not eliminate catastrophic fps drops.

conclusions

It's time to take stock. Let's start with lovers of visual beauty and owners of top configurations. If you want to get the most out of the game, be sure to activate the advanced graphics settings options. If this has a significant impact on performance, try increasing the loading distance for detailed objects and shadows not to the maximum, but to smaller values. It is these parameters that most noticeably affect the final fps. Among the anti-aliasing modes, the best is MSAA, with which there is no loss of clarity of small details. But it is also the most resource-intensive. FXAA is the best option, providing good anti-aliasing quality with minimal performance losses.

To achieve better performance, you will first have to give up additional settings and anti-aliasing. Although we would recommend using FXAA even for those who have to lower the graphics quality a little. At the same time, you can experiment with detailed shadows from the additional settings. For example, get a good increase in fps by turning off the depth of field effect and slightly reducing the quality of reflections, trying to complement this by turning on detailed shadows and a slight increase in the distance of object detail. But you need to understand that such experiments require a video card more powerful than the GeForce GTX 760.

If we are talking about a low-power card, then along with reflections and post-effects, you can partially sacrifice the quality of the grass. If necessary, you can safely set many parameters one point below the maximum level. Often this is fraught with minimal losses in picture quality. All shadow settings can play an important role. As mentioned above, they are interconnected. If the goal is to achieve the highest possible fps, then in addition to seriously reducing the quality of shadows, you can sacrifice the effect of soft shadows and disable Ambient Occlusion. But completely reducing all shadow parameters will noticeably affect the image quality. It is also highly not recommended to reduce the quality of textures, shaders and reflections to a minimum - it has a serious impact on graphics. It makes sense to resort to this only on the weakest systems.

Among Intel processors, the minimum option for gaming is Core i3. You won't be able to play normally on dual-core models. The best option even for a mid-level video card is a full-fledged quad-core Core i5, which will not become a performance limiter.