Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced Edition comes to PC as a free upgrade as Rockstar prepares to launch its next blockbuster (GTA 6). The upgraded version has garnered close to 200K concurrent players on Steam. Unfortunately, the game is far from perfect. With all the flaws of the legacy version and its own, the reception has been anything but “Enhanced.”
Windows/System Settings to Optimize
- Enable Resizable BAR.
- Turn on Game Mode.
- Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) and Windowed Optimizations.
- Use the Windows “High Performance” power profile and set your GPU power management mode to the same.
- Disable Memory Integrity. Windows Menu->VBS->Device Security.
- Ensure you use the proper XMP/EXPO memory profile (if available).
- Overclock your GPU if you’re narrowly missing the 60 FPS mark.
- Here’s a guide with more detailed instructions.
- GTA 5 Optimized Settings for PC: All Graphics Options Tested.
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced PC System Specs
Min
- OS: Windows 10 (Latest SP)
- CPU: Intel Core i7-4770|AMD FX-9590
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630|AMD Radeon RX 6400
- Storage: 105GB SSD
Rec
- OS: Windows 11
- CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K|AMD Ryzen 5 3600
- Memory: 16GB Dual-Channel
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060|AMD Radeon RX 6600XT
- Storage: 105GB NVMe SSD.
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced: Resolution Scaling
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced retains all the issues of the base game, including stuttering at high frame rates. Regardless of your average frame rate or graphics settings, the game exhibits severe frametime issues over 140 FPS. Like the legacy version, GTA 5 Enhanced has trouble scaling past 160 FPS.
Consequently, optimizing the game’s performance beyond 120 FPS is redundant. With upscaling, most midrange and high-end PCs should average over 100 FPS.
Test Setup
- CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K @ 5.3 GHz.
- Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420.
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090 FE.
- Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI.
- Memory: 16 GB x2 @ 6000 MT/s CL30.
Regardless of the graphics settings, we couldn’t get past 120 FPS with ray tracing and 160 FPS without ray tracing. Interestingly, GTA 5 Enhanced ran faster at 1440p than 1080p on our system.
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced: Graphics Presets
We measured the scaling across the graphics presets at 5K to circumvent CPU limitations and got the following results:
- Maximum RT produced an average of 50 FPS.
- Very High RT averaged 66 FPS.
- High RT ran at 91 FPS.
- Very High at 92 FPS.
- High at 107 FPS.
- Minimum at 104 FPS.
(Click here for Interactive Slider Comparison)
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced: Ray Tracing
GTA 5 Enhanced features three ray tracing technologies, including Ray Traced Shadows, Ray Traced Reflections, Ray Traced Global Illumination, and Ray Traced Global Illumination.
- Ray Traced Global Illumination is the most taxing, granting a 25-30% performance boost when disabled.
- Ray Traced Reflections comes second, improving frame rates by nearly 20% when disabled.
- Ray Traced Shadows and Ambient Occlusion are less taxing, reducing performance by 4-6% on average.
(Click here for Interactive Slider Comparison)
(Click here for Interactive Slider Comparison)
Ray Traced Shadows minimally impact performance, affecting the average frame rates by 2-4% at the ultra quality setting. Unfortunately, this boils down to a low-quality implementation rather than proper optimization.
(Click here for Interactive Slider Comparison)
- GTA 5 Enhanced produces the best ray-traced shadows at the very high-quality option.
- The ultra quality results in incomplete umbras (the darkest portion) and larger penumbras (partially shaded portion).
- This is likely the result of excessive contact hardening at ultra (softening of shadow edges farther away from the casting object).
- Increased contact hardening is also the only difference between “very high” and “ultra.” The sample count seems to be the same.
(Click here for Interactive Slider Comparison)
Ray Traced Reflections drastically improve the game’s visual fidelity by rendering high-resolution reflections across its numerous glossy surfaces.
- The ultra quality option is 15%, while high is only 3-4% slower than screen space reflections.
- Reducing the reflection quality lowers the distance (from the reflecting surface) at which objects are considered for reflection.
(Click here for Interactive Slider Comparison)
Ray Traced Global Ilumination is the most taxing setting, reducing frame rates by over 20% in GTA 5 Enhanced. It dramatically improves visual fidelity using diffuse lighting.
- It includes single bounce GI that incorporates the colored light rays (per source).
- Think of it as light that bounces around after reflection against opaque surfaces. It brightens shaded areas and those that don’t get direct light.
- RTGI quality sets the distance (from the screen) considered for global illumination. It also adjusts the indirect light resolution.
(Click here for Interactive Slider Comparison)
Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion refers to low-profile shadows cast along crevies, crannies, and between object boundaries.
- It is relatively less intensive, reducing frame rates by 4-5% on average.
- Higher-quality options increase the resolution and distance (from the screen) at which they are rendered.
(Click here for Interactive Slider Comparison)
Ray Tracing Scene BVH Quality increases the number of objects or surfaces included for ray tracing.
- The high-quality option omits numerous distant objects, preventing them from casting shadows or reflections.
- Closeby, the impact is subtle, reducing the geometry detail utilized for ray tracing.
- The performance impact is negligible, ranging from 1-3% on average.
- We tested the rasterized settings at 8K (DLSS Quality) to minimize CPU bottlenecks.
Shaders, Textures, & Tessellation
Shader Quality subtly impacts performance (2-3%), adjusting multiple effects, including distant shadows, shadow intensity, softness (penumbra), parallax occlusion mapping, etc.
- “Very High” introduces excessive blurring, leading to the loss of finer geometric detail.
These settings subtly impact visual quality with a marginal impact on performance and can be maxed out without issues:
- Anisotropic Filtering smoothes out perpendicular textures.
- Tessellation improves tree geometry by subdividing polygons.
- Grass Quality increases the density and draw distance of grass patches, with Ultra adding finer shadows.
Particles & Water Quality
Particle Quality adjusts the number of particles produced during explosions, smoke, and fire textures. If your frame rates drop unreasonably low during such sequences, reduce it to high or normal quality.
Water Quality sets the fidelity of water bodies, including ripples, waves, caustics, and reactivity to player/NPC interaction.
- High and Very High reduce the ripple and caustics intensity, but the difference is hardly noticeable.
- Normal disables everything, producing flat, lifeless water surfaces.
Lighting, Reflections, & Shadow Quality
Lighting Quality improves the fidelity of shadows cast by thin geometry, including grills, fencing, windows, etc. The performance is largely unaffected by it.
Reflection Quality adjusts the resolution of screen space reflections. The ultra quality option is 5-6% slower than normal.
- Very High and High reduce reflection detail, producing noisier/dimmer reflections.
- Normal removes most reflections.
Shadow Quality sets the draw distance, resolution, and coverage of shadows. The normal and high quality modes perform about the same, while ultra is 5-6% slower.
- High disables high-resolution shadows and distant shadow scaling. Shadows are much less defined, with blurry boundaries. Most finer geometry and distant object shadows are culled.
- Normal disables all but the simplest shadow maps. Ledges, windows, wiring, fences, and most nonplanar surface shadows are culled.
Soft Shadows produce more realistic shadows with more defined penumbras but are 4-5% slower than sharp shadows. The three soft shadow options perform the same.
- Sharp renders fully defined shadow boundaries.
- Softer and softest result in a smoother transition between the umbra and penumbra than soft.
- High-Resolution Shadows render darker, more defined shadows and are smidge slower. They’re most evident with shadows cast by intricate geometry, wiring, fencing, ledges, ladders, etc.
- Extended Shadow Scaling renders shadows for objects far away from the player character. The visual difference is subtle, and it mainly affects the lows (2-3%). It should be lowered on older CPUs.
- Long Shadows produce longer, drawn-out shadows characteristic of sunrise and sunsets. They perform the same as standard shadows.
Post FX & Ambient Occlusion
Post FX or post-processing adjusts the quality of late shader effects, including bloom, depth of field, motion blur, god rays, lens flare, glare, haze, and artificial HDR shaders. It can drastically reduce frame rates by as much as 20%.
- Very High reduces the intensity of bloom. Performs the same as ultra.
- High further reduces the bloom and HDR quality while glare and lens flare are partially disabled. It’s 7-8% slower than normal.
- Normal completely disables bloom and most other effects.
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion adds ambient shadows along crevices, corners, object boundaries, and intersections. GTA 5 Enhanced features HBAO (Horizon Based AO) and SSDO (Screen Space Directional Occlusion). Both are 3% slower than “Off.”
- HBAO upgrades vanilla SSAO by including horizon-related detail using height maps. Better coverage than SSAO.
- SSDO accounts for the directionality of incoming light and incorporates an additional bounce for indirect illumination. It’s more accurate than HBAO and performs about the same.
Population Density, Variety & Distance Scaling
When Grand Theft Auto 5 launched on PC in 2015, the population density and distance scaling sliders were key to attaining playable frame rates. However, most gamers should now be able to max out these settings without issue.
- Population Density sets the number of NPCs and vehicles rendered in the player’s surroundings.
- Population Variety adjusts the number of models used for NPCs and vehicles. At lower qualities, only a few models are used repeatedly.
- Distance Scaling sets the render distance of geometry, including buildings, vegetation, billboards, etc. Lower values lead to increased pop-in.
- Extended Distance Scaling has a more pronounced impact on visuals, substantially increasing distant object detail, including geometry, shadows, and ambient occlusion. It should be lowered on older CPUs.
Upscaling: DLSS 3.7 & FSR 3.1
GTA 5 Enhanced features DLSS 3.7 and FSR 3.1 upscaling technologies. As explained, the game doesn’t scale past 120 FPS due to CPU and engine limitations, so quality mode is your best bet. It improves performance by roughly 40% over native.
GTA 5 Enhanced doesn’t include ray reconstruction or specialized upscaling denoisers. Consequently, upscaling leads to a palpable drop in ray tracing quality: blurrier shadows, noisier reflections, and missing AO.
Interestingly, FSR 3 produces superior results, especially at performance mode. The reflections are softer but less noisy. DLSS technically retains more detail, but the low ray count turns it into noise.
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced: VRAM Usage
GTA 5 Enhanced uses up to 9 GB VRAM at 4K with ray tracing and <8 GB without. That’s slightly more than the legacy version at the highest quality settings.
QHD or 1440p utilizes up to 7.7 GB with ray tracing and 6.5 GB without. FHD or 1080p maxes out at 7.2 GB with RT and 6 GB with sheer raster.
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced: CPU Bottlenecks
Like its predecessor, GTA 5 Enhanced is severely CPU-bound. We observed a GPU-Busy deviation of 15% at 1440p with ray tracing and 40-45% without.
The figure exceeds 50% at 1080p, averaging over 30% even with ray tracing.
Only at native 4K does the GPU-Busy deviation drop below 10%, averaging close to 0% with ray tracing enabled.
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced Optimized Settings PC
| Graphics Settings | High-end | Midrange | Low-end PC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 3840×2160 (4K) | 2560×1440 (1440p) | 1920×1080 (1080p) |
| FPS Target | 60 FPS | 60 FPS | 60 FPS |
| Ray Tracing | On | On | On |
| Ray Traced Shadows | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Ray Traced Reflections | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Ray Traced Global Illumination | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Scene BVH Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Upscaling (DLSS/FSR) | DLAA | DLAA | Quality or Balanced |
| Graphics Settings | RTX 4090 | RTX 4080 Super | RTX 4070 Ti | RTX 4070 Super | RTX 4070 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 4K | 4K | 4K | 4K | 4K | 4K | 4K | 4K |
| FPS Target | 120 FPS | 100 FPS | 75 FPS | 110 FPS+ | 75 FPS | 110 FPS+ | 70 FPS | 100 FPS+ |
| Ray Tracing | On | On | On | On | On | On | On | On |
| Ray Traced Shadows | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Ray Traced Reflections | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Very High | Ultra | Very High | Ultra | High |
| Ray Traced Global Illumination | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Very High | Ultra | Very High | Ultra | Very High |
| Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Very High | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Scene BVH Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Upscaling (DLSS) | Quality | Balanced | Quality | Performance | Quality | Balanced | Quality | Balanced |
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced: Best Settings for Low-end PC
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced runs well on the GeForce RTX 3060. The game averages 75 FPS at 1440p using the “RT Maximum” quality with DLSS (quality) upscaling. Here’s our add-on guide for budget PCs.
| Graphics Settings | RTX 3060 | RTX 3060 Ti | RTX 4060 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolution | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p | 1440p |
| FPS Target | 75 FPS | 100 FPS+ | 85 FPS | 110 FPS+ | 60 FPS | 100 FPS+ |
| Ray Tracing | On | On | On | On | On | On |
| Ray Traced Shadows | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Ray Traced Reflections | Ultra | High | Ultra | Very High | Ultra | High |
| Ray Traced Global Illumination | Ultra | Very High | Ultra | Very High | Ultra | Very High |
| Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion | Ultra | High | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra | Ultra |
| Scene BVH Quality | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High | Very High |
| Upscaling (DLSS/FSR) | DLSS Quality | DLSS Balanced | DLSS Quality | DLSS Balanced | DLSS Quality | DLSS Balanced |
