How to Increase FPS on Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) is undeniably one of the most successful games created, ranked in the top 10 in the US for 2018, according to NPD. Since GTA first arrived on the gaming scene in October 1997, it has continued to evolve with support on multiple platforms, including Windows PCs and PlayStation.

There are several reasons for GTA’s ongoing popularity:

• It can be played by individuals, as a multi-player game, and online
• Continued improvements in game quality, performance, and features
• Unsurpassed realism, graphics, and soundtrack for a game of it’s kind
• Forums and GTA communities are constantly growing

The best reason – it’s fun!

Joining the legions of GTA V players for Windows requires a considerable amount of system resources.

What It Takes to Run GTA V

To power the features and amazing graphics of GTA V, your system must meet the game’s minimum requirements:

• Processor: Intel 2 Core Quad CPU Q6600 2.40GHz or AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz (or greater)
• Memory: 4GB RAM
• Video Card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB or AMD HD 4870 1GB (or equivalent – or greater)
• Sound Card: DirectX 10 compatible
• Storage Space: 65GB (HDD or SDD)
• DVD Drive (unless you download directly)
• OS: Windows 10 64-bit, Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit (WIN Vista 64-bit is also acceptable)

 

Running GTA V with these minimum requirements may not provide the level of performance and entertainment that some gamers demand.

Recommended requirements bump up your computer’s power significantly:

 

• Processor: Intel i5 3470 3.2 GHz (4 CPUs) or AMD X8 FX-8350 4GHz (8 CPUs)
• Memory: 8GB RAM
• Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB or AMD HD7870 2GB or higher

 

As with many software titles, additional memory, processor, and graphics/video resources will boost performance.

GTA V Performance – How to Increase FPS

Video performance is measured in frames per second (FPS). The higher your FPS performance, the smoother your video action appears. Most PC video games rate in the 60 FPS bracket for good performance and consistent refresh rates for an enjoyable gaming experience.

If you’re not getting a satisfactory video FPS rate from GTA V, you can diagnose the problem and take action that should improve your results. One sure-fire way to improve the performance of GTA V, and your system in general, is to add RAM to your system.

Computer Upgrades

If your budget permits, you can take steps to improve your technical environment:

• Upgrade your processor
• Add RAM (probably your easiest and least expensive update)
• Replace your video/graphics card with a more powerful model, with increased video RAM (VRAM)

Software Solutions – Game Options

GTA V provides many settings that you can modify and experiment with, to find the best combination of performance vs. appearance for your own system.

Access the settings by selecting the “game settings” and select “graphics”.

Take note of the video memory values. You can adjust from the lowest to higher settings to upgrade the picture quality, but there will be a negative hit on performance. If you can deal with a little less detail in the images, you will see performance improvements with a lower setting.

There are additional video settings that you can tweak, although the performance impact may not be as significant:

MSAA (Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing) provides a higher quality image, but also adds resource utilization. FXAA (Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing) is fast, but with a lower quality image. Try using MSAA at 2X or 4X settings, and see which provides the best combination of image and performance for you. You may find that disabling MSAA improves FPS results significantly.

Pay special attention to the resource consumption monitor in the top right-hand corner of the GTA V display. This provides valuable information regarding the effect of your setting changes.

You can also utilize settings for your graphics card to boost the FPS and efficiency of GTA, including using tools such as MSI Afterburner:

GTA V Game Settings That Can Increase FPS

Changing game settings within the GTA V game can improve your visual presentation, as well:

• Reduce the screen refresh rate
• Post-processing effects – this includes such effects as bloom, depth of field, motion blur, and others. Reducing post-processing effects settings can dramatically impact FPS results
• Remove AAA filtering
• Population variety – you may see fewer pedestrians, but with lower resource consumption
• Turn off V Sync and tessellation (tessellation essentially impacts flat surface texture presentation)
• Grass quality, water quality, shadows, and reflections – lower values will improve FPS
• Change your texture detail value and draw distance

Experimenting with the graphics options GTA V makes available can help you find the settings that provide the optimum FPS for producing the best visual results with your system. You should always refer to the settings available for your graphics card, to optimize game settings.

Even as you upgrade or replace your system components, revisit your settings to find the best combination for your new configuration.

Drivers Are Important for Performance

Your least costly performance tweak is to ensure your drivers are all up-to-date, including drivers for your video card and other system components. NVIDIA and other graphics card manufacturers frequently update drivers to improve performance and fix problems.

Make sure your graphics drivers are up-to-date and check regularly for updates.

Your drivers are an important consideration to ensure optimal use of system resources. Driver Support does the work of analyzing your computer and finding the right drivers for your system.