GTA V's PC version has a remarkably large amount of settings which the user can tweak. Here we will list what each does and the impact that they can have on each user’s frame rate and performance.
Texture Quality
Texture Quality affects the amount of detail that is shown on each model. This is very VRAM intensive. There is an 802 MB difference between the highest and lowest settings, so if you are planning on using the “very high” setting then it is a good idea to have a card with a minimum of 3GB of VRAM. The change is 662 MB from normal to high. One of the most noticeable differences between the settings, as demonstrated in the screenshots, is the quality of the tile road.
Anti-Aliasing
Anti-aliasing, in general, is meant to smooth out the “jaggies” in images. To be slightly more specific, it is typical to see the edges of objects looking rough in game. Anti-aliasing helps to smooth these out, making it look significantly less pixelated than it otherwise would.
GTA V has three major forms of anti-aliasing. One, TXAA, is specific to NVIDIA graphics cards. The other two, FXAA and MSAA, are not. Let’s discuss the function of each of these anti-aliasing settings and the effect it has on game performance and visuals.
FXAA: FXAA, also known as Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing, is a form of anti-aliasing that does not require a ton of computational power. There is no increase in VRAM usage with this settings on, however it does create a slight frame rate hit (about a 6% change in FPS). The reason this doesn’t have a huge performance hit is because this form of AA smooths the appearance of models based on how they appear on the screen, rather than doing an analysis of the models themselves. With this setting enabled you can expect to see slightly smoother-looking models, and the edges of objects like cars should look more realistic.
Drag the cursor to compare FXAA anti-aliasing Off and On.
MSAA: Multisample Anti-Aliasing renders the game at a higher resolution before then proceeding to downscale it to the resolution of your monitor. This leads to a much crisper image, but it does sacrifice performance in the process. This is very systematically demanding setting that requires a lot of VRAM to work properly. With MSAA x2 on, VRAM usage increases by 133 MB, while it increases by 315 MB on x4. Finally, MSAA x8 increases usable by 678 MB, and can have up to a 60% frame rate performance hit depending on the system. Using high-level MSAA is sure to cause a change in performance, but the result will be very pretty.
Drag the cursor to compare MSAA anti-aliasing Off and x8.
TXAA: TXAA is an NVIDIA-specific form of anti-aliasing. It aims to reduce temporal anti-aliasing (flickering of objects in games). It is especially noticeable when the game is in motion or while looking at detailed, smaller objects such as trees or fences. The performance hit is almost non-existent, with only a 2% cost in terms of frame rate and no change in VRAM usage. However, it is hard to truly see the result with screenshots since this form of AA is mainly used with regards to objects in motion.
Drag the cursor to compare MSAA anti-aliasing x4 without TXAA and with TXAA.
Long Shadows
This setting is made to render more accurate environments during the game’s dusk and dawn, along with slightly increasing the shadow quality overall. It is a very difficult setting to notice, even in a side-by-side comparison. It does not cause a particularly noticeable performance hit in terms of frame rate or VRAM usage.
Drag the cursor to compare Long Shadows Off and On.
High Resolution Shadows
A relatively self-explanatory setting, this increases the detail level of shadows. It is most noticeable when paired with the “Sharp” Soft Shadows setting. It is a quite noticeable difference as compared to long shadows. In the screenshots, the edges of the car’s shadows is much crisper than it was before. It has a minimal frame rate hit, however it does increase VRAM usage by 384 MB.
Drag the cursor to compare High Resolution Shadows Off and On.
Extended Distance Scaling
Increasing the Extended Distance Scaling Slider means that objects that are further away from the player are rendered at a higher resolution/quality than they would be if the slider were on a lower setting. In the screenshots, the buildings and foliage behind the player are of higher quality with the slider maxed out then they would otherwise be. It has an average of a 12% frame rate impact between the minimum and maximum setting, though this does differ depending on what is being rendered in the distance. This increases VRAM usage by 218 MB.
Drag the cursor to compare Extended Distance Scaling on Minimum and Maximum.
Extended Shadow Distance
Extended Shadow Distance increases the quality of shadows rendered at a higher distance from the player. Additionally, it increases the quality of the shadows at all given distances and the general accuracy of the rendering. This setting causes no noticeable performance hit with either VRAM or frame rate.
Drag the cursor to compare Extended Shadow Distance on Minimum and Maximum.
VSync
VSync, short for “Vertical Synchronization,” synchronizes your in-game frame rate with your monitor’s refresh rate. So, for example, if you have a 60 Hz monitor, your game will always try and render at the at that frame rate (60 FPS in this instance), even if it could possibly go higher. This is meant to reduce screen tearing, which is when the top and bottom of the screen are showing slightly different images.
Pause Game on Focus Loss
This setting is designed to automatically pause the game when the user switches to another application or goes to desktop. However, it can sometimes cause random pausing in player’s games, and it is generally recommended to set this to “off.”
Population Density
This is one of the more self-explanatory settings. The “population density” slider simply affects how populated the streets are. This means that the higher the slider is, the more people that will be on the sidewalks and cars on the streets. The effect it has on frame rate varies greatly with location, though in more populated areas frame rate may decrease by up to 20%.
Population Variety
This is another one that makes sense. Increasing this slider means that there will be more variety in the vehicles and human models seen in the game. If you have this slider halfway full, your game will utilize half of the available models. Increasing it will increase the percentage of models used, therefore decreasing the odds that you will see repeated models in the games. There is neglgible FPS impact, but it does increase VRAM usage by up to 230 MB.
Distance Scaling
Distance scaling affects the amount of detail rendered at any given time, specifically in regard to the distant detail of people, textures, models, and various other things present in the background. It has no VRAM impact, but can have around a 6% hit on frame rate depending where you are in the game.
Drag the cursor to compare Distance Scaling on Minimum and Maximum.
Shader Quality
This setting affects the fidelity of the lighting in the game along with the overall quality of effects used. This is best seen when it comes to water and foliage in-game. The water appears far more shiny and realistic with this setting turned up. Grass also appears to have a lot more detail, as turning up this setting affects shading, anisotropic filtering, and fine-detail texturing. This is a very important setting when it comes to making your game look as realistic as possible. It increases VRAM usage by 12 MB on it highest setting, but has around a 8-12% FPS impact.
Shadow Quality
This setting is one of the two (along with High Resolution Shadows) that is most important when it comes to the visuals of the game’s shadows. It affects the accuracy of the shadows presented, along with the resolution and definition seen in said shadows. It has a 177 MB increase in VRAM usage on very high, while it is only 81 on high. There is a 2-9% impact on frame rate, depending where you are in the game.
Drag the cursor to compare Shadow Quality on Normal and Very High.
Reflection Quality
As the name implies, this setting improves the reflections found on all surfaces in the game. This is noticeable on vehicles, windows, water, and other shiny surfaces such as the occasional wall or floor. This is especially noticeable in the game when it is raining. VRAM usage can increase by either 7, 33, or 135 MB, depending on how high of a setting you pick. The frame rate impact generally is about 18% in our testing, though it varies with location.
Drag the cursor to compare Reflection Quality on Normal and Very High.
Reflection MSAA
Reflection MSAA (short for Multisample Anti-Aliasing) reduces reflection aliasing. It is hardly noticeable, but does change reflections slightly. It has a 22, 57, or 89 MB increase in VRAM depending on how high you go, and around a 6% impact on frame rate.
Drag the cursor to compare Reflection MSAA x0 and x8.
Water Quality
Water quality is a graphical setting that is extremely important to making the game look as visually impressive as possible. At its most basic, this setting helps the water look better. Extrapolating on this, it adds more depth of color to the water, as well as increasing the quantity and visual fidelity of water particles. It is not an extremely demanding setting, and in our testing, frame rate only decreased by 5-7% while on the beach. Additionally, it only requires 8MB of VRAM to run properly, so it should be able to be used in many low-memory cards.
Drag the cursor to compare Water Quality on Normal and Very High.
Particles Quality
This setting mainly affects explosions, which are randomized to begin with. Even ignoring outside factors such as physics, weather, and location, it is hard to get a solid baseline of comparison. However, this setting affects the particles rendered in the explosion and the fidelity of them. It has virtually no FPS impact (only a small one during the explosions, naturally) and uses no additional VRAM.
Grass Quality
This setting is generally not noticeable in terms of what it changes. However, it is very noticeable while in forests. This setting increases/adds additional foliage in certain scenes (including bushes, flowers, etc.) and improves what is already present (such as the quality of bark on trees). Generally, it has a non-existent FPS hit, however it can be gigantic when in forests, to a point where very expensive systems will chug a bit. At these points, it is actually the most difficult setting to run on ultra in the entire game, with up to a 40% FPS hit. Regardless, it uses no VRAM.
Drag the cursor to compare Grass Quality on Normal and Very High.
Soft Shadows
Soft Shadows is a setting that aims to make the game look more realistic. Light has a tendency to leave soft edges on shadows in real life, and this setting makes it look similarly in the game. PCSS (NVIDIA Percentage Closer Soft Shadows) is an NVIDIA-exclusive setting in soft shadows that is meant to progressively soften them as distance increases. The change from softest to sharpest has about a 5% frame rate hit, though this does increase in areas with lots of shadows, and it has no change in VRAM usage.
Drag the cursor to compare Soft Shadows on Softest and Sharp.
Post FX
Post FX is a setting that encompasses a lot of features that help to make the game look prettier. These include lens flare, glare, God rays, depth of field, dynamic lighting, and more. It increases VRAM usage by 8 MB by turning on high and 51 MB with either ultra or very high enabled. It is a quite demanding setting, with a roughly 20% FPS drop with ultra enabled.
Drag the cursor to compare Post FX on Softest and Sharp.
Motion Blur Strength
This setting has no real graphical impact and is mainly turned on due to personal preference. It makes objects/models appear to streak when passing them with rapid movement or while turning the character’s field of vision relatively quickly. It has no FPS or VRAM hit.
In-Game Depth of Field Effects
This is another setting that really doesn’t have any graphical impact and should be turned on/off based on whether you like what it does. It blurs parts of the screen when looking down a scope, getting into cars, and looking around object. It has no VRAM impact but can have up to about a 5% impact in terms of frame rate.
Drag the cursor to compare In-Game Depth of Field Effects Off and On.
Anisotropic Filtering
Anisotropic filtering sharpens textures that are viewed on an angle. Additionally, it makes textures that are in the distance appear more clear than they otherwise would. It has a very small impact, with no change in VRAM usage and only a minimal FPS impact.
Drag the cursor to compare Anisotropic Filtering Off and x16.
Ambient Occlusion
This setting impacts shadows that are formed when two objects or surfaces meet. It is additionally seen when an object is blocking another from getting light. It adds a good ammount of detail with regards to accenting details and adding soft shadows. It is not a particularly demanding, and only uses 3 MB of VRAM on its highest setting and has minimal frame rate impact.
Tessellation
Tessellation adds extra geometric detail to various models in the game, including characters, objects, and general surfaces. It is a relatively important setting, and is noticeable in terms of the overall visual quality. It has no VRAM impact and actually has only a negligible impact on frame rate.
Drag the cursor to compare Tessellation Off and on Very High.
High Detail Streaming While Flying
This setting is effectively a detail setting for while you are flying. It affects how much is rendered while in the air, and can help to decrease pop-in while flying. Regardless, however, there will be some degree of pop-in that is noticeable regardless of the setting used. It causes a frame rate hit of about 8-10% and does not increase VRAM usage.
