GTA V Graphics Settings and Mods to Boost Your FPS

How to optimize your GTA V graphics settings on PC

You can optimize your PC for games like GTA V by adjusting anti-aliasing settings, lowering your population density, turning off advanced shadow settings, using command-line tweaks, and adjusting other graphics settings.

If you’re playing GTA V Enhanced on PC, some optimizations — such as improved frame scaling — can deliver better FPS than the original PC release.

To get the most out of your graphic setting changes, make sure your PC is updated and running smoothly to help improve load times and reduce stuttering.

Run the following checks before you start your GTA V gaming optimization:

• Update your graphics drivers: You can do this manually, or let AVG Driver Updater do it for you automatically.

• Free up your CPU: Disable unneeded background activity using a PC cleaner like AVG TuneUp.

If GTA V is installed on a hard drive (HDD) and loading feels slow, then defragging can also help. Defragmentation reorganizes scattered file chunks so the drive can read data more efficiently. This isn’t necessary if you have a modern SSD — your operating system will handle storage maintenance automatically.

1. Benchmark your GTA V performance

GTA V includes a built-in benchmark you can use to measure performance with your current settings. Run this before making any changes, and then check it again afterward to see how your FPS and stability have improved.

To perform a benchmark test on GTA V:

1. Start a game (Story Mode or Online). Press Esc to open the Pause Menu.

2. Go to Settings > Graphics. Press the TAB key, then allow the scenes to play and wait for the results.

3. Repeat the test and take the average results.

Benchmark results will differ significantly on the Enhanced Edition of GTA V because it uses improved rendering paths, and the FPS impact (good or bad) is tied more closely to next-gen GPUs — often showing larger performance gains at 1440p and 4K than the legacy version.

Additionally, depending on your GPU, your GTA V benchmarks will look different than other people’s. For example, tests have shown that the Asus GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, 5080, and 5090 can all achieve an average of 188 FPS at 1080p.

However, in 4K resolution, the RTX 5090 averages 135 FPS, while the 5080 averages 79 FPS, and the 5070 Ti yields just 69 FPS. Similarly, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX sees averages of 60 FPS on a 4K display versus 164 FPS at 1080p.

2. Change anti-aliasing settings

AA, or anti-aliasing, is a technique used to smooth out graphics by sampling pixels and blending them together. There are many types of AA on the original GTA V game, with MSAA (Multisample Anti-Aliasing) and FXAA (Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing) being two of the most common options.

MSAA provides a cleaner, sharper image than FXAA, so turning it on could improve the quality of your GTA V gameplay graphics. However, this comes with a performance trade-off — FPS is generally lower than with FXAA as MSAA samples more pixels (x2, x4, or x8) at once.

Try both options and select the best balance of FPS versus quality for your PC and preferences.

Here are the general steps to change anti-aliasing in GTA V:

1. Launch GTA V, then open the Settings menu and choose Graphics.

2. Find FXAA and toggle On/Off. Find MSAA and toggle X2/X4/X8/Off, then click Apply changes.

If you’re optimizing graphics for GTA V Enhanced, on supported RTX GPUs there is an AI-based alternative to traditional anti-aliasing called DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). DLSS often delivers better image quality and higher FPS than MSAA, so players with RTX cards should choose DLSS whenever it’s offered instead of MSAA in the GTA V graphic settings.

3. Disable VSync

VSync is a feature that helps prevent screen tearing, which is when a game displays images from multiple frames at the same time, but limits your FPS. Turning off VSync removes this frame rate cap and improves FPS.

• To turn off VSync in GTA V: Launch GTA V, then open the Settings menu and select Graphics. Toggle the VSync option to Off.

As with many graphics settings, there is a trade-off between performance and image quality. Test the game with VSync on and off to find the best option for you and your PC.

4. Lower the population density and variety

Turning down the population density and variety in GTA V reduces the number and diversity of pedestrians and cars in your world. If you don’t mind your city feeling a bit empty, you might see a considerable jump in FPS by lowering CPU usage and GPU load — especially on a laptop or older PC, which typically have limited power and thermals.

Here’s how to reduce population density and variety in GTA V:

1. Launch GTA V and open the Settings menu. Go to Graphics.

2. Lower the sliders on the Population Density and Population Variety, then click Apply changes.

5. Lower your texture and grass quality

Lowering your texture quality will boost your FPS by reducing the amount of detail in surface graphics, such as walls, roads, and sidewalks. The same is true for the grass quality and shadow quality, which have individual settings.

Here’s how to adjust texture and grass quality in GTA V on PC:

1. Launch GTA V and open the Settings menu. Go to Graphics.

2. Toggle the Texture Quality, Shadow Quality, and Grass Quality options to Normal. Click Apply changes.

Lower texture settings (left) compared to higher texture settings (right)

Other individual settings include water quality and particle quality. However, the FPS differences between Normal and High, Very High, or Ultra aren’t significant, so you can safely enjoy those high-quality sparkling waves and smoke effects.

6. Drop your shader quality

Shader quality affects lighting and visual-effects processing, and the amount of detail preserved on distant objects. Lowering shader quality to Normal (from High, Very High, or Ultra) means you’ll lose some graphics quality, but get a big FPS boost.

Here’s how to lower shader quality in GTA V for PC:

• Launch GTA V and open the Settings menu. Go to Graphics, then toggle the Shader Quality option to Normal. Click Apply changes.

7. Deactivate reflection MSAA and lower reflection quality

Reflection quality and MSAA determine the detail and smoothness in reflective surfaces around Los Santos, for example, on a shiny car or a puddle of rainwater.

Reflection quality can be set as Normal, High, Very High and Ultra, with Normal having the lowest impact on FPS. Reflection MSAA can be set at X2, X4,X8, or turned Off. In our test, deactivating reflection MSAA netted us a 5 FPS boost without a significant loss in graphics quality.

Here’s how to adjust the reflection settings in GTA V:

1. Launch GTA V then open the Settings menu and choose Graphics.

2. Toggle Reflection MSAA to Off, toggle Reflection Quality to Normal, then click Apply changes.

If you want to retain more detail in GTA V’s reflective surfaces, try a higher Reflection Quality with Reflection MSAA disabled. Alternatively, you could turn Reflection MSAA on but keep Reflection Quality at Normal. Test out different combinations to see what works best for you.

8. Lower your resolution from 4K to Full HD or 720p

Running GTA V at your monitor’s native resolution looks sharpest, but this can cut FPS, especially at 4K. Dropping to 1080p (or even 720p) will reduce image crispness and boost FPS.

To lower your screen resolution through your Windows PC settings:

• Right-click your desktop and select Display settings. Click the drop-down menu next to Display resolution and choose a lower resolution.

This reduces overall graphics card workload and can help maintain stable GPU temperatures, improving GTA V performance. Keep in mind that this change affects your desktop resolution, not just your in-game graphics.

Adjust Frame Scaling

GTA V’s frame scaling system can adjust the game’s resolution without changing your monitor’s actual resolution setting. It renders the game at a different resolution than your monitor, then scales it to fit your screen. Some people use frame scaling to retain image quality on wall projections or ultrawide TVs.

High frame scaling can look better, but it impacts FPS. For improved performance, consider turning frame scaling Off or dropping to under 1x (your monitor’s native resolution).

Here’s how to disable or lower frame scaling in GTA V:

1. Launch GTA V and open the Settings menu. Click Advanced Graphics.

2. Toggle Frame Scaling Mode to Off, 0.500, 0.667, 0.750, or 0.834. Click Apply changes.

In GTA V Enhanced edition, enabling DLSS improves visual fidelity at lower internal render resolutions, making 1440p and 4K more viable on mid-range GPUs.

9. Reduce distance scaling

Distance scaling in GTA V’s graphics settings determines how far away from your character you can see objects, vehicles, and pedestrians and the level of detail in the graphics. Higher values retain more detail, but can noticeably reduce FPS. Try reducing your distance scaling to improve performance.

Here’s how to reduce distance scaling in GTA V:

• Launch the game and go to Settings > Graphics. Move the slider next to Distance Scaling to a lower setting, then click Apply changes.

A more advanced version of distance scaling, Extended Distance Scaling, is also available in GTA V. This setting is visually rewarding, but the most demanding. Turning off this feature will increase pop-in— when buildings and other objects suddenly appear as you get closer to them — but it will also increase FPS.

Here’s how to disable extended distance scaling in GTA V:

• Launch the game and go to Settings > Advanced Graphics. Move the slider next to Extended Distance Scaling to zero then click Apply changes.

10. Turn off advanced shadow settings

In our tests, increasing the High Resolution Shadows and Extended Shadows Distance incurred serious FPS costs while raising our video memory (RAM) use by up to 800 MB. For top performance, keep these shadow settings to a minimum.

Turning off High Resolution Shadows will leave your object shadows with less definition: the objects will look soft but performance will improve.

Disabling Extended Shadow Distance reduces the need to render shadows for distant objects, easing the load on your system. The trade-off is lower visual fidelity in exchange for higher FPS.

Here’s how to turn off High Resolution Shadow and Extended Shadow Distance in GTA V:

1. Open GTA V and click Settings > Advanced Graphics.

2. Toggle High Resolution Shadows to Off.

3. Toggle Extended Shadow Distance to Off then click Apply changes.

The Long Shadows setting elongates shadows when the sun is lower in the sky, e.g., at dawn and dusk. However, we found that disabling this feature didn’t result in a good enough FPS boost to make the quality loss worthwhile.

Make soft shadows sharper

Softer shadows look more realistic, as light spreads around objects and blurs shadow edges. However, the Softer and Softest shadow settings in GTA V are more performance-intensive than Soft or Sharp settings.

• To increase sharpness in shadows and boost FPS: Open GTA V and click Settings > Graphics > Soft Shadows. Toggle to Sharp or Soft then click Apply changes.

11. Leave on anisotropic filtering and tessellation

Here are some GTA V settings that aren’t as impactful on FPS, so you can leave them as high as you’d like to enjoy the gorgeous scenery of Los Santos:

• Anisotropic filtering: Sharpens textures in the environment, particularly at angles and distances.

• Tessellation: A technique that adds more detail to trees, terrain, and other objects and surfaces.

12. Use commandline.txt tweaks

GTA V includes extra launch options not shown in the main menu that control how the game runs and looks at startup. By tweaking commandline.txt (a file that controls how GTA V runs when it starts), you can apply these settings once and boost FPS without adjusting in-game graphics each time you load the game.

Here are some commandline.txt tweaks for GTA V graphics and launch settings:

• -disableHyperthreading: This stops GTA V from using Intel Hyper-Threading (treating each physical core as two.) This can boost performance on older machines.

• -hdr: This makes the game use a 16-bit rendering pipeline with simpler color formatting to reduce workload.

• -Noquattransform: This disables quaternion transformation, which is the fastest technique for rotating objects in 3D space.

• -adapter: Add this setting, followed by a number between 0 and 4 to instruct GTA V to use a specific graphics card.

• -ignoreDifferentVideoCard: This setting makes GTA V use only the one graphics chip you specified with the above command. It can help fix stuttering.

• -FrameQueueLimit: This limits frames pre-rendering to improve GTA gaming lag. Use -FrameQueueLimit 0 or -FrameQueueLimit 1 and see what works best.

There are more parameters available on GTA V fan sites, such as GTA5.info, but many of them refer to settings in the game’s menu.

For the Enhanced version of GTA V, commandline.txt tweaks can still improve GTA V performance, but some options (like -disableHyperthreading) may have less impact due to updated rendering pipelines and better GPU scheduling. Test each change individually to avoid unintended performance issues.

How to use commandline.txt tweaks for GTA V

1. Open your game folder: for example, E:\Games\steamapps\common\Grand Theft Auto V.

2. Look for the file commandline.txt. If this file doesn’t exist, you must first create one: Right-click inside the folder and select New > Text Document. Rename the file commandline.txt (or commandline if file extensions are disabled).

3. Right-click the file icon and click Open with > Notepad (or your preferred text editor).

4. Type the command line tweaks you want to apply. Press CTRL+ S to save the changes, then close the document.

   

Best GTA V graphics settings

If you're looking for high-quality graphics, in-game GTA V graphics settings are your first stop to fix poor graphics settings. To access them, launch GTA V, go to Settings > Graphics.

Configure the settings as follows for the best graphics quality:

• Resolution: Native

• VSync: Off

• FXAA: On

• Texture Quality: Very High

• Shader Quality: Very High

• Shadow Quality: High

• Reflection Quality: High

• Water Quality: Very High

• Grass Quality: High

• Post FX: Very High

• Ambient Occlusion: High

• Tessellation: Very High

• Extended Distance Scaling: 70–85

• High Resolution Shadows: On

These settings will make the graphics look cleaner and more detailed — at the expense of using more memory (and sometimes a bit more disk space for shader/cache files), which can lower your FPS.

Players using RTX GPUs in GTA V Enhanced can often increase settings like reflections, shadows, and extended distance scaling when DLSS is enabled. That’s because DLSS helps recover performance while maintaining high image quality, allowing for higher overall settings.

If you aim to fix low FPS, you’ll need to balance smooth graphics and frame speed in the in-game settings, unless you’ve got an advanced, fully optimized gaming PC.

Here’s a visual comparison of the lowest and highest graphics settings:

Lowest graphics settings

Highest graphics settings

Best GTA V graphics mods

There are tons of mods available for GTA V on PC — such as Visual V, Complex Control, and Open All Interiors — covering everything from graphical upgrades to new characters, vehicles, and weapons. Most can be found on GTA5-Mods. However, not all mods are optimized for GTA V Enhanced. Always check compatibility with the Enhanced PC build before installing.

Here are some of the most popular GTA V graphic mods for visual upgrades:

• VisualV: A free, one-and-done GTA V mod, VisualV overhauls atmospheric effects — clouds, fog, rain, storms, and moon cycles — for photorealistic graphics. Expect FPS drops without hardware upgrades, and installing the game on an SSD can improve smoothness.

• NaturalVision Evolved: This mod offers a high-end graphics overhaul that enhances lighting, weather, textures, and overall realism for a cinematic GTA V experience.

Here are some non-graphics mods to adjust gameplay:

• GTA V FoV: GTA V FoV expands the first-person view, letting you see more and improving gameplay for FPS fans.

• Enhanced Native Trainer: This script mod lets you spawn vehicles, change weather, teleport, and tweak gameplay elements with ease.

• Complex Control: If you’re into battle royale games like Fortnite or Call of Duty: Warzone, Complex Control turns GTA V into a single-player survival game with new abilities, gear, and teleportation, perfect for battle royale fans.

• Simple Zombies: Adds a zombie survival mode with waves of enemies, new weapons, and survival mechanics.

• LSPD First Response: The LSPD First Response mod lets you play as a Los Santos police officer, arrest suspects, and call for backup.

• Menyoo 2.0: A powerful single-player trainer and map editor for creating custom scenarios, vehicles, and missions.

To install GTA graphic mods, you need to download the mod file and paste it into the game’s folder on your computer.

More complicated mods may require you to install additional software like Script Hook V. After unzipping, copy ScriptHookV.dll into the GTA5.exe folder, as not all mods install it automatically.

Are mods illegal? Will I get banned?

Cosmetic mods are usually legal to download and use, though some developers disapprove of modding because players can use them to cheat. In GTA V, you can freely use mods in single-player without issue. However, using mods in GTA Online can lead to penalties, including bans from Rockstar. To stay safe, always disable or remove mods before playing GTA Online.

Best graphics mode for GTA V PS5

Changing GTA V graphic settings is very limited on consoles like PS5, PS4, and Xbox, so the best approach is to use the built-in graphics settings, as they let you optimize visuals and performance without risking game stability or account issues.

Here’s how to access graphics settings in GTA V on PS5:

1. Launch GTA V on your PS5. Click the Pause button to access the Main Menu. Find the Settings tab and click Display.

2. Adjust the following options to balance visuals and performance:

1. Graphics Mode: Choose the Fidelity option for sharper visuals.

2. Brightness: Reduce or adjust to personal preference.

3. Save changes and return to the game.

Alternatively, you can tweak your PS5’s console settings further to optimize graphics for GTA V old gen and the newer Enhanced version by tweaking resolution and color output settings.

1. Go to PS5 Home > Settings > Screen and Video > Video Output > Resolution. Select 2160p (or your TV's max).

2. Under 120Hz Output, select Automatic.

3. Scroll to Color and set HDR to On When Supported.

4. Also under Color, set Deep Color Output to Automatic (if supported).

What PC hardware do I need to play GTA V?

Unlike more demanding games like Ark Survival and Dark Souls, GTA V can run on a variety of PCs. You don’t need top-range computer specs — even mid-range PCs can deliver smooth FPS with slight tweaks to graphics settings. High-end setups are only necessary for maxed-out ultra-realistic visuals at 4K.

Rockstar Games, the developer of Grand Theft Auto, advises the following system requirements:

GTA V Legacy

GTA V Enhanced

Why is my GTA V so laggy?

Lag in GTA V is often caused by hardware or settings pushing your system beyond its limits. Running high or “Enhanced” graphics settings on underpowered hardware can overload your CPU and GPU, leading to stuttering and low FPS. Misconfigured settings — such as overly aggressive DLSS modes — can also cause instability.

Performance issues can also stem from system strain. High RAM usage, too many background apps, or an overworked CPU can slow gameplay and even trigger loud fan activity . Closing unnecessary programs and optimizing your system can help free up resources for smoother performance.

Outdated drivers are another common cause. Keeping your graphics and system drivers up to date using driver update software, such as AVG Driver Updater, can improve stability and performance. You can also use a PC cleaner tool to remove clutter, speed up your PC, and get more out of your existing hardware.

Finally, don’t overlook security issues. Malware can consume system resources in the background, reducing performance. Running an antivirus scan can help detect and remove viruses or other threats that may be affecting your gameplay.

Which graphics card can play GTA V?

Although GTA V can run on 1GB cards such as the AMD HD 4870, more powerful 2GB graphics hardware like the Nvidia GTX 660 is recommended for more stable performance. But how powerful a computer you really need depends on your specific requirements.

Before you upgrade your graphics card, check your computer specs for compatibility and consider overclocking your GPU to help deliver the performance you’re looking for.

Tune up your computer for optimal gaming

Even the best mods and settings won’t help if your PC isn’t running efficiently. AVG TuneUp helps optimize your system by reducing background activity, clearing unnecessary files, and freeing up resources for gaming.

Cut down on CPU-hogging bloatware, put unused programs to sleep, and keep your system running smoothly so GTA V can perform at its best, with fewer slowdowns and more consistent gameplay.