Testing GTA V on PC: getting the most out of computer graphics. Grand Theft Auto V: performance testing of the PC version of the game Gta 5 built-in benchmark

The folks over at Forbes benchmarked GTA 5 on 14 different graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD, and like everyone else, they agree that Rockstar Games has done a great job optimizing this graphical and spatial juggernaut called Grand. Theft Auto V.

But let's get straight to the benchmarks. The following cards were tested:

Nvidia GTX 650Ti
Nvidia GTX 750Ti
Nvidia GTX 770
Nvidia GTX 780Ti
Nvidia GTX 960
Nvidia GTX 970
Nvidia GTX 980
Nvidia GTX Titan X

AMD Radeon 260x
AMD Radeon 270x
AMD Radeon 280x
AMD Radeon 285
AMD Radeon 290x
AMD Radeon 2952

All these test heroes were installed on the system with Intel processor Core i7-5960x and 16 gigabytes random access memory G.Skill DDR4.

The benchmark was carried out standard means, built into the game, which give you 5 scenes with varying degrees of workload. All results are saved in My Documents/Rockstar Games/GTA V/benchmarks.

All tests were conducted in conditional 1080p and 1440p modes with “high” and “very high” settings to ensure that GTA 5 produced at least 40fps. That is, for example, for GTX cards The 750Ti and Radeon 260x were set to “high” settings, while the more powerful and expensive GTX 970/980 and Radeon 290x/2952 were set to “very high”.

1080p & 1440p - high quality

In this mode, all settings are high, FXAA is enabled, anisotropic filtering x8, soft shadows, population diversity at 50%, tessellation, AO, reflections and MSAA are disabled.

It's personal preference to find the optimal middle ground quality vs productivity.

As you can see from the graph, even old video cards in an affordable price range can run GTA 5 quite well at high quality settings.

1080p & 1440p - very high quality

All parameters are now set to "very high" or high if they could not be raised higher due to game limitations.

What's really interesting here is the Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card. Just look at its results! And, of course, it’s a shame for AMD, which showed the worst results in dual (CrossFire) Radeon 290x mode.

But maybe AMD will improve in the final test?

4K - ultra quality

In this test, all parameters were set to maximum, except for enabling the notorious MSAA. Nvidia GTX 2x 980 SLI is the Rockstar graphics card they used in the demo. GTA versions 5 on PC. The more affordable AMD 290x CrossFire gives approximately the same results, but with these cards the game sometimes slows down (freeze).

What's also interesting is the Titan X card, which, of course, lags behind in frame rates, however, works in single mode, and not in conjunction with its twin, which is impressive.

Very often, PC owners wonder how much faster will my computer be after the upgrade? You can only get an answer to it by conducting an assessment test. However, there are a lot of games and benchmarks, and little time for testing, so in this article we have compiled current programs that allow you to evaluate the performance of a PC.

Getting ready for testing

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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.

Another important question - choosing a program for testing. Most modern ones allow you to monitor several important parameters at once, but they can also slow down performance. Let's list the main ones:

The most popular program in the world for monitoring game parameters. Has virtually no effect on game process, is supported by almost all games and writes all tracked data to a file. It has only two disadvantages - a small number of updates (in new FRAPS games may not work), as well as incompatibility with the current proliferation of low-level APIs.

Also a popular program that, in addition to monitoring the operating parameters of games and all computer components, allows you to change the characteristics of the video card. Disadvantages include difficulty in setting up, as well as incomplete compatibility with games and the possibility of conflicts with the system/drivers/Gordon Freeman's left heel.

Young competitor to FRAPS. Very powerful and simple program in terms of monitoring, it is often updated and works quite stably. However, it loads the PC more during operation, which can distort the gameplay.

Benchmarks

In addition, benchmarks do not require the installation of specialized programs and show the load on all computer elements in real time. However, the disadvantages of these programs include the fact that no one plays them, that is, the result in games can differ noticeably in both directions from what you intend to benchmark. That's why it's "synthetic".

The list of leading benchmarks is as follows:

3DMark with support for DirectX 12 and 4K resolution is the latest version of the world's most popular benchmark. The history of 3DMark goes back more than 10 years, and Futuremark specialists have always delighted the audience with memorable graphics. It happened this time too - 3DMark (2013) will be remembered for its stunning Fire Strike demo test and four graphics profiles, after running each of which you will evaluate the performance of your own video card.

We deservedly gave second place to another Futuremark product. Released in 2011, the benchmark may not be as complex as 3DMark (2013), but it is still capable of bringing weak systems to their knees - and you can also run a whole range of tests, for example, on physics or data exchange speed.

One of the most beautiful (in its time) benchmarks, specially designed for testing the capabilities of DirectX 11. Latest version allows you to evaluate the performance of current video cards using modern technologies.

The so-called “donut”, which heats your system until it burns out. No, seriously, computer hardware manufacturers don't even recommend using it. However, FurMark allows you to check the cooling capabilities of your video card and what its temperature will be under maximum load.

A newcomer to the world of benchmarking, which gained a lot of attention thanks to a memorable demo test starring a huge cat. In addition, the program will identify problems affecting the performance of your PC and give advice on how to eliminate them.

Often there shouldn’t be any problems with these programs - I downloaded, installed and ran a couple of tests, except that their full functionality will only be available in the paid version.

Games

Crysis 3

Distinctive feature Crysis 3 - superbly crafted vegetation, as well as locations replete with details. If you are ready to visit the jungle that has grown up on the site of modern New York, as well as fight with enemies during one of the most resource-intensive missions, “Take the Safety Off,” then prepare 11 GB of hard drive space.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Taking up 25 GB of hard drive space, Shadow of Mordor on the Nurn map will not only show off its wonderful combat system and high-quality weather effects - it will burn your hardware white-hot, leaving no free space in RAM or video memory.

Metro: Last Light Redux

Just like the original Metro 2033, Last Light at one time turned out to be very demanding computer hardware, so the game is perfect for testing modern hardware, and it will boost not only the video card, but also the processor. Well, for testing you can choose maps such as “Sunset” or “Dead City”.

Tomb Raider

The game also boasts cool visual effects, high-quality implementation of vegetation, the TressFX function, and an abundance of motion capture elements. In general, a real hit from Crystal Dynamics, and with excellent graphics too! Well, how can you pass by?

BioShock Infinite

As for visual capabilities, then BioShock Infinite boasts quality characters, memorable locations, and challenging, numerous enemies. All this puts a good load on all elements of the PC, especially during the missions “Battleship Harbor” or “Thorough Square”.

Far Cry 4

Well, your computer will probably appreciate all these delights in its own way -

GTA V on PC. It's been two decades, but many still remember wreaking havoc in the original and GTA 2 like it was just yesterday. Both games turned out to be bombs. Rockstar really managed to blow our minds when they switched from 2D graphics to a 3D engine in GTA III in 2001, allowing players to experience open game world and create outrages in the vastness of Liberty City in third-person mode.

Having found a winning formula, Rockstar released two more crime simulators - Vice City a year later, and then San Andreas, still a couple of years later. Both games ran on the Renderware engine, like GTA III, but in 2008, with the release of the fourth part of GTA, enormous changes were made to both the gameplay itself and the graphics. All this was possible thanks to a new engine developed by Rockstar itself - RAGE.

Traditionally, the release of the PC version of GTA IV was delayed from the spring until the holidays of 2008, although the game was released on computers with advanced features such as motion density control, draw distance control, a playback editor, a custom radio station for players' own music, and the ability to play simultaneously online. up to 32 players instead of 16.

Now, 7 years after the release of GTA IV, fans were literally begging for the release of GTA V on PC, which had already been available to PS3 and Xbox 360 owners for 18 months. Undoubtedly, such popularity of the game is in no small part due to the colossal $265 million spent on development and marketing. Finally, after the November release of GTA 5 for the current generation of consoles, gamers this week got their chance to play in Rockstar's sandbox.

On the other hand, Rockstar has made many improvements to the PC version, including improved resolution, detail, traffic density, increased draw distance, improved AI, new animals, as well as an expanded damage system and advanced weather conditions.

While this all looks very good on paper, some of Rockstar's previous ports have been disappointing - GTA IV being one of them. Although Max Payne 3 in this case was a special project. At first glance, GTA 5 really looks like a well-optimized port on PC, but this can only be known for sure after some tests.

To test the game, we will use the latest drivers for AMD and NVidia video cards, 26 graphics adapters that support DirectX 11 in various price ranges. Our system was equipped Core processor i7-5960X. This powerful processor was chosen to completely eliminate any impact of insufficient CPU power on the performance of video adapters. We did not use Fraps for testing, relying entirely on the benchmark test built into the game.

Testing methodology

To use GTA V's built-in benchmark tool, launch the game and go to the Graphics menu. Then press "tab" to start testing.

Attention: for the test to work correctly, you must complete the first mission of the story as Franklin.

Make sure to set the graphics options you want to test before you start testing. The benchmark itself is a sequence of five unique scenes in Los Santos that simulate a wide range of actual gameplay scenarios. Test results will be saved here: My Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\benchmarks.

To make the test results more accurate, we decided to take the average frame rate of five scenes. However, like the ever-changing world of GTA 5, the tests never show the same values. Therefore, we decided to run the test for each video card three times and take the average value.

In total, we ran the graphics test in GTA 5 more than 350 times. Yeah, it's been a long week ;)

GTA 5 was tested in three resolutions: 1920x1080, 2560x1600 and 3840x2160. We tested the graphics at normal and very high texture settings. Additionally, the game was also tested with FXAA and MSAA x4 enabled, as well as advanced graphics settings.

Texture quality set to "Normal"

Texture quality set to "Very High"

Advanced graphics settings enabled

Antialiasing MSAAx4 "Enabled"

General characteristics of the system on which GTA 5 was tested (we do not take the video card, as they have changed): Intel Core i7-5960X (3.00GHz); x4 4GB Kingston Predator DDR4-2400 (CAS 12-13-13-24); Asrock X99 Extreme6 (Intel X99); Silverstone Strider Series (700w); Crucial MX200 1TB (SATA 6Gb/s).

Below are the test results with different resolutions and anti-aliasing and texture settings:

As before, when playing at 1080 resolution, GTA 5 requires maximum settings graphics, except textures and anti-aliasing. In this test, FXAA and SMAA anti-aliasing are disabled and textures are set to Normal. Resolution 1920x1080 pixels.

For an average of 60 FPS, gamers will need a Radeon HD 7970 or GeForce GTX 680 video card, although they can play more comfortably with a GTX 960 and HD 7950/R9 270X

Mid-class graphics adapters of the current generation, such as the R9 285, showed 60+ FPS without any problems. Video cards of a higher class have even exceeded 80 FPS.

Here we can observe that when increasing the resolution to 2560x1600, it becomes more difficult for video cards to maintain a stable 60 frames per second. The R9 290X and GTX 970 averaged 59 FPS, while mid-range GPUs like the GTX 770 and R9 285 only managed 45 FPS, while the GTX 960 and R9 270X managed 40 FPS.

As expected, the GTX Titan X is the fastest single-chip GPU to date, delivering a phenomenal 84 frames per second, making it 24% faster than the GTX 980 and over 40% faster than the R9 290X.

Below are two tests on very high texture settings:

With a resolution of 2560x1600 and very high texture settings:

Increasing the texture quality to the maximum value exceeded the 3 gigabyte VRAM limit, so we had to enable the option to ignore restrictions in order to test those video cards with a memory buffer of less than three gigabytes.

At a resolution of 2560x1600, we see quite good performance from the R9 290X and GTX 970. By the way, both video cards showed only 2 FPS less than with the texture settings set to “Normal”.

To give the GTX Titan X some competition, we decided to use two R9 295 graphics cards, which allowed us to outperform the Titan X by a full 1 frame per second.

With a resolution of 3840x2160

Those who want to play GTA 5 in 4K resolution will need a powerful graphics adapter. The same R9 290X was only able to produce 33 FPS, and the GTX 980 - 39 FPS. The GTX Titan X achieved 47 FPS, and the two R9 295X2 cards achieved 51 FPS.

Advanced graphics settings

In resolution 2560x1600:

Enabling advanced graphics features reduces the GTX 980's performance by 18% and the R9 290X by 24% to 45fps. The R9 295X2 is still good at 59 FPS, but the GTX Titan X is faster at 64 FPS.

In resolution 3840x2160

At 4K resolution, the GTX 980 and R9 290X were virtually destroyed, delivering only 30 FPS. The GTX Titan X lost 38% performance when going from 2560x1600 to 3840x2160, while the R9 295X2 and GTX 980 SLI dropped less than 30% in performance.

It"s been nearly two decades, but I can still remember wreaking havoc in the original Grand Theft Auto and GTA 2 like it was yesterday . Both games were a blast but Rockstar really blew our minds when it shifted from bird"s-eye visuals to a fully 3D game engine and environment with GTA III in 2001, allowing players to experience open world mayhem across Liberty City from a third-person perspective.

Having found a winning formula, Rockstar followed up with two more crime simulators: Vice City arrived a year later and then San Andreas two years after that, both of which were powered by Criterion's RenderWare engine (like GTA III) while 2008's GTA IV is more of a true successor with larger gameplay changes and graphics based on Rockstar's own engine (RAGE).

Rockstar has made many improvements to the PC version, including increased resolution and graphical detail, denser traffic, greater draw distances, upgraded AI, new wildlife, and advanced weather and damage effects.

Advanced Graphics Enabled

Test System Specs

• Intel Core i7-5960X (3.00GHz)
• x4 4GB Kingston Predator DDR4-2400 (CAS 12-13-13-24)
• Asrock X99 Extreme6 (Intel X99)
• Silverstone Strider Series (700w)
• Crucial MX200 1TB (SATA 6Gb/s)
• Gigabyte Radeon R9 290X (4096MB)
• Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 (4096MB)
• Gigabyte Radeon R9 285 (2048MB)
• Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X (3072MB)
• HIS Radeon R9 270X (2048MB)
• HIS Radeon R9 270 (2048MB)
• HIS Radeon R7 265 (2048MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7970 GHz (3072MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7970 (3072MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7950 (3072MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7870 (2048MB)
• HIS Radeon HD 7850 (2048MB)
• Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X (12288MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980 (4096MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 (3584+512MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 (2048MB)
• Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan (6144MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 Ti (3072MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 (3072MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 (2048MB)
• Palit GeForce GTX 760 (2048MB)
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti (2048MB)
• Gainward GeForce GTX 680 (2048MB)
• Gainward GeForce GTX 660 Ti (2048MB)
• Gainward GeForce GTX 660 (2048MB)
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
• Nvidia GeForce 350.12 WHQL
• AMD Catalyst 15.4 Beta

The fifth serialized part of Grand Theft Auto, having successfully emptied the wallets of console players, came back after a long delay. personal computers. 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.

IN computer version GTA 5 set 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

Basic 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.

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 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.

When considering the impact of settings parameters on performance, one video card will be used - a non-reference GeForce GTX 760 2GB with frequencies at the level 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 reset to initial maximum value, and the change of another parameter with the corresponding tests begins.

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 video cards and NVIDIA at high quality graphics. At the end there will be CPU dependency testing using CPU Intel 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. Evaluate the effect of activation different methods smoothing in comparison with the mode without anti-aliasing can be seen in the lower screenshots.

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.

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 the 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%.

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

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

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.

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.

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 ​​- very high level and standard.

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.