GTA-V PC Graphics Performance Review

GTA-V for PC -  VGA graphics performance

GTA-V PC Graphics Performance Review

Winter continues to be coming .. twice with the PC community to finally enjoy Grand Theft Auto V on that true gamers platform, the PC. The game after a statement delay back 2012 premiered September 17, 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and then on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Afterward the PC launch version got postponed, delayed after which once more delayed, to much annoyance on the community. Back in Q1 on this year the experience was again pushed back, now to be removed April 14th, 2015.

It's finally here though and GTA-V surely one from the hottest PC game releases of 2015 and Rockstar is performing it right with this particular release, all 13 previously released DLC updates can be purchased including the latest Heists, featuring Adversary Modes, new jobs, vehicles, weapons, clothing, masks, plus more for this PC version. Developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games they certainly took the time because of this game, nevertheless the PC version has graphics enhancements, specifically with the PC gaming. A long wait, and often will it be worth every penny ? Well, we presume so. While Grand Theft Auto V is claimed to be an AMD Gaming Evolved title, the action’s GeForce page lists one exclusive NVIDIA feature which will be supported by it as well.

For those not familar together with the series, Grand Theft Auto V is surely an open world, action-adventure video gaming developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was published on 17 September 2013 for your PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. An enhanced version from the game was launched on 18 November 2014 for that PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and was scheduled to be removed on 14 April 2015 for PC slash Microsoft Windows. The game would be the first main entry within the Grand Theft Auto series since 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV. Set in the fictional state of San Andreas (according to Southern California), the single-player story follows three criminals and efforts to commit heists while pressurized from a government agency. The open world design lets players freely roam San Andreas, consisting of open countryside as well as the fictional capital of scotland - Los Santos (dependant on Los Angeles).

It is stated that the action on the PC platform is featuring probably the most graphically and technically advanced version of GTAV with enhanced resolution, increased frame rate, greater draw distances, new depth of field effects, plus much more. Grand Theft Auto V for PC also features the Rockstar Editor for advanced moviemaking, a chance to create custom soundtrack playlists a fresh radio station featuring many new music designed for and inspired by the action. Grand Theft Auto V for PC also may include Grand Theft Auto Online, now let's talk about 30 players. All previously released Rockstar Games-created content including Heists, can be purchased at launch for PC.

In this informative article we will test modern graphics cards about the following resolutions, Full HD (1920x1080) - WHQD (2560x1440)  and 3840x2160 (Ultra HD) using this type of game title, we'll peek at graphics memory usage, frame-time micro-stuttering performance and overall quality versus performance. 

The prologue

GTA-V is played from sometimes a third-person or first-person view and it is world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. Players control several lead protagonists over the single-player mode, switching bewteen barefoot and shoes both during and outside missions. The story is centred on heist sequences, and plenty of of the missions involve shooting and driving gameplay. Players who commit crimes may incite an answer from law enforcement officials agencies, measured with a "wanted" system that governs the aggression of the response. Grand Theft Auto Online, the web based multiplayer mode, lets nearly 30 players explore outside world and embark on cooperative or competitive game matches.
Grand Theft Auto V - The Plot

Nine years after having a botched robbery in Ludendorff, North Yankton, former bank robber Michael Townley is living under witness protection regarding his family in Los Santos, San Andreas, within the alias Michael De Santa. When Michael discovers his wife Amanda during sexual intercourse with her tennis coach, he chases the coach with a mansion and destroys against eachother of anger. The mansion's owner is Mexican drug lord Martin Madrazo's girlfriend. Madrazo demands compensation, so Michael with the exceptional accomplice Franklin Clinton perform jewellery shop heist to pay for their debt. Michael's sole surviving partner from the Ludendorff robbery, Trevor Philips, hears in the jewellery heist and realises it was Michael's handiwork. The two reunite after Trevor tracks Michael down in Los Santos.

The personal lives from the protagonists start to spiral out of control. Michael's family leaves him, with his fantastic attempts to make something of himself bring him into conflict with Devin Weston, a self-made billionaire venture capitalist and corporate raider who develops a grudge against him and vows revenge. Franklin rescues his friend Lamar Davis from gangster Harold "Stretch" Joseph, who repeatedly efforts to kill Lamar to prove himself to his brethren. Trevor's reckless efforts to consolidate his treating various black markets in Blaine County see him waging war resistant to the San Andreas chapter of The Lost outlaw motorcycle club, numerous Latin American street gangs, rival meth dealers, government-sponsored mercenaries and Triad kingpin Wei Cheng. Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB) government agents Dave Norton and Steve Haines contact Michael and demand that he start a series of operations with Franklin and Trevor to undermine a competitor agency, the International Affairs Agency (IAA). Under Haines' direction, they attack an armoured convoy carrying funds designed for the IAA and raid a bank containing the payroll for everyone corrupt police and public officials in Los Santos. As Haines comes under increasing scrutiny for his methods, he forces Franklin and Michael to infiltrate the FIB headquarters and erase any evidence being employed against him using their servers. Michael takes the opportunity wipe any data on his own activities, destroying Haines' leverage over him. The trio start planning their most daring feat ever: raiding the Union Depository's gold bullion reserve.

After going back to Los Santos, Michael makes amends along with his family plus they start living together again. Trevor, however, discovers a former Ludendorff heist accomplice, Brad Snider, hasn't been in prison because he was led to believe, but killed in the heist and buried inside the grave marked for Michael. Trevor's feelings of betrayal cause friction from the group and threaten to undermine their Union Depository plans. When Michael and Norton, each of whom are betrayed by Haines, are caught within a Mexican standoff relating to the FIB, IAA and security firm Merryweather, Trevor helps with their escape, holding that only she has the right to kill Michael. Despite not forgiving Michael, Trevor still would like to perform the Union Depository heist; the duo accept to part ways afterwards.

The Union Depository heist is finished successfully, but Franklin is approached by two parties separately who demand that she kill Trevor or Michael. Haines and Norton contend that Trevor is really a liability, and Weston wants retribution for Michael's betrayal. Franklin has three choices: kill Michael, kill Trevor or kill neither and face their enemies together. Should Franklin kill either Michael or Trevor, he ceases exposure to the survivor and returns to his old life.Should he kill neither, the trio join forces to stand up to an onslaught in the FIB and Merryweather prior to going on to kill Weston, Stretch, Cheng and Haines. With all their enemies disposed, a few cease participating, but remain friends.

The single-player mode lets players control three characters: Michael De Santa, Trevor Philips and Franklin Clinton—criminals whose stories interconnect when they complete missions. Some missions are finished only one character as well as others feature a couple of. Throughout single-player, players may switch between protagonists as you desire by means of a directional compass within the HUD. The game may switch between characters automatically in single-player missions to try and do certain objectives. A character's compass avatar will flash red if they are in danger and requirements help, and flash white if he's got a strategic advantage. Though players complete missions each and every of several protagonists, the harder difficult heist missions require help from AI-controlled accomplices with unique skill sets, for instance computer hacking or driving. If an accomplice survives a prosperous heist, they require a cut in the cash reward and will be available for later missions with improvements thus to their unique skills. The game encourages differentiation in heist mission strategies—for example, within a holdup mission, players either can stealthily subdue civilians by having an agent or conspicuously storm the venue with guns drawn.
Can my PC play GTA-V ?

If you’re thinking of cranking the display settings to your maximum, ensure that your gaming rig has what it requires.  The game looks pretty nice together with your average settings. Here's what Rockstar thinks you will have to enjoy GTA-V on PC:

Minimum Specs

1.     OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2* (*NVIDIA video card recommended if running Vista OS)
2.     Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz
3.     Memory: 4GB
4.     Video Card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB (DX 10, 10.1, 11)
5.     Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
6.     HDD Space: 65GB

Recommended Specs

1.     OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1
2.     Processor: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)
3.     Memory: 8GB
4.     Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB
5.     Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
6.     HDD Space: 65GB

Yes, apart from storage these are typically very lightweight minimum PC specs, that is nice to discover. And if you're ever unsure with regards to how big a casino game it is, that 65GB hard disk drive requirement should create in without doubt. The Steam download is 59 GB to be precise, enhance that some decompressed files and future patches which will explain the 65GB requirement. This PC release brings all of the benefits on the most recent console versions. This includes the first-person mode as well as an expanded soundtrack, and, mainly for the PC version, native 4K support. According to Rockstar, the recommended specifications provide hardware which could run the action at 1080p, at 60 frames-per-second. For that, Rockstar suggest a Nvidia GTX 660 2GB or AMD HD7870 2GB.

    "To run the action on a 4K display at 30fps," says Hoare, "you’ll need at minimum an AMD HD 7870 or Nvidia GTX 760 with 2GB of VRAM." As for the 4K at 60 frames-per-second, that'll need a "high-end SLI or Crossfire setup."

GTA V on PC was manufactured to perform exceptionally using a wide range of hardware configurations. There are numerous built-in options to increase performance and/or visual fidelity including:

1. Textures
2. Shaders
3. Water quality
4. Grass and particles
5. Tessellation
6. Reflections
7. Post FX and more
8. City density slider, letting you configure how busy the streets and sidewalks are and the way busy metropolis can be round the player.

Before we start with the graphics performance tests a bit explanation. We make use of a time based measurement and never the internal benchmark. The test is really a representative for virtually any modern age GPU.

If you love to try out the benchmark:

•     In the advanced graphics menu press TAB.

•     Make sure you finished the prologue, otherwise the benchmark will exit with an error.

Again, we diverted from the interior benchmark even as felt don't you find it representative an ample amount of the actual frame rate you may experience. Our measurements are taken on the road running towards a vehicle to hijack. 

 Obviously twenty-four hours a day twiddle around with settings a little. We choose quality settings, as hey as PC gamers @ Guru3D.com it is precisely what we are after.

The graphics cards utilized in this specific article are:

• GeForce GTX 660
• GeForce GTX 680
• GeForce GTX 760
• GeForce GTX 770
• GeForce GTX 780
• GeForce GTX 780 Ti
• GeForce GTX 960
• GeForce GTX 970
• GeForce GTX 980
• GeForce GTX Titan
• GeForce GTX Titan X
• Radeon HD 7950
• Radeon HD 7970
• Radeon HD 7970 GHz
• Radeon R7 260
• Radeon R9 270X
• Radeon R9 280X
• Radeon R9 285
• Radeon R9 290
• Radeon R9 290X (4GB)
• Radeon R9 290X (8GB)
• Radeon R9 295x2

So that's a selection of the harder popular graphics cards anno 2015. Our test could be the a level recording based up-on a whopping on the GPU level. Therefore our FPS can look and feel a little lower then what we guys see yourself.
A test run may be quick or slow determined by your graphics card according to several factors like scene, resolution and image quality settings. Typically for the benchmark run you will have a scene rendered the place that the output of the volume of frames rendered with time equals for an average framerate. 

Our test strategy is based about the eight-core Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition with Haswell-E based setup about the X99 chipset platform. This setup is overclocked to 4.40 GHz on all cores. Next to that people have energy saving functions disabled because of this motherboard and processor (to be sure consistent benchmark results). We use Windows 8.1 all patched up. Each card runs for the same PC with similar operating system clone.

•     GeForce cards utilize latest 350.12 WHQL driver.
•     AMD Radeon graphics cards we used the newest 15.4 Beta driver.

Our test rig was assembled that way (heavy setup) in order to avoid and remove CPU bottlenecks that might influence high-end GPU scores. Especially in resolutions up-to 1080P with good performance graphics cards, CPU limitation quickly begins.

Graphics memory usage (VRAM)

GTA-V PC Graphics Performance Review

So you would want to know how much graphics memory the action utilizes it versus your monitor resolution right ? Well, look into the chart below.

We have observed some scenes utilize a little more while others a little less, so please require a healthy deviation in the used VRAM count into mind, say 15%. Ultra quality is and are hard on the GPU, it appears good though. With 2x MSAA enabled up-to 1080P you'll reach roughly 2~3 GB of graphics memory. They balanced that out nicely.

Once you visit WHQD at 2560x1440 we'll pass 3 GB and also, since card for the reason that resolutions frequently have 3 to 4 GB graphics memory, that's good at the same time. In Ultra HD you need a lot more memory even as we jump towards 4 GB of VRAM usage. But hey, that's Ultra HD and MSAA for ya. It's also indicative that say a GeForce GTX 780 Ti using its 3 GB of graphics memory will seriously come upon issues. 4GB will be the minimum, that or lower image quality settings and AA levels, in Ultra HD.

Concluding

We can complain about Rockstar with regard to how nauseating long the PC community has become ignored together with to wait within this game. But we also have to give credit where credit is born, GTA-V is really a terrific game and it is usually a very worthy addition on triple A gaming titles.

The gameplay is sophisticated, enjoyable and overall the graphics experience 's what you can, may and will expect from the title in this caliber.

    A note - since we measure within the online city rather than the internal benchmark, you may spawn arbitrarily places with random weather and differences in day an night. This will cause a bad offset in frame-rate. So please start using these numbers as indicative at best. There can be weird variations in-between the performance of graphics card even if at some point it rains, the your next card had say dry sunny weather. This WILL impact the FPS. So keep a 15% margin available and please again, buying a indicative results.

Due for the note above, natural meats re-do the full session with the inner benchmark, but there are a few bugs with this initial release that will have to be squashed first and now we do think that testing within the actual city running and shooting around, is a bit more representative on the real performance.

So yes, the action itself looks and plays surprisingly well, it will require a relatively normal number of GPU horsepower for the purpose it needs about renders and isn't a graphics memory hog such as previous title to be real. Once you commence to hit monitor resolutions of 2560x1440 or Ultra HD, that is where you have to bring out the large guns with regard to graphics hardware.

But hey, if you can't have a high-end class graphics card you may want to drop into a normalized AA level and Full HD and WQHD will continue to be to be the right domain to game at. For gaming up-to Full HD, a GeForce GTX 960 can do fine, on AMD's side that may be the Radeon R9 270 series. Up-to WQHD a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 280 series will suffice. Once you bump it upwards to Ultra HD or heavy graphics with stuff like VSR/DSR down-sampling That when a GTX 980/Titan-X also comes in to play or from AMD's side the Radeon R9 290X or 295x2.

Source: http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/gta-v-pc-graphics-performance-review,1.html