The Grand Theft Auto series is one of the most popular in all of gaming. More specifically, GTA 5, a game that was released in 2013, has remained on top of the industry for nearly a decade. Thousands still visit Los Santos every day. Whether that’s via the main story mode, GTA Online, or the popular RP servers, GTA 5 is very much alive.
The PC player base is at the core of that popularity, as players are still enjoying adding mods. Newer players are also hopping in for the first time, and they’ll need all of the help they can get to ensure they have a smooth experience.
That begins with customizing the graphics settings on PC. Graphics settings have a direct impact on the amount of frames per second you get in any game, including GTA 5, which is now available on Xbox Game Pass.
Whether you’re a veteran of the game or a newcomer, you’ll want to ensure you have the right GTA 5 graphics settings to maximize your FPS.
Best graphics settings for GTA 5
Since GTA 5 was released nearly a decade ago, it doesn’t feature all of the updated graphics settings that we see in many AAA titles today. However, there are still a fair amount of settings you’ll want to change to get the most FPS possible.
Related: Is GTA 5 cross-play/cross-platform?
Below, we’ll list all of the graphics settings in GTA 5 and include what tab you can find them under in the settings of the game.
Graphics
- Screen Type: Full Screen
- Resolution: Your monitor’s highest resolution (e.g. 1920×1080)
- Aspect Ratio: Auto
- Refresh Rate: Your monitor’s highest possible refresh rate (e.g. 144 Hz)
- Output Monitor: Your primary monitor
- FXAA: On
- MSAA: Off
- NVIDIA TXAA: Off
- VSync: Off
- Pause Game On Focus Loss: Off
- Population Density: Low (drag the slider to the left)
- Population Variety: Low (drag the slider to the left)
- Distance Scaling: Low (drag the slider to the left)
- Texture Quality: Normal
- Shader Quality: Normal
- Shadow Quality: Normal
- Reflection Quality: Normal
- Reflection MSAA: X2
- Water Quality: Normal
- Particles Quality: Normal
- Grass Quality: Normal
- Soft Shadows: Sharp
- Post FX: Normal
- Motion Blur Strength: Off
- Anisotropic Filtering: Off
- Ambient Occlusion: Off
- Tessellation: Off
Advanced Graphics
- Long Shadows: Off
- High Resolution: Off
- High Detail Streaming While Flying: Off
- Frame Scaling Mode: Off
With these graphics settings, you should see a notable boost in FPS. However, we’ve also made it so your game’s graphics won’t look terrible either. If you truly want the most FPS possible, turn every setting down to its lowest value.
Related: 5 best GTA RP servers to play in 2023
If you want a mixture of high FPS and decent graphical fidelity, use our recommended settings.