Can You Run Grand Theft Auto V?

Grand Theft Auto V is an open-world action-adventure video game, initially released for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles in September 2013. Following the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the game was released for these consoles in November 2014. After several [worthwhile] delays, the title was eventually brought to the Windows platform in April of 2015.

The Windows version of the game supports everything that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game do, with the addition of ultra-high-definition 4K textures, the ability to exceed the 60 frames-per-second frame rate, and of course, the ever-expanding modding community that the series has amassed over the past two decades.

Due to the sheer popularity of the franchise, almost four years on from its initial release, Grand Theft Auto V is still selling well today. For this very reason, we have created this tool to assist you in finding the perfect balance for your system. You can also use it to provide insight into suitable computer component upgrades.

Please note that for the purposes of setting a baseline, this tool assumes you have a single full-HD 1080p (1920 × 1080) monitor, with a target frame rate of 60 frames-per-second.

To get started, use the dropdown menus to select your computer's configuration. You can use the links below to quickly navigate to each section. Revisions of this article are available here.

Microprocessor

The microprocessor is responsible for handling artificial intelligence (AI) and sending requests to the graphics card. Typically, the load on the processor doesn't change too much between graphics settings in most games, but in an open-world game such as Grand Theft Auto V, there are varying degrees of complexity in the settings menu to help maintain a manageable level of computation for the processor. For example, you can choose how densely populated you would like the world to be, and how much of a variety there is between pedestrians and vehicles spawning on the roads. These are the settings referenced by the information given below for the processor.

In line with the game's official requirements, a moderately strong quad-core processor is ideal. You might find yourself suffering from frame rate stutter with a dual-core; even a decently-overclocked Intel Pentium G3258 will most likely depict these issues.

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System Memory

System memory will be used by the game to store most on-screen (and off-screen) assets, which can be directly accessed by the processor when required. Settings such as render distance not only require video memory from the graphics card, but also system memory to store animations and audio (such as pedestrians walking and communicating). If you'll be playing the game with a computer that contains integrated graphics (such as Intel HD Graphics or AMD APUs), you'll also want to take into account that a chunk of your machine's system memory will be utilized by the integrated graphics to act as video memory. This is typically up to 2 GiB, though modern integrated graphics solutions can address the entire system memory limit of your motherboard.

4 GiB of system memory is encouraged as a minimum, not including memory for integrated graphics (add 1–2 GiB if you will be using such a configuration). Ideally, 8 GiB of system memory will surpass the game's recommendations.

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Graphics Card

The graphics card (or integrated graphics chip) will be responsible for handling all rendering-related instructions, provided by the processor. Integrated graphics chips are slower than their dedicated graphics card counterparts, and will also typically use slower memory (the system memory). However, graphics cards can also come with several different types of memory; for example, DDR3/DDR4, which is identical to system memory, and GDDR5/GDDR5X, which offers double the data throughput of system memory at the same frequency. Additionally, there are also graphics cards on the market from AMD which utilize high-bandwidth memory (HBM). HBM is as fast (and can be faster) than GDDR5/GDDR5X memory.

It's important to note that graphics card performance not only depends on memory bandwidth, but also on core architecture and clock frequency (in the same way as microprocessors), the configuration of a graphics compute unit (unified shader cores, texture mapping units and render output units), and on throughput-specific performance enhancements such as delta color compression.

Unfortunately, there are far too many variations of these metrics that it's simply impossible to provide a baseline that can be applied across all graphics cards. However, we can accertain from the game's requirements that you'll need a DirectX 10-compatible graphics card (ideally DirectX 11) and at least 1 GiB of video memory. Recommended requirements appear to suggest that 2 GiB is manageable for high settings, but you'll definitely benefit greatly from having 4 or 8 GiB, if possible.

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Storage

Storage is pretty straightforward. The game's files are installed to your computer's hard drive or solid-state drive. With the retail physical disc-based copy, this allows you to play the game without inserting the disc into a reader. A full installation includes audio for each radio station, but doesn't include any subsequent update released after the initial launch of the game on the Windows platform.

As long as you have the necessary storage space available, you'll pass this requirement. However, due to the open-world nature of Grand Theft Auto V, you'll definitely see benefits in world load times with a solid-state drive.

For a full install, you'll need 65 GiB of free storage. With all updates installed, that increases to 75 GiB.

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Operating System

Grand Theft Auto V is only compatible with 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows, excluding Windows XP. Linux and macOS are unsupported.

Following the game's requirements, we recommend that you have at least a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Basic with Service Pack 1, but preferably Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 8.1 Core or Windows 10 Home. 64-bit versions of Windows Vista are compatible with Service Pack 2 installed.

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