Grand Theft Auto V on PC is finally getting ray tracing and some graphics options

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Free update drops on March 4 for the main game and GTA Online

Grand Theft Auto V's PC port finally gets long-awaited ray traced graphical effects, bringing it up to and beyond par with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions.
Grand Theft Auto V's PC port finally gets long-awaited ray traced graphical effects, bringing it up to and beyond par with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions. (Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Earlier this morning, Rockstar Games announced in a blog post that the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V, long left languishing without the addition of ray-traced shadows and reflections available on PS5/XSX, would be receiving a free update to add those graphical features among several other exclusive tweaks to the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V . This free update is being released as a new executable, so the old version of the game, which is far easier to run, will still be available to gamers whose PCs can't meet the new specification requirements.

Besides ray-traced reflections and shadows being added from the next-gen console versions of GTA V, other ray-traced features coming exclusively to PC include RTAO (ambient occlusion) and RTGI (global illumination), bringing the picture far more in line with other ray-traced games instead of rasterized titles with a few RT effects. DirectStorage support for improved SSD performance has also been added alongside Dolby Atmos support.

Finally, a suite of display options and image enhancement technologies, including AMD FSR 3 and Nvidia DLSS 3 with Frame Generation (and "higher" framerates in general, though it hasn't been specified if they will be unlocked) have been added. Enhanced support for "higher resolutions" and "higher aspect ratios" are also mentioned, which would seem to indicate Ultrawide support and some degree of high-DPI scaling for the HUD.

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Minimum and Recommended Specs for the Grand Theft Auto V PC update.
Minimum and Recommended Specs for the Grand Theft Auto V PC update, now leveraging a new executable. The old executable with the original system requirements will still be present, but segregate online play.(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Overall, the new Grand Theft Auto V PC requirements with RT enabled still seem pretty reasonable, considering how great the game already looked before all these RT effects were added. Unfortunately, Rockstar doesn't tell us what the resolution and FPS targets for the "Minimum" and "Recommended" specs are, and we do anticipate those hoping to make the most of high-res, ultrawide, or high-refresh displays will want to invest in yet higher-end gaming CPUs and RT-capable gaming GPUs.

Anyway, that's all of the technical information. A bevy of in-game bonuses are also being added with this version of the game, which we recommend perusing in the official blog post or allowing to surprise you when the update drops on March 4. There's even DualSense adaptive trigger support! The only real downside of this update seems to be the lack of support for multiplayer between the old GTA V executable and the new one, which will somewhat segregate low-spec players from high-spec players and vice versa— otherwise, this is a clear win and arguably overdue update for GTA fans on PC. (At least, until the long wait for GTA 6!)

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Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Makaveli
    interesting update will check it out on march 4
    Reply
  • txfeinbergs
    Why would anyone care about a 3 year old update for a 10 year old game? At least they didn't try to charge for it (this time).
    Reply
  • mhmarefat
    "Ray Tracing is the future!", "naysayers are standing against the advance of technology!", "Raster is so 2015!" etc... so said the Nvidia slaves with the launch of RTX 20 series introducing RT. Here is the future, almost after a DECADE:

    5090 priced at what only God knows, while consuming 600 Watts of power, playing a game optimized specifically for Nvidia hardware (Cyberpunk 2077) @ 4K: 27 FPS https://i.postimg.cc/rs8hhWrz/Screenshot-20250221-023233.jpg
    Reply
  • blppt
    Maybe I'm in the minority, but unless I'm actually looking for it, I usually can't tell the difference between RT on or off, except for the massive hit in framerates.

    Either that or my eyesight is going.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    mhmarefat said:
    "Ray Tracing is the future!", "naysayers are standing against the advance of technology!", "Raster is so 2015!" etc... so said the Nvidia slaves with the launch of RTX 20 series introducing RT. Here is the future, almost after a DECADE:

    5090 priced at what only God knows, while consuming 600 Watts of power, playing a game optimized specifically for Nvidia hardware (Cyberpunk 2077) @ 4K: 27 FPS https://i.postimg.cc/rs8hhWrz/Screenshot-20250221-023233.jpg

    In fairness 4K in general requires a lot, even for raster. In 2015 a higher end resolution display was 1440/WQHD both Ray Tracing and even raster aren't really an issue for high end GPUs released in the last 3 years. Interestingly enough the most common resolution for desktop monitors was 1366x768 in 2015.

    https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TvheUYMQPN5h6hiiDpPENK.png
    https://gs.statcounter.com/screen-resolution-stats/desktop/worldwide#monthly-201501-202502
    Reply
  • salgado18
    txfeinbergs said:
    Why would anyone care about a 3 year old update for a 10 year old game? At least they didn't try to charge for it (this time).
    Because it stll generates revenue. But making RT and non-RT players play online separately, they may be shooting themselves in the foot, unless there is intention of dropping non-RT support later.
    Reply
  • evdjj3j
    blppt said:
    Maybe I'm in the minority, but unless I'm actually looking for it, I usually can't tell the difference between RT on or off, except for the massive hit in framerates.

    Either that or my eyesight is going.
    Your eyesight is going.
    Reply
  • alceryes
    blppt said:
    Maybe I'm in the minority, but unless I'm actually looking for it, I usually can't tell the difference between RT on or off, except for the massive hit in framerates.

    Either that or my eyesight is going.
    It's definitely situational, but I can usually tell the differece, especially since I have a few seconds between frames to examine the detail closely! :LOL:

    There will come a day when RT is the norm at 4K and 200FPS+ on the latest AAA title, but that day is not today.
    Reply
  • Penzi
    blppt said:
    Maybe I'm in the minority, but unless I'm actually looking for it, I usually can't tell the difference between RT on or off, except for the massive hit in framerates.

    Either that or my eyesight is going.
    Most of the time in most games I don’t notice. But when I do, it’s jarring. It becomes evident when really advanced effects are being used and the developers haven’t dedicated sufficient resources to lighting on level design.

    So, for myself, I try to trace rays to the skies… (not actually a GI reference… but kinda)
    Reply
  • txfeinbergs
    alceryes said:
    It's definitely situational, but I can usually tell the differece, especially since I have a few seconds between frames to examine the detail closely! :LOL:

    There will come a day when RT is the norm at 4K and 200FPS+ on the latest AAA title, but that day is not today.
    That got a laugh out of me.
    Reply