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TESTING METHODOLOGY
In order to test the performance of Grand Theft Auto V on a variety of hardware, and not just with different graphics configurations, we have to do things a little differently than usual. We first gathered the hardware we had at our disposal, and put together a list of configurations we would to test the game with, in order to see how well it performs across a range of different systems, high-end, low-end, and even some older hardware.
Depending on the configuration, we tested the game at several graphical presets ‘Ultra’, ‘High’, ‘Medium’, and ‘Low’ at resolutions of 1080p, and 1440p. All tests were done with MSAA set to off. ‘Advanced Graphics’ options were set to ‘On’ on all presets except for ‘Low’
Performance was tested using the in-game benchmark utility. FPS was recorded using FRAPS, and then analysed using FRAFS.
It is worth noting that these tests should be used to compare how well the game runs on each system, and not as a way to compare individual graphics card or processor performance. Instead, you should use these results in conjunction with other processor or graphics card comparisons in order to fully quantify which graphics card, or processor would be best for you.
TEST HARDWARE
Unless otherwise specified, each CPU and GPU was ran at stock or factory clock speeds. For simplification, only motherboard, processor, graphics card and memory will be listed below, as other components will not have any effect on actual gaming performance.
Configuration 1 – “The Professional”
For the first configuration, we decided to go with our standard X99 test bench setup, which features an overclocked Intel 5960X – at 4.2GHz – CPU, and an ASUS STRIX GTX 970 OC, which we pushed up to an easily achievable 1413MHz on the GPU clock, and 7426MHz on the memory clock.
| MOTHERBOARD: | ASRock X99 OC Formula |
| CPU: | Intel Core i7 5960X @ 4.2GHZ OC |
| MEMORY: | 16GB Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR4-2666 |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | ASUS STRIX GTX 970 @ 1413MHz OC |
Configuration 2 – “The Mainstream”
Our second configuration features our “mainstream platform” test bench which consists of an Intel Core i5 4690K overclocked to 4.3GHz, and an XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB overclocked to 1100MHz on the GPU clock, and 5535MHz on the memory clock.
| MOTHERBOARD: | Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5 4690K OC @ 4.3GHz |
| MEMORY: | 16GB DDR3-2133 Kingston HyperX Savage |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | XFX AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB @ 1100MHz OC |
Configuration 3 – “The Recommended”
We chose this configuration because it is Rockstar’s “Recommended” hardware requirements for AMD hardware, which they say will be able to run the game smoothly at 60 FPS, 1080p and medium settings.
| MOTHERBOARD: | Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 |
| CPU: | AMD FX-8350 |
| MEMORY: | 8GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | XFX 7870 Double D |
Configuration 4 – “The Budget Gamer”
We chose this build as our low-end system as it features some very popular entry-level gaming components the GTX 750 and the Pentium G3258 “Pentium Anniversary” CPU. Plus, we wanted to see how well a dual-core performs in this massive open-world.
| MOTHERBOARD: | Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK |
| CPU: | Intel Pentium G3258 OC @ 4.2GHz |
| MEMORY: | 8GB DDR3-2133 Kingston HyperX Savage |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 1GB |
Configuration 5 – “The Upgraded Budget Gamer”
The upgraded Budget gamer will show the difference between the Pentium Dual core and the i5 in our test bench.
| MOTHERBOARD: | Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5 4690K OC @ 4.3GHz |
| MEMORY: | 8GB DDR3-2133 Kingston HyperX Savage |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 1GB |
Configuration 6 – “The Budget i5”
To test for potential CPU bottlenecks with dual-cores, we decided to include a revised version of our “Mainstream” configuration with a Core i5 4430 at the default clock speed of 3.0GHz.
| MOTHERBOARD: | Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5 4430 |
| MEMORY: | 8GB DDR3-2133 Kingston HyperX Savage |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | XFX AMD Radeon R9 290 4GB @ 1100MHz OC |
Configuration 7 – “The Hybrid”
To round out our testing we switched out the R9 290 in our “Mainstream” config for the GTX 970 from our “Professional” config. This was mostly to examine potential CPU bottlenecks.
| MOTHERBOARD: | Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5 4690K OC @ 4.3GHz |
| MEMORY: | 16GB DDR3-2133 Kingston HyperX Savage |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | ASUS STRIX GTX 970 @ 1413MHz OC |
Now that we’ve got the hardware out of the way, we can move on to the actual benchmarks!