The PC version of Grand Theft Auto V is getting a free upgrade on PC in a few days that will introduce, among other things, ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion and support for NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR.
The new update, which will go live on March 4th, will bring all the latest improvements introduced on consoles, including a range of new vehicles and upgrades at Hao's Special Works, Premium Test Rides, HSW Races, and HSW Time Trails, Ambient Animals that can be photographed to participate in the daily Wildlife Photography Challenge, the ability to obtain special benefits for GTA Online via a GTA+ Membership, a renewed Landing Page, a free GTA$4,000,000 and a few more additional items to get started in GTA Online and more.
As already mentioned, the biggest improvements the Grand Theft Auto V March 4th upgrade will bring are new technical enhancements, such as the PC-exclusive ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion, plus the ray-traced shadows and reflections also available on current generation consoles, NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 1 and 3 support, faster loading times using an SSD with DirectStorage, DualSense controller support, and enhanced audio with Dolby Atmos support. Following the launch of the update, however, Rockstar Games will continue to support the previous version of the game, allowing those with hardware that does not meet the new minimum requirements to keep playing. This will also ensure that support for FiveM continues uninterrupted while Rockstar works to extend support for it to the upgraded version.
This also means that the original version of GTA Online on PC will be a separate instance, and players who remain on that version will not be able to play in sessions with those on the upgraded version. PC players who wish to play together will need to ensure that they're playing the same version of the game. Both versions will be available to anyone who upgrades - and first-time purchasers will have access to both versions.
The updated requirements (which include mandatory SSD) can be found below.
Minimum:
Operating System - Windows 10
CPU - Intel Core i7 4770/AMD FX 9590
Memory - 8GB RAM
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (4GB VRAM)/AMD Radeon RX 6400 (4GB VRAM)
Storage - 105GB, SSD required
Sound card and audio - 100% DirectX 10 compatible
Recommended:
Operating System - Windows 11
CPU - Intel Core i5 9600K/AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Memory - 16GB Dual Channel RAM
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB VRAM)/AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8GB VRAM)
Storage - 105GB, DirectStorage compatible SSD
Sound card and audio - Windows Spatial Sound compatible audio system; solution containing Dolby Atmos required for a Dolby Atmos experience
Rockstar Games' official website has more information on the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V PC upgrade.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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