Grand Theft Auto V (DX11)

Now a truly venerable title, GTA V is a veteran of past game suites that is still graphically demanding as they come. As an older DX11 title, it provides a glimpse into the graphically intensive games of yesteryear that don't incorporate the latest features. Originally released for consoles in 2013, the PC port came with a slew of graphical enhancements and options. Just as importantly, GTA V includes a rather intensive and informative built-in benchmark, somewhat uncommon in open-world games.

The settings are identical to its previous appearances, which are custom as GTA V does not have presets. To recap, a "Very High" quality is used, where all primary graphics settings turned up to their highest setting, except grass, which is at its own very high setting. Meanwhile 4x MSAA is enabled for direct views and reflections. This setting also involves turning on some of the advanced rendering features - the game's long shadows, high resolution shadows, and high definition flight streaming - but not increasing the view distance any further.

GTA V 1920x1080 2560x1440 3840x2160
Average FPS
99th Percentile

There was an interesting issue during testing that affected the RTX cards at 4K; running the benchmark would result in a blank screen for the entirety of the run. The image would appear with Alt+Enter to put it in windowed mode, but disappear again back in fullscreen. An external overlay resolved the issue, but performance results were identical either way. We really didn't have time to investigate thoroughly, but GTA V, especially with Social Club, can be quite finicky and I hesitate to call it a driver bug without digging into it more.

It's a testament to both GTA V and the nature of graphics optimization work that a GeForce card can only now average 60fps. Even still, it's restricted to the RTX 2080 Ti performance tier, which is roughly where the Titan V stands as well. Regardless, the results represent the performance scenario that NVIDIA is ultimately hoping to avoid: the 1080 Ti exceeding the 2080 in performance even with the Founders Edition tweaks. At this point, the 1080 Ti is a mature card and the offerings will skew towards tried-and-true halo custom cards, factory overclocked and well-cooled. Plain performance regression in reference settings is not something the RTX 2080 can easily afford with the higher price - Founders Edition or otherwise.

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  • imaheadcase - Wednesday, September 19, 2018 - link

    Because bluray players played movies from the start, delivered what they promised from the start even if cost a lot? Duh.
  • PopinFRESH007 - Thursday, September 20, 2018 - link

    They played DVDs from the start. Your statement is false
  • imaheadcase - Thursday, September 20, 2018 - link

    Umm nope its true.
  • Spunjji - Friday, September 21, 2018 - link

    Yeah, there was media available at launch. Also Blu-Ray provided a noticeable jump in both quality AND resolution over DVD. RTX provides maybe the first and definitely not the second.
  • V900 - Wednesday, September 19, 2018 - link

    And it’s clear that you didn’t read the article, or skimmed it at best, if you’re claiming that “the two technologies have not even seen the real light of day”.

    The tools are out there, developers are working with them, and not only are there many games on the way that support them, there are games out now that use RTX.

    Let me quote from the review:

    “not only was the feat achieved but implemented, and not with proofs-of-concept but with full-fledged AA and AAA games. Today is a milestone from a purely academic view of computer graphics.”
  • tamalero - Wednesday, September 19, 2018 - link

    Development means nothing unless they are released. As plans get cancelled, budgets gets cut and technology is replaced or converted/merged into a different standard.
  • imaheadcase - Wednesday, September 19, 2018 - link

    You just proved yourself wrong with own quote. lol
    Guess what? Python language is out there, lets all develop games from it! All the tools are available! Its so easy! /sarcasm
  • Ranger1065 - Thursday, September 20, 2018 - link

    V900 shillage stench.
  • PopinFRESH007 - Wednesday, September 19, 2018 - link

    Just like those HD-DVD adopters, Laser Disc adopters, BetaMax adopters. V900 is pointing out that early adopters accept a level of risk in adopting new technology to enjoy cutting-edge stuff. This is no different that Bluray or DVDs when they came out. People who buy RTX cards have "WORKING TECH" and will have few options to use it just like the 2nd wave of Bluray players. The first Bluray player actually never had a movie released for it and it cost $3800.

    "The first consumer device arrived in stores on April 10, 2003: the Sony BDZ-S77, a $3,800 (US) BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan.[20] But there was no standard for prerecorded video, and no movies were released for this player."

    Even 3 years after that when they actually had a standard studios would produce movies for the players that were out cost over $1000 and there was a whopping 7 titles that were available. Similar to RTX being the fastest cards available for current technology, those Bluray players also played DVDs (gasp).
  • imaheadcase - Wednesday, September 19, 2018 - link

    Again, the point is bluray WORKED out of the box even if expensive. This doesn't even have any way to even test the other stuff.. You are literally buying something for a FPS boost over previous gens that is not really a big one at that. It be a different tune if lots of games already had the tech in hand by nvidia, had it in games just not enabled...but its not even available to test is silly.

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