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[interfreak]

I've boy toying with dropping grass down to high. I think I can live with losing some shadows...

Yup, you honestly won't even notice the difference (visually) from Very High to High.

Something is wrong with the latest update though, I used to run with 2xMSAA + MFAA and grass on High with no issues, after the latest update I see massive frame drops on grass with the same settings.

I've had to downgrade to FXAA to maintain 60fps...am cry...

 

[daninthemix]

Reading the perf guide now, but I have to say MSAA + FXAA gave me much better results than TXAA, which resulted in more aliased surfaces and simultaneously more blur / less detail. This wouldn't be Nvidia propaganda now, would it? Since TXAA is their baby...

 

[nobodyshero]

Anyone try that AMD GTA optimized beta driver? How is it?

 

[icecold1983]

Reading the perf guide now, but I have to say MSAA + FXAA gave me much better results than TXAA, which resulted in more aliased surfaces and simultaneously more blur / less detail. This wouldn't be Nvidia propaganda now, would it? Since TXAA is their baby...

Txaa has a trend of being broken lately. Its only worked in like 2 out of the last 7 implementations

 

[Philtastic]

My AMD Guide for n00bs

http://imgur.com/a/iHkrj

A guide for noobs that uses Radeon Pro? Really?
I wouldn't use the settings in this guide which seems to be based on a 280X because it forgoes any polygonal grass by having Grass on Normal and you won't have headlight shadows off of dynamic objects (people and other cars) with Shadow Quality on High. It also needlessly reduces Population Variety which is mainly VRAM dependent and any reduction in Population Density will depend a lot on the person's CPU. It will definitely maintain 60 fps, however, but mostly because it turns off grass and many shadows. It does, however, have High Resolution Shadows on which, though they look good, use up a lot of GPU power which could have been used to turn on grass and other shadows instead.

For a 280X, I recommend the following settings which will be 60 fps the large majority of the time and will dip to ~50 fps at worst:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=160040581&postcount=1370

Anyone try that AMD GTA optimized beta driver? How is it?

They are awesome. Use them but uninstall your previous drivers and scrub clean with Display Driver Uninstaller to avoid issues updating (I recommend this procedure every time you update drivers for both AMD and Nvidia cards. http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html).

 

[dsk1210]

Txaa has a trend of being broken lately. Its only worked in like 2 out of the last 7 implementations

Txaa seems to work fine for me, I sometimes switch it off for performance issues, lasts about 5 mins before my eyes have been sheared and it goes back on.

 

[Bebpo]

True, you need two 980s for that.

lollllllllllllllll

2 EVGA 980 OC SC SLI overclocked at 125% and +500mhz memory can get ~30-60 completely unstable at 4k with settings knocked down a bunch to medium/normal and no AA.

With settings on high/very high at 4k even with no AA it's like 20fps.


I'm getting a pretty stable framerate at 1620p though no AA (FXAA) with most of the settings on high/very high and shadows on softest with that setup though. But I hate overclocking and running the loud gpu fans nonstop so I'll probably stick to 1440p.

 

[FLAguy954]

My AMD Guide for n00bs

http://imgur.com/a/iHkrj

Thank you!

I was so damn stuck trying to find a way for this game to work with Radeon Pro! Thanks for the guide!

Edit: Spoke too soon as API monitoring doesn't work :/

Edit 2: Fuck yes, got it to work by disabling Rivertuner.

 

[icecold1983]

Txaa seems to work fine for me, I sometimes switch it off for performance issues, lasts about 5 mins before my eyes have been sheared and it goes back on.

What other titles have you seen txaa first hand in?

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

lollllllllllllllll

2 EVGA 980 OC SC SLI overclocked at 125% and +500mhz memory can get ~30-60 completely unstable at 4k with settings knocked down a bunch to medium/normal and no AA.

With settings on high/very high at 4k even with no AA it's like 20fps

Um, I just got done playing at 4k with everything on very high, high grass, no msaa, and a consistent 50-60fps. Minimum I get is 45 occasionally for a few seconds when futzing around in the countryside. OC'd 980 g1's, btw.

 

[sytadel]

GTX 780 Had this game running smooth for 20+ hours, and now the frame-rate is dropping badly. I heard restarting your PC helps, are there any other ways?

 

[Derpcrawler]

lollllllllllllllll

2 EVGA 980 OC SC SLI overclocked at 125% and +500mhz memory can get ~30-60 completely unstable at 4k with settings knocked down a bunch to medium/normal and no AA.

With settings on high/very high at 4k even with no AA it's like 20fps.


I'm getting a pretty stable framerate at 1620p though no AA (FXAA) with most of the settings on high/very high and shadows on softest with that setup though. But I hate overclocking and running the loud gpu fans nonstop so I'll probably stick to 1440p.

This is horseshit. I ran single GTX980 at 60FPS with high/very high settings. Check my YouTube for video, since I am on phone and can't link it.

 

[icecold1983]

This is horseshit. I ran single GTX980 at 60FPS with high/very high settings. Check my YouTube for video, since I am on phone and can't link it.

At 4k? Nope no shot

 

[Derpcrawler]

At 4k? Nope no shot

Check the video, during day, includes Afterburner FPS counter. Also combat, even with recording video doesn't drop bellow 55.

Would appreciate if someone linked video since I am on phone, YouTube name same as here.

 

[icecold1983]

Check the video, during day, includes Afterburner FPS counter. Also combat, even with recording video doesn't drop bellow 55.

Im at gym on phone, how can i find it when i get home? Is your youtube name same as here?

 

[Derpcrawler]

Im at gym on phone, how can i find it when i get home? Is your youtube name same as here?

Same as here, single 980, 1.5Ghz OC, no MSAA, injected with SMAA.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Don't know about the steam version but those with nvidia shields wanting to stream, I finally got it to work by starting the game first on my desktop and waiting until the launcher is done doing its thing. Once the game is about to start, just start streaming from your Shield. Make sure to start streaming before the game boots up else sound won't get routed to your Shield.

 

[jon_dojah]

jesus christ, my framerate dropped so much after the latest patch. Before it would barely dip below 60, now I'm driving around the city at a pretty much stable 52fps.

So fucking annoying.

Same thing happened to me post patch. Was able to get it back to a solid 60 by turning vsync off ingame and turning it on in the Nvidia control panel to the "adaptive" option. Try that.

 

[Justinh]

Check the video, during day, includes Afterburner FPS counter. Also combat, even with recording video doesn't drop bellow 55.

Would appreciate if someone linked video since I am on phone, YouTube name same as here.

this it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axzRWaxAi1U

 

[Qassim]

This game must have a really good streaming system to adapt to given memory limits because I'm on 2x GTX 780s, so only have 3GB VRAM. I've never seen it actually hit that and don't experience any stuttering, and I have pretty much all the VRAM hungry settings cranked up aside from Extended distance scaling.

I have got it on an SSD, so perhaps that makes the difference and I am running at 1920x1080.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Don't know about the steam version but those with nvidia shields wanting to stream, I finally got it to work by starting the game first on my desktop and waiting until the launcher is done doing its thing. Once the game is about to start, just start streaming from your Shield. Make sure to start streaming before the game boots up else sound won't get routed to your Shield.

Good to know - thanks! Wish we didn't have to use workarounds like this, tho.

 

[viveks86]

lollllllllllllllll

2 EVGA 980 OC SC SLI overclocked at 125% and +500mhz memory can get ~30-60 completely unstable at 4k with settings knocked down a bunch to medium/normal and no AA.

With settings on high/very high at 4k even with no AA it's like 20fps.


I'm getting a pretty stable framerate at 1620p though no AA (FXAA) with most of the settings on high/very high and shadows on softest with that setup though. But I hate overclocking and running the loud gpu fans nonstop so I'll probably stick to 1440p.

That does not sound right. I have a feeling that only one of your cards is being used. Have you checked GPU usage on both your cards? At high/very high, you should be getting 40 or above

 

[AndyBNV]

Ha. Nice catch. Think Andy got them swapped.

MSAA (and TXAA by association) fails to anti-alias some edges, possibly because of shaders.

Another question Andy.

In the guide, you give comparisons between 2xTXAA, 4xTXAA. However in game, TXAA only can be turn on or off with no multipliers when enabled with MSAA. How did you get TXAA to x2 and x4?

Or are you saying that comparing 4xTXAA to 4xMSAA, is really 4xMSAA with TXAA vs 4xMSAA?

MSAA 2x + TXAA = TXAA 2x, MSAA 4x + TXAA = TXAA 4x

Just posting these for those curious, and for AndyBNV.

This screenshot has a vague outline of the mountain's shadow in it. It's harder to see from this angle but I wanted to show off the beautiful light shafts that come with it.

I was wrong about the time the shadow is at its peak, it's around 8am and not 2pm. Interestingly enough no setting seems to disable it entirely, but Extended Shadow Distance seems to make it more accurate and less faded.
100% Extended Shadow Distance:

0% Extended Shadow Distance:

Interesting. In that time period and in that spot Long Shadows may have more of an impact, too.

Hey Andy, for reflection quality, you might want to post an example of an actual mirror, your character looking into it. That's what made me decide to increase the setting to Ultra.

In your examples, the difference between Ultra and Very High seem nearly non-existant - but when looking in a mirror you can see the entire world is rendered at what looks like 1/2 resolution and it's really blatant and apparent.

The only character mirrors I came across free roaming were the ones in his bedroom, and the one in the apartment in GTA Online. Neither appeared to change IQ significantly when I tested shortly after launch. Will have another look today.

Whaa…? TXAA looks far worse than FXAA on that shot.

Yep, as noted in the guide. Tis weird.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your guide! One thing that I think should be noted is that High Resolution Shadows only actually enables if your Shadow Quality setting is already set to Very High, otherwise it does nothing (this is also reflected by the fact that the predicted VRAM usage only changes if Shadow Quality is already on Very High). Oh and the final interactive picture under Shader Quality which highlights POM and AF changes between Very High and Normal is mislabelled as a comparison between Very High and High.

Good point on HRS, will make a note in the piece. Will check out/fix the other thing.

Reading the perf guide now, but I have to say MSAA + FXAA gave me much better results than TXAA, which resulted in more aliased surfaces and simultaneously more blur / less detail. This wouldn't be Nvidia propaganda now, would it? Since TXAA is their baby...

If you're sensitive to temporal aliasing you'd want TXAA. And if I were spreading propaganda I would cherry pick screenshots to avoid the lack of aliasing coverage on some surfaces, and wouldn't highlight it in the text, too.

Don't know about the steam version but those with nvidia shields wanting to stream, I finally got it to work by starting the game first on my desktop and waiting until the launcher is done doing its thing. Once the game is about to start, just start streaming from your Shield. Make sure to start streaming before the game boots up else sound won't get routed to your Shield.

IIRC, it should just work. Let me dig into this.

 

[viveks86]

MSAA (and TXAA by association) fails to anti-alias some edges, possibly because of shaders.

Geez. I'm done with AA. 4K+FXAA ftw. I hope I never need to deal with lower resolutions again!

 

[icecold1983]

Same as here, single 980, 1.5Ghz OC, no MSAA, injected with SMAA.

checked the video, its not 60 fps and the area you tested is is pretty much the best possible case for performance. youre also using below console settings.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Geez. I'm done with AA. 4K+FXAA ftw. I hope I never need to deal with lower resolutions again!

Wish fxaa was enough for me at 4k. I still catch a lot of aliasing, mostly in the distance. Really distracts me while driving. Msaa helps, but with my current settings my 4gb vram just can't keep up.

 

[Sickbean]

Which is the better V-Sync solution - triple buffered or adaptive? I don't fully understand triple buffered but isn't it a type of adaptive by design?

 

[viveks86]

Wish fxaa was enough for me at 4k. I still catch a lot of aliasing, mostly in the distance. Really distracts me while driving. Msaa helps, but with my current settings my 4gb vram just can't keep up.

May be i'm not seeing it because I've been downsampling from 4k as opposed to playing it native. Looks insanely clean except for specular aliasing from thin shiny objects, which doesn't seem to go even with 4k+8xmsaa.

Getting a 4k tv this weekend. Would be interesting to see how it looks native

 

[icecold1983]

Which is the better V-Sync solution - triple buffered or adaptive? I don't fully understand triple buffered but isn't it a type of adaptive by design?

triple buffering in nv cpl is only for opengl

 

[Sickbean]

triple buffering in nv cpl is only for opengl

So useless here then.

Should I go with adaptive then? I'm maintaining 60fps 75% of the time.

 

[Kezen]

I'm going to wait until AO is fixed.

 

[spuckthew]

Well I don't know if it was the new patch making the game more stable for me or the 0.03 vcore I added the other day, but I got a solid 3 hours in last night without any crashes. Going by my recent track record, I'd be surprised if a measly +0.03v somehow made all the difference because I was already pumping far more juice through my CPU than I've seen many others need. I hope the game fixed it because otherwise I think it's far more likely that I just got lucky than having found my CPU's sweet spot. Then again, I must be close if I haven't. Regardless, I'll find out for sure when I jump on tonight.

 

[dex3108]

Hey Andy did Nvidia tired to push HBAO+ to R*? Is it engine limitation or something else reason why there is no HBAO+ support? Awesome guide BTW. Do Witcher 3 next!

 

[daninthemix]

So useless here then.

Should I go with adaptive then? I'm maintaining 60fps 75% of the time.

If you choose borderless windowed mode you will automatically get triple-buffered v-sync. You could then use Nvidia Inspector to cap the frame-rate at 45 to avoid fluctuations. You should also set max pre-rendered frames to 1 in the Nvidia control panel.

 

[Kezen]

Hey Andy did Nvidia tired to push HBAO+ to R*? Is it engine limitation or something else reason why there is no HBAO+ support? Awesome guide BTW. Do Witcher 3 next!

I would have happily traded PCSS for HBAO+. Makes such a difference in games where it's implemented.

Shame that GTA 5 does not use it.

Any ETA on the AO fix patch ?

 

[Enco]

If you choose borderless windowed mode you will automatically get triple-buffered v-sync. You could then use Nvidia Inspector to cap the frame-rate at 45 to avoid fluctuations. You should also set max pre-rendered frames to 1 in the Nvidia control panel.

Setting pre rendered frames to 1 gave me so graphical glitches.

This may be in my head but adaptive v sync made the game feel like it was moving faster than normal. I'm using normal v sync through Nvidia CP and it works great.

Game is absolutely beautiful.

 

[CyanideFuse]

I've cleared the final hurdle, it's here!



Now, what's next? Project Cars? Witcher 3?!

P.S. If anyone's awesome at Photoshop and has the time to make a better feature graphic I'll happily use it.

Thank you for doing this Andy. I am going to have a good read of your guide this morning.

 

[icecold1983]

So useless here then.

Should I go with adaptive then? I'm maintaining 60fps 75% of the time.

Its the best option but it still frequently tears at 60 fps for me :/

 

[daninthemix]

If you're sensitive to temporal aliasing you'd want TXAA. And if I were spreading propaganda I would cherry pick screenshots to avoid the lack of aliasing coverage on some surfaces, and wouldn't highlight it in the text, too.

Check out my post here where I have screenshots showing TXAA vs FXAA. There's clearly more aliasing with TXAA. As for temporal aliasing, I don't notice any with MSAAx4 +FXAA, though it may be because the latter is simply blurring everything.

EDIT: thanks for the guide though. Using it I've been able to crank extended shadows up after reading that they had little performance impact

 

[PnCIa]

Check out my post here where I have screenshots showing TXAA vs FXAA. There's clearly more aliasing with TXAA. As for temporal aliasing, I don't notice any with MSAAx4 +FXAA, though it may be because the latter is simply blurring everything.

EDIT: thanks for the guide though. Using it I've been able to crank extended shadows up after reading that they had little performance impact

No there is not more aliasing with TXAA ingame. It blurs more though.

 

[Dictator93]

I've cleared the final hurdle, it's here!



Now, what's next? Project Cars? Witcher 3?!

P.S. If anyone's awesome at Photoshop and has the time to make a better feature graphic I'll happily use it.

Andy, Thank your for the SUPERB information and comparisons in here. This was a massive amount of work, and I hink I speak for everyone in saying little things like this count.

 

[Cannon Goose]

So useless here then.

Should I go with adaptive then? I'm maintaining 60fps 75% of the time.

On my end the The smoothest vsync in this game is fullscreen mode + standard driver vsync, and then alt+tab out and back into the game once you've started it up. It'll be properly triple buffered (for some reason) and you shouldn't experience the hitching that the borderless windowed mode is plagued by.

I've mentioned it before but I really feel like this should be in the OP.

 

[LabouredSubterfuge]

MSAA (and TXAA by association) fails to anti-alias some edges, possibly because of shaders.



MSAA 2x + TXAA = TXAA 2x, MSAA 4x + TXAA = TXAA 4x



Interesting. In that time period and in that spot Long Shadows may have more of an impact, too.



The only character mirrors I came across free roaming were the ones in his bedroom, and the one in the apartment in GTA Online. Neither appeared to change IQ significantly when I tested shortly after launch. Will have another look today.



Yep, as noted in the guide. Tis weird.



Good point on HRS, will make a note in the piece. Will check out/fix the other thing.



If you're sensitive to temporal aliasing you'd want TXAA. And if I were spreading propaganda I would cherry pick screenshots to avoid the lack of aliasing coverage on some surfaces, and wouldn't highlight it in the text, too.



IIRC, it should just work. Let me dig into this.

Andy, I know this would likely make your life harder (as if you need that) but in future do you think there's a case for making webms (with a wipe over showing the differences) of differing AA solutions to show the advantages of temporal AA?

The reason I ask is that temporal elements to AA implementations are becoming more prominent and arguably more important these days (e.g. TXAA, advanced SMAA and Epic's AA solution).

 

[jaju123]

AO does seem to be present on my AMD r9 290 in grass at least, it had that typical weird shimmering effect reminiscent of AO going on.

 

[Sickbean]

On my end the The smoothest vsync in this game is fullscreen mode + standard driver vsync, and then alt+tab out and back into the game once you've started it up. It'll be properly triple buffered (for some reason) and you shouldn't experience the hitching that the borderless windowed mode is plagued by.

I've mentioned it before but I really feel like this should be in the OP.

Interesting - why on earth would you have to do that?

 

[Sevenfold]

I've cleared the final hurdle, it's here!



Now, what's next? Project Cars? Witcher 3?!

P.S. If anyone's awesome at Photoshop and has the time to make a better feature graphic I'll happily use it.

Wonderful. Good job.

 

[Denzar]

Small question, GAF.

Every time a vehicle explodes, my screen blurs for a second. How do I turn this off? Motion blur? Something else?

 

[PedroPanache]

Is it worth messing around with my 3570k and trying to overclock it some more. Currently it runs at 4.2, but with GTAV out, I've been toying around with the idea of trying to get a stable 4.4ghz overclock. I used the OC settings from the motherboard for the 4.2ghz, it wouldn't run 4.4ghz. So, that's something I'd need to manually play around with to get a stable OC. How much of a benefit would I see from GTAV? 2-5 fps boost or something like that? AndyBNV's wonderful guide has lit a fire underneath me. I need more power!

 

[BIGWORM]

Small question, GAF.

Every time a vehicle explodes, my screen blurs for a second. How do I turn this off? Motion blur? Something else?

I'm guessing that's a simulation of the concussion wave. Turn motion blur off?

 

[Evo X]

Small question, GAF.

Every time a vehicle explodes, my screen blurs for a second. How do I turn this off? Motion blur? Something else?

This is from the Post Process setting I think.