Rockstar Games has finally released the much-awaited GTA 5 Enhanced Edition on PC. It brings a whole lot of new changes that were only once available to the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. So today, we’ll be comparing the Legacy version of GTA 5 on PC, along with the newly released Enhanced Edition.
We’re running the game on our PC, which has a Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, along with the RTX 3070 8GB graphics card and 32GB DDR4 RAM. The legacy version is running at 1440p with Max Settings; advanced settings have been turned on as well. On the Enhanced version, all the Ray tracing features have been turned on, and they’re set to Ultra.
Also Read: Best GTA-Like Games To Look Out For While You Wait For GTA 6
Main Menu & Loading Times
First and foremost, let’s see the difference between the Main Menu and UI. Well, because that’s the first thing you see when you boot the game up. Here, a big change comes to the UI, the Enhanced Edition has a UI which is much more controller friendly, compared to the one on the legacy version. The new UI also includes access to Rockstar’s GTA+ directly too!
Now let’s compare the boot times. If you have a Gen 4 NVMe SSD installed in your PC, then with the new implementation of Direct Storage, the boot times will be much better on the Enhanced edition. Unfortunately for us, our system has a regular SSD, so we did not find any major difference.
Character switching is pretty common in the game, and it usually takes some time to switch between characters. Well, it didn’t surprise me, but the time taken to switch characters in both the versions was more or less similar. However, just like the boot times, if the game is installed on a Gen 4 SSD, then with Direct Storage, it should make it a bit faster by a few seconds.
Ray Tracing
The biggest talking point with the release of the Enhanced edition was ray tracing. The original PC release does not feature any ray tracing features. On the other hand, with the Enhanced edition ray tracing features such as ray traced shadows, reflections, ambient occlusion, and global illumination have been added. While the ray tracing is not as good as what we usually get to see with newer games, it does make quite a difference.
Let’s compare the basic ray tracing effects first. We used the roller coaster ride available in Pier Amusement Park, and here you can see the difference in the lighting quality when both the versions are put up against each other. You can also notice the lights from the buildings in the background too. I would say this is a major difference!
Ray Traced Shadows
Let’s deep dive into the ray tracing features now, first up, take a look at the ray-traced shadows. We’re at Michael’s house, and we’ll be using the shadows of the tree to show the difference. When putting side by side, you can see the difference in the shadows. The shadows on the Enhanced edition are much sharper.
We saw another example in the form of long shadows. While we were on the beach with Franklin, we saw that there was an improvement in the long shadows. On the legacy version, while the long shadows are present, they’re not as detailed as the ones in the Enhanced edition. Long shadows on the Enhanced edition look much more realistic.
Ray Traced Reflections
As for the ray traced reflections, in this section, we’re piloting a helicopter, and when compared side by side, you can see that the helicopter is not visible in the glass of the building in the legacy version. But is visible in the new Enhanced edition, this is where the ray-traced reflection comes into play and it looks great.
Ray Traced Ambient Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion has also been added as a ray tracing feature in the game. What it does is that it makes the objects inside the game look much more realistic. For example, take a look at the oil barrel, the difference can be seen when we compare it side by side to the legacy version.
Ray Traced Global Illumination
The biggest difference in the PC version comes with the addition of Ray Traced Global Illumination. This setting enables realistic lighting in the game. As you can see, we’re inside Michael’s room, and the difference in lighting in both conditions is quite different. On the PC Enhanced version, the lighting looks much more realistic.
The same can be seen when we’re in the Firestation with Trevor, the difference in the light reflected by the ceiling and the floor is pretty substantial. Take a look at it, yourself!
Global Illumination can also be seen at other places too. For example, you might not notice this right away, but the colours of the truck can be seen on the wall if you’re close to it. While it may not seem like it’s a big thing, it just goes to show that Global Illumination has been worked on for this game.
Particle Details
For comparing the particle details, we thought it would be best to see things like explosions and other minor things. When it comes to explosions, when compared to the Legacy version, the smoke on the Enhanced version is much darker and it feels more dense. Even the fire feels much more realistic. The smokes and fire on the legacy version don’t look good once you’ve played the Enhanced edition.
The same can be seen when we do a burnout too. While not being darker, the smokes produced are much more. It overall looks better on the Enhanced edition.
Draw Distance
Moving onto the draw distance, we’re standing on top of a house, and the draw distance on the enhanced edition is much more detailed. You can see the difference side by side, running on both the versions.
Shooting Details
Once big difference we found was that shooting at things was much more detailed on the Enhanced edition. When you break the windshield of a car, with a firearm, the shattered glass now looks a bit more detailed. The broken glass particles on the side windows are a bit more detailed too. Here’s a side by side comparison shot for reference!
Cutscenes
We ran the start of the Jewel Store heist on both the versions to compare the cutscenes. To my surprise, there weren’t any major differences between both the versions. However, if I had to nitpick, then I would say the lighting did feel a bit better on the Enhanced edition. Again, it wasn’t very noticeable.
GTA Online
The online component of the game is a bit of a mixed bag though. On one hand, it gets all the graphical changes from the base game, and even adds Hao’s Special Works, which was only present on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
However, on the other hand, it removes one essential feature, which is the text-based chat system. It is still present in the Legacy version. Players are not happy with this change, and because of this, GTA 5 Enhanced on Steam has become the worst rated Rockstar game to date
Performance
Now we’re going to take a look at the performance. For that, we’ll be using the in-game benchmarks tool. As stated previously, the legacy version is running at max settings with advanced graphic options turned on, at 1440p. While the enhanced edition is also running at the same resolution with max settings, and all ray tracing options turned on. We’ve turned on DLSS as well, and it has been set to the Quality mode.
Surprisingly, we saw that the Enhanced edition runs better, even with ray tracing turned on. With all the advanced settings turned on, the Legacy version on average was running between 55-60 frames per second, with jumps to 70 frames in a few lighter scenes. However, on the Enhanced edition, the frame rate did not drop below 60 frames at any time. In a few lighter scenes, we even saw the frame jump to triple digits.
That said, we also made a video where we compared the Legacy and Enhanced editions on PC. You can see an even more detailed comparison there! Check out the video from here:
