Grand Theft Auto 5 is getting a free upgrade on PC next month that will bring a host of technical enhancements and GTA Online features previously only available on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X versions of the game. In addition to improved graphical quality and online-specific content, the upgrade also brings access to GTA+ membership for PC players. The free upgrade arrives March 4 for all players who own GTA 5 on PC.
GTA 5 Free Upgrade on PC
Developer Rockstar Games detailed the contents of the PC upgrade in a blog post Thursday. With the upgrade, GTA 5 on PC will finally get PC-specific ray tracing features like ambient occlusion and global illumination. Additionally, the upgrade will also add support for ray traced shadows and reflections, which first arrived on current-generation consoles. Players who upgrade to the new version will also be able to migrate their Story Mode and Online progress from the previous version.
PC version of GTA 5 will finally also get support for AI upscaling techniques like AMD FSR1 and FSR3, and NVIDIA DLSS 3. Other technical enhancements coming to the game include faster load times on SSD and DirectStorage; enhanced support for higher resolutions, aspect ratios, and framerates; DualSense controller support with adaptive triggers; and enhanced audio with support for Dolby Atmos and improved fidelity of speech, cinematics, and music.
Rockstar recommends a minimum of 8GB of RAM, Intel Core i7-4770 or AMD FX-9590 processor, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1630 or AMD Radeon RX 6400 GPU with 4GB VRAM for the upgraded version of the game on PC.
The upgrade will add new vehicles and vehicle upgrades at Hao’s Special Works
Photo Credit: Rockstar Games
GTA Online Features
The free upgrade will also add GTA Online features, currently only available on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. These include new vehicles and vehicle upgrades at Hao’s Special Works, Ambient Animal encounters across Southern San Andreas, GTA Online’s Career Progress feature, a refreshed landing page, and an improved introductory cash reward of GTA$4,000,000 for newer players.
GTA Online player experience improvements like kernel-based anti-cheat protections and proactive voice chat moderation also arrive as part of the upgrade.
Finally, the upgrade also brings GTA+ membership to PC players, who can sign up to the service to avail special benefits like GTA$500,000 every month (delivered upon billing), member-only Shark Cards with 15 percent bonus GTA$, a selection of classic Rockstar Games titles to download and play in the GTA+ Games Library, and more.
Rockstar said it would continue support for previous version of GTA 5 on PC so that players who did not have hardware that matched minimum requirements of the new upgrade could keep playing. Support for FiveM mods will also continue and will be extended to the upgraded version at some point, the developer said. However, players on previous version will not be able play online in sessions with players on the upgraded version of the game.
