It’s been 12 years since Grand Theft Auto V was first released on consoles, and although it eventually made its way to PC, it remains one of the most played titles over a decade later. Now, both GTA V and GTA Online are set to receive some exciting new visual options in a large update on March 4th, including the highly anticipated ray tracing feature.
As noted by Tom’s Hardware, the additional visual flair was already available for the Special Edition of the game, which was re-released for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. However, PC players will receive some exclusive options, including ray tracing functions that are only available on PC, such as Ambient Occlusion and Global Illumination.
## Higher Requirements
If your graphics card is already struggling to render the game’s textures, don’t worry – the update also offers support for upscaling via Nvidia DLSS 2 and AMD FSR1/FSR3. New options for higher resolutions and aspect ratios should ensure that the game looks great on the latest monitors. However, the new features do require a bit more hardware power. Rockstar now recommends at least an Intel Core i5-9600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, an NVIDIA RTX 3060 or AMD RX 6600x graphics card, and at least 16 GB RAM. If you want the highest frame rates and resolutions, you’ll naturally need more than that.
It’s not just the graphics that are getting an upgrade, though. The game will receive a whole series of brand new vehicles and tuning options, animals in the wilderness, a new photography challenge, and career forms in GTA Online.
## Important Note
It’s also important for GTA Online players to know that the new PC version of GTA V will not be compatible with the old version. This means that after the update, you’ll only be able to match with players online who have also done the update. In addition, you’ll have to transfer your profile at the beginning to take all your scores and online progress into the new version.