High Refresh Rate Gaming CPU & GPU Analysis

Grand Theft Auto V

We use the DirectX 11 mode, anti-aliasing disabled, and the Maximum quality settings.

Grand Theft Auto V is an old, but still immensely popular, DX11 title that shows heavy CPU-based performance limitations and preference for Intel hardware.

At 1080p, the CPU is the more important factor with our test and image quality settings, as evidenced by the 5.1GHz Core i9-10900K topping the chart with all graphics card combinations.

These image quality and test settings are not particularly tolerable of high refresh rate gaming, especially in certain GTA V sections such as grassy areas or fast image streaming whilst flying. However, each hardware solution can push at around 100 FPS or higher, and the 10900K manages close enough to 120 FPS for our liking.

GTA V’s CPU-influenced performance limitations are further shown at 1440p with the performance numbers changing by small amounts despite the vast pixel count increase.

This time, however, the high-end graphics cards in the form of RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3080 show their muscle at the top of the chart. The Ryzen chips still struggle to pass 100 FPS convincingly, but this is a common theme with GTA V’s strong preference for Intel Skylake architecture.

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