How to Boost FPS in GTA 5 (Best Settings & Fixes)

Quick: best GTA 5 and FiveM settings for 2026. For FiveM, use the Legacy client on DX11, and in graphics: shadows Normal/High, MSAA and reflections off (FXAA instead of MSAA), population density 0-25%, draw distance 50-70%, Extended Texture Budget from 25%. In the system, turn on the maximum performance power plan, set XMP/EXPO in the BIOS, and disable VBS (Core Isolation); keep the game on an SSD with 16 GB of RAM. On our RP test rigs this delivers a +55-71% FPS gain and +75-111% to 1% low (for example an i5-12400F + RTX 3060: 45 to 75 FPS).

Why GTA 5 and FiveM stutter

GTA 5 in single player runs fine on most configurations. The trouble starts in FiveM: RP servers run dozens of custom scripts, stream tons of content (cars, clothing, buildings), and all of it is computed on the CPU. In single player you are GPU-bound, in FiveM you are CPU-bound.

Typical situation: 90 FPS in single player, you join an RP server and get 35-45. And it is not only your hardware: poorly written server-side scripts can cut FPS for everyone on the server. But you can optimize your own part of it.

Graphics settings

Legacy or Enhanced: which edition to install

Since 2025 there are two versions of GTA 5 on PC that install separately. Legacy is the old client on DirectX 11, Enhanced is the re-release on DirectX 12 with ray tracing, dynamic lighting and fast world streaming. Both include the story mode and GTA Online, but they behave differently.

For FiveM the choice right now is simple: Legacy on DX11. FiveM has historically run on the Legacy client, it is stable and proven. Support for Enhanced was announced by the Cfx.re team in March 2026 and is still being finished (they promise a rewritten OneSync with lower CPU and memory usage), but at the time of this guide it is still in development. So if you are into RP, install Legacy and do not experiment.

Enhanced makes sense if you play the story mode or GTA Online on recent hardware (RTX 4070 and up) and want a nice picture with RT. For competitive RP and maximum FPS, Enhanced is not needed yet. Once FiveM for Enhanced matures, we will update this section.

Important: DX12 in Enhanced needs recent NVIDIA or AMD drivers. On old drivers you run into DX12 validation errors, in which case it is easier to stay on Legacy.

What to lower

Extended Texture Budget

Start at 25%. If textures disappear or flicker, raise it by 10%. Do not set it above your card’s VRAM: a 4 GB card = no higher than 50%, an 8 GB card = up to 75% is fine.

Textures

Normal or High depending on VRAM. On a 4 GB card (GTX 1650, RTX 3060) use Normal. On 8+ GB (RTX 4070, RX 7800 XT) you can use High, it barely affects FPS, the only difference is video memory usage.

Optimizing for FiveM

An SSD is a must

GTA 5 + FiveM on an HDD is masochism. Custom content streams constantly, and an HDD cannot keep up. Textures load with a delay, cars show up gray, buildings render right in front of you. On an SSD all of this goes away.

RAM

16 GB minimum. If you play on RP servers with a pile of mods, 16 GB will be tight. Servers like Majestic, GTA 5 RP, Diamond RP load hundreds of megabytes of custom content into memory. On 8 GB it will be rough.

FiveM cache

FiveM stores a cache of downloaded content. Over time it grows to tens of gigabytes. Clear it periodically: FiveM -> Settings -> Clear Server Cache. But not right before joining a server, otherwise you will re-download everything.

Windows settings

Power plan

“Maximum performance”. This is the baseline.

Game Mode

Windows Settings -> Gaming -> Game Mode: On. In GTA 5/FiveM Game Mode genuinely helps: it lowers background Windows activity during the game.

Background processes

Close everything you do not need. Chrome with tabs especially. On 16 GB of RAM the situation: GTA 5 takes 4-6 GB, FiveM its own 2-3 GB, Windows 2-3 GB. That leaves 2-5 GB. Chrome with 10 tabs will eat them.

XMP in BIOS

FiveM is bottlenecked by the processor and memory, so fast RAM genuinely matters here. If your RAM runs at 2133 MHz instead of the rated 3200-3600 (XMP not enabled), you lose 15-20% on 1% low. Those are the very stutters you get when the server is full of players. Enter BIOS (Del or F2 during boot), enable the XMP or EXPO profile, reboot and check the frequency in CPU-Z.

VBS (memory integrity)

Enabled by default in Windows 11, it eats 5-15% in games. Check it via msinfo32: if “Virtualization-based security” is running, turn it off under “Core isolation”. For CPU-bound FiveM this is a noticeable free gain.

Graphics card settings

NVIDIA

In the NVIDIA Control Panel for GTA5.exe and FiveM.exe:

• Power management mode: “Prefer maximum performance”
• Texture filtering: “Performance”
• Threaded optimization: “On”
• Shader Cache Size: “10 GB” or “Unlimited”
• Vertical sync: “Off” (if you do not have G-Sync)

AMD

• Anti-Lag: On
• Radeon Chill: Off
• Surface Format Optimization: On
• Shader Cache: On

Benchmarks

On real configurations (FiveM, RP server under medium load):

“Before” is stock Windows and default settings, “After” is Windows optimization plus settings and graphics card parameters, without overclocking. The benchmarks were taken on our test rigs, on the same medium-load RP server. Numbers on FiveM depend heavily on the specific server: on an empty one it can be 120+, on a loaded RP with a pile of scripts 50-70 even after optimization, because part of the FPS is cut by server-side scripts, not by your hardware.

What you can do yourself, and what is better to hand off

Graphics settings, choosing the Legacy client, cleaning up Windows and graphics card parameters you can do yourself in an evening. That is +15-30% FPS in FiveM.

After that comes the part where experience is needed. FiveM is bottlenecked by the processor, so overclocking the CPU and RAM gives the most noticeable effect, especially on 1% low on loaded servers. But a botched overclock leads to crashes, and fine BIOS tuning requires knowing the safe values. If you do not want to risk stability in the middle of a session, that is where we come in.

Our packages

• Classic 11 ($25): clean system and basic optimization. Compatible with all GTA RP server checks
• GamePro ($60): adds CPU and RAM overclocking, which is critical for FiveM, where the bottleneck is the processor
• Separately: DDR4 overclocking, DDR5, CPU, BIOS tuning

Important: CustomX is incompatible with some checks on GTA RP servers. For GTA we use Classic 11 or GamePro built on Classic 11.

Questions

FPS is fine in single player, but in FiveM it is 30-40. Is that normal?

Partly yes. FiveM loads the system significantly more because of server-side scripts and custom content. But 30-40 on decent hardware is low, optimizing the system and settings should push it up to 60+. If after all the settings the FPS is still low on a specific server, the problem is on the server’s side.

Is it worth playing GTA 5 Online instead of FiveM for better FPS?

GTA Online runs more stably because it uses standard resources without custom content. But GTA Online and FiveM RP are a different experience. Optimizing the system helps in both cases.

Is 8 GB of RAM enough?

For single player and GTA Online on the lowest settings it is enough. For FiveM RP servers 8 GB is critically low: stutters, freezes, out-of-memory crashes. 16 GB minimum.

Legacy or Enhanced for FiveM?

Legacy on DX11. FiveM runs on it stably and it is proven. Support for Enhanced (DX12) was announced by the FiveM team in March 2026, but it is still being finished. For RP right now it is definitely Legacy.

Cars and buildings load with a delay and show up gray

This is custom content streaming not keeping up with the game. First thing to check: GTA 5 and FiveM should be on an SSD, on an HDD this is unavoidable. Second: raise the Extended Texture Budget a little at a time and close background apps to free up RAM for streaming.

Which processor to get for FiveM?

FiveM likes high clock speed and fast per-core cache. Modern 6-8 core chips from Intel and Ryzen do well, and X3D processors (for example the 7800X3D) give a noticeable bonus on heavy RP servers thanks to the large L3 cache.