Rockstar has announced that Grand Theft Auto V on PC is getting a free upgrade, rolling in all the enhancements that were made for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S back in 2022. This includes new vehicles at Hao’s Special Works, animal encounters, improved graphics, faster load times and more.
The free upgrade will available from 4th March 2025.
Instead of just being a patch to download, this will be a new version of GTA V, and though it will be dished out for free, it will come with a one-time character migration for story and online, and will not be backward compatible for play between versions.
That’s… quite odd, though can be pinned on the increased system requirements for graphical changes. It’s also quite odd that Rockstar are getting round to this now, three years after the same upgrade came to consoles. At the very least, they’re not trying to double-dip on this for PC, considering the triple-dip that console players saw!
Here’s the breakdown from Rockstar:
- Enjoy a range of new vehicles and upgrades at Hao’s Special Works (HSW) that push automotive performance to new heights, and test your driving skills with Premium Test Rides, HSW Races, and HSW Time Trials.
- Encounter Ambient Animals all across Southern San Andreas and take pictures of them to participate in the daily Wildlife Photography Challenge for new rewards.
- PC players can sign up for GTA+ Membership to get special benefits in the upgraded version of GTA Online and beyond.
- Track your criminal movements across all of GTA Online’s updates with the Career Progress feature as you build your empire.
- Navigate a refreshed Landing Page as your starting destination to get straight into the action. Plus, take advantage of an improved introductory flow for newer players with a GTA$4,000,000 windfall to buy property, vehicles, and other items as you start off as an Executive, Gunrunner, Nightclub Owner or Biker in the Career Builder.
On the technical side of things, there’s also:
- Ray tracing features only available on PC such as ambient occlusion and global illumination — plus ray traced shadows and reflections first debuted on consoles
- Support for AMD FSR1 and FSR3, and NVIDIA DLSS 3
- Faster loading times using SSD and DirectStorage on supported devices and configurations
- Enhanced support for higher resolutions, higher aspect ratios, and higher framerates
- DualSense controller support, with adaptive triggers
- Enhanced audio with support for Dolby Atmos and improved fidelity of speech, cinematics, and music
The reason why this is an optional upgrade is that the minimum requirements have increased. In particular on the GPU side of things, you’re jumping forward to the GeForce 1630 and Radeon 6400, compared to the GeForce 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB. You also need to run the game from an SSD.
One final oddity, this is all happening less than a year before the expected launch of GTA 6. Take Two has repeatedly affirmed that GTA 6 is expected to launch in late 2025, since stating this release window last May. That release is only for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, though, with Rockstar always preferring to turn to the PC after the consoles. Recent reports have suggested that GTA 6 could come to PC in early 2026, but we’ll just have to wait and see on that.
Source: press release
