RTX 5090 Performance Testing In GTA 5 – 1080p, 1440p, and 4K Max Settings Benchmark

A detailed analysis of how the RTX 5090 handles GTA 5 at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K maximum settings

Hardware by Katmin on Jun 02, 2025

Since Grand Theft Auto VI is coming soon and it's going to put a heavy load on my GPU, I decided to test Grand Theft Auto V on GeForce RTX 5090 to see how it handles various resolutions with maxed-out settings. This is the Founders Edition of the card, and I'm not overclocking it because it already draws 575 W. Let's dive into the benchmarks.

RTX 5090, Performance, Testing In GTA 5, 1080p, 1440p, 4k, Max Settings, Benchmark, NoobFeed

System Specifications

I paired the RTX 5090 with a Ryzen 7 9800X 3D CPU (currently the fastest gaming CPU on the market) and 32 GB of DDR5 6000 MHz RAM (CL30) in dual-channel.

GTA 5 with fully maxed-out settings, including 8× MSAA, Ultra post effects (except motion blur), and advanced graphics turned on.

I'm using a mod to unlock the FPS cap of 188 FPS and to resolve engine-related stuttering that occurs when approaching this limit. Without the mod, GTA 5 is capped at 188 fps and stutters heavily near that threshold.

1080p Max Settings / 8× MSAA

At 1080p with every setting maxed out (including Ultra post effects, except motion blur), we reached 188 + FPS thanks to the mod that unlocks the engine cap. I'm CPU-bound with the Ryzen 7 9800X 3D—GTA 5 is an older game (2013/2015) that doesn't scale well across many cores.

Despite this, I observed 69% GPU utilization in less demanding scenes, indicating that 1080p is too low a resolution to fully utilize the RTX 5090.

In vegetation-heavy areas (e.g., hillsides), GPU usage rose to 95%, and I finally became GPU-bound. Even with 8× MSAA enabled at 1080p, the CPU prevented the GPU from reaching full utilization in open areas of the city.

It's clear that 1080p can hit very high frame rates (200 + FPS) with this CPU-GPU combo, but it's not challenging enough for the RTX 5090—unless you have a 360 Hz 1080p monitor and want to exploit every drop of performance.

Disabling MSAA at 1080p resulted in a slight performance jump, but GPU usage remained around 70% in most city areas. Although disabling MSAA reduced some load on the GPU, I was still CPU-limited in open areas and only achieved 97% GPU usage within dense vegetation.

RTX 5090, Performance, Testing In GTA 5, 1080p, 1440p, 4k, Max Settings, Benchmark, NoobFeed

1440p Max Settings / 8× MSAA

Increasing the resolution to 1440p with all settings maxed out (8× MSAA, Ultra post-effects, advanced graphics enabled) resulted in GPU utilization reaching 98% in dense hillside environments.

I consistently saw 200+ FPS in open city areas and 120–180 FPS in vegetation regions. At 1440p, the 27-inch high-PPI monitors look phenomenal with 8× MSAA, and the RTX 5090 finally starts to flex its muscles.

Disabling MSAA at 1440p yielded roughly the same FPS in foliage-heavy areas, with GPU usage around 50% in open city scenes, indicating that I was again CPU-bound in some sections.

However, when venturing into dense vegetation, GPU usage soared to 97%, and frame rates remained above 200 FPS across the board. Overall, 1440p is still "too low" to fully challenge the RTX 5090, but it delivers a buttery-smooth experience at extremely high refresh rates.

RTX 5090, Performance, Testing In GTA 5, 1080p, 1440p, 4k, Max Settings, Benchmark, NoobFeed

4K Max Settings / 8× MSAA

At native 4K with every setting maxed out, including 8× MSAA and Ultra post effects, the RTX 5090 held up incredibly well. Looking down at the city from above, I recorded 100 + FPS. In dense vegetation on hillside sections, however, frame rates dropped due to 8× MSAA being very demanding, yet they never fell below 60 FPS.

During a skydiving scenario (using a cheat to invoke Skyfall continuously), I counted an average of 143 FPS floating above the city. Inside foliage areas, the ribdrops occurred, but the game never dipped below 60 FPS.

I did note that Ultra post effects (particularly bloom) are overpowering, so I prefer lower post effects personally. Disabling post-effects or setting them to Low can significantly improve performance.

With 4× MSAA at 4K, the RTX 5090 achieved over 200 FPS in open areas and hovered around 170–180 FPS in foliage sections, with 99% GPU usage. This combination (4× MSAA at 4K) is arguably the ideal ratio of performance to visual quality.

Many titles today with open worlds stutter, but GTA 5 remains spectacularly smooth, even at 4K Ultra settings, thanks to years of optimization since its 2013/2015 release.

RTX 5090, Performance, Testing In GTA 5, 1080p, 1440p, 4k, Max Settings, Benchmark, NoobFeed

Final Thoughts

Overall, the GeForce RTX 5090 proves to be a phenomenal performer in GTA 5 across multiple resolutions. At 1080p and 1440p, the CPU remains the primary bottleneck, delivering over 200 FPS in most scenarios but not fully taxing the GPU.

At native 4K with 8× MSAA and Ultra post effects, the RTX 5090 consistently holds above 60 FPS—even in dense foliage—while 4× MSAA pushes frame rates beyond 170 FPS with nearly 100% GPU utilization.

4K with 4× MSAA is the ideal sweet spot for anyone seeking the optimal balance between performance and image quality.

In the end, the RTX 5090 demonstrates its enormous capability by providing fluid, high-refresh-rate gameplay at up to 4K Ultra settings, proving that it can easily provide a remarkable Grand Theft Auto 5 experience.

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