GTA V - PC vs PS4 comparison

Note: Not trying to fuel PC vs Console nonsense, I just was genuinely curious about what improvements Rockstar packed into the PC version and wanted to share my results. This isn't a super detailed comparison, if you're interested in a more in-depth comparison I'm sure Eurogamer's Digital Foundry will have one up in the coming days.

I wanted to see how the PC version stacks up against the PS4 version with (almost)everything maxed out, so I decided to take some screenshots since I own both versions to see how they compare. Unfortunately there's some slight compression since PS4 doesn't save uncompressed screenshots(to my knowledge) and I also forgot to enable uncompressed screenshots on Steam.

PC version was running with everything maxed out, except AA was set to FXAA only(PS4's AA seems slightly better than PC's FXAA, but also produces a slightly blurrier result) and Shadows were set to Softest instead of PCSS, as I was already stressing the limits of my rig. DoF and motion blur was disabled on both the PC and PS4 versions. Everything else was set to the highest possible value on PC, including the Advanced Graphics options. Time of day was matched on both versions, but there's still some differences in lighting due to the dynamic weather effects.

Specs: Intel i7 3770k 3.5 Ghz, 8GB RAM, GTX 780

Framerate was all over the place with these settings, from 20-30fps around grassy areas and wide vistas to 60-70fps when running/driving inside the city. Kinda makes me wonder what performance would be like on console if framerate was unlocked.

Anyway, here's some of the more noticeable differences. For best results, right click the image and open in new tab, and zoom in if the image is shrinked by your browser, then switch between tabs to play 'spot the difference'. c:

-Significant increase in detail rendered from afar.

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PC

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PS4

-Reflections look considerably sharper. On the downside, this can make the lack of detail on the reflected world more obvious. :p

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PC

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PS4

-Textures on faraway signs look a bit sharper, and tessellation starts to kick in at a longer distance(palm tree to the left). Tessellation in GTA V only seems to be used on palm trees/tree trunks from what I've seen. Characters/cars/buildings seem completely unaffected by this setting.

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PC

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PS4

-PS4 has some sort of bloom effect that blows up some bright highlights, this effect doesn't seem to be present on PC, even with Post FX set to Ultra.

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PC

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PS4

-Ultra setting for grass is super neat, but also quite taxing.

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PC

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PS4

-Car headlights cast shadows on PC.

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PC

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PS4

Overall, I'd say the difference isn't massive, but it's there. The most noticeable improvements are grass set to Ultra and headlights casting shadows.

I didn't do tests for pop-in, traffic and pedestrians, but I did notice less pop-in on PC when driving around fast and didn't really see a difference in traffic/pedestrian amount, but did experience less repeated car models on PC when running around the city.

If you're wondering what my experience is when I optimize the settings for better performance with my rig, I get pretty much identical graphics as the PS4 with slightly worse AA, and on the plus side car headlights actually cast shadows and I get between 70-100 fps. :p

Full gallery is here: http://imgur.com/a/ohqoR#0

Some shots in the gallery have hands in the way because I failed to notice the idle animations as I was taking those screenshots. u_u