Rockstar has revealed the details for Grand Theft Auto Online’s upcoming next-gen update for PC.
As reported by RockstarIntel, the update will be available to all PC players on March 5, 2025. And the big news is that it’s completely free! PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X players had to pay for their next-gen upgrade, so this was a generous and very big move on Rockstar’s part.
But that move also comes with a huge caveat. Because this is a real upgrade to the PC version, this upgrade also raises the bar on minimum and recommended specs. At its best, you’ll need to get your configuration set up to be Direct-Storage compatible. But even at minimum, you have to upgrade your storage from HDD to SSD, and use 105 GB.
Obviously, this means not everyone, and in fact most players, won’t be able to take advantage of this upgrade. Rockstar has made it clear that they will continue to support the older version of Grand Theft Auto Online, and they will also keep Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V as separate games. Subsequently, FiveM told players to stay on the older version of the game, because they will stay there for now.
But players should not doubt that the Grand Theft Auto Online next-gen update is absolutely worthwhile. Aside from the QOL upgrades and additional content, this update leverages whatever technology you can have on your gaming PC.
Grand Theft Auto Online on PC is ready to support AMD FSR1, FSR3, and Nvidia DLSS 3. It also has ray traced shadows and reflections, as they originally appeared on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, as well as new PC only ray tracing features, such as ambient occlusion and global illumination.
Of course, this next-gen upgrade gives you access to Hao’s Special Works, and alongside that there will be completely new vehicles that will be added in. Other new features include a new Landing page, a Career Progress feature, and Dolby Atmos enhanced audio support.
Now, if you already play Grand Theft Auto Online on PC and would like to upgrade, you can transfer your progress between the old and new games. This will be the same upgrade system that Rockstar arranged for on consoles, so you can maintain saves on both the older and newer PC version separately.
That will, of course, be useful if you are on FiveM, or just have online Grand Theft Auto Online friends who won’t be doing the switch. Even new buyers of Grand Theft Auto Online will get to choose to play either or both versions, so this really is that rare Rockstar Games update that’s good news for everyone.
