GTA 5 graphics quality: Xbox 360 vs. PS3
Unlike GTA 4, where there was a huge difference between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, both consoles register almost identical graphics quality in GTA 5. PS3 users will note that GTA 5 looks a lot sharper than GTA 4, due to increasing the resolution of the frame buffer to 1280×720 (the same as the Xbox 360), and removal of the Vaseline blur that made the entire world look soft.
In side-by-side comparisons of both still screenshots and video, the GTA 5 looks almost identical on the PS3 and Xbox 360. There are some minor differences, such as slightly more detailed trees on the Xbox 360, and lower-quality mirror reflections on the PS3. The 360 also suffers from some texture-streaming issues, probably caused bandwidth limitations, which can cause some blurrier textures. Eurogamer notes that this issue can be ameliorated by installing the GTA 5′s Play disc to a USB flash drive.
GTA 5 performance: Xbox 360 vs. PS3
Again, just as with GTA 4, a lot of the PS3′s performance issues have been addressed with GTA 5. The Xbox 360 still has a slight edge on the PS3 when it comes to performance in GTA 5, but for the most part both consoles stick solidly to the target of 30 frames per second. Both consoles dip to 20 fps on occasion, when there’s too many polygons on-screen, but there’s no real difference between the two.
All told, Grand Theft Auto 5 will look and perform almost equally on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Overall, visual quality is slightly higher on the PS3, due to the Xbox’s texture streaming issues. It’s odd that, despite the huge architectural differences between the two consoles, the ultimate decider for the seventh generation’s magnum opus title, comes down to the Xbox’s weaker ability to stream textures from DVDs.