Will upgrading my graphics card help my problem in GTA V?

[EdTheNerd]

Before I start, this is my setup:

i5 4690K

MSI GTX 970 4G

16 Gigs of RAM

Windows 10 Home

So in GTA V I play on Very High settings with VSync (my monitor doesn't have a high refresh rate) and I get a solid 60 fps. But when I enter the city or an area with a lot of cars and people, I will lag from the world loading in, like a lag spike. I was wondering if I could fix the problem by getting a more powerful GPU or SLI the one I have now. Or is the problem I am having a CPU problem? I will give a link to my settings:

http://imgur.com/a/KetW7

P.S. even if I lower my distance and graphics settings I will still get lag from loading most of the time.

 

[Supernova1138]

A lag spike from the world loading in may be caused by your storage, eg. you have an old and slow hard drive. Installing the game to an SSD if you have one might help in this case. The other possibility is a CPU bottleneck, GTA V is pretty CPU heavy and can benefit from having more than 4 cores and 4 threads on an Intel CPU, though overclocking your 4690k could also help. Upgrading your GPU isn't really going to benefit you unless you want more than 60FPS, you want to run thegame at a higher resolution, or you want the ability to turn on the advanced graphical features without tanking your framerate.

 

[EdTheNerd]

A lag spike from the world loading in may be caused by your storage, eg. you have an old and slow hard drive. Installing the game to an SSD if you have one might help in this case. The other possibility is a CPU bottleneck, GTA V is pretty CPU heavy and can benefit from having more than 4 cores and 4 threads on an Intel CPU, though overclocking your 4690k could also help. Upgrading your GPU isn't really going to benefit you unless you want more than 60FPS, you want to run thegame at a higher resolution, or you want the ability to turn on the advanced graphical features without tanking your framerate.

I have the game files on my HDD and I do have a SSD. The HDD is a WD Blue WD10EZEX and the SSD is a Samsung 850 Evo. I am willing to buy a new CPU but do you think switching to my SSD would help or should I just buy a new CPU, a i7 perhaps?

 

[Supernova1138]

If you have space on the SSD, I'd try moving the game there first and see if that helps with your problem before buying any new stuff. If moving the game to the SSD doesn't help, I'd look at overclocking the CPU a bit and see if that improves performance. Moving to an i7 is really pricey,and you should be able to maintain 60FPS on an i5. One other thing to consider is if you're using the Self Radio system that might be causing performance problems, it uses a crazy amount of CPU for what it does and can cause lag spikes in the city environments where the game's CPU usage also increases.

 

[EdTheNerd]

I re-downloaded GTA V on my SSD, the problem still happened. I will try to overclock in the morning and see what that does. Also, I have had the processor ever since 2014 and I have some spare cash to upgrade, but I can always overclock. Correct me if I am wrong, it is ok to overclock your CPU as long as you keep the temps low?

 

[Supernova1138]

You want to keep your core temps under 72 celsius for extended use. You don't want to bump the voltage up too high either, I think the maximum safe voltage for Haswell is 1.35V. I'm sure there is a guide in the overclocking subforum if you need more detailed instructions. Be aware you need a Z87 or Z97 motherboard to overclock, and you do need an aftermarket CPU cooler if you don't already have one, the stock cooler is really only adequate for stock speeds.

 

[EdTheNerd]

You want to keep your core temps under 72 celsius for extended use. You don't want to bump the voltage up too high either, I think the maximum safe voltage for Haswell is 1.35V. I'm sure there is a guide in the overclocking subforum if you need more detailed instructions. Be aware you need a Z87 or Z97 motherboard to overclock, and you do need an aftermarket CPU cooler if you don't already have one, the stock cooler is really only adequate for stock speeds.

I have an ASUS z97-a Motherboard and a Corsair 212 EVO CPU fan. I just tried out overclocking and I got a solid 60 fps, under 60 C, fps never went under 60, all lag was gone. So I guess the solution is to overclock