Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — a light title that runs on modest PCs: specs & FPS

2002 · Action · Rockstar North · ESRB Mature · Metacritic 94

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City cover art

Official system requirements

Publisher-published Minimum / Recommended values via RAWG, retrieved 2026-08-21. Real-world performance varies with drivers, resolution and your full build.

SpecMinimumRecommended
OSMinimum:—
ProcessorOS: Microsoft® Windows® 2000/XP—
MemoryProcessor: 800 MHz Intel Pentium III or 800 MHz AMD Athlon or 1.2GHz Intel Celeron or 1.2 GHz AMD Duron processor—
GraphicsMemory: 128 MB of RAM—
StorageGraphics: 32 MB video card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers ("GeForce" or better)—
DirectXDirectX Version: Microsoft DirectX® 9.0—
Item 7Hard Drive: 915 MB of free hard disk space (+ 635 MB if video card does NOT support DirectX Texture Compression)—
Item 8Sound Card: Sound Card with DirectX 9.0Recommended:—

Multi-GPU FPS estimate

Estimated average FPS by GPU at 1080p / 1440p / 4K, derived from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's demand tier (tier 2, Light (entry discrete GPU)) and published TechPowerUp-style relative-performance indices (RTX 4090 = 100), retrieved 2026-08-29. Planning estimates, not benchmarks.

GPU1080p1440p4K
RTX 4090392259149
RTX 4080 Super351232134
RTX 4080338223128
RX 7900 XTX375248143
RX 7900 XT351232134
RTX 4070 Ti Super300198114
RX 7800 XT300198114
RTX 4070 Super282186107
RTX 4070264175101
RX 7700 XT272179103
RTX 307024716394
RX 6800 XT296196113
RTX 4060 Ti21714383
RX 6700 XT264175101
RTX 306019913176
RX 6600 XT22514885
RTX 206018011968
GTX 1660 Super1499857
RX 58017211465
GTX 1060 6GB1419353
GTX 16501127443
Intel Arc A77022815187
UHD 770 (integrated)463017

Method: a game's demand tier maps to a “GPU index needed for ~60 FPS at 1080p”; each GPU's relative index produces an estimate via a diminishing-returns curve, then scaled for resolution. Source: TechPowerUp GPU database (relative performance), 2026-08-29.

For the full hardware spec sheet and a deeper performance breakdown, see Full specs & performance data on GameFigs.

Age rating & regional compliance

GameRulePro pairs each title with its ESRB age rating and, where documented, real regulatory notes on loot boxes, skin gambling and randomized monetization. Every line is source-linked and labeled with its retrieval date. This is an educational reference, not legal advice — verify the specifics that apply to your jurisdiction.

FieldValueSource
Age ratingESRB MatureESRB rating via RAWG.io, retrieved 2026-08-21.
Verify locally. No GameRulePro-curated regulatory note is indexed for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City yet. Jurisdiction-specific rules on randomized monetization, loot boxes and simulated gambling vary — confirm against the ESRB rating above and your regional authority before allowing purchases or play by minors.

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Best graphics settings for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Pick your PC and get a starting preset — resolution, upscaler, shadows, ray tracing and an FPS cap — tuned to how demanding Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is on hardware. Print it and tune from there. Everything runs in your browser.

Best graphics settings for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City hardware-demand tier: 2/9. Pick your PC above to get a starting preset, then tune up if you have FPS headroom or down if you're under your target.

Estimated starting point — real FPS depends on drivers, thermals and background load.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — Best settings (Mid-range (GTX 1660 – RTX 3060))

Resolution1920×1080
Upscaler (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)DLSS / FSR Balanced
ShadowsMedium
ReflectionsMedium
Ambient occlusionLow
TexturesMedium
Volumetric / effectsMedium
Ray tracingOff
Anisotropic filtering8x
FPS cap60–120 FPS
V-SyncOff (G-Sync / FreeSync if available)

Generated at GameRulePro · 2026-09-25

Release, patch & rule-change notes

Official release date: 2002-10-27. Ongoing patches and version history are published by the developer — for the latest patch notes, see the official store or support page. GameRulePro summarizes the official release only and does not invent patch dates. When a developer ships a rule-affecting update (balance pass, mode change, or ranked-reset), re-run the generator above to keep your house rules in sync.

SingleplayerMultiplayerAtmosphericGreat Soundtrack

About Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a third-person shooter with an open world. The game is set in a fictional city during the 1980’s and exhibits a unique design of locations, people, and objects, resembling the real world’s counterparts of Vice City, mainly Miami, FL. GTA: Vice City is a fourth game of the series, following Grand Theft Auto III. The main character is introduced as Tommy Vercetti, an Italian-American mobster who works for a wealthy crime family. Throughout the story, the player will observe as the protagonist rises the ranks, sometimes making decisions of questionable nobility or profit. Our goal as a player is to ensure that Vercetti becomes the boss of all of Vice City’s mafia, and various story characters will help us or prevent us from achieving this goal. The worlds of Grand Theft Auto series have long been worked upon and have been done in much detail, and Vice City is no different. The people on the sidewalks, the stylish cars and neon light clubs, the sky-high buildings and lively piers and beaches, everything will bring nostalgic feelings to those of players, whose eyes have seen the glory of this time. The gameplay, however, bears little difference from its predecessor, continuing the trend of big guns, explosions, and cop chases.

Performance reality & how to tune Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

GameRulePro editorial — these notes are based on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's published specifications and genre profile, not a single benchmark run. Use them to set expectations before you open the settings menu.

As a 2002 action title, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City sits at demand tier 2 (Light (entry discrete GPU)) — light on PC. It is light enough for older hardware and even integrated graphics at lower settings.

What to tune first on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

  • Start from the Best graphics settings generator on this page for a hardware-matched preset.
  • Shadows and post-processing effects are usually the cheapest FPS wins.
  • If you crash or stutter, jump to the crash-fix and optimization guides linked below.

The FPS table above is a model estimate from the demand-tier + GPU-index method. Real frame rates vary with drivers, background apps, thermals and resolution. Treat it as a buying or upgrade planning aid, then verify in-game. For step-by-step fixes, see the crash-fix and optimization guides linked on this page.

● Data updated 2026-09-09

Sources & attribution

  • Game data (release year, genres, platforms, system requirements, description, cover art) via RAWG.io, retrieved 2026-08-21.
  • GPU relative-performance indices via TechPowerUp GPU database (relative performance), retrieved 2026-08-29.
  • FPS estimates on this page are GameRulePro planning estimates from the demand-tier + GPU-index model — not benchmark results.
  • House rules and tournament formats are community-style templates for casual play, not official rulebooks.
  • Pre-launch intelligence (release windows, settings, editions, pricing, beta dates) is compiled from each title's official publisher / studio announcements and is source-linked per item with its retrieval date (2026-09-09). Where a detail is from reporting rather than a primary source, the item's source line states so. This is preview material, not an official specification.
  • Per-game age-rating & regional compliance reference (ESRB rating via RAWG; curated regulatory notes) from the GameRulePro game-rules dataset, retrieved 2026-08-29.
How the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City FPS estimate and rules generator are computed

Each game is scored on a 0–9 demand tier from its published PC requirements (and a year/genre fallback when requirements are absent). The FPS estimate compares your selected GPU's relative-performance index against the tier's required index using a diminishing-returns curve, then scales for resolution. The rules and tournament builder is a community-style template engine: it formats your group size, match format and tiebreaks into a printable sheet. All outputs are planning guides — verify in-game and agree house rules with your group before play.

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