Grand Theft Auto VI has been hogging the limelight lately, and for all the wrong reasons. Hackers have been leaking bits of gameplay and other info online, and gamers are gobbling it up ahead of the expected November 19, 2026, release date.
I’m trying to avoid as many spoilers as possible by not viewing the leaks, and besides, I have something better to keep me busy until GTA VI’s official launch.
I’m talking about the Grand Theft Auto IV RTX Remix mod that adds Path Tracing to the 18-year-old game.
It’s the work of a modder known as xoxor4d, who last week released version 1.4.2 of the mod on GitHub. The mod is compatible with GTA IV: The Complete Edition version 1.2.0.59, and it truly makes the 2008 car-jacking hit feel like it was released in 2026.
What does the RTX Remix mod do to Grand Theft Auto IV?
I know that the GTA IV Remix mod has been out for a while now, but I hadn’t been following it that closely. Oh boy, it has come a long way since launch, and it’s great to see the project’s creator is keeping up with maintenance and new features.
I was reintroduced to the project via the maxrenderedgaming YouTube channel, where the mod was shown off using an NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU.
There are certainly some other mods at play here, which I dig into a bit deeper below, but one thing is for sure: this is an incredible mod that changes the whole grimy, gray feel of the original game.
GTA IV arrived all those years ago with graphics that seemed mind-blowingly good, as is usually the case with Rockstar titles. Looking at the game’s stock graphics now, well, you can tell that they’re from a bygone era.
The RTX Remix mod drastically changes the appearance. The game’s default static lighting has been replaced entirely with full path tracing, making rays jump and bounce off of surfaces quite realistically. Dynamic shadows look better than ever. It really is the best I’ve ever seen Liberty City look.
My plan is to first get the RTX Remix compatibility mod set up from the project’s GitHub page. Next, I’m going to download the 4K Textures Warcaco Graphics Mod to really see what my PC’s RTX 5070 Ti can handle.
Here are some screenshots from the texture mod that I know will make you want to play GTA IV again, too.
(Image credit: Warcaco (Nexus Mods))
To say that this combination makes GTA IV look like a completely different game is an understatement. However, you’re going to need a beast of a PC if you want to run this combination with any sort of playable success.
The demo video I provided above has the modded game dropping as low as about 60 FPS in some areas, and the GitHub project page notes that your CPU will likely be a bottleneck due to “the amount of detailed meshes the game is rendering.“
Be that as it may, I definitely think any fans of GTA should give this one a shot just to see how it performs on their hardware.
NVIDIA’s RTX Remix is a big deal, and not just because of one mod
I know, I know, more AI from NVIDIA’s RTX division. Some of you might not want to hear of it, but I’m convinced that Remix is the real deal.
Remix arrived in January 2024 as an open-source and free tool, and it’s been under development since. It’s a clever way to inject path tracing, upscaling, and other materials into old favorites without needing any source code access.
Anyone with the right ambition can give Remix a shot, and there are some other projects I recommend checking out. Portal with RTX and Half-Life 2 RTX are probably the best examples, but they were spearheaded by NVIDIA. It’s great to see lone developers jumping into the tool to create their own works.
Considering GTA VI isn’t expected to launch with path tracing, and the fact that GTA V only supports ray tracing, this might be the best way to play Grand Theft Auto until the next installment arrives.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
