Official Grand Theft Auto V website hints at 720p max resolution

Having done some sneaking around on the official Grand Theft Auto V website – we have found some indications that GTA V will be running at 720p resolution natively and not 1080p. Of course this probably won’t be a shock to most of us even at this late stage of the current generation as GTA V is looking to push its boundaries in terms of size and expectations and heck if GTA IV couldn’t run at 1080P natively it was always going to be very unlikely that GTA V could push its resolution out further with what it is looking to achieve.

Initially we were in search for the GTA V map to be hidden somewhere in the website’s directory and after about half an hour of trying to find it we eventually gave up (it isn’t there – trust us!). However we did find that the screenshots posted on the website were posted at 720p max resolution, we tried various ways to get the website to produce a bigger image of the screenshot but we returned empty handed.

Our 720p screenshot theory

For Example: If you navigate to the screenshots section of the website found here: GTA V Screenshots. Then pick any screenshot, once it is loaded it will be displayed at a smaller resolution which is 960×540 which isn’t even close to 720 but don’ worry as in reality the website is down-scaling the original image i.e displaying the bigger image smaller.

Looking at the image’s actual URL link you would see something like the following: http://www.rockstargames.com/V/screenshots/screenshot/1268/1280.jpg.

Breaking this link down specifically the last numbers 1280 – this number refers to the width of the image. 1280×768 is the actual resolution of the image which in fact is 720p as seen by the chart below:

Generally when uploading images to a website it will create variations of the image and make smaller versions (thumbnails). For example if we change the last number of the UR to 480 this will in turn return a 480P image: http://www.rockstargames.com/V/screenshots/screenshot/1268/480.jpg. Having changed the last number to 1080 the website returns a page cannot be found 404 error. This clearly indicates to us that these images don’t exist and the reason for this is because the game isn’t running at 1080P natively.

Our 720p youtube theory

Another source that indicates that 720p will be the maximum native resolution for GTA V is the Youtube trailers and gameplay videos Rockstar have posted on their own channel. The maximum resolution you can watch this video is of course as you guessed if you read the article 720p. One of these trailers are embedded below so you can see for yourself:

So what do you think about GTA V running at 720p max resolution? Personally it doesn’t bother us but I’m sure some of you may have had higher expectations or wanted to get the full value of your expensive 1080p TVs. Let us know in the comments section below!