FiveM for GTA V Enhanced: GTA RP Gets Ray Tracing

For years, GTA RP has been stuck on a version of GTA 5 frozen in 2015: dated lighting, a networking stack duct-taped onto P2P, servers that buckle the moment you pack players in. That ceiling just came off. On July 21, 2026, Cfx.re launched FiveM for GTA V Enhanced in early access, open to everyone. Roleplay finally inherits ray tracing and a rebuilt engine. Here’s what changes, and what still gets in the way.

What happened on July 21

Cfx.re, the studio behind FiveM and Rockstar-owned since 2023, put a new version of its platform online on Tuesday, July 21, 2026: FiveM for GTA V Enhanced. It’s available to everyone, no invite needed. One crucial detail before anyone panics: it does not replace the FiveM you know. The old client, rebranded Legacy, keeps running in parallel. Enhanced is a separate client with its own server infrastructure.

The distinction matters, because the two aren’t built on the same version of the game. FiveM Legacy is tied to the original PC build of GTA 5. FiveM Enhanced plugs into GTA 5 Enhanced, the next-gen edition Rockstar handed to PC players for free on March 4, 2025, with ray tracing, global illumination, DLSS and FSR. That’s where all the upside comes from: roleplay picks up a renderer that was out of reach until now. New to all this? Our guide to getting started on FiveM covers the basics before you dive in.

Ray tracing, client-server, 120 Hz: what Enhanced actually changes

The obvious win is the image. On Enhanced servers, GTA RP natively gets ray-traced reflections and shadows, ambient occlusion and the global illumination of the 2025 build. Los Santos at night in the rain finally looks like a tech showcase, where Legacy topped out on a 2015-era engine.

The real revolution, though, is under the hood. Cfx.re didn’t just do a straight port: the studio rebuilt a large chunk of the platform. Three changes matter if you know what you’re looking at. First, dropping P2P for a proper client-server model, which cuts latency. Second, the new Cfx Server reportedly needs up to 50% less RAM per player while keeping OneSync’s scaling (hundreds of players, up to 2,048 on a single server). Third, sync climbs up to 120 times per second, versus 30 to 40 before: far cleaner vehicle positions and gunfire in fast-paced RP.

Legacy versus Enhanced: the quick comparison

To picture the jump, here’s what separates the two platforms, from the renderer to the netcode.

The early access catch

Before you migrate everything, a reality check is in order. “Early access” isn’t marketing dressing here: pieces are missing. The most sensitive one for the RP economy is Asset Escrow, the system that encrypts and protects scripts sold by creators. It is not implemented yet on Enhanced. Until it lands, a chunk of the developers who make a living from paid resources can’t switch over with any peace of mind. We broke that ecosystem down in our look at paid mods on the Cfx.re Marketplace.

Another limit: pure mode is permanently on and can’t be disabled. In practice, that means graphics mods are unusable during early access, which stings for a build whose whole pitch is better visuals. On the developer side, the move from Mono to .NET (with a .NET 10 SDK required) and the mandatory key-value store migration both mean real work. Backward compatibility for Lua, JavaScript and C# scripts is genuinely there, but it doesn’t erase those chores. If you’re building a machine for roleplay, our recommended PC specs for FiveM still hold up, and the Enhanced build will ask for more rather than less.

Why this is a turning point for GTA RP

Step back for a second. Not long ago, FiveM was a community project Rockstar eyed from a distance, barely tolerated. Since the Cfx.re acquisition in August 2023, the publisher owns the technology and now funds its engineering. Rebuilding OneSync, wiring roleplay into the next-gen engine, guaranteeing backward compatibility for a decade of resources: those are studio-scale projects, not weekend volunteer work.

This turn also closes a chapter. Take-Two shut down both historic rivals, as we covered for alt:V and RAGE:MP: FiveM reigns alone, and it just got more powerful. That leaves the big question hanging over the whole ecosystem: what happens to all that know-how when the next Grand Theft Auto arrives? We dig into that in our feature on FiveM-style community servers for GTA 6, and for the calendar, everything is in our rundown of the GTA 6 release date. In the meantime, GTA RP has never run better.