It is regarded as a crown jewel in the series and is the most played version of the game by over 63%. This brings no surprise that GTA 5 is definitely CPU and GPU intensive, although it has been a brilliantly optimised game thus far.

Is GTA 5 GPU or CPU bound?

As you can see, GTA V is quite CPU bound and this is evident by the performance gains seen when moving from the Core i3 to the Core i5 (around 20%).

Is GTA 5 Online CPU or GPU intensive?

It's a GPU intensive game. A small change in the graphics compartment can affect the gameplay hugely.