GTA 6 Server Optimization

The basic things to optimize are simple: better CPU, NVMe, turn on DDoS protection. The advanced tactics are where the real wins happen. If you've done all that and your server is still slow, these are for you.

Profile before you optimize

All guides preaching optimizations without profiling first are wrong. The script you think is slow is usually fine. It's the one you forgot about that's hogging 40% of CPU. Use a profiler.

• FXServer comes with a built-in resmon (F11 in-game) that shows each resource's CPU usage on GTA 5. Similar functionality will likely be available for GTA 6.
• Database slow query log identifies the SQL queries slowing you down.
• Linux perf top and pidstat tell you what your OS is spending CPU cycles on.

Database tuning wins

Most problems that look like "server is slow" are actually database-related problems. Look here first:

1. Slow query log. Anything over 100 ms is a problem.
2. Missing indexes. Make sure your player lookup by Discord ID is indexed.
3. Database connections running out. If scripts hang, check your max_connections.
4. Table bloat. Vacuum your tables periodically if you're using Postgres. Run OPTIMIZE TABLE occasionally if you're using MariaDB.

Proper database tuning often doubles your effective server capacity.

Resource limits per script

Resources (scripts) run at different costs. One might cost 8 ms per tick, another 0.2 ms, so you know which one to concentrate on. Typical offenders:

• Polling loops that operate every tick instead of every second.
• Overly broad entity queries, such as those that scan all vehicles on the server.
• Lots of string manipulation in performance-critical code.
• Database calls that block the main thread.

Streaming and entity budget

Cut down on what the game has to replicate.

• Cull NPCs aggressively.
• Limit dynamic object spawns.
• Adjust streaming distances based on player class (players on foot shouldn't need a 500 m view distance).
• Delete vehicles on abandonment instead of allowing them to accumulate.

Caching

Cache data that doesn't need to be requested fresh every time.

• Player stats (cache read, DB write on update).
• Frequently-read config values.
• Whitelisted player lists.
• Geolocation data.

Running Redis locally is perfectly acceptable for most GTA servers. A 50 ms lookup trumps a 5 ms lookup when the 5 ms one occurs 1,000 times each tick.

Common mistakes in optimization

• Jumping straight to new hardware before profiling. You're covering up the real issue.
• Unnecessary tuning of things that were already fine. Most default configs are sensible.
• Optimizing code that isn't on the hot path. Save the effort for the slow paths.
• Failing to measure after making a change. "It feels faster" is not optimization.

Related reading

Basics are covered in our performance guide. For CPU, read the CPU bottleneck guide. For latency, see the latency optimization guide.