Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open-world action-adventure game where you control CJ across a massive map spanning three cities, countryside, and desert in a stylized 1990s California. Most players today experience it through the original PC version on Steam, completing the story missions, 100% checklist, vehicle chases, shooting, and side activities while heavily modifying the game with graphical overhauls, new cars, and multiplayer servers via SA-MP. At 1440p, the original low-resolution models and textures show their age more clearly, especially on large monitors, so players commonly add SkyGfx, HD texture packs, ENB presets, and Reshade for improved lighting, shadows, and draw distance. This resolution increases pixel load noticeably compared to the base game, which was designed for much lower resolutions. Performance is driven by a mix of the engine's single-threaded CPU work handling pedestrian AI, vehicle physics, and crowd density alongside the GPU dealing with modern shader effects and higher-resolution rendering. Common pain points include sudden frame drops when ENB is enabled, crashes from incompatible mods on modern Windows, and the engine's tendency to lock or behave strangely when uncapped beyond its original limits. Many builders mistakenly over-invest in raw CPU cores expecting modern game behavior, when the real need is stable single-thread performance paired with enough GPU headroom for visual mods. Before choosing parts, understand that the base game is extremely light but mods flip the balance toward GPU demands, making a capable graphics card essential for comfortable 1440p play.