5 GTA San Andreas mods for an enhanced experience in 2025

Modified Mar 11, 2025 15:26 GMT

There are plenty of GTA San Andreas mods available in 2025. This two-decade old Rockstar Games title is already quite fun in its vanilla avatar, but mods can help make it even better. Just like how the recently released GTA 5 Enhanced has improved aspects of that title's original PC port, mods can be used to enhance San Andreas' several elements.

In this article, we will take a look at five GTA San Andreas mods for an enhanced experience in 2025. They are meant for the original PC port and not the Definitive Edition remaster.

Note: All GTA San Andreas mods mentioned in the article are third-party add-ons. Readers are advised to use them at their own discretion.

Natural S.A (Reshade) and other GTA San Andreas mods for an enhanced experience in 2025

1) GTA Stars and Stripes

San Andreas' default map features three major cities, along with some small towns and the countryside. For those who want more, the GTA Stars and Stripes mod seems like the perfect choice.

It greatly expands the map by adding new locations based on actual USA cities, including Grand Theft Auto's iconic Liberty City and Vice City. Additionally, there are fresh vehicles, weapons, as well as properties to check out in what is one of the most ambitious GTA San Andreas mods to date.

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2) RGGSA 2.0

GTA 5 Ray Tracing features in its new Enhanced version improve the in-game lighting by simulating it in a natural and realistic manner. The RGGSA 2.0 mod for GTA San Andreas does not have the same effect as Ray Tracing, but it does help in significantly enhancing the title's vanilla lighting.

It features highly dynamic lighting, new puddles, as well as highly reflective surfaces for water bodies, vehicles, and more. Volumetric fog is another aspect of this mod, all of which results in up-to-date visual effects for San Andreas in 2025.

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3) Natural S.A (Reshade)

A comparison of the vanilla and reshade mod effect (Image via Nexus Mods)

Next on this list of GTA San Andreas mods for an enhanced experience is Natural S.A (Reshade). It also concerns the in-game lighting, and, as the name suggests, aims to provide a natural iteration of it.

It does seem to replace the signature orange-ish screen filter, and the cooler tone effect introduced by the mod also fits San Andreas' environment quite well.

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4) GTA V HUD For GTA SA

Here's a look at the modded weapon wheel and rectangular radar (Image via Nexus Mods)

GTA V HUD For GTA SA is one of the best GTA San Andreas mods for those who prefer Grand Theft Auto 5's HUD. It features a Grand Theft Auto 5-like weapon wheel, that should make the user experience more convenient. It replaces the title's classic circular radar with a rectangular one, with health and armor levels being displayed below it.

The mod even makes cops visible on the radar, like modern Grand Theft Auto titles, and introduces a new method of getting rid of wanted level stars, along with lots of other changes.

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5) High Definition Carl Johnson

CJ's modded high definition character model (Image via Nexus Mods)

Carl "CJ" Johnson is GTA San Andreas' protagonist, and it only makes sense for his character model to be high quality. While the original model is good enough for 2004's standards, it does call for a bit of enhancement in 2025.

There are many texture improvement-related GTA San Andreas mods, but High Definition Carl Johnson focuses only on improving the protagonist's character model. The modded model doesn't stay too far from the game's signature texture style, but makes CJ look more detailed.

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Edited by Ritoban "Veloxi" Paul