Summary
With the progression of gaming hardware, particularly on PCs, the de facto minimum frames per second (FPS) that people expect for a “smooth” experience jumped from 30 to 60 FPS. As such, there can be a sense of disappointment when modern consoles resort to running AAA games at 30 FPS to preserve performance and graphical fidelity.Grand Theft Auto 6is expected to launch as early as 2025, according to official reports, and this means that it’s likely going to take advantage of the PlayStation 5 Pro’s upgraded hardware as the console’s target release date is around November 2024. However, recent analysis from experts found that the much-awaitedGTA 6may not run on 60 FPS on the PS5 Pro.
It’s been over a decade sinceGTA 5was released, and while it continues to sell well into 2024, developer Rockstar Games is ready to turn a new leaf. It officiallyannouncedGTA 6in a trailer that passed 175 million viewswithin 24 hours. The trailer boasts massively improved graphics and denser populations compared toGTA 5, which will look to be a challenge for today’s consoles. While people did have high hopes for the PS5 Pro to run this title at a high frame rate, these hopes have been dashed by a recent Digital Foundry video.
The PS5 Pro Hardware Leaks and Why Digital Foundry Thinks it Can’t Run GTA 6 at 60 FPS
The recentPS5 Pro spec leakshave stirred endless speculation about what it can achieve. The rumored console could offer the following benefits:
According to the leakers, this information was acquired from a developer-only portal. Insider Gaming also found thatdevkits for the PS5 Prowere already distributed back in September 2023, so it’s likely that the Rockstar staff is already optimizingGTA 6for this new model.
GTA 6 May Not Run on 60 FPS on Current-Gen Consoles
Digital Foundry is one of the most trusted gaming hardware testing content creators in the scene. They’ve been providing their expert analysis to gaming publications since 2004 and its YouTube channel is popular for its frame-rate analysis using custom testing tools. DF’s founder, Richard Leadbetter, recently discussed the PS5 Pro’s possible central processing unit (CPU) and its capability to runGTA 6in DF’s podcast. He found that the Pro could be running the same 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU as the base model, but it could have a “high CPU frequency mode,” which would add about 10% better performance.
Grand Theft Autogames have large and densely populated settings, which stresses a device’s computing capabilities more than its graphics processing performance.
As such, a powerful CPU is essential to runGTA 6’s sprawling Vice City at a high frame rate. As such, Leadbetter and his colleagues, DF video producer Alex Battaglia and contributor Oliver Mackenzie, speculated that the game will likely target 30 FPS for current-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. They also stated that this will be the case for the PS5 Pro as well, simply because this console’s supposed CPU won’t be much of an upgrade compared to the base model. As such, players should adjust their expectations accordingly.
It would be a welcome surprise if Rockstar somehow pulled off some optimization magic and made the game run at 60 FPS without making significant sacrifices to the game’s overall quality. However, with rumors of internal issues possiblydelayingGTA 6’s release to 2026, players may have to sit tight and wait for the next console generation to play this game at the silky smooth frame rate they desire.
Grand Theft Auto 6
WHERE TO PLAY
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.
