by Way back in March 2024, we considered the arguments for and against when it came to the prospect of a 60fps version of Grand Theft Auto 6 on current-gen consoles: Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS5 and PS5 Pro. We came to the conclusion that a 60fps mode was unlikely at best, even for the then-announced PS5 Pro, due to the sort of game that GTA 6 is: heavily simulation-focused, pushing significant RT effects and set in a huge open world. Two years later, the prospect of a 60fps GTA 6 is still the matter of intense debate on Reddit and elsewhere, so I thought it would be interesting to revisit the conversation based on what we've learned since we last covered the topic here.
After all, in that time period, we've seen the release of the impressive "Trailer 2", which provides a more comprehensive view of GTA 6's Leonida setting, a Rockstar take on the state of Florida and Miami in particular, as well as the release of the PS5 Pro with two generations of PSSR upscaling - with a decent number of PS5 Pro game upgrades with which to judge its capabilities.
Unfortunately, the level of detail evident in the trailer, pre-order screenshots and other, more recent footage seems extremely challenging to scale down in a way that allows for a 60fps mode - and that was the view espoused by the DF Direct #270 panel too.
The key for me here is the reality of the game's CPU demands, which as we've seen from current-gen PC and console games with heavy simulation elements, are likely to be extensive. In RPGs, dense city locations are the most likely to drop frame-rates, and the GTA 6 world looks another level of magnitude more challenging than the likes of Dragon's Dogma 2 or Baldur's Gate 3. Add on the fact that you can traverse GTA 6 by ground, sea or air significantly faster than you can in either RPG, with vehicles that require their own computationally expensive physics, of the kind that normally forces console simulation games to 30fps, and 60fps feels like a bridge too far.
There's also just the reality of Rockstar's console output. GTA 4, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 all arrived as 30fps releases on console, and indeed often underperformed relative to that limit. While Rockstar has been able to add in 60fps mode in next-gen releases (eg GTA 5 on Xbox Series X/S and PS5), the studio has historically preferred to maximise fidelity at 30fps rather than sacrifice them for 60.
We have seen a few purported retailer "leaks" that detail separate quality and performance modes, but these are far from conclusive. After all, most PS5 and PS5 Pro titles do offer such modes, so any kind of boilerplate text (or indeed, an AI-written summary) would likely include that as a matter of course. These could also merely refer to a 30fps mode and a 40fps mode, or even a mode that constrains graphics slightly to hold a tighter 30fps lock versus one that pushes visuals harder but can drop below 30fps.
The PS5 Pro is the most powerful current-gen console, so it makes sense to expect that it would be the most likely to offer a mode that offers a higher update rate than 30fps. However, it's worth bearing in mind that the console only offers a fractional CPU performance bump over base PS5, with most of its advantage deriving from better GPU horsepower, improved RT acceleration and support for PSSR upscaling. None of these features really shift the needle in terms of alleviating the CPU burden, so it looks much more likely that GTA 6 will ship with a 30fps or 40fps mode on PS5 Pro than a 60fps option.
A 40fps mode would be a good option if 60 is off the table, as in terms of frame times it's 25ms, or exactly halfway between 30fps (33.3ms) and 60fps (16.7ms). Of course, 40 doesn't go into 60 evenly, so we normally see games only offer this option for users of 120Hz displays.
This is all speculation at the end of the day, and - of course - we may be wrong. However, assuming we are mistaken, this would be the first Rockstar open world game to ever target 60 frames per second on a console - and you can't help but think that trailer assets shown to date would demonstrate that. Additionally, it would mean that the entire game and its simulation logic would have been targeting and budgeting for 60fps right from the very beginning. It seems unlikely, but we would love to be proven wrong!
Ultimately, we won't know the full truth until Rockstar reveals it - unless there is an unprecedented leak before then, which seems vanishingly unlikely given that even the physical edition game doesn't include a disc.
What do you think about the whole 60fps debate? Is there something we haven't considered, or do you think our take is on the money? Cast your vote in the poll above, and/or write your comments in the little box below.