Will GTA 6 Run at 60fps on PS5 Pro? Here’s the Honest Answer Nobody Wants to Hear

The internet hasn’t calmed down since Rockstar Games finally showed the world what Grand Theft Auto VI looks like when it’s being played, which was about three days ago. People started asking the question that gaming forums always end up with: will GTA 6 run at 60fps on PS5 Pro? This happened sometime between the footage of the police chase and the first real look at Lucia and Jason’s world. Based on what we know now, the short answer is probably not at launch. I like the longer answer better.

In fact, this is what has been proven. YouTuber Davy Jones was one of the creators that Rockstar North invited to a private gameplay showcase. The creators were said to have had about three hours to play the game. Rob Nelson, who is in charge of development at Rockstar North, was asked directly about frame rate during that meeting. Nelson said the game will run at 30 frames per second on PS5. When asked if there would be a 60fps mode later, he said he had to “talk to the technical team.” That doesn’t mean it’s true. It’s also not a denial. The kind of answer you give when the question is live and the answer is still being thought of is what it is.

What makes this more difficult is the PS5 Pro’s unique situation. Along with PSSR 2, Sony’s second-generation upscaling technology, the console has a GPU that is much faster than the base PS5. That extra power sounds like just what GTA 6 would need to push frame rates higher on paper. A study by Digital Foundry says that the issue is that GTA 6’s performance cap is not set by the GPU at all. This slows things down is the CPU. The CPU architecture of both the base PS5 and the PS5 Pro is very similar. They both use an eight-core AMD Zen 2 chip that runs at about 3.5 GHz, with a little more speed on the Pro. The game’s huge open world, realistic NPCs, changing weather, and intelligent traffic AI are just too much for either console’s processor to handle at 60 frames per second. That can’t be fixed with a faster GPU.

It’s hard not to see the irony in this. Reports say that major stores ran out of PS5 Pro units in the days after the GTA 6 Extended Look. The console is now being sold by third-party sellers for as much as $1,300. It’s clear that people are betting that the Pro will make playing GTA 6 a lot better. It’s likely to get better ray tracing, more stable image quality, and better upscaling. Motion blur could be seen in the gameplay footage recorded on the base PS5 during the car chase, with light smearing across fast-moving parts that wasn’t there in the cutscenes. That should be a little less rough after using the Pro. A whole different question is whether it can reach 60fps.

Of course, there is a leak in the mix. The gamer HipHopGamer wrote on X that he is “confirming again” that GTA 6 will run at 60 frames per second on PS5 Pro. The claim has at least some support because the same person is said to have explained how Jason and Lucia could switch between characters and the more in-depth vehicle theft system before Rockstar officially announced them. The details they gave were also accurate. Having inside information about frame rate goals is not the same as being able to accurately predict design features. Technical decisions about performance are often kept secret until the product is released. He might know something. There’s also a good chance that this is just a guess that looks like a source.

Remember the pattern that Rockstar has shown in the past. GTA V came out with 30 frames per second on PS3 and PS4, but later got an update with 60 frames per second for PS5. Red Dead Redemption 2, on the other hand, is still stuck at 30 frames per second on modern hardware, even though it came out years ago. Rockstar doesn’t work on these things quickly, and it’s not certain that GTA 6 will go in the same direction as GTA V instead of Red Dead. Digital Foundry thinks that 60fps might have to wait until the CPU is as fast as it is on the PS6, which puts a real time limit on any hope.

Right now, the truth is that GTA 6 starts at 30 frames per second. Rockstar has not confirmed a performance mode for any console, not even the PS5 Pro. The extra power in the PS5 Pro is likely to make the graphics better instead of letting you get a higher frame rate. It has been suggested that a 40fps mode for 120Hz VRR displays could be a good compromise. For now, this is likely the best thing that Pro owners can hope for. It’s still not clear if any of this will have changed by the time the game comes out. Some people have said that 60fps is coming to the PS5 Pro, but most people probably shouldn’t spend $700 on one just because of that.