Consoles Can't Handle It: Grand Theft Auto VI Will Only Run at 30 Frames Per Second, Experts Say

Rockstar's new project will push even the PS5 Pro to its limits.

Digital Foundry experts believe that Grand Theft Auto VI is unlikely to get a full 60 frames per second mode on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, despite earlier rumors. In their opinion, the game's scale and high CPU load make such a scenario extremely unlikely.

As Digital Foundry specialist William Judd noted, the main problem will not be GPU performance, but CPU requirements. According to him, GTA VI will offer a significantly more complex world simulation than modern RPGs like Dragon's Dogma 2 and Baldur's Gate 3. Additional load will be created by the dense urban environment, a developed simulation system, and the ability to quickly move across land, water, and air in vehicles with realistic physics.

According to the expert, it is precisely these features that usually force developers to limit themselves to 30 fps on consoles, so achieving a stable 60 fps seems too difficult a task.

Another argument is the experience of Rockstar Games itself. All of the studio's recent major projects, including Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and previous games in the series, debuted with a 30 fps limit, and in some scenes, the frame rate could drop even lower. Therefore, analysts expect that in GTA VI, developers will again focus on maximum graphics quality rather than high performance.