Don't Expect GTA 6 to Have a 60fps Mode, Tech Experts Say

You might have seen reports doing the rounds that GTA 6 will come with a mode that lets you play it at 60 frames per second, based on retailer listings that have emerged online. Well, like so many things around Rockstar’s upcoming gaming behemoth, do not believe everything you read.

The tech experts at Digital Foundry have said there’s nothing they’ve seen of GTA 6 so far — including the recently released screenshots and brief video clips — that suggests a 60fps mode is possible on the current generation of consoles, although of course Rockstar has yet to make anything official.

“Unfortunately, the level of detail evident in the trailer, preorder screenshots and other, more recent footage seems extremely challenging to scale down in a way that allows for a 60fps mode,” DF’s Will Judd said.

That assessment is based on the established demands that games heavy on simulation have on the CPUs of the nearly six-year-old consoles (“the GTA 6 world looks another level of magnitude more challenging than the likes of Dragon’s Dogma 2 or Baldur’s Gate 3”). With GTA 6 this is an even tougher challenge because of the speed you can move around the open world. DF predicts 30fps for GTA 6 across the consoles, saying “60fps feels like a bridge too far.”

Even the more powerful PS5 Pro would struggle to output GTA 6 at 60fps, DF suggests, because it only offers “a fractional CPU performance bump” over base PS5 (the Pro is more more about improved Ray Tracing and support for PSSR upscaling than it is higher framerate). At best, DF suggests a 40fps mode could be possible on PS5 Pro, but again, that’s unconfirmed for now.

And it’s worth noting Rockstar’s own release history suggests 60fps isn’t happening for GTA 6. GTA 4, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 all launched at 60fps on console, with the focus on fidelity at 30fps. The developer just doesn’t tend to release games built around delivering 60fps.

A supposed quality and performance mode isn’t the only questionable gta 6 rumor doing the rounds. Over the weekend, we reported on viral social media posts and articles that claimed a physical disc copy of GTA 6 was in the works, all of which turned out to be untrue. Why has Rockstar decided not to go with a disc version of GTA 6, risking angering core gamers in the process? There are a number of reasons, analysts told IGN this week, and they all make commercial sense. Meanwhile, some retailers are refusing to sell GTA 6 because the physical version lacks a disc.

Last week, IGN reported on the results of our own poll where we asked if you’re going to buy the $100 Ultimate Edition or the $80 Standard Edition. Somewhat surprisingly, over 70% of you intend to buy the more expensive version.