With Sony announcing the PlayStation 5 Pro earlier this week, a lot of attention has now shifted towards how the improved power of the console might be used to enhance both games on the market, and those that might launch soon. As one of the largest games on the horizon, it’s unsurprising that Grand Theft Auto VI has been included in the discussion, particularly around its potential to run at 60 frames per second.
Unfortunately, it seems that even with the additional GPU power of the PS5 Pro, this might not be possible. That’s according to Richard Leadbetter, editor at renowned games and tech analysis outlet Digital Foundry. Echoing statements he made during the initial reveal of Grand Theft Auto VI, Leadbetter says that the limiting factor when it comes to running games like GTA VI at higher framerates is the CPU, and not the GPU. And since the PS5 Pro shares the same CPU as the less-powerful base PS5, it’s unlikely that Sony’s new console will offer up much of an improvement.
“Grand Theft Auto games have always run complex simulations that push the CPU hard, which is why every GTA game has initially launched on their target platforms at 30fps (or lower!),” Leadbetter explained to IGN. “The PS5 Pro uses the same CPU as the PS5 and it would be extremely challenging to hit 60fps if the base PS5 version is targeting 30fps. This isn’t a GPU problem, it’s a CPU problem.”
If you’ve been playing Rockstar’s games on console exclusively, none of this should be too surprising. Grand Theft Auto V launched on Xbox One and PS4 in 2013, and was confined to a 30fps limit even after the launch of the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. This only changed relatively recently, with the game being patched to support 60fps on PS5 and Xbox Series X in 2022. Red Dead Redemption 2, another game that initially launched on the previous generation of consoles, is still locked to 30fps on current-generation hardware.
Sony revealed the PS5 Pro as an answer to customers that tired from having to choose between fidelity and performance modes in games. The console was pitched with the idea of being able to deliver image quality equal to (or better than) games on fidelity or quality modes, but with the smoothness of 60 frames per second. This doesn’t mean that the option between performance modes will disappear entirely, and it’s plausible that bespoke 30fps modes could return as developers attempt to use the additional resources available to enhance visual fidelity even further at the expense of framerates.
Grand Theft Auto VI is still in active development, and so nothing can be said for certain about regarding what the Rockstar might be targeting as a baseline for performance. But given the route the studio has historically taken, coupled with the reasoning behind why such an improvement might be possible on the PS5 Pro, it would seem optimistic to think otherwise. Grand Theft Auto VI is expected to launch in 2025, with no exact release date yet announced. The PS5 Pro launches on November 7th, starting at $699.
