GTA 6 is one of the most ambitious open-world games ever built. But according to technical analysts at Digital Foundry, that ambition may come at a cost: a smooth 60 frames per second on consoles, even the PS5 Pro, looks unlikely.
For months, fans have hoped Sony’s upgraded console could deliver a true 60fps performance mode for GTA 6. Digital Foundry says that hope may not match the game’s technical reality.
The Problem Isn’t Graphics, It’s the CPU
Digital Foundry’s William Judd explained that the bottleneck has little to do with visual power. The real issue is processing strain.
GTA 6 features a massive open world, dense cities, advanced AI behavior, vehicle physics, ray tracing, and layered simulation systems. All of these place heavy demand on the CPU, not just the GPU.
Judd compared the scale of the challenge to other CPU-intensive games. He noted that GTA 6’s world looks far more demanding than dense RPGs like Dragon’s Dogma 2 or Baldur’s Gate 3. Players in GTA 6 can also travel by land, sea, or air much faster than in those games, and every vehicle requires its own complex physics calculations. That kind of simulation load has historically forced console games down to 30fps.
“60fps feels like a bridge too far,” Judd said.
PS5 Pro’s Upgrades Don’t Solve the Core Issue
Many fans assumed the PS5 Pro, Sony’s most powerful console, could be the answer. Digital Foundry says otherwise.
The PS5 Pro brings major improvements to GPU performance, ray tracing acceleration, and PSSR upscaling. However, its CPU is only marginally faster than the standard PS5. Since GTA 6’s frame rate ceiling is tied to CPU performance rather than graphics, those GPU upgrades don’t address the main obstacle.
According to Judd, the PS5 Pro’s extra power comes mostly from a stronger GPU, better ray tracing, and PSSR support, none of which reduce the CPU burden. Because of this, he believes GTA 6 is more likely to ship with a 30fps or 40fps mode on PS5 Pro rather than true 60fps.
If 60fps isn’t realistic, a 40fps mode may be the most likely compromise. It would sit between 30fps and 60fps and offer a noticeable improvement for players using 120Hz displays, even if it doesn’t reach a full 60fps experience.
