GTA VI runs at 30fps, Rockstar North head confirms
Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson told Flow Games that Grand Theft Auto VI runs at 30 FPS. A 60 FPS option is undecided, and Digital Foundry thinks one is unlikely on consoles.
Grand Theft Auto VI runs at 30 frames per second. Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North, said so in an interview with the Portuguese outlet Flow Games (reporter Davy Jones). Eurogamer and GamesRadar+ have both reported his comments.
A 60 FPS option hasn't been ruled in or out. According to Flow Games' report, in translation, Nelson still has to check with the technical team before he can say whether a 60 FPS mode will come at launch or later. He also said he doesn't have details yet on resolution, ray tracing or other technical aspects, and that performance, for now, is 30 FPS.
GamesRadar+ takes that to mean 30fps on PS5 and Xbox Series X when the game launches in November, probably without a dedicated performance mode at first. Nelson did say more options could be added later. Eurogamer has asked Rockstar for clarification and points out that nobody has said yet how the game runs on Xbox Series S, or what PS5 Pro owners will get.
What the Extended Look shows
Rockstar's own footage matches the number. The 27-minute Extended Look, shown on Netflix and YouTube, was 30fps from start to finish, and Rockstar also offered a raw file of it for download.
Digital Foundry analysed that file. It concludes that the game appears to run at native 1440p on PS5, with "a relatively stable and well-paced 30 FPS output with only very occasional single frame drops". There is a caveat: the download is "a 30 FPS asset", so it may hide frame drops that can't be seen in it.
The analysts found no dynamic resolution and no strong evidence of FSR 2 or TAA upscaling. That, they say, leaves "a degree of softness, visible geometric aliasing and shimmer on fine details". They were more positive about the character rendering, skin shading and hair simulation.
Why 60fps looks unlikely
In Digital Foundry's view, reported by IGN, "the focus was absolutely maximising the level of visual detail at a fixed 30fps frame-rate on all platforms." It calls a 60fps console version "extremely unlikely", arguing that "there's no way to regain enough GPU and particularly CPU time to make a 16.7ms update rate work without compromising the world."
On PS5 Pro, it expects better image quality and ray tracing rather than a big performance boost. The eventual PC version won't have it easy either: Digital Foundry says CPU demands "could make hitting 60fps genuinely challenging", and expects players to need a high-end processor such as a recent Ryzen X3D.
The 1440p resolution and the low odds of 60fps are Digital Foundry's conclusions, not Rockstar's. The only number the studio has given is 30.
Past games don't promise much for anyone hoping for a later patch. As GamesRadar+ notes, Red Dead Redemption 2 never got a 60fps upgrade, and GTA V only got one on the current console generation, years after launch.
Eurogamer is waiting for Rockstar to clarify. Grand Theft Auto VI comes out on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in November.
