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GTA 6 may launch at 30 FPS on consoles due to engine complexity and hardware limits, disappointing fans expecting 60 FPS on next-gen consoles. Digital Foundry analysis supports this. PC players, however, might have better performance prospects. The potential frame rate difference could impact the gaming experience across platforms.
The excitement surrounding Grand Theft Auto 6 is palpable, but recent reports suggest a potential caveat: the game might be capped at 30 FPS. Despite its promise of unparalleled detail and intricacy, some experts believe the game's demanding graphics may require sacrificing frame rate, deviating from the industry standard of 60 FPS.
Given that the game is something analysts believe will be the industry's $100 turning point, GTA 6 probably will not begin on the same fanfare that it may deserve. When the game initially comes out and caps the FPS at 30, Rockstar will be besieged by that many fans with complaints. Not too much should be expected about 60 FPS when consumers crave that frame rate to be the majority of the industry's standard AA releases.
Digital Foundry reviewed the Grand Theft Auto 5 upgrade and had some valid points regarding how it impacts GTA 6. Within their YouTube video, they contributed to "the pile of evidence" that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be 30 FPS at launch. Testing on a "console-level CPU," Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced was unable to sustain 60 FPS with ray tracing.
While this is speculative, it's based on the complexity of the GTA engine and the compute required for the anticipated game world. Essentially, the CPU-based nature of GTA's engine is a big reason why it will not be able to maintain 60 FPS throughout. GTA games have always been released at 30 FPS, and Digital Foundry asserts it's due to the advanced physics and AI systems.
This is a prediction based on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, but even a hypothetical GPU in the Pro would not make a big difference in this regard. Here, the Pro's CPU is the same as the base PS5 and thus wouldn't be able to manage the CPU-bound load of the game at 60 FPS. Any possible frame rate boost higher than 30 FPS, therefore, would probably require extreme optimization methods to accomplish.
It's worth noting that Digital Foundry isn't really countering 60 FPS as a possibility, but the company is fairly adamant that this would take a technological miracle since it's not a reasonable expectation for the console launch. PC-wise, it would be up to your own hardware, and GTA always comes out on PC late anyway, so it might be even better optimized by that point.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles are meant to be a major step up in terms of gaming tech when compared to their predecessors. These devices should usher in a new generation with powerful GPUs and CPUs alongside significantly quicker storage solutions. It is not overly naive to imagine that 30 FPS would be largely gone by now, at least in AAA titles such as GTA 6.
We're nearly at the end of the lifespan of these machines, and yet a smooth 60 frames per second is asking too much. Grand Theft Auto 6 at 30 FPS is extremely disappointing because it indicates how far we still are from a standard of 60 FPS. As much as we want games to always try and achieve this, there aren't too many that consistently do so while having lots of things to do.
Despite the hype surrounding its intricate world, GTA 6's potential 30 FPS launch on consoles is causing concern. Technical limitations of the engine and current hardware suggest 60 FPS may be a distant dream, highlighting the industry's ongoing struggle to consistently deliver higher frame rates in complex open-world games.
