GTA 6 launches later this year, but excitement has quickly turned to dread. The game’s 60fps woes haven’t helped things either.
Rockstar Games broke its silence on GTA 6 earlier this month to announce that pre-orders are finally live on PlayStation and Xbox. However, when the price of the game was revealed along with what editions will be available at launch, gamers were horrified. The GTA 6 Ultimate Edition costs $100 and locks basic in-game functions behind an extra paywall. In 2026, that doesn’t fly — nor does a game not hitting 60fps on increasingly expensive consoles.
GTA 6 Plays Best On PlayStation Says Sony, But The PS5 Pro Begs To Differ
After teasing how great the next Grand Theft Auto game will run on its consoles, PlayStation has been exposed by experts claiming even the mighty PlayStation 5 Pro can’t run GTA VI at 60fps.
Digital Foundry claims that while the PlayStation 5 Pro is indeed the most powerful console on the market right now, it only offers a “fractional CPU performance bump over base PS5.” Its GPU is far more impressive but will do little for a game’s framerate, with the outlet suggesting a “30fps or 40fps mode” might be the best you’re going to get.
Digital Foundry’s Will Judd argues that the level of detail Rockstar has shown so far — particularly the simulation-heavy elements such as traffic, NPC density, and physics — would be extremely difficult to scale down for a smooth 60 FPS experience on current hardware. The analyst notes that the PS5 Pro’s CPU is barely faster than the base PS5, with most of its upgrade coming from a stronger GPU, better ray tracing, and PSSR upscaling support. None of that helps with the kind of CPU load GTA 6 is expected to demand.
“In RPGs, dense city locations are the most likely to drop frame rates, and the GTA 6 world looks another level of magnitude more challenging than the likes of Dragon’s Dogma 2 or Baldur’s Gate 3.”
Digital Foundry also noted that Rockstar has traditionally prioritised world detail and visual fidelity over higher frame rates, as seen with Red Dead Redemption 2. A 40fps mode would be a good option if 60 is off the table — “in terms of frame time, it’s 25 ms — exactly in the middle between 30 FPS (33.3 ms) and 60 FPS (16.7 ms).”
Now there are plenty of gamers out there who won’t actually care about the framerate. To the untrained eye the difference is minor, but for those that take gaming as serious as a second job, this is catastrophic.
If Only There Was A Platform That Could Really Push GTA VI To Its Limits
Had Rockstar Games factored in a day-one PC release, this 60fps blunder wouldn’t be so bad. That’s not the way this studio rolls, though.
When asked about a PC port, Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive made it clear that console is always prioritised over PC. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick described console users as the “core consumer” for a release of this scale.
“Rockstar always starts on console because I think with regard to a release like that, you’re judged by serving the core. If your core consumer isn’t there, if they’re not served first and best, you kind of don’t hit your other consumers.”
It was said this is due to the majority of Grand Theft Auto players owning consoles, so Rockstar caters to where the bulk of its playerbase lies. That makes sense, but it’s 2026, and PC is quickly becoming the more dominant hardware compared to consoles.
Zelnick also denied that this console-first approach was part of any exclusivity deal: “Historically, Rockstar’s gone to console first.” He noted PC has become “much more important” but consoles remain the launch priority.
Even the next-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles are speculated to be more in-line with high-end PCs, and boast a similar price-point too if Valve’s Steam Machine is anything to go off.
When Can PC Players Expect GTA 6?
So, those that want to seriously stress-test GTA VI will have to wait for the PC port, which is expected to launch sometime in 2027.
A leak from DetectiveSeeds on X claims that players can expect the PC port to land in February 2027, just three months after it launches on consoles in November. “According to 3 former Rockstar employees (that I contacted through LinkedIn), Grand Theft Auto 6 is aiming to release the PC version in February 2027. All stated this timeline could shift, but Take-Two and Rockstar wanted to get the game out before the end of fiscal year.”
However, industry analysts and past Rockstar patterns suggest that timeline makes little financial sense. Rockstar historically staggers PC releases to encourage “double dips” — players buying the game twice. GTA V took 19 months to reach PC, and Red Dead Redemption 2 took 13 months. A 3-month window would kill that strategy.
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Rockstar has a well-established history of staggering its releases between console and PC. Red Dead Redemption 2 launched on PS4 and Xbox One in 2018, with the PC version following a full year later in 2019. GTA 5 made its debut on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, arrived on PS4 and Xbox One in 2014, and finally came to PC in 2015.
Thankfully, it should only be a few months, unlike Grand Theft Auto V PC players who had to wait two years for their port.