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GTA 6 is due out this year, and a former Rockstar animator has weighed in on how he thinks the upcoming game will run.
Speaking on Kiwi Talkz, Mike York sets his expectations after being asked if Rockstar will shoot for 30fps or 60fps for GTA6. "I don't know if they'll be able to pull off 60fps," York says. "I don't think so. I think they're gonna be shooting for 30fps – and a locked 30fps, meaning it never dips below that. They're gonna try to optimize as much as they can to where it never goes below 30. But it can be bumped up to 40, 41, 52, whatever, and I bet you, like, later, once it's on PC, it'll probably get super optimized and changed and new graphics cards that come out and you'll be able to run it at 60fps probably at that time."
Currently, GTA 5 can run at 60fps on PS5, but let's not forget that the game originally came out on the PS3 back in 2013, so it's had plenty of time to be optimized. With the graphical quality we saw in the GTA 6 trailer, getting a stable 30fps would be a minor technological miracle.
"I don't think [the] initial release it'll come out at 60fps unless it's getting those 60fps by [using] an AI upscaler thing like the PlayStation is doing, unless something is coming in and helping it get those 60fps," York explains. "I don't think it'll get the 60fps raw out the gate on a base console. PS5, for instance. Maybe PS5 Pro, or whatever, but I still don't think so."
However, it's important to note that while York did work on GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, he's not at Rockstar anymore and hasn't worked there since 2017.
"I don't know what they're doing over there," York says. "I don't know how massive this is going to be. But from my experience, they're going to squeeze every little freaking thing they can out of it and then optimize later for 60 frames because it's not as important as just making the game amazing at 30 frames."
While I have become spoiled by all the PS5 games that run at a smooth 60fps, I have to admit that I'd much rather have a game that runs at a consistent 30fps than one that dips and rises depending on what's happening on screen. If I drive through Vice Beach and see sand and tourists flying everywhere, I don't want the frame rate to slow to a crawl; I want speed.
Although York doesn't know what's coming in GTA 6, Trevor's voice actor has a wish for the upcoming game. He wants Trevor to be killed right at the start of the game. It would be pretty funny, and a nice nod to the way he was introduced in GTA 5.
While you wait for GTA 6, check out our ranking of all the best GTA games.
