With the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 coming into view, so does a whole host of debate, speculation and expectation. Admittedly, it's a welcome distraction from the more horrid Xbox rumours of late, as conversation turns to whether there's a "route forward" for GTA 6 at 60FPS on Xbox Series X.

Wise heads at Digital Foundry don't think it's likely, but the rumour mill may suggest otherwise.

By and large, their argument against 60FPS on Xbox Series X (and S) is based on an analysis of Rockstar's recent batch of screenshots. DF highlighted the quality of assets and significant CPU demands, driven by the extensive ray-traced effects throughout GTA 6's massive open world setting.

"...this would be the first Rockstar open world game to ever target 60 frames per second on a console - and you can't help but think that trailer assets shown to date would demonstrate that. Additionally, it would mean that the entire game and its simulation logic would have been targeting and budgeting for 60fps right from the very beginning. It seems unlikely, but we would love to be proven wrong!"

In the podcast, Digital Foundry casually suggests a 40FPS mode to bridge the distance between 30FPS and 60FPS. We've seen it before in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Crimson Desert, which both do a decent job mimicking 60 frames without actually offering it.

Of course, take this next part with a pinch of salt, but there's a recent rumour circulating on X suggesting GTA 6 will launch on Xbox Series X with not one, but two performance modes. It originates from the Rock and Borys podcast on YouTube, and has actually been picked up by quite a few big outlets such as Windows Central and Insider Gaming.

The video is in Polish, so it's possible that certain details are being lost in translation. Nevertheless, it suggests that based on a single, "reliable" source, GTA 6 could feature a 60FPS mode on Xbox Series X (and maybe even Xbox Series S), but they're unsure whether it would be a launch feature or something added down the line.

"I emphasize that this is a single source, but a very reliable one..."

Two graphical modes would be lovely, but we're not entirely convinced - at least for launch. Just look at Rockstar's track record for console output. GTA 4, 5, and Red Dead Redemption 2 all launched at 30FPS, and according to DF, "underperformed relative to that limit".

There's still no official word from Rockstar on how the game will perform on modern consoles, although some retailers have mentioned separate Quality and Performance modes. It's likely just boilerplate text used to fill out product listings though, and probably not worth reading into too heavily.

Many people, ourselves included, expect Grand Theft Auto 6 to be locked to 30 at launch. What matters most in all of this discussion is how it feels to play.

[source youtube.com, via x.com]