GTA 6 is expected to be one of the biggest releases of the decade, and for good reasons. Rockstar Games hasn’t missed with any of its mainline titles in years, and the hype behind Grand Theft Auto 6 has been massive.
However, with the game coming out on consoles first, the big question is whether it’ll utilize any console-specific features. In particular, what are some features from the PS5 Pro that GTA 6 should adopt?
PSSR 2.0
Rockstar is known for its visual fidelity, and GTA 6 already looks stunning on the base PS5, based on the trailers. It will likely get better with the PS5 Pro, since PSSR could let Rockstar render the game at a lower internal resolution and still output a clean 4K image. Leonida has numerous factors such as neon-lit streets, water everywhere, beaches packed with NPCs, so anything that can free up GPU headroom will help.
This AI-powered upscaling technology analyzes each frame and reconstructs a sharp, high-resolution image from a lower internal rendering resolution, freeing up GPU resources for more demanding graphical features.
If PSSR performs as Sony has demonstrated, it should handle image reconstruction using dedicated AI hardware instead of placing additional strain on the main rendering pipeline, where many traditional upscalers struggle. That’s the difference between a smeared, blurry image and one that holds up on displays. Implementing this technology allows developers to bypass the traditional trade-offs between graphics and performance modes.
Instead of forcing players to choose between image clarity and smooth gameplay, PSSR can fill in visual data to maintain an excellent picture. As a result, GTA 6 could maintain crisp visuals across dense crowds, detailed environments, and complex character models while leaving more GPU resources available for other demanding effects.
Advanced Ray Tracing
Ray tracing in open-world games usually comes down to players having to choose between performance and quality, and there’s rarely a middle ground. PS5 Pro’s stronger RT cores exist to close that gap, and GTA 6 is the kind of game that needs it, looking at how much Vice City is built around water and glass. Reflections bouncing off the road and car windows at night are the showcase moment everyone’s expecting from the game.
The PS5 Pro has a highly upgraded GPU with faster memory, designed specifically to handle advanced ray tracing. By utilizing this hardware, the game can deliver dynamic lighting, accurate reflections, and detailed shadows across its open world, with realistic light refraction on water surfaces, accurate vehicle reflections, and natural light diffusion through complex weather systems.
The only catch is scale. Cyberpunk 2077 and Spider-Man 2 can get away with heavy ray tracing partly because neither of them is simulating an entire state’s worth of open road and ocean. GTA 6 is, so Rockstar needs that extra RT power from the PS5 Pro just to keep lighting consistent when the weather changes or the sun goes down, instead of the frame rate dropping the moment things get demanding.
Standard temporal upscaling usually struggles with demanding ray-traced lighting in games and makes them blurry, but the stronger compute units on the PS5 Pro remove this bottleneck. This additional performance could allow GTA 6 to deliver more accurate global illumination, dynamic shadows, and natural lighting transitions while keeping performance more consistent.
Better frame rate stability
Keeping consistent 60fps in a dense, physics-heavy open world is difficult, but the PS5 Pro’s enhancements make this a realistic target for GTA 6. Sony claims the PS5 Pro offers up to 45% faster rendering performance, along with an optional higher CPU frequency mode for CPU-limited workloads. Thanks to this extra processing power, the game can handle the high number of background calculations needed for NPC AI, vehicle physics, and traffic density while keeping a stable frame rate.
That stability matters when things start happening during situations like chases or shootouts. Maintaining this fluid performance is essential for high-speed driving and combat sequences. With the upgraded GPU and increased memory bandwidth, the hardware can process complex on-screen action without experiencing the stuttering or frame drops common in highly populated game zones. Combined with AI upscaling, these improvements could make a stable 60fps mode a much more realistic possibility for GTA 6.
