Does PS4 Support 60FPS?

Gamers have come far since the good old days of pixelated and voxel graphics. These days it’s all about vivid quality with ultra-high resolution such as 4K and butter smooth motions with 60FPS and beyond.

If you are a PS4 gamer with a keen eye for visual fidelity may ask, “Does PS4 support 60FPS?”

The answer to this question is yes and no and depends upon what variant of PS4 you have. The original PS4 and the PS4 Slim DO NOT support 60FPS gameplay at any resolution, PS4 Pro is the only variant that supports 60FPS gameplay due to its beefier hardware.

So with that said, let us look at the question at hand and dissect it a bit further:

What is Frame Per Second (FPS) and Why It Matters?

Frames per second, as the name suggests, is a key metric that indicates how many times the image on your screen updates each second.

In layman’s terms, it’s a measure of how “smooth” or “choppy” a game appears.

FPS is of great importance where you have a lot of motion such as in the game.

Traditionally, 30 FPS is considered the bare minimum for gamers. Anything below this is considered unplayable.

But gamers have graduated from 30 FPS for a long time and the bare minimum they like to see is 60 FPS.

60 FPS is considered the holy grail for many gamers as the standard for the perfect FPS for gamers.

However, with the advent of PS5 and newer consoles, gamers have surpassed even 60 FPS and can experience 120FPS gaming.

More FPS = Beefier Hardware

The more FPS you demand, the beefier the gaming hardware you need.

This is because the more complex and visually intensive a game is, the more hardware juice you will need to generate each and every frame.

Let me talk about this in detail here:

Graphical Prowess of PS4 and Its Variants

Now not all PS4 Variants are created equally in terms of their capabilities.

There are three PS4 variants: the Original PS4, PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro and they are not the same in terms of their performance.

The performance of the raw graphics performance of hardware is determined through a neat metric known as Teraflops.

The higher the Teraflops, the higher the frame rate and resolution a certain console or GPU can support.

PS4 Variants have the following Teraflops:

• Original PS4 / PS4 Slim: 1.84 Teraflops
• PS4 Pro: 4.2 Teraflops

As you can see, the PS4 Pro is almost twice as powerful as the Original and PS4 Slim variants.

This brings me to the main question at hand:

Does PS4 Support 60FPS?

The short and simple answer to the question is that only the PS4 PRO is designed to support 60 FPS gameplay in the truest sense.

However, there are many parts to this question, I will break them down below, but first the following table should dispel most of your confusion:

The Original PS4 and PS4 Slim Works at 30FPS

The Original PS4 and PS4 Slim do not have the raw graphics power to do 60 FPS gaming.

As such they are designed for 1080P @ 30 FPS gaming only.

However, there are a few exceptions though. “Fortnite”, and “Overwatch”, for instance, can run at 60 FPS on a standard PS4.

However, it’s worth noting that these games achieve this frame rate by making certain trade-offs, such as reducing graphical details or resolution as compared to on PC or on PS5.

PS4 Pro is Designed to do Upto 4K @ 60 FPS

The Pro is the only variant that can push the graphics beyond the standard 1080P @ 30 FPS.

PS4 Pro is designed to handle display modes of 4K up to 60 FPS.

However, since 4K is too demanding, most, if not all of the games, either work at 1080P @ 60 FPS or 4K @ 30 FPS.

Graphically less intensive, older, and weaker titles such as Abzu, Devil May Cry 5, Doom Eternal, etc. can work at both 4K and 60 FPS.

Here is a list of all the PS4 Pro enhanced games and the resolution and frame rate they can work on.

60 FPS Gameplay Also Depends Upon The Game

Lastly, another very important factor that determines whether PS4 supports 60FPS is the game in question.

It is up to the game developers whether they have made the game work at 60 FPS.

As such, you will notice that many games, even on PS4 Pro, do not work at 60 FPS and are capped at 30 FPS only.

Also Read: Does PS4 Support 1440P?

How Noticeable is 60 FPS?

Now, you may wonder, is the difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS noticeable?

Well, the answer is both subjective and variable.

To an average gamer, the difference between going from 30 FPS to 60 FPS is similar to day and night.

The butter-smooth visuals are a treat, hence the fact that many gamers try to aim for 60 FPS for the best experience.

But this smoothness gain would be more noticeable to gamers who play fast-paced action-oriented games like First Person Shooters as supposed to gamers who play slow-paced gamers like Strategy games.

The following video shows how much improvement in visuals you can see between 30 vs 60 FPS gaming:

Also Read: Does PS4 Support 144Hz?

Conclusion

So, circling back to our original question, “Does PS4 support 60FPS?” The answer is a yes IF you have a PS4 Pro.

The original PS4 and the PS4 Slim are intended only for 1080P @ 30 FPS gaming.

But of course, with the advent of more powerful consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X, 60 FPS is almost the standard. In fact, the 9th generation consoles push the FPS further to the 120 FPS realm.