F1 25 runs path tracing on PS5 Pro, confirming PS6 will ship with it as standard

Codemasters demonstrated F1 25 running path tracing on PS5 Pro at GDC in March 2026, rendering natively at 1080P with advanced path tracing enabled, then upscaling to 4K via PSSR while maintaining a stable 30fps.

If PS5 Pro's aging architecture can hold 30fps path tracing, the PS6's RDNA5 + PSSR 3 combo should handle it without breaking a sweat. Digital Foundry has already called it—path tracing is the entry ticket for next-gen consoles. PC players have seen what Cyberpunk 2077 looks like with path tracing enabled; console players have waited long enough for that experience.

Codemasters did take some shortcuts, though. The F1 25 demo used a daytime track with simple lighting conditions, naturally reducing computational load. Reflections rely on DDGI technology instead of full path tracing, and denoising borrows NVIDIA's NRD toolkit directly. This is an "optimized path tracing" implementation, not the brute-force full-scene approach Cyberpunk uses.

The real concern is Sony's new handheld. Leaker KeplerL2 put it bluntly: the device will likely drag down next-gen development ceilings. The logic is straightforward—developers accommodating handheld performance for multi-platform releases will lower the technical ceiling for PS6 exclusives. Same dynamic as Switch holding back cross-platform visuals last generation.

From tech demo to mass production is still a gap. 30fps path tracing is just the baseline; players actually want 60fps with full-scene ray tracing. PS6 won't launch until around 2028, and by then PC's 4090 successor might already be running 120fps 8K path tracing. Whether consoles can close that technical gap depends on how much Sony's willing to spend on cooling and power delivery.