Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater overhauls the storied PS2 game with modern visuals. It plays great on PC but the console experience prior to launch is surprisingly bad. The Konami remake can’t hit a consistent 60fps on PlayStation 5 even in performance mode, and the PS5 Pro enhanced mode is especially disappointing. It might not be enough to ruin the experience but it raises concerns and has some wondering if Konami will be able to meaningfully optimize the console version with subsequent updates.
Out August 26 for those who buy the Deluxe Edition, Metal Gear Solid Delta doesn’t really have a 60fps mode on PS5. Instead, it has a max target of 60fps, but spends much of the time dipping far below that. A Digital Foundry analysis shows it consistently falling to around 45fps in denser jungle areas, or even lower when swimming underwater. Things are even worse on PS5 Pro, where the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake dispenses with having alternate graphics modes and simply smooshes everything into a single performance boost. But in order to hit higher framerates it uses a lower, sub-1080p image resolution resolution to upscale. The results are pretty grimy.
MAJOR WARNING If you’re planning on playing Metal Gear Solid Delta:
The game runs terribly, with PS5/XSX rendering 720p-1080p at 30-50FPS in Performance mode
The PS5 Pro somehow runs worse & looks blurrier despite using PSSR
Another disastrous Unreal Engine 5 release. pic.twitter.com/Lnha48T2C6
— Synth Potato🥔 (@SynthPotato) August 22, 2025
Digital Foundry notes that quality mode on PS5 gets players better draw distances for textures and shadows, and improved global illumination for better complex lighting effects, which the jungle-based environment is full of. Unfortunately, despite hitting 30fps most of the time, the quality mode still occasionally buckles below that when blowing up barrels or during the busiest onscreen action sequences. Performance mode is even more inconsistent in terms of framerate, hitting 60fps fine in the starting area but sinking well below that at moments in larger environments. Overall it seems like nothing is quite as smooth as you’d hope or expect for what is essentially an Unreal Engine 5 makeover of an otherwise mostly unchanged PS2 game.
Metal Gear Solid 3 remake’s PS5 Pro mode is far from perfect
Then there’s the PS5 Pro’s mode which has its own issues. Namely, it’s upscaling from a lower resolution to hit a higher consistent 60fps, leading to even worse visual quality in the distance than on the base PS5’s performance mode. “It’s a win in motion for PS5 Pro with a smarter handling of occlusion artifacts and swaying grass,” Digital Foundry reports. “But if left to settle, the resolved reconstructed image on PS5 Pro seems to struggle to match the clarity of base PS5.” The enhanced mode gets even worse when you account for the PSSR-induced flickering and shimmering effects that PS5 Pro players may remember from Silent Hill 2 remake.
There’s still time to address many of these apparent problems, especially the base PS5 shortcomings, in a day-one patch, though time is running out with the game’s early access launch less than 24 hours away. As for the PS5 Pro experience, well we’ll have to wait and see how that gets addressed in the future. None of the issues surfaced so far seem like deal breakers, but it does suggest anyone who has the option to play Metal Gear Solid Delta on a high-end PC instead should begin there.
