PS5 Slim Runs GTA 5 at 60fps But Overheats Doing It

Modder Andy Nguyen posted on X on March 6 that he'd ported Linux to his PS5 Slim and turned it into something resembling a Steam Machine, running GTA 5 Enhanced with ray tracing at 60fps. Full 4K HDMI output, audio, and all USB ports working. On paper, it sounds like Sony's been sitting on a performance unlock they just haven't bothered to ship. The reality is a bit more complicated.

Nguyen's setup has the CPU running at 3.2 GHz and the GPU at 2.0 GHz. He notes the hardware can be pushed to 3.5 GHz and 2.23 GHz respectively, but doing so causes the PS5 Slim to overheat too quickly to be usable. That's the detail that matters here. Sony and AMD almost certainly know those higher clock speeds are physically possible on this silicon. The reason they don't ship them is because sustained loads at those frequencies generate heat the Slim's cooling solution wasn't designed to handle. Pushing a console to its thermal ceiling in a controlled modding demo is one thing; shipping that configuration to millions of living rooms is another.

The exploit only works on older PS5 firmware, so this isn't something you can replicate on a current retail unit without some serious dedication. Nguyen also confirmed he wrote the code on the PS5 itself, which is its own kind of impressive. This is also running on the base Slim model, not the PS5 Pro, which has a meaningfully more capable GPU. What the Pro could do under similar conditions is an open question, and honestly an interesting one.

Credit where it's due: what Nguyen pulled off here is technically remarkable. Getting Linux booted, ray tracing functional, and a stable 60fps out of hardware that Sony has locked to its own OS is not a trivial weekend project. It's also a useful data point for anyone wondering what Valve's Steam Machine might look like in practice, since that platform is built on Linux and is still targeting a 2026 release without a firm date or price attached.

The Thermal Ceiling Is the Whole Story

The overheating issue isn't a footnote, it's the point. The PS5 Slim achieves what it does at retail by running within a thermal envelope that keeps the hardware alive for years of daily use. The moment Nguyen tries to push the clocks to their actual ceiling, the system can't sustain it. That gap between what the silicon can theoretically do and what it can do reliably under a cooling solution designed for a sealed consumer box is exactly why official firmware will never unlock those speeds.

This is also why the PS5's ROM keys leaking is such a significant development in the jailbreak scene. With over 84 million consoles potentially vulnerable to full jailbreaks down the line, experiments like Nguyen's are going to become more common and more ambitious. Sony will be watching. The real question is whether any of this pushes them toward official features, like better PC game support or more aggressive performance modes, or whether they just tighten the firmware screws and move on. Given their track record, the latter seems more likely.

Want to see more? Catch all the latest gaming news, updates, and patch notes right here at XP Gained!