Rainbow 6 Siege X was promised to be a massive overhaul to the decade-old tactical shooter, an update meant to bring the game into a new era. It has succeeded in several ways, but that success comes at a cost.
Whether it be the Dual Front mode, a new way to play that’s much more welcoming to novice players, or improvements to the core formula like better audio, more interactive environments, and improved visuals, there’s a lot to love here.
However, all that comes at a cost: Performance. Though there’s still optimization to be done, there’s only so much you can do to optimize an outright graphical upgrade even if the game is still in beta.
There are some players whose setups run the game poorly due to having dated hardware, but even those who have beefy PCs have reported that their frame rates have been halved when making the transition to Rainbow 6 Siege X.
Rainbow 6 Siege X massively hits PC performance
Fortunately for console players, Siege X hasn’t had many issues. Although, it’s worth noting that it’s only available on current gen systems (PS5 and Xbox Series), leaving the last gen behind.
For PC players looking to get the absolute most out of the game, however, their frame rates have been cut down drastically by the new update.
While Siege X (beta) feels pretty stable so far, the impact on performance is huge.
On the current Live build I get about ~300-320FPS avg. and on Siege X I get about ~150-165FPS on average.
Also my GPU Latency is 2 to 2.5x higher then on Live Servers.
(I play on Low – Medium… pic.twitter.com/eiD2zCDT3n— Marc ‘Reaxys’ Seidl
(@ReaxysR6s) March 13, 2025
After testing on multiple maps, R6 pro Reaxys and several others in his replies were reporting their frames had been essentially cut in half compared to the live version of the game.
And, while complaining about getting 150 FPS may sound like being overly critical, people who play games like R6 competitively often play on the lowest settings and lower resolutions to maximize their FPS and reduce particle effects.
Additionally, FPS is one thing, but frame pacing is another. Running a frame rate that’s much higher than your monitor’s refresh rate is a way to brute force your way through any frame hitching. There is merit to having a higher frame rate than your monitor can, on paper, handle.
Those who were playing the original on outdated cards can’t get a level of performance out of R6 that they had previously on Siege X, with those who are on 10 and 20 series Nvidia cards especially taking issue with the new update.
When looking at just how much of a graphical upgrade X is, it’s not a surprise that performance has taken a hit. Bringing Rainbow 6 into the modern age with updated graphics is a fantastic way to bring in new players, but those who have been playing the game for years on the same PC setup are feeling left out to dry.
Is it time to upgrade those graphics cards? Probably. Was upgrading Rainbow 6 Siege’s graphical fidelity in X the right decision? Yes. Is it justified to be angry that an update completely out of your control has impacted performance in a game you’ve been playing for a decade? Perhaps.
This launch, much like that of CS2, is essential even if longtime competitive players are averse to it. As Counter Strike 2 has had growing pains, so too will Siege.
Though optimism for Rainbow 6 is at an all-time high off the back of X, there’s no denying that some sacrifices had to be made for the sake of bringing R6 into the future.
