Are SW upgrades needed in MPLS core networks?

Just to be sure, my point here is not where the effective IPv6

performance

suits one needs or not, but wether a router that can forward <amount>

Mpps

of IPv4/MPLS packets can also forward the same amount of IPv6 packets per
second.

Wouldn't a network with an MPLS core use 6PE to implement
IPv6 rather than routing v6 natively in the core? In that
case wouldn't the forwarding performance of native v6 be
irrelevant?

--Michael Dillon