Is Cyperpunk not running smoothly and do you need more FPS? We’ll show you which graphics settings bring the most.
- Want better performance in Cyberpunk 2077? The tuning guide will help you find the right graphics options.
- Whether you want ray tracing or just want smooth FPS, our hardware expert has the right tips.
Cyberpunk 2077 takes you into a beautiful-looking dystopia. However, the graphic splendor does not come without a price tag. Maximum detail levels and ray tracing demand everything from your hardware. And even without the real-time ray tracing, the frame rate can drop quite a bit.
Our technology check shows that the system requirements stated by CD Projekt Red are not always sufficient in practice. We achieved an average of 29 frames per second with an RTX 2060 in WQHD resolution including detail level Ultra – that can hardly be called smooth playable.
However, the performance can still be adjusted, since Cyberpunk offers a whole range of fine-tuning options.
Do you want maximum performance with as little loss of graphics quality as possible? We’ll show you which settings you can tweak, which options provide the most frames per second, and where you can safely continue playing on the highest settings.
Quick Overview:
- Which settings bring the most performance
- Conclusion on image quality and performance
- How you can greatly improve your FPS with a simple technique
- Blurry image? How to sharpen the graphics of Cyberpunk 2077
Fine tuning in Cyberpunk 2077
We performed the tests on a high-end system and a mid-range PC. However, the relative performance gains should by and large also be transferable to other setups.
The following charts show the absolute FPS values as well as the more important relative performance figures. We chose the Ultra preset as the base value for both test systems, but deactivated ray tracing and DLSS.
The performance gains relate to the lowest setting option in each case (low or disabled, indicated in the chart). We have only considered options in the charts that also have an effect on the frame rate. Conversely, this means that you can leave the settings that are not listed at the highest level – but this can vary slightly depending on the system.
Don’t forget the volume density: In addition to the graphics options, there is also a gameplay setting that has a not insignificant effect on performance. The crowd density determines how many NPCs are in a certain area. Cyberpunk offers three options here – Low, Medium and High. This has a massive impact:
- RTX 3080: +7 percent (Low versus High).
- RTX 2060: +13 percent (Low versus High).
Questionable tip: A tip that promises a lot of extra performance increasingly appears on the web (via Reddit) and also in the comments on GameStar. According to this, the setting Cascaded shadows – resolution to medium can “double” the FPS.
However, we could not verify this on our test systems. If anything, we achieve an effect with Cascaded Shadows – Range – however, this may look different on other systems. Feel free to write us your experiences in the comments!
Cyberpunk 2077 is devalued: The tips don’t come out of the woodwork without reason, by the way. Many players complain about performance problems and serious bugs.
Antialiasing is not optional: In the comments, you repeatedly ask for the possibility to disable antialiasing. However, this is not possible: TAA, short for Temporal Antialiasing, is fixed by the developer. From experience, the influence of TAA on the performance is quite moderate anyway.
Conclusion on picture quality and performance
According to our impressions, the difference between the highest and medium graphics settings is manageable. The best balance between FPS and image quality is usually achieved in the golden mean. But you don’t have to turn down all the settings, because as already described above, many of the options don’t affect the performance at all or hardly at all.
Even more FPS thanks to DLSS
We particularly liked the implementation of Nvidia’s DLSS during testing. The AI upscaler delivers excellent picture quality, which can hardly be distinguished from the native rendering, and increases the performance considerably in some cases. The two performance modes (Normal and Ultra) provide even more FPS, but the quality drops noticeably. You can read more about this in the review of Cyberpunk 2077.
DLSS is only available for owners of an RTX 2000 or RTX 3000 graphics card from Nvidia. AMD users will have to wait a while for a counterpart and make do with FidelityFX CAS in the meantime. However, a technology comparable to Nvidia’s DLSS is expected from AMD in the coming months with Super Resolution – it has already been announced.
What is DLSS? DLSS stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling and describes an AI algorithm from Nvidia that can upscale low-resolution images into higher-resolution ones.
Unlike normal scaling methods, DLSS can add image information that is not included in the source image. The AI algorithm is trained on particularly high-resolution images, for example 16K material, and thus learns to infer a higher resolution from a lower one.
Tips for sharper graphics
The sharpness and blurriness in Cyberpunk 2077 is also a recurring topic. However, with a few simple tricks you can provide more clarity. Turn off film grain, depth of field and chromatic aberration.
