The game spent almost eight years in development and faced numerous delays. Not only that, it was by CDPR, the masterminds behind the Witcher series. So, it is only fair that we were all excited about the game. Upon release, the game did run into several issues as it was eventually an unfinished product. Even though the Cyberpunk 2077 System Requirements were not demanding, the game failed to run correctly on the highest-end systems in the market, which caused a lot of backlashes. Currently, the game is in a much better state than it was after it was launched, but many people are still waiting for improvements that will make the game even better in terms of playability. With that said, we are exploring the facets of what it takes to run the game.
Cyberpunk 2077 System Requirements
Cyberpunk 2077 Game Details
Cyberpunk 2077 is perhaps one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by Polish developers CD Project RED or (CDPR). The game was announced back in May 2012. It took almost eight years to become a reality as the game was finally released on 10th December 2020. The release, however, did not happen smoothly as there were numerous delays. When the game was finally launched, it was marred with several issues across all the platforms and was unplayable on PS4 to the point that the game was pulled from Sony’s store. With that said, PC gamers managed to find more and more ways to make the game more playable, and even in the current state, the game requires a lot of improvement. CPDR has promised that they plan to support the game for as long as possible, and there is a plan to launch the game on PS5 and Xbox Series X | S later this year. Despite all the technical issues that the game has faced, it has still proven to be incredibly successful in terms of sales. Set in the fictional night city in the year 2077, Cyberpunk 2077 puts you in the shoes of V, a mercenary for the lack of better words who are looking to make their life a better place and climb the ladder to become one of the best in the city. The Night City is a sprawling landscape that the city’s corporations primarily control, and the law is unable to do anything, to begin with. The city relies heavily on automation such as robotics and implants. The game shows a bleak vision of the future and how things might become for everyone if humans keep relying on technology. The story is a lot of fun when you start exploring it, and there are countless twists and turns and some jaw-dropping moments. Much like Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 does not confine you to just Night City; the whole map opens up to you right after the prologue, and you are free to roam around and do whatever you want, and however, you want. The game gives you a world of possibilities, and you can even play the game as a pacifist as well. Some enemies and bosses will be challenging to take on because of level limitations, but other than that, the game gives you absolute freedom. Speaking of leveling up, Cyberpunk 2077 also has one of the most diverse skill trees you will find in any modern game and takes some time to get used to. But once you have mastered all the skills and unlocked everything, you are going to become a force to be reckoned with as the game allows you to play it the way you want to, and it becomes a lot of fun, as well. Super relevant: Cyberpunk 2077 Character Creation
Cyberpunk 2077: Minimum System Requirements
Cyberpunk 2077 has various system requirements, so we are looking at the minimum official system requirements.
OS: Win 7 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz / AMD FX-8310 Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 VRAM: 3GB System Memory: 8 GB RAM Storage: 70 GB Hard drive space DirectX 12 Compatible Graphics Card
Cyberpunk 2077: Recommended System Requirements
OS: Win 10 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 4-Core 3.6GHz / AMD Ryzen 3 3200G Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 590 8GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 VRAM: 6GB System Memory: 12 GB RAM Storage: 70 GB Hard drive space
Cyberpunk 2077: (1080p, Low Settings)
CPU: Intel Core i5-3750K / AMD FX 8310 RAM: 8G GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 / AMD Radeon RX 470 VRAM: 3GB Storage: 70GB HDD (SSD recommended) OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
Cyberpunk 2077: (1080p, High Settings)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 / AMD Ryzen 3 3200G RAM: 12GB GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) / AMD Radeon RX 590 VRAM: 6GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077: (1440p, Low Settings)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 / AMD Ryzen 2 3200G RAM: 12GB GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 VRAM: 6GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077: (1440p, Ultra Settings)
CPU: Core i7-6700 or Ryzen 5 3600 GPU: RTX 2070 or RX 5600 XT RAM: 12GB VRAM: 8GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077: (2160p, Low Settings)
CPU: Core i7-7700 or Ryzen 5 3600 GPU: RTX 2070 or RX 6800 XT RAM: 16GB VRAM: 8GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077: (2160p, Ultra Settings)
CPU: Core i7 8700K or Ryzen 7 3800 GPU: RTX 2080 Super or RTX 2080Ti RAM: 16GB VRAM: 8GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077: (1440p Medium Ray Tracing Settings)
CPU: Core i7-6700 or Ryzen 5 3600 GPU: RTX 3070 or RX 6800 XT RAM: 16GB VRAM: 8GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077: (1440p Ultra Ray Tracing Settings)
CPU: Core i7-7700K or Ryzen 5 3600x GPU: RTX 3070 or RX 6800 XT RAM: 16GB VRAM: 8GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077: (4K Medium Ray Tracing Settings)
CPU: Core i7-8700K or Ryzen 7 3900x GPU: RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT RAM: 16GB VRAM: 8GB/16GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077: (4K Ultra Ray Tracing Settings)
CPU: Core i7-9900K or Ryzen 7 3900x GPU: RTX 3090 RAM: 16GB VRAM: 24GB Storage: 70GB SSD OS: Windows 10 64-bit
NeoGamr’s Cyberpunk 2077 Recommended PC
If you wish to run Cyberpunk 2077 with the absolute best performance, these are the following specs that we are running with DLSS set to performance and raytracing set to Psycho.
Core i7-8700K or Ryzen 7 3900x RTX 3080 16GB RAM 10GB VRAM 70GB SSD storage Windows 10 64-bit
Cyberpunk 2077 Graphics Card & CPU Considerations
Many people are rushing to build their gaming PCs just because they want to run Cyberpunk 2077 with ease and to be honest, I am not surprised. The game is truly worthy of all the hype that it has been receiving, but that also means that you need to find the right components a lot of the time. At the time of writing, the market is horrible for anyone who wants to build a new PC, but there are a lot of things that you can do to make the experience with Cyberpunk 2077 more accessible and more convenient. For starters, you have to understand that you are going to need a PC that is powerful enough. Once that is sorted out, you will have to determine the resolution that you are playing at. For starters, it is essential to know that Cyberpunk 2077 is essentially GPU dependent, which means that you will need a good and powerful enough GPU to run the game at the best possible settings. However, that does not rule out the RAM and the CPU that you have. In my experience, any good 6-core CPU is more than enough for Cyberpunk 2077, and in some cases, where there is no bottleneck, even a 4-core CPU will work well, but that would be pushing it. If you are considering a good GPU, the following are a few things that I have mentioned that should help you buy the right one. The Resolution You Are Playing At When you are considering a new graphics card for Cyberpunk 2077, the first thing that one should be looking at the resolution playing. In my testing using an RTX 3080, I realized that the resolution plays a massive role in how the game will eventually play out. I ran the game on 4K for starters, and there were some apparent hiccups and frame drops in densely populated areas or areas where there was a lot of action happening. However, dropping it down to 1440p rectified almost every single issue that I had and even allowed me to crank the settings even higher. The same difference was noticed when I shifted from 1080p to 1440p. The game has a lot of detail, and lowering the resolution helps a lot. If you are using a different graphics card, it will help you decide easily. So, the first consideration you should be making is the GPU you are going to opt for. What is Your Budget In addition to the resolution you are looking at, one more thing that you should be considering is the budget that you have. At the time of writing, graphic cards are like unicorns, as buying anything in retail is extremely difficult due to a meager supply and skyrocketing demand. Not just that, the chip shortage has also affected the GPU and CPU market, so you are looking to pay more than you usually would. Still, it is wiser that you are at least considering a budget beforehand. That way, you will not find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer options you have to choose from. Is Raytracing Important? The most significant performance determinant in Cyberpunk 2077 happens to be raytracing. Even on RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, which are the best GPUs available in the market, raytracing is a feature that takes a toll. We understand that some of the performance hiccups are due to poor optimization and programming. However, raytracing makes the game look all the better, and it looks gorgeous. Therefore, most of the gamers turn it on so that they can enjoy the eye candy. I can tell you already that if you are looking to turn raytracing on and max out every other setting, you will need really powerful hardware. However, the moment you turn this setting off, you start realizing that Cyberpunk 2077 is a whole different game in terms of playability. When running it without raytracing, the game tends to run better in almost every situation. Do I Have to Overclock My CPU or GPU? When it comes to running Cyberpunk 2077, I have seen many people talk about whether they will have to overclock their CPU or their GPU to get the game started. Honestly, if you are going to overclock your GPU, you might see a gain in the frames per second, but it is essential to know that this difference will not be enough to make a difference. Cyberpunk 2077, as a whole game, is broken in more ways than one, and that ends up causing some troubles as far as the performance is concerned. As far as a faster CPU is concerned, you will not see that big of a performance boost and, in most situations, no performance boost at all. However, if you wish to go ahead and give it a try, we would urge you to be careful as overclocking can potentially damage your system, and it is always wiser that you are not running into such issues. How is RAM Going to Affect the Performance? Over the past couple of years, we have realized that RAM does not affect many factors when you are talking about gaming. Sure, on the AMD platform, faster RAM does help with the performance, but the same cannot be said when you are gaming. If you are looking to have a good experience in Cyberpunk 2077, you will be more than okay having 16GB of RAM as I have tested it, and any means does not break the game’s memory utilization, and you will do just fine. All these factors are essential to consider when you are looking to play Cyberpunk 2077. Indeed, the game is still in a broken state of things for many people, but it has largely been fixed. You will need to tinker with a lot of settings, and that way, you can get the best performance out of the game. As far as the graphics card recommendations, I have tested the games on various GPUs, including the RTX 2000 series, the RTX 3000 series, and some of the higher-end cards from the GTX 1000 series. The finding that has been consistent with all the GPUs that I tested was that raytracing managed to have the worst effect on all the cards except the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. This only means that the game is perfectly playable on almost all the modern graphic cards as long as you keep raytracing turned off. However, one of the best things about having an RTX card is that you can use DLSS in combination with raytracing, which will allow you to have a beautiful game with excellent performance.
Can I Run Cyberpunk 2077?
Now, the critical debate that most people are going to bring up with the release and availability of Cyberpunk 2077 is whether they will run the game. This one is an interesting debate because the other is both a yes and no based on how you are looking at things. I know; it honestly sounds confusing. So, for starters, there used to be a situation in which you could look at the game’s minimum and recommended settings, and you would be able to run the game without any issues. I wish the same applied here with Cyberpunk 2077, but things are drastically different here, and you can tell that by just looking at all the different system requirements that we have mentioned above. Not only does this make things inherently different, but difficult, as well. Since you are left wondering what needs to be done to make the process work and that too, without a hitch that might come in the way. So, if you are looking to run Cyberpunk 2077 without any issues, there are a few things that you might need to do, and I have listed them down below. Don’t Trust the System Requirements: I know this might sound like a strange thing to many people, but when I first read the system requirements of Cyberpunk 2077, I was surprised because the system requirements were not demanding first place. Heck, I had seen more demanding system requirements from older games. Naturally, I was expecting the game to run just fine with raytracing and other features maxed out. However, that was soon rendered useless when I decided to run the game. Even despite having really powerful hardware, the game barely managed to keep up in terms of performance. That is when I realized that trusting the system requirements would be a wrong idea and a lot of other publications agree with this statement. DLSS is Your Best Friend: If you are lucky enough to have your hand on either the RTX 2000 or RTX 3000 series, you are in luck because of the fact that you can use DLSS to its full capacity. When it was initially announced, DLSS was seen was nothing more than a gimmick, but over the past couple of months, it has really improved and allows for an excellent experience. Especially for those who do not want to compromise on all the Raytracing features; in such a case, using DLSS is important. However, if you are about to turn the feature on, avoid turning it to the max unless you want your character models to look like something that is out of the late PS2 era. Follow the Settings Guide: Cyberpunk 2077 on PC has an extensive settings menu that can be confusing for a lot of people who are just starting out. Even the most hardcore PC enthusiasts can get confused in the menu and, therefore, find themselves wondering which settings they should be applying and which setting they should skip. If you want to be certain that you are getting the right settings at all times, follow the settings guide that should help you set the best possible settings in the game and have a relatively smoother experience too. What is better here is that we have a complete guide on what settings are best for you in Cyberpunk 2077, so you are not being left out. Don’t Be Afraid to Turn Raytracing Off: The biggest culprit for eating all your frames here is raytracing; however, that is also the feature that supposedly makes the game look at its best. What if I tell you it is not that useful? You see, raytracing is revolutionary, and no one can deny that. However, such a feature is best for atmospheric games that are dripping with some gorgeous sceneries. Games like Metro: Exodus are the prime example of how raytracing just adds to the overall experience of the game. Cyberpunk 2077, on the other hand, does not share the same DNA, you are being put in a massive open world with so much to explore, and the gameplay picks up speed really fast, as well. In such a situation, if you are only playing the game for the sake of eye candy, you are not really going to experience raytraced lighting all the time unless you stop for a while and bask in the glory of it. Therefore, the wiser thing would be to spend some time playing the game without raytracing on, and you will realise how you are doing just fine without the feature. I understand that Cyberpunk 2077 is a hot topic right now, and everyone wants to run it, but we also have to acknowledge the limitations that our PC has run into limitations and the game itself is not really optimized, to begin with. In such conditions, it is more than okay to tune the settings down in order to have the experience you want to have. Cyberpunk 2077 is less about how good the world looks and more about the story, characters, and everything else that makes the game what it is. Therefore, that is what it should be enjoyed for.
Cyberpunk 2077 Settings To Improve Your Gaming Performance
I guess by now, everyone is aware of the absolute monster Cyberpunk 2077 can be in terms of resource usage, and how even the best of the best computers are struggling to do that. There was a time when we could simply blame all of it on poor optimization, but things have changed drastically. Cyberpunk 2077 is not just poorly optimized, but it also uses some of the most advanced tech in terms of rendering and overall graphical allocation, which makes this game a bit too hard to run for most PCs. However, we have spent countless hours in trying to tinker around with the settings just so we can find the best possible setting for the performance. Below, you can find all the important settings that should improve your frame rate. Turning Down Volumetric Cloud And Volumetric Fog Resolution Back when Assassin’s Creed Origins released, it managed to cripple my GTX 1080; even though the card at that time was no slouch, it made me realize how I really need an upgrade. Until I decided to turn down volumetric lighting and I realized that I was just fine. The same is the case with Cyberpunk 2077. This game offers Volumetric Cloud and Volumetric Fog Resolution; these two settings happen to be the biggest resource users in terms of the frame drops or gains. For those wondering, both settings are responsible for effecting the quality of light that passes through clouds, fog, or dust in the game. Obviously, such a setting is going to have an adverse effect on how the frame rate works. Thankfully, you can turn these settings down to medium from high, and you will realize that you are going to get an increase of around 5 to 10 frames per second. This might not be a huge bump for those who are already getting over 60 frames, but for those who are already struggling, this is a godsend. For maximum effect, however, you can turn the settings down to low and see if it is any good. Screen Space Reflection Quality Raytracing is too good to be true, yes, we all know, but raytracing largely works because of Screen Space Reflections in the game. This setting is used in tandem with raytracing to produce that gorgeous lighting and reflections, and as the name suggests, this is a resource hog that can absolutely tank your frame rate. If you are running a GPU that does not have DLSS feature, then turning this feature on is a very important thing. You can actually get framerate close to the 60s by turning this down along with the settings that we have mentioned earlier. It is all about making the most of the resources you have available. Reducing The Field of View While this feature is not going to dramatically improve your performance by a greater margin, you can still squeeze in a couple of frames here and there once you are done taking care of this feature. By default, it is set to 80-degree, I have it set all the way to the max, but if you are running into issues, you can reduce it to 75 or even 70 to see if it does you any favour. Enabling Dynamic FidelityFX CAS Even though the name might not make sense to a lot of people, the feature is good for introducing the dynamic resolution. This means that turning this feature on starts automatically changing your resolution on the fly to improve the performance. It allows you to set your target frame rate ranging from 10 to 250 frames per second. I would suggest that you leave the maximum resolution option at 100 but change the minimum to around 90 percent. Because going lower than this can have a severe impact on how the game looks, and we would not want that to begin with. Dynamic FidelityFX CAS works really well on almost all the graphic cards, so you know that you are not putting yourself at risk as far as the overall performance is concerned. If You Have DLSS, Use It DLSS as a feature was very unstable, and in most cases, completely unusable thanks to how it was able to create a mess out of everything. However, DLSS 2.0 is a lot better, and looking at the situation, it is only getting better as the time goes by. If you are lucky enough to have the RTX 2000 or RTX 3000 series, then using DLSS is a no-brainer. Especially if you are like me and you are playing the game at 4K resolution, then using it is important. You can gain massive frame improvements, and not just that, this feature is also going to allow you to turn some of the other settings to their max. in short, you are going to get a wonderful experience with DLSS. Miscellaneous Settings Thanks to the extensive nature of the settings in Cyberpunk 2077, going over all of them is bit of a difficult process. We would also suggest that you turn down the following settings or completely disable them.
Cascaded Shadow Resolution/Range (lower this first) Local Shadow Mesh/Quality Distant Shadows Resolution Ambient Occlusion
Most of these settings are self-explanatory at best but can have a severe impact on the performance of the game, so turning them off can be a good way to find out whether they are going to benefit you or you are just investing your time on something that is useless. The game does bring many flaws to the table, and while the developers are working hard at getting rid of them, we all have to acknowledge the fact that in the current state, the game is unplayable for a lot of us and is going to stay that way, for some months to come. With all the resources at hand, we tried our best to develop a guide that will allow everyone to enjoy Cyberpunk 2077 without having to wait for months before the game is truly finished.
#1 – Can I run Cyberpunk 2077 on my PC?
Yes, you can. You just have to go through different system requirements that we have listed above, and based on that, you can see if your system qualifies for Cyberpunk 2077. Thanks to an extensive list of options, finding the right settings is easy.
#2 – Can a 14 year old play Cyberpunk 2077?
No, Cyberpunk 2077 is rated M for Mature; therefore, the game is suggested for people aged 17 and above. How different censor boards of different countries have their own preferences. But by all means, the game is not meant for a 14-year old as it contains a lot of violence.
#3 – What settings should I use for Cyberpunk 2077?
Cyberpunk 2077 allows you to tweak the game’s settings to a greater extent, allowing you to have a truly unique experience. Our guide has covered all the potential settings for the game that will allow you for a greater experience.
#4 – Is 16GB RAM enough for Cyberpunk 2077?
Yes, even at the max resolution and other settings, Cyberpunk 2077 runs absolutely fine with 16GB RAM. You should know that the RAM is not even the biggest determinant in terms of performance when you are playing Cyberpunk 2077. So, if you have 16GB RAM, you are good to go.
#5 – Will a GTX 1060 run Cyberpunk 2077?
A GTX 1060 can run Cyberpunk 2077, but for the GPU to do that, you have to go through extensive setting changes. In most of the cases, you will have to lower the settings by a good measure to make the game run correctly and without any issues.
#6 – Can RTX 2070 Super run Cyberpunk 2077?
Yes, RTX 2070 Super is more than capable of running Cyberpunk 2077 without any issues. However, you will have to turn DLSS on if you are looking to use raytracing as well. Because without DLSS, having raytracing enabled is a risk and will not pay off in any suitable way.
#7 – Will cyberpunk run at 60FPS?
If you have a PC powerful enough, you can run Cyberpunk 2077 on not just 60 frames per second but even on frames higher than that. But in all situations, you will have to rely on DLSS for the best possible performance.
#8 – Will cyberpunk run at 60FPS on PS4?
As a matter of fact, no. Cyberpunk 2077 cannot maintain 60 frames per second on the PS4. The game is plagued with many bugs and other issues, and at the moment, the game is not available on the PlayStation store. So, you have to keep that in mind.
#9 – Will cyberpunk run at 120fps on PS5?
No, Cyberpunk 2077 is not going to run at 120 frames per second on a PS5. However, when it finally reaches the console, it will run on 60 frames per second. This is an official statement, but we are still waiting for the game to be available on PlayStation 5.
#10 – What is the average FPS for Cyberpunk 2077?
Cyberpunk 2077 varies in performance across various platforms and different PC configurations, and therefore, finding the average is impossible. However, the game does run on 60 frames per second and even above 60 frames per second on many computers with proper and powerful hardware.