Cyberpunk 2077 Performance Review and Optimisation Guide

  
Graphical Settings Comparison – Low to RT Ultra

Low Settings to Medium Settings

Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t look great at Low Settings. Major compromised are made to Cyberpunk’s visuals are made to deliver higher performance levels. At low settings, Lighting is altered to such a degree that my scenes simply look wrong, and the game’s leading-edge graphics ambitions are left by the wayside. 

PLaying Cyberpunk 2077 at Medium settings is like playing a different game, with the preset offering gamers improved lighting, screen-space reflections and a variety of other important features like Ambient Occlusion. Medium settings are the minimum that Cyberpunk 2077 players should be aiming for on PC, assuming they want a great graphical experience.  

(Low VS Med)
    

(Low VS Med)
  

Medium Settings VS High Settings

While high settings look very similar to Medium settings in many scenes, there is a clear upgrade in terms of overall graphical quality. Draw distances are pushed a little further, texture filtering is a little better, and volumetric effects are a lot more stable. 

Volumetric Fog alone sees a huge visual improvement with High settings, making the fog around lights seem less pixelated, and the world feels a lot more stable. If your PC can handle it, High settings deliver a great visual experience in Cyberpunk 2077.  

(Med VS High)
  

High to Ultra Settings

Moving from high to Ultra settings delivers small graphical improvements which are hard to notice during general gameplay. Volumetric settings, Screen Space Reflections and other quality settings are rendered at higher resolutions and generally look better when inspected closely. That said, the difference is hard to notice when you are focusing on gameplay and not visuals, and if gameplay is your focus, you will enjoy the higher performance of Cyberounk’s High settings a lot more than the minor visual improvements that Ultra settings provide. 
 

(High VS Ultra)
  
  

Ultra Preset to RT Medium Preset

This graphical preset is currently exclusive to Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards. Cyberpunk’s RT Medium preset offers gamers ray-traced shadows and ray-traced lighting, changing the look of many scenes within the game. 

Areas without direct lighting will appear darker, better simulating real-world lighting. That said, some scenes can appear too dark using this preset, as the game’s RT lighting system does not include the same level bounce lighting as what we see in the real world.    

(Ultra VS Med RT)
    

(Ultra VS Med RT)
  
  

RT Medium VS RT Ultra

Cranking Cyberpunk 2077’s ray tracing settings higher, the game gains support for ray-traced reflections, transforming the look of Cyberpunk’s game world. The game’s ray-traced lighting system also sees major upgrades, adding yet more depth to the game world. 

If anything, Ray Traced Reflections are the bigger draw than Ray Traced Lighting. Cyberpunk’s use of reflective objects across the game world allows the game to benefit from ray-traced reflections in almost all areas of the game. Even the skin of some NPCs is reflective. 

Strangely, V’s character model is missing from Cyberpunk’s reflection structure, preventing players from seeing themselves reflected on objects. That isn’t a good look for a game with character customisation, though this isn’t a huge problem given how few Cyberpunk 2077 players can utilise the game’s ray tracing features at this time.  

(RT Med VS RT Ultra)
  

(RT Med VS RT Ultra)