Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty PC Performance Review and Optimisation Guide
RT Off VS RT Ultra and RT Overdrive
Ray tracing – Visual and Performance Impact Tested
When Cyberpunk 2077 launched, the game featured ray tracing on PC as an optional extra. These ray tracing effects replaced traditional rasterised effects with more accurate ray tracing effects, but the impact of these effects are limited. Following the release of Nvidia’s RTX 40 series of GPUs, Cyberpunk gained support for a fully path traced renderer and a new graphical preset called “RT Overdrive” that utilised it. With this mode, everything is ray traced. This delivers more accurate results, as all light sources now cast rays.
Below in this indoor scene early in Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion we can see one area where Cyberpunk 2077’s older ray tracing mode falls short. If you look at the chair below, we can see that RT Ultra does not have shadows under the chair. Only Cyberpunk 2077’s RT Overdrive mode accurately casts shadows under this chair.
Below we can see how path tracing impacts Cyberpunk 2077’s outdoor areas in Dogtown. Below we can see that without ray tracing that there are isn’t much shadow under the van below, and that RT Ultra adds a realistic shadow here. With RT Overdrive, we can see more shadowing on the man in front of the van, and much more accurate shading around the van’s headlights.
Below, we can see another area where Cyberpunk 2077’s RT Ultra preset falls short, with RT Overdrive providing more accurate shading under this character’s hat and in several areas of her clothing. Path traced lighting also gives Cyberpunk 2077 a different look, especially when it comes to the faces of characters.
Ray Tracing Performance
Below we have compared the performance of the two strongest GPUs available, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Nvidia’s RTX 4090. Both of these GPUs are brought to their knees when Cyberpunk 2077’s RT Overdrive preset is enabled. This reveals how vital upscaling is for this demanding game mode.
To say the least, Nvidia’s RTX 4090 slaughters AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX when it comes to ray tracing performance. This is especially true when RT Overdrive is enabled. AMD’s average framerate at 1080p is lower than Nvidia’s at 4K in RT Overdrive mode. That said, Cyberpunk 2077’s RT overdrive tool is a technological preview, and a game mode that was specifically designed with Nvidia GPUs in mind.
While Cyberpunk 2077’s RT overdrive mode does look great, it is too demanding for most PC gamers to consider using. This mode requires an RTX 40 series GPU with DLSS Super Resolution and DLSS Frame Generation to run well in most instances. Most gamers will be better off using a this Cyberpunk 2077’s Ultra or Ultra RT presets on PC. These presets will offer gamers much higher framerates and a smoother overall gameplay experience.
