Night City is a visual masterpiece, a neon-drenched concrete jungle that can bring powerful PCs to their knees. Getting Cyberpunk 2077 running smoothly without making it a blurry mess is the real endgame :). Tired of stutters during firefights or frame drops while driving through Watson? You're in the right place.
This guide explains how to increase FPS in Cyberpunk. We'll examine the demanding settings, and I'll suggest optimized values to help you find the right balance between smooth gameplay and image quality.
Night City's engine: REDengine 4
Before changing settings, understand what we're working with. Cyberpunk 2077 runs on REDengine 4, the final version of CD Projekt Red's proprietary engine. It was built as a powerful platform with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, global illumination and other technologies that bring the world to life.
That's also why it's demanding. Interestingly, CDPR is moving future projects to Unreal Engine 5, making Cyberpunk 2077 the last showcase for this impressive, resource-hungry technology.
Can my PC run Cyberpunk 2077?
Official specifications have changed since launch, particularly with Phantom Liberty. Forget what you heard in 2020. These are the numbers that matter now.
| Preset | Resolution | Target FPS | Processor (CPU) | Graphics card (GPU) | Memory (RAM) | Storage |
| Minimum | 1080p | 30 | Core i7-6700 / Ryzen 5 1600 | GTX 1060 6GB / RX 580 8GB | 12GB | 70GB SSD |
| Recommended | 1080p | 60 | Core i7-12700 / Ryzen 7 7800X3D | RTX 2060 Super / RX 5700 XT | 16GB | 70GB SSD |
| Ultra | 4K | 60 | Core i9-12900 / Ryzen 9 7900X | RTX 3080 / RX 7900 XTX | 20GB | 70GB NVMe |
| RT Overdrive | 4K | 60 | Core i9-12900 / Ryzen 9 7900X | RTX 4080 | 24GB | 70GB NVMe |
As you can see, the requirements are serious. An SSD is now mandatory. Playing on an HDD is asking for trouble with constantly loading textures.
The best performance settings for maximum FPS
Let's dig into settings. The goal is maximum performance with minimal visual sacrifice. Some Cyberpunk 2077 options absolutely destroy FPS.
The most demanding settings to change first
For a quick boost, lower these immediately. They're Cyberpunk 2077's most demanding settings, so changing them produces the biggest gains.
- Screen Space Reflections Quality: Easily the most demanding option. Psycho can cut your frame rate by more than 50%. Lowering it to Low or Medium is the fastest way to regain substantial performance.
- Ray Tracing: Without an RTX 3080 or better, switch it off. Beautiful, yes, but the performance cost is enormous, often halving FPS. I'd rather have steady 100 FPS than 55-60 with ray tracing. I don't care about the rays, so I disable them even when my card can manage 60 FPS+.
- Volumetric Fog & Clouds: Atmospheric but extremely demanding. Low or Medium Volumetric Fog Resolution and Volumetric Cloud Quality provide noticeable FPS gains, and you're unlikely to notice the difference in a firefight.
- Crowd Density: More CPU-heavy than GPU-heavy. If crowded areas such as Japantown hurt your frame rate, Medium density can smooth things out, especially on older processors.
- One more thing: Disable overlays. All of them, especially Steam's, known for adding input lag and reducing FPS. If you aren't actively using it, switch it off.
Want to go further? My list of Cyberpunk 2077 performance mods helps squeeze out a few more frames through community-made optimizations.
Performance mods for Cyberpunk 2077
My optimized settings for a mid-range PC
After plenty of testing, these settings gave me the best balance of looks and speed. They're a starting point: adjust them for your hardware.
| Setting | Recommended value | Reason |
| Texture Quality | High with 8GB+ VRAM / Medium | High looks excellent, but Medium is safer on cards with less VRAM to avoid stuttering. |
| Screen Space Reflections (SSR) | Medium | A major FPS killer. Medium looks good without destroying performance. |
| Ambient Occlusion | Low | A useful FPS boost with little loss of shadow depth. |
| Volumetric Fog Resolution | Low | Another resource hog. Low and High look quite similar during gameplay. |
| Volumetric Cloud Quality | Medium | A good compromise. Off boosts performance considerably, but Medium keeps the sky from looking flat. |
| Cascaded Shadows Range | Medium | Controls how far detailed shadows render. Medium is a good CPU-performance compromise. |
| Local Shadow Quality | High | Less demanding than other shadow options, while keeping nearby shadows sharp. |
| Level of Detail (LOD) | High | Keeps the world detailed without a major performance cost on most systems. |
| Crowd Density | Medium | Reduces CPU load in busy districts and helps prevent sudden frame drops. |
| DLSS / FSR | Balanced / Quality | A good middle ground. Balanced combines clarity with performance at most resolutions. |
| Chromatic Aberration | Off | A stylistic lens effect. Disabling it gives a cleaner, sharper image. |
| Film Grain | Off | Another stylistic filter. Disabling it reduces visual noise and improves clarity. |
| Motion Blur | Off | Disabling it makes fast movement and combat look clearer and feel more responsive. |
Optimized settings for low-end PCs and laptops
Older hardware doesn't mean giving up. Aggressive tuning can still make Night City playable. The target here is stable 60 FPS at 1080p.
| Setting | Low-end recommendation |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080, or your maximum resolution |
| Ray Tracing | Off |
| Texture Quality | Medium, or Low with less than 6GB VRAM |
| Upscaling (DLSS/FSR) | Balanced / Performance |
| Volumetric Cloud Quality | Off |
| Volumetric Fog Resolution | Low |
| Screen Space Reflections (SSR) | Off |
| Ambient Occlusion (AO) | Medium |
| Color Precision | Medium |
| Contact Shadows | On |
| All other shadow settings | Low / Medium |
| Level of Detail (LOD) | Medium |
DLSS and FSR: performance versus quality
NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR render at a lower internal resolution, then use smart algorithms to upscale to your target resolution. That produces a substantial performance boost.
- Quality: Best image quality, almost indistinguishable from native, but a smaller FPS gain.
- Balanced: The sweet spot for most people. Combines clarity with a substantial performance boost.
- Performance / Ultra Performance: The biggest FPS gain, but can make the image soft or blurry, especially at 1080p. Better suited to 4K.
Which should you choose? I'd start with DLSS or FSR Balanced on most systems. Image quality remains excellent, and the FPS boost is hard to ignore.
Advanced performance tweaks
If you’ve optimized your in-game settings and still want more, there are a few things you can do outside of the game.
- Enable Resizable BAR: If your motherboard and GPU support it, enable it in BIOS. It can give a small performance boost. On AMD, like my system, it's called Smart Access Memory.
- Windows Game Mode and GPU scheduling: Keep Game Mode off, something I've disliked since launch, but enable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling in Windows settings.
- High performance power plan: Set Windows to High performance so your CPU runs at full speed.
- Set High priority: Open Task Manager > Details, right-click Cyberpunk2077.exe and set priority to High. This tells Windows to allocate more CPU resources to the game.
Sometimes you want the in-game console to test settings without navigating menus, or just to cheat. My Cyberpunk 2077 console command guide can make testing and adjustments easier.
Console commands for Cyberpunk 2077
For advanced tuners: NVIDIA Control Panel settings
A warning before we dive in. This section is for people who enjoy tinkering under the hood. If you don't know what these options do, I recommend leaving most alone. It's easy to introduce problems or reduce stability. A couple more frames aren't worth crashing every ten minutes.
Open GeForce Experience and disable In-Game Overlay. It's a known resource hog that can cause stutters or input lag. Unless you regularly use it to record, switch it off. That's it.
The only two NVIDIA settings most people should change
Again, deeper tuning is for advanced users. Don't copy random Reddit or Steam recommendations. For everyone else, just two settings offer clear, safe, noticeable benefits.
| Setting | Recommended value | Why change it |
| Power management mode | Prefer maximum performance | By default, the GPU saves power by lowering clocks when it thinks it can. This setting maintains full clocks during gameplay, potentially reducing stutters and improving stability. |
| Max Frame Rate | 3-4 FPS below your monitor's maximum refresh rate | Counterintuitive, but very effective for smoothness. Capping slightly below the monitor limit, such as 141 FPS on 144Hz, keeps G-Sync or FreeSync in their optimal range and prevents input-lag spikes from 100% GPU utilization. Controls feel steadier and more responsive. |
These two tweaks alone can improve smoothness noticeably, without touching the more complicated options. Remember that your biggest FPS increases still come from the in-game settings covered earlier.
AMD GPU optimization
Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my AMD chooms. Leave most Adrenalin settings alone, but there are a couple of effective changes worth making.
In AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, open Performance, then Tracking. Turn off all metric logging here. Stats are nice, but we've established that overlays are the enemy. Disable it.
More performance with Smart Access Memory (SAM)
This matters. If your system supports it, with a Ryzen 3000/5000-series or newer CPU and RX 5000/6000-series or newer GPU, enable Smart Access Memory (SAM). Some motherboard BIOS menus call it Re-Size BAR Support or something similar.
What it does: CPUs traditionally access only a small portion of GPU VRAM at once, an old hardware limitation. SAM, or Re-Size BAR, removes that barrier and permits access to all VRAM at once.
Why it matters in Cyberpunk 2077: Night City is enormous and texture-heavy. SAM provides a wider channel for moving assets to the GPU, potentially yielding a 5-15% FPS boost in some scenarios. Essentially, free performance you're missing when it's disabled.
What happened to performance in patch 2.3?
A patch that gave with one hand and took with the other. Update 2.3 added things such as automatic car purchases and more customization, but also replaced AMD FSR 3.0 with FSR 3.1. Results were mixed:
- FSR 3.1 performance loss: Benchmarks show a small but noticeable FPS decrease, around 3-5 frames on average in Balanced compared with the old version.
- Stuttering: Players also see unpleasant stutters and major frame drops after updating, especially in crowded areas.
- Possible fixes: A couple of things may help. First, update your graphics drivers. Second, try setting FSR Frame Generation to adaptive instead of the default. That seems to smooth things out.
The guide's main recommendations still apply, but pay attention to how FSR 3.1 behaves on your system.
Goodbye low FPS, stutters and micro-freezes
Finding Cyberpunk 2077's best settings is a journey. What works on my PC may not suit yours: many system factors affect performance. Use this guide as a starting point. Change one setting at a time, observe the frame-rate impact and decide whether the visual compromise is worthwhile.
Performance questions answered
Is basic GeForce NOW enough for Cyberpunk, or should I pay for Ultimate?
Honestly, you'll want Ultimate. Performance-tier users regularly complain about slow-loading textures and uneven FPS. The CPUs in those servers seem unable to handle Night City. For smooth gameplay, high settings and perhaps path tracing, Ultimate's RTX 3080 and 40-series cards are practically essential. The basic tier feels like a lottery, especially at peak times.
Why did FPS and GPU usage suddenly drop after the latest patch?
Welcome to post-patch life. It's a common complaint after major updates. New patches sometimes clash with existing drivers or server configurations. Suspects include outdated NVIDIA drivers or GeForce NOW server issues you have to wait out. Performance regressions after updates are familiar, unfortunately. Update drivers and try toggling options such as DLSS Auto or Frame Generation off and on.
What are the best settings for Steam Deck or ROG Ally?
You'll need compromises. Aim for a stable, playable frame rate rather than a visual showcase. Use Low or Medium settings throughout. Ray tracing must stay off, no exceptions. Use FSR or DLSS Performance or even Ultra Performance. Lower shadows and volumetric effects.
Should I disable GPU and CPU low-latency options in Cyberpunk 2077?
No. Frame Generation adds input lag; Reflex/Anti-Lag compensates for it. Keep it On. At 100% CPU usage, switch to On + Boost.
How can I make Frame Generation work well in Cyberpunk?
Frame Generation needs 50-60 real FPS to work properly. Below that, expect artifacts and ghosting. Enable Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling under Windows Settings (Win+I) > System > Display > Graphics. On GPUs outside the RTX 40 series, the best combination is XeSS 2.0 or DLSS plus FSR 3.1 Frame Generation.
What if VSync doesn't work with DLSS?
Frame Generation locks the in-game VSync option. Turn it off in-game, then force it through NVIDIA Control Panel's Cyberpunk 2077 program settings. Also cap FPS 3-4 frames below your monitor's refresh rate there.
Why does the game look laggy despite stable FPS?
Microstutter from uneven frame pacing. Avoid the built-in limiter. Install RivaTuner Statistics Server and set the cap there.
Can I play Cyberpunk with less VRAM than required?
Yes, but overflowing VRAM spills into system RAM and causes freezes. Lower textures to Medium or Low from the main menu, disable ray tracing and use Balanced or Performance upscaling.
Why does changing settings reduce FPS?
REDengine sometimes leaks memory when demanding settings change on the fly. Restart the game. For a quick workaround, set Cascaded Shadows Resolution to Low and immediately restore it, refreshing the shadow cache.
Why is FPS low in crowded places?
Crowds heavily load the CPU, which calculates every character's routes and animations. Set Crowd Density to Low. Ryzen users should also set AMD SMT to On or Auto.
