What are the best Cyberpunk 2077 settings for PC and Steam Deck? It's time to head back to Night City, choom. With a new, huge update on the way, it's time to check out the best Cyberpunk 2077 settings and get your gaming rig or handheld ready to pick up where you left off.
The Cyberpunk 2077, even if you're on an older rig or even a handheld.
Best Cyberpunk 2077 settings for PC
- Resolution Scaling: DLSS Super Resolution
- DLSS Super Resolution Preset: Transformer Model
- DLSS Super Resolution: Quality
- Sharpness: 0
- DLSS Ray Reconstruction: On
- Frame Generation: DLSS Frame Generation
- Texture Quality: High
- Ray Tracing: On
- Ray Traced Reflections: On
- Ray Traced Sun Shadows: On
- Ray Traced Local Shadows: On
- Ray Traced Lighting: Psycho
- Path Tracing: Off
- Path Tracing in Photo Mode: Off
- Crowd Density: High
- Field of View: 100
- Film Grain: On
- Chromatic Aberration: On
- Depth of Field: On
- Lens Flare: On
- Motion Blur: High
- Shadows: On
- Improved Facial Lighting Geometry: On
- Anisotropy: 16
- Local Shadow Mesh Quality: High
- Local Shadow Quality: High
- Cascaded Shadows Range: High
- Cascaded Shadows Resolution: High
- Distant Shadows Resolution: High
- Volumetric Fog Resolution: Ultra
- Volumetric Fog Quality: Ultra
- Max Dynamic Decals: Ultra
- Screen Space Reflections Quality: Psycho
- Subsurface Scattering Quality: High
- Ambient Occlusion: High
- Color Precision: High
- Mirror Quality: High
- Level of Detail: High
Using the above settings on our RTX 4070 testing rig (full specs under How We Test) we achieved a frame rate of 92fps, with 1% lows of 60fps, a super solid number that's ideal for any single-player RPG.
The balance of performance and visual quality is ideal, and Night City looks stunning with ray tracing features enabled. As you can see in the benchmarks below, we could comfortably run the game using the Overdrive profile, but the 1% lows were just 28fps, and this instability could often be felt during combat.
If you're running an older Nvidia RTX GPU, the new transformer model for super resolution is ideal, as while you won't receive the same frame rate boost by enabling it, the image quality is far better. For a frame rate boost, you can enable frame generation if you own an RTX 4000 or 5000 GPU, while multi-frame gen is available exclusively for RTX 5000 owners.
PC Benchmarks
| DLSS 4 + Frame Gen | Native | |
| Low | 213fps | 126fps |
| Medium | 191fps | 108fps |
| High | 170fps | 99fps |
| Ultra | 124fps | 73fps |
| Ray Tracing Low | 117fps | 61fps |
| Ray Tracing Medium | 92fps | 56fps |
| Ray Tracing Ultra | 90fps | 48fps |
| Ray Tracing Overdrive | 65fps | 20fps |
Best Cyberpunk 2077 settings for Steam Deck
- Quick Preset: Steam Deck
- Resolution Scaling: AMD FSR 2.1
- FSR Super Resolution: Balanced
- Sharpness: 0
- Frame Generation: Off
- Texture Quality: High
- Crowd Density: Low
There's no need to tweak the Steam Deck preset for Cyberpunk 2077. It returns a super stable 35fps, which will sometimes spike into the mid-40s but rarely drops below 30fps.
Do not enable AMD frame generation, as right now it adds some very noticeable input lag. Frame generation is also best used in situations where you're already getting a decent frame rate, rather than trying to force one using the tool.
The general image quality is okay, certainly nothing compared to what can be achieved on handhelds like the Ayaeno 3, but it's able considering the power of the Steam Deck.
How we tested Cyberpunk 2077
At PCGamesN, we use dedicated gaming rigs to test the best settings for performance and gameplay in the latest releases. The test rig used to play Cyberpunk 2077 includes the following components: Intel Core i7-11700F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 12GB, 32GB of DDR4 3,200MHz RAM in a dual-channel configuration, and MSI B560 motherboard. We also test using Windows 11 64-bit.
We always run our testing first at 1,920 x 1,080 to identify the best settings for this entry-level resolution, then again at 2,560 x 1,440 using the same setup to gauge the difference in performance. We use CapFrameX to capture frame data and compare testing sessions.
Does Cyberpunk 2077 need an SSD?
Cyberpunk 2077 has required an SSD ever since the release of Phantom Liberty. While you won't need the best SSD on the market, mechanical drives simply can't keep up with the demands of Night City.
How to monitor performance in Cyberpunk 2077
If you want to keep an eye on performance in Cyberpunk 2077, we have an easy method that works whether you're using an Nvidia or AMD graphics card.
For Nvidia cards, ensure you have the Nvidia App installed and the in-game overlay enabled, and then hit ALT + R in-game to bring up your performance monitor. With AMD cards, you can enable performance monitoring via the Radeon overlay using the shortcut CTRL + SHIFT + O.
Alternatively, you can free software such as CapFrameX or Nvidia FrameView, to get a cleaner, more simplified benchmarking tool that works with any graphics card.
With handheld gaming PCs, most will have a dedicated button to access a quick menu from which performance monitoring, sometimes called real-time monitoring, can be accessed.
For more content from Night City, you can check out our Cyberpunk 2077 mods guide. If you're after something similar, you can instead check out our list of the best hacking games on PC.
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