Cyberpunk 2077 Best PC Graphics Settings

Cyberpunk 2077 is a genuine benchmark game, and its menu hides a huge gap between the prettiest and the smoothest configurations. This guide explains the real cost of ray tracing versus path tracing, how the modern upscalers and frame generation work, and which named settings to lower first.

Ray tracing vs path tracing: what they cost

Cyberpunk offers three lighting tiers. Rasterized (ray tracing off) is by far the cheapest and still looks excellent after years of updates. Standard ray tracing adds individual toggles under the Ray Tracing menu, such as Reflections, Sun Shadows, Local Shadows and Lighting, each of which chips away at performance.

Path tracing, labeled Ray Tracing: Overdrive, is the single most demanding option in the game. It replaces the lighting model entirely for stunning results but tanks frame rates, and CD PROJEKT RED's own Overdrive spec assumes a top-tier GPU with DLSS Frame Generation switched on. Treat it as a showcase mode for high-end cards, not a default. If you want some ray tracing without the Overdrive hit, enable RT Reflections alone, which gives much of the visual wow for a fraction of the cost of full path tracing.

Upscaling: DLSS, FSR, and XeSS

Upscaling renders the game at a lower internal resolution and reconstructs it to your display resolution, and it is the biggest free performance win available. Use the upscaler that matches your hardware: DLSS on GeForce RTX cards, FSR on Radeon, and XeSS on Intel Arc, all selectable under Resolution Scaling.

Quality mode looks closest to native and is the safe default; Balanced and Performance trade a little sharpness for more frames and are worth it at higher output resolutions like 1440p and 4K. As of the 2.3 update the game supports modern versions across the board, including DLSS with Frame Generation, AMD FSR 4 and FSR 3.1, and Intel XeSS 2.0, so there is a good option for nearly every recent GPU.

Frame Generation: when it helps

Frame Generation inserts AI-generated frames between rendered ones to boost the number on screen. DLSS Frame Generation runs on GeForce RTX 40 and 50 series, with Multi Frame Generation on the 50 series producing several generated frames per rendered one. Thanks to updates through 2.13 and 2.3, FSR and XeSS frame generation now work far more broadly, including many non-RTX cards.

The catch is latency: Frame Generation makes motion look smoother but does not reduce input lag, and it feels worst when your base frame rate is already low. Only turn it on once you have a stable pre-generation frame rate from upscaling and settings tuning. It also requires Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling enabled in Windows.

The heaviest settings to lower first

If you need frames, these named options give the most back for the least visual loss. Screen Space Reflections Quality is expensive at its top Psycho and Ultra levels; dropping to Medium or Low is barely noticeable in motion. Volumetric Fog Resolution and Volumetric Cloud Quality are costly atmospheric effects that you rarely study closely, so Medium is plenty.

Local Shadow Mesh Quality and Local Shadow Quality, along with Cascaded Shadows Range, are heavy shadow settings that look fine a notch or two down. Crowd Density lives in the gameplay settings rather than graphics and is a major CPU cost in dense districts, so lower it if your frame rate dips in crowds. By contrast, Texture Quality is cheap on the GPU as long as you have enough VRAM, so keep it high for the sharpest surfaces.

Applying a balanced setup, step by step

1. Set a Quick Preset near your GPU tier (High for strong cards, Medium for mid-range) as a baseline.
2. Enable the upscaler that matches your GPU under Resolution Scaling and start at Quality.
3. Keep ray tracing off unless you have headroom, then add only RT Reflections if you want some.
4. Drop Screen Space Reflections Quality, Volumetric Fog Resolution and Volumetric Cloud Quality to Medium or Low.
5. Lower Local Shadow Mesh Quality and Cascaded Shadows a notch, and reduce Crowd Density if crowds cause dips.
6. Only after the base frame rate is stable, enable Frame Generation for extra smoothness.

60 FPS versus maximum visuals

For a steady 60 FPS on most hardware, keep ray tracing off, run an upscaler at Quality or Balanced, and use the Medium-to-High range with the heavy settings above trimmed. This looks great and stays responsive.

For maximum visuals on a high-end rig, enable path tracing (Ray Tracing: Overdrive), keep Texture Quality maxed, and lean on DLSS plus Frame Generation to claw back the frames those effects consume. Just accept that path tracing is a luxury that demands premium hardware, and that turning it off costs you far less image quality than it saves in performance.