Cyberpunk 2077 - overview and comparison of graphics settings, as well as their impact on performance

In this review, we'll look at how the game behaves on different graphics presets, what impact individual parameters have, and what ray tracing and modern upscalers actually give. We'll see how exactly Cyberpunk loads the hardware and what impact graphics settings have on the overall image.

All measurements were taken on the following configuration with a screen resolution of 1080p:

CPU: Intel Core i7 11700F
GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GAMING X TRIO 12G
RAM: 32 GB DDR4 3200 MHz
SSD: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1 TB NVMe

Visitors asked to make screenshots in 2k or 4k, but due to the fact that the screenshot comparison module compresses them and displays them on the screen in 720p, the point of this idea is reduced to zero. Plus, this creates an additional load on the site, which will lead to a long loading of screenshots. The request to compare upscales in different quality modes was also taken into account.

The game has a pretty decent list of graphics settings, and for most of the graphics parameters, there are 3 levels: High, Medium, and Low. The settings that were not included in the review did not have a visible effect on the image quality, or the difference is only visible in dynamics, which is quite difficult to track. Also, for some graphics parameters, a comparison was made only for the maximum and minimum settings, since at least some noticeable difference appears only at the extreme values. For upscalers, the comparison is carried out in the native and between different quality settings. For upscalers, screenshots were taken with a sharpness of 30 for all types.

The first of the graphics parameters is Upscaling. In the native there are only DLSS DLAA and FSR 3.1 Native, FSR 2.1 and XeSS are presented only with quality settings. In the native FSR 3.1 showed itself more or less normally, while not much inferior to the original. DLSS DLAA Transformer, in turn, completely changes the picture and leaves all other modes out of competition, producing an image that is even better in quality than the native without upscalers and anti-aliasing. You can see the performance yourself in the screenshots, it practically does not change. Of course, owners of cards from AMD or Intel will have to use FSR 3.1, but this is all better than the already outdated FSR 2.1, the presence of which in the game is questionable, since an older and better version has long been available. XeSS traditionally shows the worst results at the level of FSR 2.1, DLSS and FSR 3.1 give the best picture, but FSR here, all, is inferior.

DLSS Ray Tracing. When this option is enabled, the image looks significantly clearer and better than the original.

Path tracing (on and off). The difference, as they say, is visible to the naked eye, but this difference comes at the cost of a nearly twofold drop in performance. A comparison with completely disabled tracing is also provided, which increases performance even more, almost 3 times, reduces the load on the processor and video card, but makes the picture less realistic and beautiful.

contact shadows (on and off). Turning it off makes the picture a little flatter, as many of the fine shadows disappear. The impact on performance is minimal.

Anisotropic filtering. The differences are only visible between 16x and 1x, the impact is minimal.

Local shadows. The difference is only visible between the maximum preset and complete shutdown, the impact is minimal.

Resolution of cascaded shadow maps. Also, the differences are visible only between the High and Low presets, which manifested itself in a decrease in the quality and saturation of shadows, but has almost no effect on performance.

Reflection quality: Incredible, Impressive, High, Medium, Low and Off. There are differences between all presets, which manifest themselves in a decrease in the quality of reflections and light sources. What is most surprising is the very weak, even barely noticeable impact on overall performance.

diffuse shading.The differences are noticeable only at the extreme positions of the slider: turning it off makes the picture less natural, removing many small shadows. The impact is also minimal.

Quality of reflections in mirrors. Differences are visible between all settings: the clarity and quality of reflections are reduced. There is an impact on performance, but it is quite weak.

Level of detail, unexpectedly, did not bring any changes at all.

Texture quality. The difference is visible between all presets: when reduced, textures lose clarity and detail, and the low preset makes the inscriptions unreadable even closely. It also has little effect on performance.

Conclusions

Cyberpunk 2077 remains one of the most technologically advanced games even years after its release. The flexibility of graphic settings allows the project to be adapted to different configurations, but in fact, far from all parameters have a significant impact on the final picture.

The greatest visual and productive impact is exerted by:

• Upscalers and DLSS DLAA — especially in the Transformer mode, which produces the best image quality among all the options presented;

• Reflection quality - noticeable difference between presets with relatively little impact on performance;

• Path tracing — the visual increase is obvious, but is accompanied by a strong drop in fps;

• Texture quality — at low values ​​it noticeably spoils readability and detail, but has very little effect on performance;

• Contact and local shadows, shading, shadow resolution — the depth and volume of the scene are determined in a complex manner.

The rest of the parameters are like anisotropic filtering, level detailing и diffuse shading in most scenes they have a rather weak impact on both the image and performance, and then only at extreme values.

DLSS DLAA is especially worth mentioning (in particular, in Transformer mode) - it provides quality that surpasses even native images without anti-aliasing. For owners of NVIDIA graphics cards, this is currently the best choice.

In general, Cyberpunk 2077 demonstrates excellent optimization and a modern graphics foundation that allows you to fine-tune the balance between quality and performance. And with the advent of FSR 3.1 and improved tracing implementation, the project can again be considered a full-fledged benchmark for top hardware and beats most of the newest AAA projects in terms of graphics quality and performance level, despite the fact that the game is already 5 years old.