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Cyberpunk 2077’s Major Update Will Hurt Performance on Lower-End Hardware
CD Projekt Red has ambitious plans for Cyberpunk 2077 with the Phantom Liberty DLC. Not only is going to deliver fans with a brand-new storyline to play through, but the developer is releasing a free update alongside the paid DLC that overhauls much of the base game as well. In some ways, this is going to feel like a completely new game between the changes to skills and abilities and the addition of car combat, among all the other changes. In fact, it’s going to be so different that CD Projekt Red is saying that lower-end hardware will likely see performance impacts when Phantom Liberty and the partner update ship on September 6.
Recently, CD Projekt Red revealed that the minimum required specs on PC have gone up if you’re hoping to run the game at 30fps on 1080p. To explain why they’ve made the changes, the developers said, “The changes to the minimum requirements are a reflection of our new standard of requirements, which we believe better represent the minimum PC configuration required to run the game…at low preset. The reason for making these changes is that updating the requirements is an important part of the game improvement process, and of enhancing and adding new features.” It’s also worth noting that the minimum specs have gone from a hard drive to an SSD, which isn’t too surprising given how prevalent those have become in the gaming space over the past few years.
As we kick off the pre-orders for #PhantomLiberty, here you have a full list of PC system requirements for the expansion. ?
Along with it, the base game specs have been changed — learn more here: https://t.co/p6vQKQTL8I pic.twitter.com/HZLiQR1GOk
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) June 11, 2023
These changes don’t mean Cyberpunk won’t work on lower-end hardware, but it does mean that CD Projekt Red will no longer be testing the game on that type of hardware. It also doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t run on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, but it is possible that those consoles could see similar performance hits to what the team is expecting on lower-end PCs.
Regardless, the update is going to be a massive one for Cyberpunk 2077. If that wasn’t clear before, this news should solidify it. If everything turns out the way CD Projekt Red is hoping though, it should finally get Cyberpunk 2077 into the place that many players expected it to be when it launched a few years ago. We’ll know for sure when Phantom Liberty comes to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms on September 6.
