The best Cyberpunk 2077 PC settings for higher FPS are a balanced mix, not an all-Low preset: keep textures and important lighting details high, then cut the costly effects that matter less to you—especially path tracing, ray-traced effects, volumetrics, shadow resolution, reflections, and CPU-heavy crowd density. Start with DLSS Quality at 1080p, Balanced at 1440p, or Performance at 4K on supported NVIDIA hardware, and move down a quality step only if you still miss your frame-rate target. The right settings depend on your GPU, CPU, output resolution, and whether you prefer rasterized, ray-traced, or path-traced lighting.
At a glance
| Name | Best for | Key spec | Platforms | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1080p balanced | Preserving detail while easing GPU load at 1080p | DLSS Quality on supported NVIDIA hardware; Ultra volumetric fog; High mirror quality | PC | Nov 2026 |
| 1440p balanced | A higher-resolution image with a useful upscaling starting point | DLSS Balanced on supported NVIDIA hardware; High volumetric fog; High mirror quality | PC | Nov 2026 |
| 4K balanced | Reducing the cost of 4K rendering while retaining key details | DLSS Performance on supported NVIDIA hardware; Medium volumetric fog; Medium mirror quality | PC | Nov 2026 |
These are starting points, not guaranteed performance profiles. The available evidence does not establish a settings matrix for every PC build, driver, GPU vendor, or upscaler combination as of November 2026.
Which Cyberpunk 2077 settings should I change first for more FPS?
Reduce the most expensive effects that are least important to your image-quality priorities before lowering textures. For many PCs, the best order to investigate is path tracing or ray tracing, upscaling mode, volumetric fog, cascaded shadow resolution, screen-space reflections, ambient occlusion, and—if the CPU is limiting performance—crowd density.
Digital Foundry reported up to a 35% performance improvement from its optimized settings mix in its own Cyberpunk 2077 test in 2020. That is a result from that test configuration, not a forecast for a different PC, game build, driver, or scene. Use it as evidence that selective adjustments can matter, not as a promised gain.
Keep textures high if your GPU has enough VRAM
High or the highest VRAM-appropriate texture setting is a good quality-preserving baseline. Textures add surface detail; lowering them first can make the game look noticeably less detailed without being the most effective way to address every performance bottleneck. If you run into performance or memory problems, lower textures only after checking whether the GPU can handle the selected level.
Start with the costly visual effects
Volumetric fog, shadow resolution, reflections, ambient occlusion, and ray-traced effects can all be adjusted without flattening every aspect of the image. Lower them selectively, then check the type of scene and visual detail you care about. In particular, lowering a reflection setting can change how reflective surfaces behave, while reducing fog quality can make atmospheric scenes look less rich.
Check whether the GPU or CPU is limiting performance
Not every FPS problem calls for a graphics-setting change. If the CPU is the bottleneck, lowering graphics settings that primarily reduce GPU work may not solve it; crowd density is a separate CPU-sensitive setting to test. Keep that adjustment distinct from GPU-focused changes so you can tell which kind of load is affecting your frame rate.
What are the best starting settings at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K?
Use the resolution profile closest to your output resolution, then adjust one setting at a time toward your target. The resolution-specific recommendations here are starting points from the cited optimized-settings baseline, not a guarantee that one preset is best for every PC.
1080p: retain detail and begin with DLSS Quality
- On supported NVIDIA hardware, start with DLSS Quality. Move down one quality step only if the target frame rate remains out of reach.
- Set volumetric fog resolution to Ultra in the cited baseline.
- Keep mirror quality High.
- Use the shared baseline for shadows, contact shadows, facial lighting, reflections, ambient occlusion, and textures described below.
At 1080p, begin with the highest-quality upscaling option that meets your performance target. If DLSS is unavailable, the evidence here does not establish an equivalent best mode for every other upscaler, so compare the available supported options on your own system rather than assuming their presets match one-for-one.
1440p: start with DLSS Balanced
- On supported NVIDIA hardware, use DLSS Balanced as the initial point.
- Set volumetric fog resolution to High.
- Keep mirror quality High.
- If performance is comfortable, try the next-higher-quality upscaling mode; if it is not, make one further step down and reassess.
This profile balances the higher output resolution against rendering cost. Whether Balanced is preferable to Quality depends on the performance target and the PC, so treat it as a starting point rather than a universal rule.
4K: start with DLSS Performance
- On supported NVIDIA hardware, begin with DLSS Performance.
- Set volumetric fog resolution to Medium.
- Set mirror quality to Medium.
- If your target is met with room to spare, try a higher-quality upscaling mode and keep the one that delivers the image and frame pacing you want.
The Performance preset is a starting point for the rendering cost of 4K, not a requirement. If the frame rate is already adequate, moving up to a higher-quality mode can be preferable to accepting a lower-resolution reconstruction unnecessarily.
Which settings preserve visual quality, and which are easier to lower?
Protect texture detail, contact shadows, facial-lighting geometry, and the core lighting character first. The settings below provide a practical baseline; their visual and performance trade-offs can vary with the scene and hardware.
Preserve the details that shape characters and surfaces
- Textures: High or the highest level your GPU’s VRAM can handle.
- Contact Shadows: On.
- Improved Facial Lighting Geometry: On.
- Local Shadow Mesh Quality: High.
- Local Shadow Quality: High.
- Subsurface Scattering: High.
- Level of Detail: High.
This group is the quality-preserving core of the baseline. Keeping it intact avoids making the whole image feel simplified just to recover performance from settings that may have a more targeted effect.
Reduce shadow cost selectively
- Cascaded Shadows Range: High.
- Cascaded Shadows Resolution: Medium.
- Distant Shadows Resolution: High.
The recommendation is not to reduce every shadow setting. Keep range and distant-shadow detail high while lowering cascaded shadow resolution to Medium. If performance remains limited, consider further changes only after checking what the current scene needs visually.
Choose a compromise for fog, reflections, and ambient occlusion
- Volumetric Fog Resolution: Ultra at 1080p, High at 1440p, Medium at 4K in the cited baseline.
- Volumetric Cloud Quality: Medium when performance is tight.
- Screen Space Reflections: Low as a starting point; raise to High if the lower setting’s grain or reflection behavior is distracting.
- Ambient Occlusion: Low.
- Color Precision: Medium.
- Mirror Quality: High at 1080p and 1440p, Medium at 4K.
These are not interchangeable image-quality controls. If a Low reflection setting looks grainy or handles reflections in a way you dislike, raise it rather than blindly following a preset. Conversely, if a setting has little value to you in the scenes you play, it can be a reasonable place to save performance.
Lower crowd density only when the CPU is the constraint
Set Crowd Density to Medium when the CPU is the bottleneck. Treat this as a separate diagnosis from lowering GPU-heavy graphics settings: a CPU-limited system may not respond much to changes aimed at reducing GPU work, while crowd density is specifically identified as a CPU-sensitive lever.
Should I use ray tracing, path tracing, or rasterized lighting?
For a balanced ray-traced profile, keep ray-traced reflections on, turn ray-traced shadows off, and set ray-traced lighting to Medium. If performance is still short of your target, disable ray-traced reflections before giving up the broader lighting mode; use path tracing only when your hardware can sustain it with suitable upscaling and, where supported, frame generation.
Use ray tracing selectively
Ray tracing can improve how light is represented, but Cyberpunk 2077 is demanding when these effects are enabled. NVIDIA stated in 2022 that modern ray-traced games such as Cyberpunk 2077 perform more than 600 ray-tracing calculations per pixel. That statement explains the computational burden; it does not predict an FPS result for a particular PC.
For a middle ground, retain ray-traced reflections while turning off ray-traced shadows and using Medium ray-traced lighting. If that remains too expensive, switch off ray-traced reflections before abandoning the broader lighting mode. The order preserves more of the chosen lighting approach before removing the reflection effect.
Treat path tracing as an enthusiast option
Path tracing is not the default choice for a higher-FPS setup. Reserve it for hardware capable of sustaining it with a suitable upscaling mode and, if supported, frame generation. Without those conditions, a balanced ray-traced or rasterized setup is the more sensible starting point for a performance-focused profile.
Choose rasterized settings when frame rate matters most
If ray tracing is the main reason performance misses your target, turning off the ray-traced effects is a more direct change than reducing every quality setting. The visual trade-off is a different lighting and reflection presentation, not simply less texture detail. The best choice depends on whether you value those effects enough to accept their cost.
Should I use DLSS, FSR, or XeSS?
Use the highest-quality supported upscaling mode that meets your target, and step down only as needed: start at native or the highest-quality option, then try Quality, Balanced, and Performance. DLSS is the documented starting point for the resolution profiles above on supported NVIDIA hardware; XeSS and other supported methods are alternatives, but the available evidence does not establish a universal preset-by-preset equivalence across GPUs.
Upscaling renders the game at a lower internal resolution and reconstructs an image for the chosen output. It can lower rendering workload, but the result depends on the mode, output resolution, hardware, and scene. Compare modes at the resolution you actually use rather than relying on a fixed FPS-gain claim.
How to pick an upscaling mode
- Set the output resolution you want to play at.
- Start at native rendering or the highest-quality supported upscaling mode.
- Check whether performance meets your target in the scenes that matter to you.
- If it does not, move one step down—Quality to Balanced, for example—then reassess before changing more settings.
- Use Performance only when the higher-quality options do not meet the target and the image remains acceptable to you.
NVIDIA’s official material documents DLSS Super Resolution and DLSS 3 Frame Generation, as well as Cyberpunk 2077 ray-tracing support. Intel’s CES 2026 presentation shows separate Cyberpunk 2077 results for XeSS Super Resolution, frame generation, and multi-frame generation, and warns that results may vary. Those vendor examples are not directly interchangeable with a player’s results on different hardware, settings, or scenes.
Does frame generation solve low FPS?
Frame generation can raise displayed frame rate on supported hardware, but it does not remove the need for a sensible base render rate and stable frame pacing. Consider it an additional tool after selecting appropriate graphics settings and upscaling, not a substitute for those choices.
Generated frames are distinct from frames rendered directly by the game. NVIDIA’s 2022 DLSS 3 explanation said the technique can generate entire frames independently of the GPU’s usual rendering workload, helping overcome CPU performance limitations in games. That describes a capability, not a guarantee that generated frames will feel or respond like the same number of traditionally rendered frames.
Intel’s official CES 2026 presentation reported 146 FPS with XeSS Multi-Frame Generation 4x, 85 FPS with frame generation, and 48 FPS with XeSS Super Resolution for Cyberpunk 2077. Intel labeled the comparison as relative performance and said results may vary; the figures are not a prediction for another PC or a like-for-like promise of base rendered FPS.
How should I tune the settings without losing track of what helped?
Change one category at a time and compare the result in a repeatable part of your own game. This makes it easier to distinguish a helpful adjustment from a change that merely trades away image quality.
- Choose the target first. Decide whether you are optimizing for a resolution, visual preference, or frame-rate target. There is no single best setting mix independent of those priorities.
- Apply the resolution starting point. Use the 1080p, 1440p, or 4K baseline above, including its recommended fog and mirror levels.
- Choose the rendering mode. Begin with rasterized rendering if performance is the priority, or use the balanced ray-tracing profile if the lighting effects matter enough to you.
- Set upscaling before sacrificing preserved details. Select the highest-quality supported mode that meets your target, stepping down only when necessary.
- Lower one expensive GPU setting. If performance still falls short, adjust an effect such as fog, cascaded shadow resolution, reflections, or ambient occlusion and assess the image again.
- Check CPU-sensitive behavior separately. If the CPU is limiting performance, try Medium crowd density rather than assuming more GPU-setting reductions will help.
- Stop when the trade-off is right. A mode that technically produces more FPS is not automatically better if the resulting image or frame pacing is worse for your priorities.
Exact FPS gains depend on the hardware, resolution, game build, driver, scene, and settings combination. Do not treat an FPS figure from a vendor presentation or a third-party test as a universal outcome for your PC.
When is a GPU upgrade worth considering?
A graphics-card upgrade is an optional path for a player who remains GPU-limited after reducing expensive effects and choosing an appropriate upscaler. It is not a prerequisite for using these settings, and a new GPU is not the right fix if the CPU is the constraint.
For players who specifically want more ray-tracing and DLSS headroom, a GeForce RTX graphics card is one possible upgrade direction. The appropriate model depends on the desired resolution, rendering mode, and performance target; no particular card or current availability is established here. Check the bottleneck and the visual settings you want to retain before deciding that hardware is the next step.
How we picked these settings
The recommendations prioritize the settings with the clearest performance trade-offs in the cited Cyberpunk 2077 analysis: ray-traced effects and path tracing, volumetrics, shadows, reflections, ambient occlusion, and CPU-heavy crowd density. They preserve texture quality where VRAM allows, along with contact shadows, facial-lighting geometry, selected shadow details, and high level of detail. Resolution-specific upscaling and fog starting points are included so the profile does not assume 1080p, 1440p, and 4K have identical rendering costs.
The cited figures have different scopes: Digital Foundry’s up-to-35% result belongs to its 2020 optimized-settings test, while Intel’s 2026 FPS figures come from a vendor presentation that says results may vary. Neither is a universal benchmark for all PCs. The available evidence does not provide an exhaustive matrix for every October 30, 2026 PC build, driver, or vendor-specific upscaler and frame-generation combination.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Intel’s Cyberpunk 2077 FPS figures what I should expect on my PC?
No. Intel’s CES 2026 presentation labels its results as relative performance and says they may vary. The figures describe that presentation’s comparison, not an expected result for different hardware, settings, drivers, or scenes.
Can I use these settings with an AMD or Intel graphics card?
The image-quality settings can serve as starting points, but the resolution profiles’ DLSS recommendations apply to supported NVIDIA hardware. The available evidence does not establish a complete cross-vendor preset or feature-support matrix, so choose from the upscalers and frame-generation options your hardware supports.
Do I need a GeForce RTX card to get higher FPS in Cyberpunk 2077?
No. A GeForce RTX card is an optional upgrade path for players seeking more ray-tracing and DLSS headroom, not a requirement for tuning settings or improving performance. First identify whether the limit is the GPU or CPU and adjust the relevant settings.