I though I’d quickly post my Cyberpunk 20774 settings running on a Nvidia RTX 2060 at 1080p (920×1080). The default Cyberpunk Ray Tracing Medium preset results in low frame rates and rather blur graphics, although all effects are enabled.

Originally written with v1.04, but updated for version 1.05+

With this card, it’s all about trade-offs - I wanted a decent frame rate with Ray traced reflections and lighting enabled. I find that reflections really set the mood for the world of the future, with its garish neon-lit, wet atmosphere. I sacrificed clouds, volumetric fog (results in blocky glowing street-lamps) and, to a certain extent, shadows. With these settings I’m getting about 35-55 fps - depending on the environment. Good enough for me!

Here are a couple of comparisons with and without ray tracing.

First up, a street at night - notice the reflections on the two buildings in the centre of the image and on the first car.

Without Ray Tracing With Ray Tracing

Next, an in-door scene. I have circled Ray Traced reflections, correct shadows, lighting. Ray Tracing sets a new bar for realism, especially in scripted scenes that are meticulously lit by artists, although the effect may be so subtle you simply don’t notice it unless you stop and compare! This scene is at about 35 FPS.

Without Ray Tracing With Ray Tracing

The in-game “photo mode” is dependent on the graphics settings! The two screenshots were generated using photo mode, so if you want the best photo, remember to set everything to the highest and take the performance hit just to take the photo.

However, changing the graphics settings by selecting a preset resets all custom settings! That’s the reason I decided to write this, or so that I can refer to screenshots of my preferred settings!

In the Basic graphic settings, I setup a wider field of view and turn off film grain, chromatic aberration, depth of field, lens flare and motion blur. The in-game world doesn’t need to be like my eyesight in real life...

Cyberpunk 2077 Basic Graphics Settings

Under Advanced, I dialed down or turned off contact shadows, local shadow mesh quality, local shadow quality, cascaded shadows range, cascaded shadows resolution (these last two have a large impact on performance), volumetric off resolution and volumetric cloud quality.

Cyberpunk 2077 Advanced Graphics Settings

I enabled Ray Tracing, and all three Ray-Traced Reflections Ray-Traced Shadows and Ray-Traced Lighting settings. Of course DLSS is a must! The Quality setting worked for me, although Balanced may result in slightly higher frame rates.

Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing Graphics Settings

The next post RTSS layout for Cyberpunk 2077 briefly describes my RivaTuner Statistics Server setup to display the frame rate and other data in-game.

Image slider uses Image Compare by Kyle Wetton

Updated 31 Dec 2020: Updated for version 1.06 without any hack.