Cyberpunk 2077 update will increase minimum system requirements, and folks aren't happy

[Shawn Knight]

A hot potato: Imaging buying a game to run on a system that met the minimum hardware requirements, only for an update delivered nearly three years later to move the goal posts and put your machine out of bounds. Are you now expected to upgrade your machine to play the same game that worked just fine the day before?

CD Projekt Red has announced updated PC system requirements for Cyberpunk 2077 that will take effect following the next update to the base game, and not everyone is happy with the decision.

The developer said the base game update will arrive no earlier than 90 days from now, and the updated system requirements will also apply to Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077's first expansion. Three months from now is right before Phantom Liberty's scheduled September 26 launch date.

(Click to expand)

Existing minimum system requirements call for at least an Intel Core i5-3570K / AMD FX-8310, 8 GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radon RX 470, and 70 GB of storage space. Once the new update drops, the minimum system requirements will climb to a Core i7-6700 / Ryzen 5 1600, 12 GB of memory, a GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB / Radeon RX 580 8 GB, and 70 GB of SSD storage.

Minimum requirements are even higher if you are interested in playing with ray tracing enabled.

CD Projekt Red notes that the game will not stop working for systems that will soon fall outside the minimum requirements but with the update to the base game, they will discontinue active support for these systems and stop testing the game on such setups.

Some gamers are up in arms over the pending changes, and rightfully so. As one frustrated user noted, updates are supposed to optimize performance, not increase requirements.

CD Projekt Red shared a trailer for Phantom Liberty during the recent Xbox Games Showcase. The expansion is already available to pre-purchase on digital distribution platforms like Steam priced at $29.99.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/99036-cyberpunk-2077-update-increase-minimum-system-requirements-folks.html

 

[VitalyT]

Those folks are ordinarily unhappy, I'm not sure a game is relevant

 

[kira setsu]

Are those same folks ever happy?

pc gamers are always yippin on about how great their platform is yet seem to be playing the games at 480p/30fps in their actual homes.

starting to think theyre so salty with the consoles because of what $500 is actually getting the owners.

 

[godrilla]

Didn't they also cut support for 7 year ps4 pro and last gen consoles. From I heard It allowed them some breathing room. Naturally lower end pc hardware would get cut when this happens. Just a perpespective at the time this comes out it would be almost 3 years since 2077 launched.

 

[Dimitriid]

CDPR really is on a fast track to break the record of going from PC gamer darling to most hated: In case you want a preview of what their incompetent and unnecessary updates do, Witcher 3 got the same treatment recently: Perfectly stable in performance gets nuked with a botched update that didn't even came with an accompanying DLC just not being able to leave good enough alone and tinkering with the game to add nonsense from Nvidia.

Now remember that Witcher 3 actually launched as a good game in terms of bugs and performance: Demanding but not unreasonably so, not perfect but playable.

Cyberpunk 2077 well, the hour long compilation of complete nonsense bugs specially on the PS4 and the endless pages of promised or heavily implied features that were dropped, most of which are still not in the game speaks for itself: The game right now is at the best of cases a really unstable sand castle and they're going to just undo a lot of the work that has been done to make it stable and playable, again like they already did so with Witcher 3 except this time it has the potential to return the game to a state of immediately imploding under the weight of the bugs and performance issues.

 

[Nobina]

CDPR really is on a fast track to break the record of going from PC gamer darling to most hated: In case you want a preview of what their incompetent and unnecessary updates do, Witcher 3 got the same treatment recently: Perfectly stable in performance gets nuked with a botched update that didn't even came with an accompanying DLC just not being able to leave good enough alone and tinkering with the game to add nonsense from Nvidia.

Now remember that Witcher 3 actually launched as a good game in terms of bugs and performance: Demanding but not unreasonably so, not perfect but playable.

Cyberpunk 2077 well, the hour long compilation of complete nonsense bugs specially on the PS4 and the endless pages of promised or heavily implied features that were dropped, most of which are still not in the game speaks for itself: The game right now is at the best of cases a really unstable sand castle and they're going to just undo a lot of the work that has been done to make it stable and playable, again like they already did so with Witcher 3 except this time it has the potential to return the game to a state of immediately imploding under the weight of the bugs and performance issues.

They really did screw up Witcher 3, it went from being perfectly playable maxed out to stuttering at medium/high settings - a complete mess.


Cyberpunk 2077 is trying too hard to become the new "can it play Crysis" meme. It should be playable with FSR/DLSS for mid-ranged cards at 1440p I hope.

 

[dangh]

I don't mind. Get rid of legacy platforms, and remember that minimum requirements 3 years ago included 10 years old gpus... It is enough of pulling down development of new projects, we now have xss to do just it.

 

[Adhmuz]

Anyone still gaming on a 3rd gen i5 should seriously reconsider their title as a "PC Gamer".

8GB of system RAM is barely enough to run Windows, let alone any modern game on a PC, playing D4 I see RAM usage hitting 24GB at times!

I'm sure the game can still be played on this hardware, just not great perhaps.

CPU requirements seem steep on the high end of things, especially if 60FPS is CDPR's target, an i7 or i9 from the last few generations should all get you 60 FPS minimum, GPU permitting of course.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

It doesn't make a big difference.

 

[3volv3d]

Anyone still gaming on a 3rd gen i5 should seriously reconsider their title as a "PC Gamer".

8GB of system RAM is barely enough to run Windows, let alone any modern game on a PC, playing D4 I see RAM usage hitting 24GB at times!

I'm sure the game can still be played on this hardware, just not great perhaps.

CPU requirements seem steep on the high end of things, especially if 60FPS is CDPR's target, an i7 or i9 from the last few generations should all get you 60 FPS minimum, GPU permitting of course.

You can't talk about Ram dude. You can have a browser on a pc , 4 open tabs using 6gb of ram out of 8gb, and open the same 4 pages on another pc with 32gb of ram and you're using 24gb. =)

 

[m4a4]

Eh, if it happens to affect me, I'll just find a torrent for an older version.

Otherwise, an update that should make the game a lot better? I can't really complain...

 

[Lounds]

Anyone still gaming on a 3rd gen i5 should seriously reconsider their title as a "PC Gamer".

8GB of system RAM is barely enough to run Windows, let alone any modern game on a PC, playing D4 I see RAM usage hitting 24GB at times!

I'm sure the game can still be played on this hardware, just not great perhaps.

CPU requirements seem steep on the high end of things, especially if 60FPS is CDPR's target, an i7 or i9 from the last few generations should all get you 60 FPS minimum, GPU permitting of course.

A mate of mine who has a 7900XTX said Diablo 4 uses 22GB of VRAM maxed out at 1440p. I can only assume the game engine likes to store as much assets in memory as it can so not having to stream them from SSD.

 

[MaestroIT]

I got last year an AMD Ryzen 9 - 5900x as a final upgrade for my AM4 gaming rig (which had R5 3600), which increased cores from 6 to 12 (and 24 threads), and it is already being said this is an "old" generation CPU !!!

My current work PC (administration use) still uses an i7 4th generation since 2015 I guess...

 

[passwordistaco]

"the game will not stop working for systems that will soon fall outside the minimum requirements"

/end

 

[torchyear]

Ugh, Witcher 3 update wasn’t happy with my 3900X + 3060. First update wouldn’t even start the game, whilst the update of the update is quite stuttery. At least GOG permits running the older version, which runs surprisingly well on an i5-2600 and RX580 we use in the living room for casual gaming.

 

[DSirius]

All of this "drama" has the root cause in Nvidia meddling and screwing gamers with the complicity of CDPR.
As Dimitriid pointed out, Witcher 3, and I can add also CP2077 after many patches, run quite well, stable, with a beautiful, sometimes great graphic quality. Until Nvidia came in, and forced infamous and unnecessary updates to both CDPR games just to promote their RT, PT and xxxTrace gimmicks which barely works on current hardware, videocards and processors.

It is OK to try to bring new technologies but not to shove on gamers through updates which start automatically. Make it through OPTIONAL mods, which gamers can choose if they want to install or not, and uninstall them after they see the abysmal low performance and tons of instability and issues which they bring comparing to benefits. And those 1% owners of Nvidia 4090 could test Nvidia xxxTraces on 30fps if they like.
Or better implement them in future videocards generations.
This is the real problem, Nvidia hidden and vicious sponsorship for both CDPR games. And, as usual, Nvidia proves again being anticonsumers, especially for gamers who do not have or buy a 4090, or 4080 videocard, and they are the majority of them.

Despite of this, gamers can play fine both CDPR games, just by disabling all of Nvidia xxxT gimmicks and can enjoy the games as they SHOULD have been played from the beginning.
Also, this is another example of a corporation screwing a promising and great videogame studio. EA-Electronic Arts did it to Bioware. After they were bought, Bioware became more of a joke company, instead of a gaming company.
CDPR is the next one, the current example of how Nvidia corporation is destroying the reputation of CDPR, which they worked so hard to build it. Nowadays CDPR became more like a lame, loud PR for Nvidia, but unnecessary for gamers. And now their reputation is going down even faster.

PS. Great article, kudos for the author for bringing it to TechSpot readers
PS 2. Even the requirements are crooked? (or "cooked") . For Recommended they wrote 12700K or 7800X. Ryzen 5800X3D is more than enough.

Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs. Core i7-12700KF: Best CPU For Gamers

Here's yet another look at the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with a big 40 game benchmark, but this time we've prepared a shootout against the more affordable and...

www.techspot.com

 

[Watzupken]

In my opinion, Cyberpunk is more like a graphic showcase, and less of a fun game. Story is so so, and gameplay don't really stand out to me. In any case, this is just another sign that PC gaming is dead or dying. The game requirements keep going up, and you need some capable system for the eye candies without killing performance.

 

[yukka]

I haven’t watched the trailers - is this patch going to contain the reworked driving system with better ai etc for the cops or is that still all mysterious and ****

 

[nnguy2]

They really did screw up Witcher 3, it went from being perfectly playable maxed out to stuttering at medium/high settings - a complete mess.


Cyberpunk 2077 is trying too hard to become the new "can it play Crysis" meme. It should be playable with FSR/DLSS for mid-ranged cards at 1440p I hope.

Seems like CDPR is just a company whose focus is tech demos for nvidia.

But at the same time people hanging to a Haswell and 780ti probably need to upgrade their hardware.

 

[loki1944]

Anyone still gaming on a 3rd gen i5 should seriously reconsider their title as a "PC Gamer".

8GB of system RAM is barely enough to run Windows, let alone any modern game on a PC, playing D4 I see RAM usage hitting 24GB at times!

I'm sure the game can still be played on this hardware, just not great perhaps.

CPU requirements seem steep on the high end of things, especially if 60FPS is CDPR's target, an i7 or i9 from the last few generations should all get you 60 FPS minimum, GPU permitting of course.

False; even my almost 15 year old i7 920@3.8Ghz can still handle new titles aside from ubisoft's unsupported instruction drm on AC Origins; RDR 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 run fantastic on it; as do chart toppers like GTA V, APEX Legends, Overwatch 2, World of Tanks, Destiny 2, Fortnite etc. I can even stay playable recording 3440x1440@30FPS with bandicam.

Even my older QX6700@3.2Ghz and Q9650@3.8Ghz each with 8GB of RAM can play many modern titles @30FPS.

Also CDPR's TW3 update is still such a sluggish mess on my i9 10920/3080Ti and i7 10700KF/7900XT I reverted back to the DX11 version.

And newer hardware will still not get you 60FPS in some games regardless; give CM Black Sea a go.

Your RAM estimate is flawed; the system adjusts if you have less RAM; that i7 920 only has 12GB; which is still plenty. No shutdows or crashes even with 8GB.

 

[Nobina]

Anyone still gaming on a 3rd gen i5 should seriously reconsider their title as a "PC Gamer".

8GB of system RAM is barely enough to run Windows, let alone any modern game on a PC, playing D4 I see RAM usage hitting 24GB at times!

I'm sure the game can still be played on this hardware, just not great perhaps.

CPU requirements seem steep on the high end of things, especially if 60FPS is CDPR's target, an i7 or i9 from the last few generations should all get you 60 FPS minimum, GPU permitting of course.

A PC I work on has 4GB of RAM with an SSD, 6th gen i3. Runs Office decently. I would never use it as my personal PC though. Peoples idea of what you need today is completely distorted.

And I would consider anyone who spends most of their free time playing PC games a PC gamer, how much money they spend is unimportant. Many of these demanding games aren't worth the time anyway, but to each their own.

 

[Nintenboy01]

Anyone still gaming on a 3rd gen i5 should seriously reconsider their title as a "PC Gamer".

8GB of system RAM is barely enough to run Windows, let alone any modern game on a PC, playing D4 I see RAM usage hitting 24GB at times!

I'm sure the game can still be played on this hardware, just not great perhaps.

CPU requirements seem steep on the high end of things, especially if 60FPS is CDPR's target, an i7 or i9 from the last few generations should all get you 60 FPS minimum, GPU permitting of course.

Yeah D4 and TLOU Part 1 are the 2 games I'm aware of where RAM usage for the PC hits 23-24GB.
And in this game's case I'm hoping my 3070 is still good enough for High or even Ultra RT at 1440p with DLSS Quality. Funny they only list 1080p and 4K targets, no 1440p

 

[Achaios]

But at the same time people hanging to a Haswell and 780ti probably need to upgrade their hardware.

Νot rly.

I have never played Cyberpunk and never will and I don't play any "Triple A" titles.

My 4770K and GTX 1080 are perfecly adequate for my gaming needs and will still be for probably another decade.

Sry if that upsets you but I couldn't care less.

 

[ironPred]

""Imaging buying a game to run on a system that met the minimum hardware requirements, only for an update delivered nearly three years later to move the goal posts and put your machine out of bounds.""

What do you mean... like World of Warcraft, Eve Online etc..?

This isn't news and you know what if the game is better for it happydays everyone is getting move life out of that game.

 

[Jack77]

Sound like: you buy a car. And after the fifth software update you suddenly have to tank premium fuel. Else you are no longer conform the (new) specs and your warranty is void. Cool.