Path tracing made Cyberpunk the benchmark that humbles GPUs. Here is what it actually takes to run it — from a 1080p budget build to a 4K overdrive rig.
Changelog
- 2026-07-25 — Page created; calibration anchored to current review data.
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Shopping for parts you don't own yet? Pick any CPU and GPU to see if it clears Cyberpunk 2077.
Pick a CPU and a GPU to see if it’ll run Cyberpunk 2077.
System requirements
Minimum
CPUIntel Core i7-6700 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
GPUNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB / Intel Arc A380
RAM12 GB
VRAM6 GB
Storage70 GB
Notes1080p low, 30 fps target. SSD required.
Recommended
CPUIntel Core i7-12700 / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (view part)
GPUNVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT / Intel Arc A770
RAM16 GB
VRAM8 GB
Storage70 GB
Notes1080p high, 60 fps target, no ray tracing.
Source: View source
FPS expectations
DLSSFSRXeSSFrame Gen
Graphics cardEst. FPS
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090114
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080100
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 409088
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT84
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX84
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti84
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super78
NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation77
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 408077
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT76
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 507076
AMD Radeon RX 907074
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super72
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti68
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE67
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super65
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 308063
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT62
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 407059
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti57
AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT55
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB52
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 506052
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti51
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 307049
NVIDIA RTX A400048
Intel Arc B58047
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti45
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 406042
Intel Arc B57041
Intel Arc A77040
AMD Radeon RX 760040
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 505038
Intel Arc A75037
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 306035
Estimated, not measured — modelled from Aggregated from TechPowerUp / Tom’s Hardware RTX 40/50-series review benchmarks, ultra preset, native res, RT off. How we estimate FPS.
Recommended builds
1080p Budget
High-preset 1080p at 60+ fps without ray tracing — the cheapest build that does Night City justice.
1440p Sweet Spot
Ultra 1440p raster comfortably past 90 fps, with enough headroom to sample ray tracing via DLSS/FSR.
4K / Path Tracing
The no-compromise rig: 4K ultra, path tracing on, frame generation doing what it was built for.
Squeeze more fps out of your build
What actually limits Cyberpunk performance
At 1080p and 1440p with ray tracing off, Cyberpunk 2077 scales almost linearly with GPU raster performance — the CPU only becomes the ceiling on very fast cards in crowd-dense districts. Turn path tracing on and the game becomes the hardest workload in mainstream gaming: VRAM use climbs past 12GB at 4K and frame rates drop to a third of raster performance without upscaling.
The practical takeaway: buy for the resolution and RT ambition you actually have. A mid-range card delivers a great 1440p raster experience; path tracing at 4K remains flagship-GPU territory even in 2026, and leans hard on DLSS/FSR frame generation.
Frequently asked questions
How much VRAM does Cyberpunk 2077 need?
8GB is comfortable for 1080p/1440p raster play. Ray tracing at 1440p wants 12GB, and 4K with path tracing can exceed 16GB — VRAM pressure, not raw compute, is what retires older mid-range cards here.
Is Cyberpunk 2077 CPU-heavy?
Moderately. Dense crowd areas push the CPU, but most rigs are GPU-limited first. A modern 6–8 core CPU (Ryzen 5 7600 class or better) will not hold back any mainstream GPU.
