Yesterday NVIDIA released a new video showcasing Cyberpunk 2077’s Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode which also showed demanding it can be. Cyberpunk 2077’s new RT: Overdrive mode introduces full path tracing to the game providing stunning new visuals but anyone hoping to play the game using it without NVIDIA’s DLSS technology is pretty much out of luck. In a don’t blink or you’ll miss it moment NVIDIA showed how even its flagship graphics card struggles with the new mode.
The GeForce RTX 4090 is brought to its knees when DLSS is turned off with the game in 4K to a staggering 16 FPS. However, when DLSS 3, aka Frame Generation, is turned on, the RTX 4090 recovers gracefully to some impressive averages ranging from over 110 FPS to 131 FPS in 4K.
DLSS 3 or nothing for 4K
Clearly, anyone wanting to use Cyberpunk 2077’s Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode will have to use DLSS 3 in order to achieve more desirable framerates in 4K. Some are already joking on the Youtube page for the video that we may have to wait until sometime between 2030-2077 until we’ll have hardware that can render the game at similar framerates without DLSS technology. At the rate, current flagship GPUs are getting power-hungry one could only wonder how much power will be needed to play the game by then.
The new mode will become available via an update on April 11 and we’re sure to hear more from reviews about how the game scales with a variety of graphics cards at different resolutions. Another issue that is sure to be mentioned somewhere is what amount of lag or delay has been added from the use of DLSS 3. Add in that players have previously critiqued Cyberpunk 2077’s vehicle handling, and any added lag or delay is something many will be curious about. As Tom’s Hardware has pointed out, ray tracing overdrive mode is the new Crysis.