Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a new ray tracing update, named “Overdrive Mode”. A brand-new trailer showcases the lighting that the new update provides, as well as performance metrics from an RTX 4090.
Cyberpunk 2077 may have already enjoyed a recent renaissance, however, it appears like developer CD Projekt Red is not done with the game quite yet. The game is due to receive a brand-new update, which was first shown off when the RTX 4090 was announced.
Dubbed “Overdrive Mode“, this new ray tracing setting enables something named “path tracing”. So, instead of the sources of ray-traced lighting being few and far between, the game is instead wholly rendered from all light-emitting properties from the game. This allows for more realistic lighting, in addition to accurate shadow-casting and illumination of all objects.
Releasing on April 11, this GPU-busting feature was previously only seen in titles such as Quake II RTX. Now, with a whole, complex game world to render, GPUs like the RTX 4090 are showcased to fall on their knees, as showcased in a brand-new trailer released by Nvidia.
Cyberpunk 2077 Overdrive Mode: How GPU intensive is it?
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The streets of Night City have never looked so good, thanks to path tracing. The video showcases a system that is housing an Intel Core i9-12900k, in addition to an RTX 4090. Meanwhile, the game was rendered at 4K resolution.
Without DLSS 3‘s frame-generation wizardry, the RTX 4090 could only manage to eke out around 17-33 FPS at 4K resolutions. With DLSS 3 switched on, this jumps to framerates in their hundreds, which is more than enough for those looking for an excuse to revisit just in time for Cyberpunk’s Phantom Liberty expansion.
Though, those with older graphics cards will not be able to make use of DLSS 3, instead relying on DLSS 2, because the new feature is limited to RTX 40-series graphics cards only. At lower resolutions, it’s possible that the new Overdrive Mode will be slightly less impactful on your framerate, though we’re still expecting that you need some pretty hefty horsepower in order to run it.
Cyberpunk 2077’s Overdrive Mode launches on April 11, and we’ll test it among a number of graphics cards when it finally launches.
