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[Digital Foundry] Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 Pro Review: All New Modes & Features Tested!

Lunatic_Gamer

Lunatic_Gamer

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Over five years after its initial release, CD Projekt RED continues to support Cyberpunk 2077 with new features and upgrades. This time, PlayStation 5 Pro enjoys a fresh lick of paint, with 30/40fps RT Pro and 60fps RT modes, along with a resolution boost to the original performance mode. On top of that, how about a toggle between OG FSR2 and brand-new PSSR? There's much to discuss here, with Oliver and Alex sharing their thoughts on the new patch.
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AI Summary:

CD Projekt RED has implemented targeted enhancements that leverage the PS5 Pro's increased GPU capabilities and the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling technology. The review focuses on three primary rendering modes, along with additional features such as Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support and a toggle between FSR 2 and PSSR upscaling.


• Ray Tracing Pro mode
This mode prioritizes comprehensive ray tracing effects at a target frame rate of 30 or 40 frames per second. It incorporates full ray-traced shadows, ray-traced skylight (global illumination component), emissive lighting contributions, and improved ambient occlusion. Reflections remain limited, primarily applied to car windows and select glossy surfaces, due to computational cost constraints. The internal rendering resolution operates at approximately 1440p, dynamically upscaled to 4K output using PSSR. The analysis examines image quality improvements, stability, and the visual impact of the enhanced RT suite compared to prior console versions.


• Ray Tracing mode
The standard ray tracing mode targets 60 frames per second, with occasional dips mitigated by VRR support. It includes ray-traced reflections and shadows while omitting the more demanding global illumination elements present in the Pro mode. Internal resolution is maintained around 1440p with PSSR upscaling to 4K. The segment evaluates the balance between visual fidelity and performance, highlighting how this configuration provides a compromise for players seeking real-time ray tracing at higher frame rates.


• Performance mode
This mode disables ray tracing entirely to achieve a stable 60 frames per second baseline, with potential increases up to 90 frames per second when VRR is enabled and the display supports 120 Hz output. Internal resolution can reach up to 4K in lighter scenes, relying on PSSR for final output. The review discusses reduced latency, absence of ray tracing artifacts, and overall smoothness, noting that CPU limitations may still cause minor pop-in or density-related issues in highly detailed areas such as Dogtown.


• FSR/PSSR toggle
The patch introduces a user-selectable toggle between the original FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 (FSR 2) and the newer PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). Technical comparison demonstrates PSSR's superiority in image reconstruction quality, edge sharpness, and artifact reduction. FSR 2 is described as largely vestigial in this context, with the analysis quantifying the visual benefits of PSSR across the different rendering modes.


• Concluding thoughts
The presenters summarize the patch's strengths, including meaningful graphical upgrades, expanded VRR and 120 Hz compatibility, and continued post-launch support from the developer. They note remaining limitations, such as constrained reflections and occasional performance bottlenecks in dense environments, while acknowledging the effective utilization of PS5 Pro hardware. The review positions the update as a worthwhile enhancement for existing owners, with potential for further ray tracing refinements in future patches.
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www.digitalfoundry.net

Review: Cyberpunk 2077's PS5 Pro Patch Goes Heavy On RT And Performance Upgrades

Three new modes, backed by the new PSSR.
www.digitalfoundry.net www.digitalfoundry.net

Wake Up Samurai GIF by Cyberpunk 2077
 
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Both my preferred RT effects (shadows and reflections) are in at 60fps.

Happy James Corden GIF by The Late Late Show with James Corden


Very nice, that's a good version of the game right here.
Some RT GI would have been appreciated, maybe lowering resolution to 1080p given how effective PSSR is, but the game's lighting would still have been nowhere near the PC version Path Tracing, so whatever.
 
Vick said:
Both my preferred RT effects (shadows and reflections) are in at 60fps.

Happy James Corden GIF by The Late Late Show with James Corden


Very nice, that's a good version of the game right here.
Some RT GI would have been appreciated, maybe lowering resolution to 1080p given how effective PSSR is, but the game's lighting would still have been nowhere near the PC version Path Tracing, so whatever.
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RT reflections only apply to car window though...
 
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Apparently RT reflections are for windows of cars only (or all windows?), not on other elements (like ground). Bummer...

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Flabagast said:
RT reflections only apply to car window though...
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Yeah, just saw that. Bummer. There's RT reflections on car bodies as well, but still.
RT AO is much more transformative in this case. But so RT shadows, thankfully.

Looks like 40fps is the Mode to play here.

Edit:

Well, this has been one extremely poor DF coverage:

Bojji said:
Water also has reflections... Really poor showing for DF here.

Performance:

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60fps RT mode

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RT Reflecions is imo the most important RT feature of the game. so having that mutilated to such a degree is kinda crazy.

if it wasn't viable in combination with the other RT features, they should honestly think about an RT Reflecions only mode, where all other RT features are off, and only RT Reflecions are on. or they could lower the internal res to free up performance... now with PSSR not sucking anymore that should work recently well I assume
 
kevboard said:
RT Reflecions is imo the most important RT feature of the game. so having that mutilated to such a degree is kinda crazy.

if it wasn't viable in combination with the other RT features, they should honestly think about an RT Reflecions only mode, where all other RT features are off, and only RT Reflecions are on. or they could lower the internal res to free up performance... now with PSSR not sucking anymore that should work recently well I assume
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RT reflections are super heavy on PC so I'm not surprised they aren't full quality. But I kinda expected lower resolution of them and not this...

Still, Pro version is much better now than before. And it again outputs to 2160p resolution, not 1800p.
 
Bojji said:
RT reflections are super heavy on PC so I'm not surprised they aren't full quality. But I kinda expected lower resolution of them and not this...

Still, Pro version is much better now than before. And it again outputs to 2160p resolution, not 1800p.
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I kinda assumed that the PS5 Pro's RT hardware is more powerful than my 3060ti's... guess not lol.
I'm pretty sure I could easily get the same settings + the full RT Reflecions running at 30fps on it... never tried because I wouldn't even consider playing it at 30fps, but I bet I could
 
Now that I'v seem it all : bad video from DF imho, they barely show the differences and how transformative it can be in some key scenes.
 
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A little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, they didn't even have to patch this for such an old game, but some of the decisions seem very conservative like the 1440p res.
 
If this patch was made with PSSR1 in mind, with PSSR2 any internal resolution higher than 1080p seems like a waste because the image is already good even at 864p, so it's worth pushing for more Ray Tracing.
 
Bojji said:
900$ is kinda a lot when 2027 PS6 might be the same price (or even a bit cheaper).
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Right, but if you're gonna buy a PS5 now anyway, you'd at least be able to get a better trade in on a Pro (in theory) toward a PS6 if/when you eventually buy one. A lot of people are going to be buying for GTA6 anyway.
 
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Sethbacca said:
Right, but if you're gonna buy a PS5 now anyway, you'd at least be able to get a better trade in on a Pro (in theory) toward a PS6 if/when you eventually buy one. A lot of people are going to be buying for GTA6 anyway.
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True.

Of course the biggest winners are early adopters here - they bought it when console didn't have much to offer. Now with PSSR2 and GTA6 releasing this year (or is it?) - Sony raised the price to unheard levels.
 
Bojji said:
True.

Of course the biggest winners are early adopters here - they bought it when console didn't have much to offer. Now with PSSR2 and GTA6 releasing this year (or is it?) - Sony raised the price to unheard levels.
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Oh 100%. I have zero regrets on being in on day 1 at this point.
 
What's going on with PC version? textures look lower resolution and generally it looks softer too
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PC version with RT Phycho. Looks like only car windows have RT reflections, those on the trailer are missing in Pro version.
 
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Weird that rt reflections are only on cars, as it is the most transformative one for this game. They should've disabled other ray tracing effects instead. Still gonna try it out tomorrow.
 
Wanted to get it in Pro just for test driving, but it's only 55% off for the standard edition, not even the complete one.
 
I agree with Oliver they should've lowered the resolution and just went all in with reflections but that would've required more dev time and cost I'm glad the dlc is still one sale though this patch is right on time.
 
Skifi28 said:
A little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, they didn't even have to patch this for such an old game, but some of the decisions seem very conservative like the 1440p res.
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I wonder how much rendering budget they could have freed up by lowering the res to 1080p. 1080p upscaled to 4K using PSSR2 still looks good and perhaps could have left enough overheard to add reflections to more surfaces. This would have been more transformative than a sharper image in my opinion.

However, it's impossible to know without dev tools. It's possible that even with that, they couldn't quite hit RT on most surfaces OR perhaps the internal resolution of reflections that it would have allowed have been too low? I don't know. Don't reflections operate at 1/2 resolution?
 
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Bojji said:
RT reflections are super heavy on PC so I'm not surprised they aren't full quality. But I kinda expected lower resolution of them and not this...

Still, Pro version is much better now than before. And it again outputs to 2160p resolution, not 1800p.
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It could also be due to the memory budget. More RT reflection coverage can change the memory usage by quite a lot and the Pro only has 13.7 GB for games vs 12,5 GB on the base PS5, so it's not that much of a difference.

So maybe even if they did use 1080p it wouldn't allowed better RT reflections.

I was expecting them to just use the PSSR2 so it's hard to be disappointed.
 
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