Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Benchmark Performance

[W1zzard]

The Phantom Liberty expansion brings big improvements to Cyberpunk 2077 and adds an exciting new story line. The game also gets support for DLSS 3.5 and Path Tracing. In our performance review, we're taking a closer look at image quality, VRAM usage, and performance on a wide selection of modern graphics cards.

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[JustBenching]

So XTX and XT are below a 3080 in RT performance. Interesting.

With PT they are below, dunno, a 2060 or something

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Can't wait for the updated graphs without frame generation.

 

[JustBenching]

Can't wait for the updated graphs without frame generation.

Supposedly performance is almost identical to the base game

 

[W1zzard]

Supposedly performance is almost identical to the base game

Correct

 

[dyonoctis]

Is there something wrong with ampere drivers ? the performance hit vs 1.x is pretty big, when barely anything changed for RDNA 2

 

[Dahita]

I'm a bit surprised. I did a random visual inspection of the pictures without looking at their labels, and I ended up picking hands down "low" as the prettiest of the two compared to pathtracing. Reasons: The stadium has more details on the first one, the bar street on the second one looks more "nightly", and the third one also looks more coherent and detailed in low (the lady at the desk with the light on her has way more details). Maybe the experience is different when actually playing, at least I hope so...

 

[R_Type]

Interesting stuff!

 

[theouto]

When the path tracing works well, it works wonders and looks incredibly lifelike, although at times I find that it feels a bit, broken? Either seemingly low precision, some objects don't appear to properly shade (which could perhaps be a problem with the BVH?) or in the dark room, it looks waaaay lighter than it should, I wouldn't imagine that the artists would've made it look like that.

Well, it's still a work in progress, so I imagine some of these things will change in the future, otherwise it looks incredibly cool, and something that I'd love to try out, one day

 

[ModEl4]

RX 7600 is only -15% slower in QHD vs RTX 3080 (or +72% faster than RTX 3060) and in 4K RX 7700XT has the same performance as RTX 3090Ti?
Like @dyonoctis said something is off.

 

[W1zzard]

Is there something wrong with ampere drivers ?

I think you are comparing 5800X vs 13900K

 

[Pumper]

Not sure how to feel about this path tracing thing. Sure, it looks different from the other two modes, but is it better and would you really notice or care while playing instead of just looking at the game? I don't think so, and to be honest, RT Medium looks like the one to go here and it not only gives you twice the FPS, but it also seems to look closer to what the artist intended for the visual representation of the game world.

 

[AnotherReader]

So XTX and XT are below a 3080 in RT performance. Interesting.

With PT they are below, dunno, a 2060 or something

@W1zzard has put up a notice that frame generation was on for all Ada cards. As far as path tracing performance is concerned, AMD is behind Nvidia in ray tracing and here, the 7900 XTX is neck and neck with a 2080 Ti at 1080p, but realistically, they are all too slow for path tracing.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

When the path tracing works well, it works wonders and looks incredibly lifelike, although at times I find that it feels a bit, broken? Either seemingly low precision, some objects don't appear to properly shade (which could perhaps be a problem with the BVH?) or in the dark room, it looks waaaay lighter than it should, I wouldn't imagine that the artists would've made it look like that.

Well, it's still a work in progress, so I imagine some of these things will change in the future, otherwise it looks incredibly cool, and something that I'd love to try out, one day

PT only has two bounces I believe there is a mod to limit it to one bounce for more performance but also a drop in visual quality. I think the reason some areas don't work as well is the game wasn't developed with PT in mind to begin with although a developer likely wouldn't do that only 40 series cards can do it and really be playable and I would even argue only the 4090/4080 do it well enough above 1080p. A 7900XTX at 1080p with FSR might be able to do it and hopefully Fluid frames or whatever AMD calls it helps.

@W1zzard has put up a notice that frame generation was on for all Ada cards. As far as path tracing performance is concerned, AMD is behind Nvidia in ray tracing and here, the 7900 XTX is neck and neck with a 2080 Ti at 1080p, but realistically, they are all too slow for path tracing.
View attachment 314443

its not bad with a 4090 with a controller the only way I can stomach frame generation at least at the 90-100ish fps it runs it at which is internal I think around 40-50 with DLSS quality.

 

[cvaldes]

I'm a bit surprised. I did a random visual inspection of the pictures without looking at their labels, and I ended up picking hands down "low" as the prettiest of the two compared to pathtracing. Reasons: The stadium has more details on the first one, the bar street on the second one looks more "nightly", and the third one also looks more coherent and detailed in low (the lady at the desk with the light on her has way more details). Maybe the experience is different when actually playing, at least I hope so...

It is inadvisable to judge these videogame imaging technologies without watching actual gameplay. Still images aren't the actual experience and many of these graphical tricks work better or worse in motion.

One consistently repeated comment is that Nvidia DLSS 2 is superior to TAA at the native resolution. Sometimes there are weird shimmering/banding issues that don't appear in still screenshots because it's an effect that is caused by motion.

Remember that when playing a videogame you aren't staring at some wire in the background. Your primary focus will be on the character(s) and action in front of you.

As game developers get more proficient at using these technologies (which are temporally oriented), players will see greater benefit during actual gameplay, not still images.

All graphics cards can generate fine images at native resolutions using conventional rasterization techniques. The point is to use other technology to speed up rendering so smooth framerates can be enjoyed during actual gameplay.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

It is inadvisable to judge these videogame imaging technologies without watching actual gameplay. Still images aren't the actual experience and many of these graphical tricks work better or worse in motion.

One consistently repeated comment is that Nvidia DLSS 2 is superior to TAA at the native resolution. Sometimes there are weird shimmering/banding issues that don't appear in still screenshots because it's an effect that is caused by motion.

Remember that when playing a videogame you aren't staring at some wire in the background. Your primary focus will be on the character(s) and action in front of you.

To my eyes on a 65 inch screen TAA is for sure worse than DLSS quality in this game although both are not the best implementations either.

 

[dyonoctis]

I think you are comparing 5800X vs 13900K

I've looked at the review of the 7700XT with the 13900k, and it really seems that Ampere is taking a big performance hit in Phantom liberty. The 7700XT is now faster than a RTX 3090 in raster

 

[cmguigamf]

Maybe it's cause I never played it, but I never get this feeling of awe from CP2077, be it from videos or screenshots from people playing it at even the absolute highest of settings.

Spoiler

Like, is this really the future of graphics? Throw all the pathtracing you want at it, it just looks... dull.

Great analysis, though. Maybe games with more interesting art direction and design will benefit more from these technologies eventually.

 

[JustBenching]

@W1zzard has put up a notice that frame generation was on for all Ada cards. As far as path tracing performance is concerned, AMD is behind Nvidia in ray tracing and here, the 7900 XTX is neck and neck with a 2080 Ti at 1080p, but realistically, they are all too slow for path tracing.
View attachment 314443

I read the notice. Whats your point? I didnt compare rdna3 to ada.

 

[Chry]

Like, is this really the future of graphics? Throw all the pathtracing you want at it, it just looks... dull.

Very true. I wonder what actually causes this perception. For me it seems that there is not enough contrast between different parts of the world. Like everything is similarly colored and it's harder to see where one object ends and another begins. Especially when compared to some classic games that had great world-contrast (whatever the mechanics behind it may be) like Deus Ex, Half Life.
If anyone know what causes this, let us know.
My hypothesis:
Postprocessing - it's a blanket mechanism on top of the screen so it smudges things together.
Fog effects - makes everything just harder to see and colors everything in similar shade.
Antialiasing (some types I guess more than others) - blurs the lines between objects and makes them harder to discern.

 

[Vya Domus]

Like, is this really the future of graphics? Throw all the pathtracing you want at it, it just looks... dull.

Great analysis, though. Maybe games with more interesting art direction and design will benefit more from these technologies eventually.

I finished it recently and it does look pretty dead at times, if the screen isn't filed with blinding reflections you could mistaken it for a game from 10 years ago.

 

[JustBenching]

It's very common for people with amd cards to not like cyberpunk's graphics. Not sure why that is.

 

[forman313]

Maybe it's cause I never played it, but I never get this feeling of awe from CP2077, be it from videos or screenshots from people playing it at even the absolute highest of settings.

Spoiler

Like, is this really the future of graphics? Throw all the pathtracing you want at it, it just looks... dull.

Great analysis, though. Maybe games with more interesting art direction and design will benefit more from these technologies eventually.

If you just played a game like A Plague Tale, this game gives you a distinct Duke Nukem feeling.

Sure, the lighting looks natural with RT and PT, but its so grainy/noisy. The concrete on the first comparison picture looks awful. Like playing PS3 on a 75" TV.

 

[KrazyT]

It's great to see that even in "Low" settings, nowadays games are looking good enough ...

 

[W1zzard]

The 7700XT is now faster than a RTX 3090 in raster

GeForce 30 numbers seem to be wrong, too. I just retested 3080 1080p and got 106 FPS

Edit: this is fixed now