Cyberpunk 2077 mod lets RT Overdrive update work on weaker RTX cards
A new Cyberpunk 2077 mod lets you run the RT Overdrive update and experience path tracing in the RPG on less powerful hardware, without sacrificing much in the way of quality. Normally, raytracing tracks two bounces of light as they interact with objects, but the Raytracing Overdrive Optimizations mod from Nexusmods users Erok and Scorn reduces that to one bounce and lets even RTX 3050 cards run the game with decent framerates and few significant drops in visual quality.
CD Projekt RED originally billed the RT Overdrive update as playable only on RTX 40-series cards. Digital Foundry published a deep dive into how the mod works on multiple cards and found not only that the update is playable on weaker cards, but that the mod can increase performance by up to 30 percent.
The ideal experience for RTX 3070 users and anyone using a weaker DXR-capable card is playing at 1080p, which helps framerates consistently stay above 30 fps. The Digital Foundry video even shows a 2080 maintaining 30+ fps at 1080p using the mod.
Digital Foundry also tested both cards at 1440p, which is where things get a bit more restrictive. The 3050 couldn’t handle the bump in resolution, though at max settings, the 3070 could almost eke out a stable 30 fps. The 3080, however, could reach much higher frames and even approached variable refresh rates at 1440p.
The mod does result in a noticeable downgrade in lighting and shadow quality with that extra light bounce taken out, though. Reflections aren’t as dynamic, and some areas have worse lighting. The basic path tracing experience and enhanced graphics are still a noticeable improvement over Cyberpunk 2077 and even the reworked textures mod without the RT Overdrive update, though.
