Cyberpunk 2077 Is Going All-In With SSD Storage And Other Revised PC Requirements
CD Projekt Red is pushing out its Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update today (likely by the time many of you read this), followed by the much-anticipated Phantom Liberty expansion next week. In a post on X/Twitter, the developer reiterated that both the 2.0 update and expansion come with a refreshed set of requirements, one of which makes it mandatory to run the game on a solid state drive (SSD).
Let's pour one out for the mechanical hard disk drive (HDD), right? Not so fast—HDDs are still great for bulk storage chores and will be around for years to come. However, the writing is on the wall for gaming, and especially AAA titles. The list of games that require an SSD is growing with big names like Assassin's Creed Mirage, Baldur's Gate 3, Forza Motorsport, Starfield, and now Cyberpunk 2077 forging ahead in the storage fast lane.
Now that the latest-generation consoles from Microsoft (Xbox Series X|S) and Sony (PlayStation 5) tout SSD storage, game developers have found sufficient motivation to embrace the must faster storage medium. It won't be an overnight shift en masse, but expect this sort of thing to become increasingly commonplace as time goes on.
As for Cyberpunk 2077, CDPR sent out a courtesy reminder on X/Twitter that outlines the updated system requirements for the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty expansion. The developer also recommends starting the game fresh and removing any existing mods beforehand.
"If you're using mods, we recommend uninstalling them before Update 2.0. Due to the sheer amount of changes, they might cause more issues than usual. Wait until the modding community updates them to the new version of the game," CDPR says.
Current system requirements
CDPR breaks down the recommended specs into six categories, including Minimum (1080p at Low, 30 FPS), Recommended (1080p at High, 60 FPS), Ultra (4K at Ultra, 60 FPS), RT Minimum (1080p with RT at Low, 30 FPS), RT Recommended (1080p with RT at Ultra, 60 FPS), and RT Overdrive (4K with RT at Overdrive, 60 FPS).
The top-end RT Overdrive tier calls for a Core i9-12900 or Ryzen 9 7900X processor, GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card, 24GB of RAM, and 70GB of NVMe SSD storage. You can see the rest of the requirements above and how they compare to the original requirements in 2020, posted below...
Original system requirements in 2020
It's a substantial overhaul across the board as the game turns three years old. One of the notable changes is the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB gets demoted from the Recommended tier to the minimum GPU.
"The changes to the minimum requirements are a reflection of our new standard of requirements, which we believe better represent the minimum PC configuration required to run the game at 1080p, while maintaining an average of 30 FPS at low preset. The reason for making these changes is that updating the requirements is an important part of the game improvement process, and of enhancing and adding new features," CDPR states in a blog post.
If your system falls short of the updated requirements, CDPR assures that it doesn't mean the game will stop working, so long as you meet the original requirements. At least for now, anyway—the developer also notes that following the 2.0 update to the base game, it is discontinuing active support for PCs that don't meet the new requirements, and will no longer test the title on those setups.
