While a lot of Cyberpunk 2077 players are already imagining how sweet life will be when the Phantom Liberty Expansion arrives and they can ditch their old flame Keanu Reeves for a fresh celebrity companion in Idris Elba, some are still hanging out in Night City while they wait.
For many of the veteran players who’re busy shooting their way through the gigs and missions in their quest log or stealthily exploring the metropolis on foot or by car, the Ray Tracing Overdrive Mode added to the game via its most recent patch can offer a chance to see CD Projekt Red’s dense urban jungle in all of its glory.
If you think you’ve got the hardware required to run this boundary-pushing graphical setting, but have been disappointed with the frame rates you’ve been experiencing with it enabled, a new mod might be worth adding to your load order.
Is your rig of choice struggling to cope with Cyberpunk 2077’s Ray Tracing Overdrive Mode?
The mod in question is called ‘Raytracing Overdrive Optimizations’ and is the work of modder E3roKK. Some of their previous projects have helped bring car customisation to Cyberpunk and ensured its merchants always have enough eddies to buy whatever you’re selling.
This time, they’ve decided to try and help players get the most out of the new experimental mode, sacrificing a little bit of graphical quality by reducing the bounce rate and range of the rays it adds to the game, while not compromising any of its RTXDI or ReSTIR functionality.
The result of these tweaks is a boost in frames per second, which E3roKK claims can deliver up to two times your setup’s unmodded average FPS value with Overdrive mode enabled, something fellow modder scornthegreat has attempted to demonstrate with their RTX 3060Ti rig in the showcase clips above (recorded while using the mod) and below (without the mod).
Most of the commenters who’ve given the mod a go thus far report experiencing FPS increases ranging from a few extra frames per second to just over 15 depending upon their hardware.
Also, these numbers might increase once the mod has a few updates under its belt, with E3roKK saying: “I will be changing a bunch of stuff in this mod. For now it’s absurdly simple, but will grow as I find more changes (to make that can improve performance)!”, so make sure to check back further down the line.
Regardless of whether you’re now frantically watching a number go up and down as you jog through the bustling streets of Night City, make sure to follow us for more interesting Cyberpunk 2077 mods and info on the Phantom Liberty expansion. You can also check out our mods of the month for March 2023.