Cyberpunk 2077 is CD Projekt Red’s open-world RPG set in Night City, and one of the most graphically demanding open-world games available — it’s a common benchmark title for new GPU releases. Its dense, vertical city environments, along with optional ray tracing and path tracing modes, make it a genuinely useful stress test for a gaming PC.
The recommended specs below get you a smooth experience without the heaviest ray tracing options enabled; turning those on pushes requirements considerably higher.
System Requirements
Requirement
Minimum
Recommended
CPU
Intel Core i7-6700 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Intel Core i7-12700 / AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
GPU
NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX 580 8GB
NVIDIA RTX 2060 SUPER / AMD RX 5700 XT
RAM
12 GB
16 GB
Storage
70 GB
70 GB
OS
Windows 10 64-bit
Windows 10 64-bit
Source:
the publisher's own officially listed system requirements (view source). Actual performance still depends on drivers, background load and in-game settings.
Want to know how YOUR specific CPU and GPU actually pair up, not just whether you clear the minimum?
Large open-world RPGs combine dense scenery with real-time lighting, physics and NPC simulation, so both the CPU (world logic) and the GPU (render detail) matter — a mismatched pairing usually shows up as stutter when entering a busy area, not just a lower average framerate.
The jump from 12GB to 16GB of RAM between the minimum and recommended spec is where Cyberpunk 2077 stops paging textures and level data from disk mid-play — below 16GB, that shows up as short stutters and pop-in rather than a flat drop in average framerate. At roughly 70GB, plan storage for Cyberpunk 2077 the same way you would for any modern title: an NVMe SSD keeps load times and texture streaming noticeably smoother than a hard drive at the same free-space total.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 12GB of RAM enough to run Cyberpunk 2077?
12GB is the publisher's stated minimum, meaning Cyberpunk 2077 will start and run, but 16GB (the recommended figure) avoids the stuttering that comes from paging assets off your storage drive mid-session. Use our RAM calculator to check your exact total against everything else you run alongside it.
Should I prioritize my CPU or my GPU for Cyberpunk 2077?
For Cyberpunk 2077 specifically, the CPU tends to be the more common limiting part in practice, not just the GPU — check your exact pairing with our PC Bottleneck Calculator before assuming a GPU upgrade alone will fix low or inconsistent framerates.
How much free storage should I actually set aside for Cyberpunk 2077?
Plan for at least 70GB free, not exactly 70GB — day-one patches, DLC and shader/texture caches routinely add several more gigabytes after install. Our Storage Calculator can help you plan an upgrade if you are close to full.
