Cyberpunk 2077's system requirements are going up ahead of the Phantom Liberty launch, hard drive support is being dropped

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PCs based on the original minimum spec will continue to work, but not especially well.

Johnny Silverhand's new look
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

With the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion Phantom Liberty set to arrive on September 26, CD Projekt is making some changes to the game's system requirements "to ensure that players have a better understanding of what will be needed" to run the game at an acceptable level of performance. The changes also reflect the evolution of PC gaming hardware in the three years since the original game's release, including support for new GPU hardware that wasn't available back then.

"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," CD Projekt said. "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."

One significant change, at least symbolically, is the end of hard drive support: The amount of storage space hasn't changed but the new minimum spec says that an SSD is required, not just recommended. CD Projekt said that hard drives will continue to operate (and, in general, Cyberpunk 2077 will continue to run on the older minimum hardware) but active support for them will be ended, and future updates will no longer be tested on HDD-based setups.

Cyberpunk 2077 is actually the second game we've seen move to an SSD minimum requirement in recent days: Starfield's minimum system requirements also calls for an SSD. I initially wondered when Starfield's hardware demands were announced whether it was a mistake, but it seems that developers are simply embracing the many benefits of solid-state technology. 

And rightly so: SSDs are small, fast, quiet, and as you can see in our guide to the best SSDs for gaming, not at all prohibitively expensive anymore; I'm not a hardware pro by any measure but I can tell you from personal experience that adding even a middling SSD to your rig will be transformative, and once you've sampled that speed, you will not go back.

No Ray Tracing

Minimum (In-game graphics preset low, resolution 1080p, expected fps 30)

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10 
  • Processor: Core i7-6700 or Ryzen 5 1600
  • Graphics card: Geforce GTX 1060 6GB or Radeon RX 580 8GB or Arc A380
  • VRAM: 6GB
  • RAM: 12GB
  • Storage: 70GB SSD

Recommended (In-game graphics preset high, resolution 1080p, expected fps 60)

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Core i7-12700 or Ryzen 7 7800X
  • Graphics card: Geforce RTX 2060 Super or Radeon RX 5700 XT or Arc A770
  • VRAM 8GB
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Storage: 70GB SSD

Ultra (In-game graphics preset ultra, resolution 2160p, expected fps 60)

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Core i9-12900 or Ryzen 9 7900X
  • Graphics card: Geforce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 7900 XTX
  • VRAM: 12GB
  • RAM: 20GB
  • Storage: 70GB NVME

Ray Tracing Enabled

Minimum (In-game graphics preset ray tracing low, resolution 1080p, expected fps 30)

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Core i9-12900 or Ryzen 9 7900X
  • Graphics card: Geforce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 7900 XTX
  • VRAM: 12GB
  • RAM: 20GB
  • Storage: 70GB NVME

Recommended (In-game graphics preset ray tracing ultra, resolution 1080p, expected fps 60)

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Core i9-12900 or Ryzen 9 7900X
  • Graphics card: Geforce RTX 3080Ti or Radeon RX 7900 XTX
  • VRAM: 12GB
  • RAM: 20GB
  • Storage: 70GB NVME

Overdrive (In-game graphics preset ray tracing overdrive, resolution 2160p, expected fps 60)

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 10
  • Processor: Core i9-12900 or Ryzen 9 7900X
  • Graphics card: Geforce RTX 3080Ti or Radeon RX 7900 XTX
  • VRAM: 12GB
  • RAM: 20GB
  • Storage: 70GB NVME

Along with the SSD change, note also that the minimum listed RAM requirement is now 12GB, and the recommended is 16GB. CPU and GPU recommendations are also up, although not a great amount, so your old GTX 970 workhorse will still get the job done as long as you're willing to make some compromises in visual quality. Overall, it's not a huge leap forward but it is something to be aware of, especially if your PC was on the bubble with the initial spec

We got some hands-on time with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty over the weekend at Summer Game Fest, and at this pre-release stage it looks potentially quite good: Possibly even the Cyberpunk equivalent of the brilliant Blood and Wine conclusion for The Witcher 3.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.