Cyberpunk 2077: Cloud gives relief from PS4 and Xbox One misery

As the Cyberpunk 2077 fires rage on, perhaps there’s solace to be found in places where the game actually runs well. The game is riddled with bugs on PS4 and Xbox One, but if you don't want to wait for the promised fixed – and don't own a powerful PC rig – cloud gaming services are the answer to your prayers. 

To run CD Projekt's game at maximum settings requires higher specs than the average gaming machine has; that is, unless, you are willing to run it at a much lower resolution, tolerate 30FPS, or enable substantial resolution scaling. For many, this is a sub-optimal solution, unless you own a high-specification machine or the PS5 or Xbox Series X, paving the way for cloud gaming to ride to the rescue.

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Gizmodo has crunched the numbers, and it turns out that four hours of gameplay during a combat mission ate 28GB of data when cranked up to 4K settings on Google Stadia. Less vigorous missions used approximately 14GB on the same performance setting; whereas GeForce NOW consumed the same figures at 1080p with ray tracing on. For PC, these numbers are workable.

Hitting 4K Ultra on Cyberpunk 2077 squeezes every last bit of juice out of the hardware; it simply isn't feasible without an RTX 3080, and requires Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) with its AI based image upscaling technology. KitGuru's benchmark tests show that to hold the game above 60fps at all times, the RTX 3080 is a base hardware requirement.

Subscriptions to these cloud services are significantly cheaper than investing in expensive graphics cards, or purchasing a high-spec gaming laptop. These can be purchased from the streaming companies' respective websites: $24.95/ £24.95  for a six month Founders subscription to GeForce NOW vs. a $10/ £8.99 Stadia Pro subscription that will let you stream in 4K. While the connection may cause slight blurriness at times due to the size of your bandwidth, you can rest assured that you'll always be hitting 60fps when you dive into Night City. 

Without the luxury of the hefty Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 – or a similarly powerful graphics card – Cyberpunk’s cityscape is rough around the edges; futuristic vistas are out of focus, and the game’s charm is lost in translation. Cloud gaming avoids the headache of system crashes and recurring reloads. For now, it is a smoother, less buggy and more enjoyable way to play until the patches bed in. If you have a last-gen console, CD Projekt is offering refunds as gameplay has been thwarted by bugs on older machines.

Source: Gizmodo