AMD Ryzen processor owners experience a different performance problem than all other players, and the solution is actually very simple! The game cannot use all cores in the processor due to a bug, resulting in an average performance loss of 23%. After using all the cores for the game, the performance problem in Cyberpunk 2077 AMD processors is thus solved.
Regardless of your processor or GPU, Cyberpunk 2077 can push your system to its limits. However, skilled reddlers (users of the reddit forum) have discovered that the game code significantly harms performance on some AMD processors, apparently checking if your CPU is using Team Red’s 2011 era Bulldozer platform, and if not, limiting the number of threads available.
Fortunately, the same folks also prepared a simple fix that could lead to huge performance gains with some AMD Ryzen processors under certain conditions. We tested the fix with several Ryzen CPUs, including some of the best CPUs to determine which processors benefit in what conditions. We recorded a gain of up to 23% in some Cyberpunk 2077 benchmarks, so if you are one of those who are experiencing a performance loss due to your Ryzen CPU, the fix will definitely be worthwhile. We also tell you how you can apply the correction yourself.
Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most anticipated games of all time, but it definitely challenges your PC, especially if you want to play it in high resolutions and fidelity. As always, the community has begun to search for the best settings for the game and useful “hacks”.
The biggest hack to emerge centers around Cyberpunk’s obvious inability to utilize AMD Ryzen processors to the fullest. Instead of using all the threads available to the processor, the game code runs with fewer processor cores. As a result, some threads are left unused and potential performance hangs in the air. The same issues don’t seem to apply to Intel processors, but we also tested a few Intel Core models to be sure.
We are trying to get a better explanation of the problem from the game developers. For now, AMD’s problem seems to be caused by the GPUOpen software package that Cyberpunk 2077 uses to detect the processor installed in the system. Apparently, this control determines whether the AMD chip is a Bulldozer model, and if not, the software assigns half the number of timer threads to the chip. This leads to inadequate use of some of AMD’s processors.
The fix is relatively simple, but as with any unapproved and unofficial fix, know that you are at all risk. Also, the fix doesn’t work in all conditions. You should be aware that some hardware configurations can actually lose performance as a result, as we will show below. Also, keep in mind that even if the particular model doesn’t benefit from the patch, the fix tends to cause higher CPU usage on Ryzen processors.
How To Fix Cyberpunk 2077 AMD ‘Performance Problem’?
You can find detailed instructions on applying the correction in various places; There’s a reddit post with a PCGaminWiki listing, a video, and more information on applying the fix manually . New software that automatically ‘fixes’ is already surfing on websites, but always be wary of unverified software – don’t get burned by malware.
Below are instructions on how to make the change, but if you are not experienced with making such changes, go to the linked resources above (pcgamingwiki, video, reddit):
1. [/ su_highlight] Go to the directory where the game is installed and make a backup of the Cyberpunk 2077.exe file inside (you can copy and paste the file to your desktop and name it Cyberpunk 2077- backup.exe)
2. [/ su_highlight] Open the Cyberpunk 2077.exe file with a hex editor ( click for online editor ) .
3. [/ su_highlight] Find the following string in the Cyberpunk 2077.exe file (located in the address line 02A816B0):
75 30 33 C9 B8 01 00 00 00 0F A2 8B C8 C1 F9 08
4 [/ su_highlight] with the following change :
EB 30 33 C9 B8 01 00 00 00 0F A2 8B C8 C1 F9 08
5. Save and exit.
With this fix, the game code behaves equally to all CPUs and spreads the workload across all available cores. You are now ready to test if your custom configuration responds well to the patch. We tested this with a limited number of AMD processors to see which models benefited, but our testing continues. We’ll add more to the charts as results come in.
Cyberpunk 2077 AMD fix patch test setup
We tested it with the highest number of NPCs available and followed the same benchmark methodology used for our Cyberpunk 2077 PC Benchmarks, Settings and Performance Analysis article. We tested the game by installing the latest 1.04 Cyberpunk patch.
We begin our test sequence in the game, at the entrance of V’s apartment, and we walk a path to the left across the street, down the stairs, turn right after the vending machine, then cross the road towards the two policemen on the other side. From there we proceed to the right opposite the mansion, down another row of stairs and towards the far building.
Note that performance may and will vary in other scenes and locations (think of up to 20% performance range), but this scene gives us a good enough idea of the type of performance improvement or decline you’ll see.
Our test systems easily exceed the minimum recommended system requirements for Cyberpunk 2077. In order to reduce the GPU bottleneck as much as possible, we used the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3090 Eagle graphics card in our test system. Note that with a lower graphics card, you will see less performance deltas. Also, if you’re already grappling with a GPU bottleneck, you might not see significant gains as we’ve seen with the processors we’ve tested below. You can see a more detailed breakdown of our test system at the end of the article.
Here are our results so far:
Cyberpunk 2077 CPU Scaled RT Ultra Settings Comparisons
A fix patch has been applied to the processors indicated with ‘Modified’ in the graphics. We tested it with three resolutions at various settings, but our first result chart focuses on the 1920×1080 resolution with the RT Ultra graphics setting applied. This test has the DLSS Quality graph setting and also activates ray tracing making it the most demanding setting. After applying the patch, it appears to have made major improvements for several AMD Ryzen processors.
First, it’s worth noting that from our tests and tests shared by gamers, AMD Ryzen processors with more than 8 cores did not benefit from this fix. On high-core AMD Ryzen processors, the patch patch may result in less performance. He can clearly see this situation in the Ryzen 9 5950X, which contains 16 real 32 virtual cores like a beast. Looking at the chart, this processor experienced an 8% performance drop after the patch patch.
This may be due to changes between cores that force an even distribution of work. This is not always ideal for Ryzen processors as the operating system targets threads at the fastest cores first. We also see performance drop at the full scan of the 5950X’s fps percentiles. As you’ll see over and over in the extended test below, the Ryzen 9 5950X doesn’t benefit from fixes – but it’s not too important; As we can see, the 5950X surpasses the Intel Core i9-10900K.
Now let’s move on to the performance gaining AMD Ryzen processors. The Ryzen 5 5600X, with 6 physical 12 virtual cores, follows the Core i9-10900K without a fix patch, accelerating by 23% when the patch is applied, throwing the 10900K into dust. We can also see that this improves the performance of the chips at full scan of the fps percentiles, which means the game runs much smoother as a result. In fact, faster gameplay and improved fluidity were very noticeable during our test runs.
We also tested the Ryzen 5 3600XT with 6 physical 12 virtual cores with the fix patch and saw an 18% acceleration compared to the average fps. This chip is basically the same as the second generation Ryzen 5 3600X, meaning that there will be similar gains on both processors. We also plan to test it with first generation Ryzen processors to fully verify whether the fix patch is delivering such huge gains. Stay tuned for updates on graphics.
We’ll take a quick look at why we’re seeing performance gains in smaller Ryzen models when beam tracking and DLSS performance are taken into account, then take a look at multiple resolutions with standard pixelation.
Here, we plotted the CPU usage for each processor core during our test run, but made sure that these measurements were not taken during our performance measurements to avoid potential overhead.
The first graph (titled 5600X unmodified) shows the Ryzen 5 5600X running Cyberpunk 2077 with the original code (without patches). As you can see, a few cores are not used enough and fall below the 20% range. The second graph (titled 5600X modified) shows the magnitude of the effect of the fix patch applied: With this patch, all the cores are fully utilized, which improves performance as we see in the graph above.
The third graph shows kernel usage with the original code (unpatched) on the Intel Core i9-10900K, and it seems clear that the game uses the cores on par with the standard game code.
In the last two graphs, we see almost the same measurements, of course, with the Ryzen 9 5950X with 16 physical, 32 virtual cores. Here, below the graph, we can see a few cores weaken with usage below 10%, but applying the correction (last chart) results in a more even distribution. However, we think the fix did not bring a performance boost due to incorrect thread targeting.
Cyberpunk 2077 CPU-Sized Mid-Graphics Tuned Benchmarks
This test series includes 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions at medium graphics setting. This graphics setting has lower suitability settings than the Ultra graphics setting below, so we’re seeing more significant gains.
The magnitude of the performance increase is clear to how much the system depends on the graphics card bottleneck – the higher the resolution, the lower the performance gains.
Again, as we said before, the Ryzen 9 5950X runs slower with the fix patch applied, and this occurs at all resolutions except 4K resolution, where the bottleneck is the highest. Regardless of the results, this processor manages to be the fastest chip in our test pool. So it doesn’t need much help, fix patches.
At 1080p resolution, the Ryzen 5 5600X surpasses Core i9-10900K in the performance rankings by offering 11% more performance after the patch patch. Ryzen 5 3600XT, on the other hand, achieves a performance increase of 14%. At 1440p, we see that the 5600X outperformed 10900K due to a 5% increase in performance and the 3600XT improved by 7%. All of these gains translate into smoother gameplay, as can be seen in our fps percentage charts.
With the exception of the Ryzen 5 3600XT configuration, you will notice that we are almost completely subjected to GPU bottlenecks in 4K. The fix patch allows the 3600XT to be able to feed the RTX 3090 well. We also see that the original game code (unpatched) exceeds the Ryzen 5 5600X configuration by 1%, but this should be considered within the margin of error.
Cyberpunk 2077 CPU-Sized Ultra Graphics Tuned Benchmarks
Here we turn the dial to the Ultra graphics setting and again set ray tracing off. As expected, as we increased the resolution and CPU performance started to affect game performance less and naturally the gains of the fix patch decreased.
At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 5600X got 10% faster and the Ryzen 5 3600XT was 9.5% faster. At 1440p, these gains fall into the negligible range for the 5600X because it puts the RTX 3090 in a bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 3600XT was able to get closer to the ceiling speed provided by the graphics card and achieved a 13.7% improvement.
Once again, the 4K resolution pushes us into the margin of error, where it’s clear that CPUs are not getting any meaningful performance from the patch patch.
Overall, our first round of comparisons with the Cyberpunk 2077 fix patch shows that it works well for AMD processors with lower core counts, and the performance delta decreases the closer to the video card bottleneck. Therefore, those with weaker graphics cards will see different FPS levels. We are still continuing our testing and will soon be updating with the first generation Ryzen and 8-core Ryzen models. Stay tuned (see Resources section below to follow the article from its source).