Cyberpunk 2077 Overdrive Path Tracing Requirements & How To Enable

Developer CDPR has released the Cyberpunk 2077 1.62 update, and it features the technology preview of Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode, aka Path Tracing rendering to the game. This is, of course, just for high-end PCs, leading gamers to wonder what the Cyberpunk 2077 Overdrive Mode with Path Tracing's PC system requirements (specs) are.

This guide explains how you can enable Path Tracing settings in Cyberpunk 2077 after you download the 1.62 update, and the PC hardware requirements to actually make use of this new graphical mode.

Cyberpunk 2077 Overdrive Mode PC Requirements

Before we get to the requirements, check out what CDPR had to say about this "tech preview" for Cyberpunk 2077:

Together with NVIDIA, we’re bringing a completely new, fully ray-traced, aka path-traced, rendering mode to the game with this patch – Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode. We’re proud of it. It pushes the boundaries of what's possible in technology. However, because it is so new and fundamentally different from what we've been using so far, we know it's not going to be perfect from the start and players might experience some issues – that’s why we’ve decided to call it a “Technology Preview.” This is a vision of the future that we want to share, and we're committed to continue working on and improving this feature.

So what type of PC specs do you require to actually make use of Path Tracing via the Overdrive Mode in Cyberpunk 2077? Well, the biggest requirement is the GPU, of course. Check out the supported graphics cards below.

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series (4070 Ti and up)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 (1080p, 30 fps)

For cards that have Ray Tracing capabilities with 8 GB of VRAM, there's also a path-traced screenshot rendering option in Photo Mode. You will also need to install the NVIDIA Game Ready Driver, version 531.41 or later.

Use the Cyberpunk 2077 Benchmark Mode to test your fps with Path Tracing enabled. Speaking of which, the Cyberpunk 2077 1.62 update also improved the Benchmark to display more information in the results screen, including PC specs, GPU driver version, and selected settings. 

How To Enable Path Tracing in Cyberpunk 2077

The Path Tracing graphics option in Cyberpunk 2077 is set to off by default since this is VERY GPU intensive. To enable Path Tracing via the Ray Tracing: Overdrive preset in the game, you need to do the following:

• Make sure NVIDIA Game Ready Drivers (531.41 or higher) are installed.
• Download Cyberpunk 2077 update 1.62.
• Launch the game and head into settings.
• Head to the Graphics tab, then Quick Preset, and select "Ray Tracing: Overdrive".

Alternatively, you can head to Settings then Graphics, and in the Ray Tracing section, select Path Tracing.

Check out the video below, where the developers discuss the new, powerful graphics settings for Cyberpunk 2077, explaining all the important technical details. For interest sake, check out the PC specs used for the video, with in-game graphics settings maxed out at 4K resolution.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-Core Processor 4.70 GHz
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
• RAM: Kingston Fury DDR 5 128 GB (4X32GB)

So there you have it, a way to enable Overdrive Mode featuring Path Tracing in Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.62, if your gaming rig meets the minimum PC system requirements, of course. If anything changes, we will endeavor to update this article.