Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty update pushes CPUs harder in the best way

pcinvasion.com:

If you feel like Cyberpunk 2077 is releasing all over again, you’re not alone. There’s a lot of hype building for the release of the Phantom Liberty expansion thanks to all of the post-launch updates and graphics improvements that already put the game in a much better state. However, a recent tweet about increased CPU usage by a lead dev working on the Phantom Liberty update has some players worried about Cyberpunk 2077 PC requirements yet again.

CD Projekt RED initially received a lot of criticism for the high performance demands of Cyberpunk 2077 on PC. More powerful generations of hardware, a market shift to more accessible prices, and the numerous game patches have alleviated most of the complaints, though.

It’s true that CD Projekt RED just increased the recommended PC hardware requirements yet again for Cyberpunk 2077 for the Phantom Liberty update, but fears are already overblown in most regards. The main differences are that SSDs are now required and you’ll want an enthusiast-grade latest generation graphics card for the RT: Overdrive settings.

The good news is that optimization has been improved for modern high-core-count CPUs, which plenty of gamers have these days. As Filip Perscinski noted in a recent tweet, eight-core CPUs will now benefit and produce better performance thanks to higher utilization. This, in turn, means that your CPU will work harder and closer to its full potential.

Games engines are historically notorious for utilizing a few cores at best and mainly relying on single-threaded performance. It’s difficult to program games across higher core and thread counts, but it is gradually happening with Cyberpunk 2077 already being a good example. The Phantom Liberty update will improve multi-threaded