PSA: Check your PC cooling system before playing Cyberpunk 2077’s DLC

Cyberpunk 2077’s DLC expansion Phantom Liberty is right around the corner, and the action game’s developer has some advice for PC players

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Cyberpunk 2077’s DLC expansion Phantom Liberty is right around the corner, and the action game’s developer has some advice for PC players: test your cooling system. And everything else, for that matter. 

Apparently, Phantom Liberty and the overhaul that comes with Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 may put a lot of strain on your computer. CD Projekt Red’s lead scene programmer Philip Pierściński gave the advice on Twitter and recommended players use Cinebench to test their current setup and ensure they could actually run the game.

“Before release CP2077 2.0 and PL please check conditions of your cooling systems in PC,” Pierściński said. “We use all what you have, so workload on CPU 90% on 8 core is expected. To save your time please run Cinebench or similar and check stability of your systems.”

That sounds ominous, but Pierściński clarified in the post’s comments that even eighth-generation i7 chips would be able to run the game, and those are six years old at this point. If you rely on simultaneous multithreading, though, Pierściński you should make sure you’re using a chip with no more than eight cores. If yours has 12 cores or more, he recommends you shut the feature off.

Pierściński didn’t say why the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update will create such a burden on CPUs, though the free update and DLC expansion add quite a few new systems to the game, including new AI systems for police behavior and new skills. There’s a new Cyberpunk 2077 ending as well.

Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update doesn’t have a firm release date yet, though Phantom Liberty will launch on Sep. 26, 2023, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF