I was completely surprised and excited to see this patch this morning, but it was a real let down once I got inside. This is probably because I had just assumed we were getting 3.1.
What we actually got is significantly worse:
-- I don't know what "FSR 3.0" as an upscaler option actually is, since my understanding of FSR 3.0 is that it's just FSR 2.x with Frame Generation. The Cyperpunk implementation is noticeably worse than the FSR 2.1 option and probably why 2.1 wasn't removed. (It is also significantly worse than hacking in 3.1 with a mod workaround)
-- Since this is FSR 3.0 and not 3.1, you MUST use the FSR 3.0 scaler to use the FSR frame generation. You cannot use FSR Frame Generation with DLSS, XESS or FSR 2.1, or probably more imporantly, on it's own.
-- Probably most painful for me is that 3.1 moved to easy DLL upgrading. Basically, just like with DLSS and XESS, you can just download the latest version of FSR post 3.1 and paste it into the game data folder. Or even just copy paste it from another game that was updated to the latest version. Which means we would not have to wait for the game devs to update the upscaler anymore.
-- For reasons unfathomable, you need to restart when you enable or disable Frame Gen (this does not happen with any of the work around mods and I don't have an nvidia card).
So lets say you are solutions oriented, and maybe you didn't know anything about the things I complained about, but now you do and it's bumming you out. What are your options:
I have an Nvidia 40-series card and I just want to play games at the best they can look without having to spend a lot of time fiddling:
You're in luck because you don't really have to care about any of this. If you don't know much about eiher tech and have these cards, DLSS is the upscaler you should use (it's the best*) and you can already enable Frame Gen yourself. If you don't know why you would do either of these things, well just play around with them, it can't hurt anything.
I have an AMD Card and I only care about Frame Gen:
AMD is working on rolling out AMFM 2, and it's currently in beta testing. I've used it and liked it. You can donwload and install the driver for it here if you don't want to wait for it to go mainstream:
Personally I found AMFM 2 to work almost as well as native frame gen, so if you have an AMD card and you don't like the idea of doing any light modding, Then this is for you. if you are wondering what the draw back is, it's that the frame generation is done at a driver level. So theoretically it will be less efficient then a frame gen impletmented in game. This means more latency between when you see an image and is why AMD highly recommends you use their Hyper-X which has mitigations for that. Considering AMFM2 preview works on Cyperpunk 2077, I am wondering if this is why we got the silent launch of FSR 3.0 from CDPR. but that's just speculation.
I have any card, except an Nvidia 40-series, and want Frame Gen without being stuck with FSR 3.0 as an upscaler:
You're going to have to mod, but honestly this is really not that bad. **** I have not tried the mod on the new patch yet this might be broken now ****
https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/14726 - DLSS3ENABLER is a very easy to install mod for Nvidia users. Basicaly just install it and the DLSS option in Graphics will not longer be locked to off. Note that what this mod is actually doing is enabling FSR 3.0 Frame Generation to be used with any of the built in upscalers.
For AMD and Intel cards you need to follow slightly different insturctions with a little reg entry to enable or disable the mod (just double click on it, youd on't actually need to open regedit or anything like that).
For context on why people are disappointed in this Cyperpunk patch. This is how the Frame Gen half of FSR 3.1 works now. Oh and for some reason the mod doesn't require a reboot, it just does it on the fly
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I have an AMD/Intel/ non-30/40 series card so I can't use DLSS. I don't care about Frame Gen, but I do want upscaling. However, the "FSR 3.0" scaler settings is noticeably bad to me, what should I pick?:
There are a few options here. One is to just skip upscaling all together. Just set it to off and move on with your life. Now if you know what upscaling is and you know that you want it. Personally I just use 2.1. It ain't great, but the 2.x they are using in 3.0 seems noticeably worse to me. Also just because you have an AMD card, doesn't mean you need to use FSR, the XESS upscaler from Intel honestly looks better to me in a lot of cases, although it has it's own quirks, as would any upscaler including DLSS. It all comes down to what you tolerate and what you prefer.
I have and AMD/Intel graphics card and want to use FSR 3.1 as an upscaler:
Again your are going to have to mod. **** I have not tried the mod on the new patch yet this might be broken now ****
There are several options out there and lots of different people trying to the community better options than what we got. Personally, what was easiest for me was to just use the same mod as above for Frame Gen
Adds FSR 3.1 Frame Generation (replaces DLSS FG) and additional upscaling options to the game. Works with all main GPU vendors (Nvidia, AMD, Intel). Fully compatible with CET, RED4ext and ReShade. Eas
www.nexusmods.com
This is because there is almost no reason not to make frame gen avaiable too. Effectively this mod installs a sub mod called "Optiscalar" which I suppose you could install alone but I haven't tried or tested it. Once you follow the AMD/Instel install instructions, you will be able to select DLSS as your upscaler. Instead of crashing or ignoring your selection, the game will use Optiscaler. You can press Home (althought for me it was Insert (INS)) on your keyboard while in game and not in a menu. That should load optiscaler and let you select which scaler to use. By default it chooses XESS 1.3, but you can select FSR 3.1.
Some caveats to this method: The way it works is by using a middle man DLL file (all upscalers basically exist as this type of windows file) that pretends to be the DLSS DLL. It then translates the calls the game makes to the file into calls XESS 1.3 or FSR 3.1 can understand. While this is supremely cool and the modders who worked on this are wizards, it's also likely this is less good than if the upscalers were native to the game. Also, both XESS 1.3 and FSR 3.1 seem to have a lot of ghosting. I found it was worse on high contrast outlines, like figures highlighted in red from hacking, or scrolling text really fast on a dark backround, like the computers. I honestly think native 3.1 would have these same problems. Likely this is just from the ghosting that comes from the un-upscaled image being exacerbated by upscaling. I think only Nvidia has been able to largely remove ghosting from DLSS.*
*My card prior to my current AMD one was a GTX 1080, so i can't actually confirm this myself, but I have no reason to disbelieve the many many professional reviewers who say it's the best.
** Many apologies for any typos or nonsense sentences. I wrote this after being woken up at midnight to work an emergency page.
