Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.2: leap forward for PS4 Pro, but how do all the others fare?

Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.2

Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.2 was released last week with a truly giant amount of bugfixes and updates. The good news is that the bugs that broke the game have been fixed but how has the situation changed on consoles? Can we finally recommend buying on last-gen? Briefly said, PlayStation 4 Pro owners can gloat at least a little, but we're still a long way from the best. Very far.

The very long update notes reveal no details on optimizing the experience on PS4 and Xbox One, although there are several changes to the game engine that should, in theory, make it more stable across all platforms . There are also the much needed updates to the temporal anti-aliasing system and the screen-space reflection. In the notes, Xbox One is mentioned in regards to memory optimization and data streaming, which by the way seems to be responsible for the noticeable improvement on the PlayStation 4 Pro.

Once again let's talk about technology background streaming which takes assets from disk, decompresses them and displays them on the screen. There are news on PS4, PS4 Pro and Xbox One but, curiously, Microsoft's console does not seem to enjoy any particular improvements compared to version 1.1 of the code. Easily said, the feeling is that data streaming has a reduced priority in the consumption of system resources, which therefore can be dedicated more to the stability of the framerate at the expense of the level of detail. The assets of the environments take longer to appear on the screen and the pop-in is noticeable more than in the past, so we could say that yes, there are delays in rendering, but that sooner or later the detail arrives. However, we point out that darting through the densest points of the city, certain details simply do not have time to arrive.

Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.2: all the last-gen versions put to the test by Digital Foundry.

Watch on YouTube. In the video you can see how the look of the game changes with these innovations, especially on PlayStation 4 Pro, but the other side of the coin is that the benefits in terms of performance are obvious. The Pro was already the best of the last-gen, outperforming even the most powerful Xbox One X, which is now even more evident as it plays at 30fps most of the time. Racing in a crowded market caused the screen refresh rate to drop towards 20fps on PS4 Pro, while with patch 1.2 the game now hardly limps anymore, clearly at the expense of the level of detail. We have recorded improvements of even 8 frames per second, a truly remarkable result considering that the target is 30. The pop-in, then, is detected almost exclusively during the most excited phases, so it is difficult for it to be noticed that much. .

We used one of the first scenes as a benchmark: while you are going to the Ripperdoc at the beginning of the game, instead of arriving at your destination you take a detour to the overflowing NPC alleys and start shooting. The combination of combat, on-screen characters and city detail causes noticeable dips on all systems, including PS4 Pro, but now they are less noticeable on the latter than on the 1.1 code. Attention, there are still some problems: for example, it happened that a firefight particularly loaded with effects caused the framerate to collapse towards 20fps and then, even, crash the game. In short, it is a big step forward, it is true, but version 1.2 is not yet recommended with your eyes closed, since it even risks crashing.

We have created a PC with similar specifications to Xbox One, and play it Cyberpunk 2077 gives interesting results.

Watch on YouTube. Turning our gaze to Xbox One X, however, we still see serious problems. There are performance improvements, for example the market now runs at 24fps instead of below 20, and even the first entry to Night City after the first mission is now more stable. Unfortunately, however, most of the problems remained: Xbox One X continues to suffer from big hiccups, with crashes down to 0fps, so to speak. The game doesn't quit unexpectedly on Microsoft consoles, but we certainly can't say they are pleasant events. The improvements on Xbox One X, in short, are less evident, and it often happens to see the framerate go down to 20fps even in scenes that are not particularly rich. The test we were talking about before, to say, runs badly as it ran badly on 1.1, which is rather perplexing given the clear leap forward of the PS4 Pro.

As for the "base" versions of PS4 and Xbox One some improvement can be seen, but it is so light that you will hardly notice: when you earn 2 or 3 frames per second, but the 30 remain far away, it is still difficult to play. It is curious that the base PS4 does not enjoy even a little of the same improvements seen on the PS4 Pro, almost always stopping between 20 and 30fps during firefights (or even below), with various hiccups and jolts. Even aiming is difficult, and we've seen crashes on PS4 as well. Well, we're not there.

Here's the analysis of Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.1, as tested by Digital Foundry in January.

Watch on YouTube. Similar speech regarding Xbox One which, again, is really difficult to recommend. Streaming optimizations can be seen when comparing scenes from codes 1.1 and 1.2 directly, but they are too little relevant to get noticed. Xbox One still does not offer a stable experience, remaining at the bottom of the sad rankings.

You will have therefore understood that the patch 1.2 of Cyberpunk 2077 presents lights and shadows, therefore. On PlayStation 4 Pro the improvements are there and finally it seems that enjoying the work of the Polish studio is no longer impossible, even if it is evident that it has been designed for more performing systems. It will be interesting to analyze the PS5 version, since it is based on the same code, and see if maybe at least the crashes are absent. In any case, it will still take a lot of work to clean up this unfortunate game.

The speech is getting worse for PS4, Xbox One and Xbox One X. Four months after launch, only tiny steps have been made. Looking at the update notes it seems that priority has been given to bugfixing, which clearly makes sense, but let's hope now it's the turn of the optimization. Patch 1.2 improves things, then, but noticeably only on PS4 Pro as strange as it may seem. We hope the situation changes with the next big update.