Fix Cyberpunk 2077 Stuttering, Lag, and Low FPS – Guide to Boost Performance

Cyberpunk 2077 can stutter due to a range of reasons from drop in FPS, assets such as textures and models loading, and a difference or mismatch between the refresh rate of the screen and the FPS of the game. Follow the guide and we will help you fix Cyberpunk 2077 stuttering, FPS drop, and lag.

Update the Graphics Card

It’s a gamer’s modus operandi to keep the graphics card updated prior to the release of any new game or at regular interval. GeForce Experience does a great job at informing you about new updates, but sometime we postpone it or the software is late at notifying you. For NVidia users, there is a latest Game Ready Driver with day-one support for Cyberpunk 2077, ensure you have update the driver to that version. AMD users can do the same. Perform a clean install, the option is available in the installer for NVidia users.

Enable In-Game Fullscreen Mode

If the Fullscreen mode is disabled that could be the reason why the game is stuttering. We have seen that a lot of games have performance problems when the Fullscreen mode is disabled, but it also works the other way around. Sometimes running the game on windowed borderless may resolve the stutter. So, whatever settings you have try changing that.

Change NVidia Settings

After updating the GPU driver, let’s change some settings in the NVidia control panel that could be causing the Cyberpunk 2077 stutter. Open the NVidia control panel and tweak the settings. Follow the below steps to change settings of your graphics card.

Right-click on Desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel
Expand 3D Settings and click on Adjust image settings with preview
Check Use my preference emphasizing: Quality (for users who have a powerful PC, you can allow the app to decide and select Let the 3D application decide)
Drag the bar to Performance (there are three options Performance – Balanced – Quality)
Click on Apply to implement the changes
Next, go to the Manage 3D settings under 3D Settings
Click on Program Settings and select Cyberpunk 2077 (if the game is not in the drop-down list, click Add, browse and add the game)
Under 2. Select the preferred graphics processor for this program: choose High-performance NVIDIA processor
Under 3. Specify the settings for this program, set Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance, Shader Cache to Off, Triple Buffering to On, Vertical Sync to On, and Virtual Reality pre-rendered frames to 1.

Disable the Game Bar and Game Mode

Although the possibility that the Game Bar and Mode could be causing the stutter with your game is slim, the possibility cannot be denied. The feature of Windows has caused numerous games to stutter. Therefore, in order to troubleshoot the problem disable the Game Bar and Mode and check if that resolves the problem. Here are the steps you can follow.

Press Windows Key + I and click on Gaming.
Toggle Off Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game bar.
Go to the Game Mode tab and toggle off Game Mode.

Terminate Unnecessary Applications

With so many games, third-party software that forcefully inject themselves between operations cause stutter. Hence, the first thing we must do to resolve the Cyberpunk 2077 stuttering and FPS drop is suspend all unnecessary programs and then launch the game. Here are the steps you can follow.

Press Windows Key + R and type msconfig, hit Enter
In General tab, uncheck Load startup items
Go to the Services tab
Check Hide all Microsoft services
Now, click Disable all
Click on Apply and OK.

Try launching the game, check if the error still occurs.

Alter the Power Options in Window 10

For users who do not have an effective CPU cooler, you may want to skip this step as it would increase the CPU temperature by a few degrees. Without proper cooling, it may harm your system. Here are the steps to follow.

Click on the battery icon in the System Tray and drag the button to Best Performance
Right-click on the battery icon and select Power Options
Click on the Change plan settings link
Click on Change advanced power settings
Locate Processor power management and click on the plus sign to expand
Expand Maximum processor state and set it to 99%
Click on Apply and OK to save the changes.

Delete Temporary Files from Windows

Again, this is another general step to speed up the system and ultimately fix the Cyberpunk 2077 FPS drop, stuttering, and other performance problems. Here are the steps you can follow to clear the temporary files on PC.

Open the Run dialogue box by pressing on Windows Key + R
Type %temp% in the field and hit Enter
Press Ctrl + A and hit Delete (if you cannot delete some files, let them be and close the Window)
Again, press Windows Key + R and type temp, hit Enter
When prompted provide the permission. Delete everything in this folder as well.
Again, press Windows Key + R and type prefetch, hit Enter
Press Ctrl + A to select everything and hit the Delete key (skip files that do not delete)

After you are done with the above three processes, empty the Recycle Bin.

Reduce the Graphics Settings of the Game

If none of the above solutions have resolved the Cyberpunk 2077 stutter, lag, and FPS drop, you may want to tune down the graphics settings of the game. When a game consumes too much resource that the system cannot afford, it leads to crash and performance problems. Therefore, tune down the game settings and increase everything one at a time while monitoring the performance of Cyberpunk 2077.

That’s all we have in this guide, we will update the post within a few days of game release with specific settings tweak that could improve the performance of the Cyberpunk 2077 and eliminate stutter and FPS drop.

Meanwhile, if you have more effective solutions you can share them in the comments.