Let me tell you, I’ve been in and out of Night City since that rough December 2020 launch, and for a long time it felt like the game was tripping over its own shoelaces. But with patch 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion, it’s like CD Projekt Red finally gave the city a proper tune-up. I installed Nvidia’s Game Ready driver 537.42, and wow, the change is real. This driver is basically a love letter to Cyberpunk 2077, optimizing DLSS 3.5 for both the 2.0 patch and Phantom Liberty. Even in 2026, this update still stands out to me as the point where Night City truly stretched its neon legs.

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I won’t lie, I was mostly curious about Ray Reconstruction. DLSS 3.5 brings this new Ray Reconstruction tech into Cyberpunk 2077 first, and it chews through reflections, global illumination, and lighting like a hungry machine. The result? Reflections in puddles and glass finally look crisp instead of smeary, and the lighting feels like it has a brain. In Dogtown, the newest location, the atmosphere is thicker and more readable. Jakub Knapik, CD Projekt Red’s VP of Art and Global Art Director, put it best: “thanks to DLSS 3.5’s smart technology, fueled by AI rendering power, you can experience Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty’s newest location Dogtown at its very best — with sharper images, more accurate lighting, and the highest frame rates possible.”

That quote is a bit of a mouthful, but honestly, it lands once you see the game in motion. Nvidia says that with AI-enabled Frame Generation, Ray Reconstruction, Reflex, and Super Resolution all turned on, players can get around 4.9X better performance on average compared to native 4K rendering. That’s not a small jump. It means the game can run smoother while looking sharper, which is exactly what you want when you’re dodging bullets in Dogtown’s cramped streets.

DLSS 3.5 Support: What You Need

Here’s the part that confused me at first: DLSS 3.5 works on all RTX series cards, but AI-based Frame Generation is still locked to RTX 40 series cards. So if you have an older RTX GPU, you can still enjoy Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and Deep Learning Anti-aliasing. You just won’t get the frame-gen magic. That’s a fair trade for many people.

Feature Supported GPUs
Super Resolution All RTX GPUs
Ray Reconstruction All RTX GPUs
Deep Learning Anti-aliasing All RTX GPUs
AI Frame Generation RTX 40 series only

Patch 2.0: Night City Finally Got Some Manners

Beyond DLSS 3.5, the 2.0 patch is a massive overhaul. It arrived for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and it changed the way Night City behaves. The most obvious updates include:

  • 🚔 A completely new police system

  • 🚗 Vehicle combat

  • 💻 Netrunning and combat enhancements

  • 🚦 Traffic and NPC behavior changes

  • 🔫 Weapon, loot, crafting, and vendor adjustments

  • 🛠️ Quest fixes, stability, and performance improvements

Honestly, the new police system alone makes the city feel less like a cardboard cutout. You can’t just outrun the law in a straight line anymore, and that adds tension to every chase.

My RTX 40 Card and the Performance Perk

I’m currently running a Zotac GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 Twin Edge OC, and I’ve been impressed by how well it handles Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS 3.5. It’s not the biggest card on the block, but with 12GB of GDDR6X memory and a dual-fan cooler, it keeps things surprisingly smooth at 1440p. If you’re chasing 4K, the Zotac RTX 4080 AMP Extreme AIRO or the RTX 4090 Trinity OC Edition are beefier options, but they’re also massive hunks of metal that demand a lot of space and power. For most players, something like an RTX 4070 or 4080 is plenty for a great Night City experience.

Should You Start Fresh?

CD Projekt Red recommends starting a new playthrough after installing patch 2.0 for the best experience, even though you can continue from an old save. They also recommend uninstalling any pre-2.0 mods, which makes sense because old mods can conflict with the new systems. I followed that advice and started from scratch. It gave me a cleaner look at all the new changes, and honestly, it was worth it.

Phantom Liberty, which launched on September 26, 2023, is the cherry on top. It adds Dogtown, new story content, and a more dangerous district to explore. Combined with patch 2.0 and DLSS 3.5, Cyberpunk 2077 finally feels like the game we were promised back in 2020. If you’re still holding off, 2026 is a great time to jump back in.