Is your graphics card overheating? Is your CPU cooler worn out? Is the case not ventilating correctly? It’s worth fixing these problems before you get started with Cyberpunk 2077’s first and only add-on.

The longer you keep your PC under heavy load, the hotter it gets (and it is doubly true if you’ve been running the same configuration for nine years), so there’s a risk of wear and tear and dust. In this regard, Cyberpunk 2077’s lead scene programmer, Filip Pierściński, essentially wrote on Twitter to check how stable and well-cooled your system is: “Before the release of Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 and Phantom Liberty, I ask you to check the state of the cooling systems in your computer. We’re using everything you have, so you can expect an eight-core processor to be at 90% utilization. To save you time, please run Cinebench or something similar to check the stability of your system.”

Cinebench tests your PC’s hardware capabilities (and you can also score the computing power of your processor) so you can see how stable your PC is under heavy load. If it runs without any problems, you won’t have any complaints. However, Pierściński’s comment may have been misunderstood by some (fearing that the return to Night City would not run well), so he took to the keyboard again to clarify what he meant: “I intended to raise awareness of the need to maintain and regularly check cooling systems. Neither Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 nor Phantom Liberty will melt down PCs. The game will perform well on the recommended configurations.”

In a reply, he even wrote that Phantom Liberty will not stretch your machine like Cinebench. Still, it may overheat your config during gameplay, which will reduce CPU and/or GPU performance due to thermal throttling, and in the worst cases, the game may even crash. With increased machine requirements (Intel Core i5-3570K/AMD FX-8310 -> Intel Core i7-6700/AMD Ryzen 5 1600; Nvidia GeForce GTX 780/AMD Radeon RX 470 -> Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060/AMD Radeon RX 580, 8 -> 12 GB of RAM, and HDD support has been removed on paper), it’s understandable that he’s concerned.

However, a lot has changed in the PC market in three years (roughly the time between the base game’s release and the expansion).

Source: PCGamer