This Cyberpunk 2077 DLSS FSR XeSS Guide explains which upscaler to use for each GPU brand and the exact sharpness setting that eliminates Night City haloing artifacts. Cyberpunk 2077 was designed from the ground up with AI upscaling in mind. The game’s most demanding visual modes — Ray Tracing and Path Tracing — are practically unusable at native resolution on any consumer GPU. CD Projekt Red built DLSS, FSR, and XeSS support into the core rendering pipeline specifically to make these modes viable. Understanding how to choose and configure the right upscaler is no longer optional optimization — it is how the game is meant to be played at higher settings.
📋 Table of Contents
TL;DR: Use DLSS if you have an NVIDIA RTX card — it delivers the best image quality and supports Frame Generation on RTX 40 series. Use FSR if you have an AMD GPU. Use XeSS if you have Intel Arc. For sharpness, reduce the default from 0.80 to 0.65 regardless of which upscaler you use — the default causes haloing artifacts in Night City.
Quick wins if you are in a hurry
- Enable your GPU’s upscaler in Settings → Graphics → Resolution Scaling. Choose DLSS for NVIDIA RTX, FSR for AMD, XeSS for Intel Arc.
- Set upscaler mode to Quality. This balances image clarity and FPS gain and is the standard competitive recommendation.
- Reduce sharpness from the default 0.80 to 0.65. The default causes haloing artifacts on chain-link fences, neon signs, and hair — reducing sharpness eliminates this without meaningfully softening the image.
- Enable Frame Generation if you have an RTX 40 series card and your base FPS is above 60. It doubles apparent frame rate for a smoother Night City experience.
Which upscaler to use by GPU
| GPU | Best upscaler | Frame Generation | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA RTX 30 series | DLSS 3.5 | No | Best image quality, AI-based upscaling with dedicated Tensor cores |
| NVIDIA RTX 40 series | DLSS 4 | Yes | Best available upscaler plus Frame Gen doubles apparent FPS |
| AMD RX 6000/7000 series | FSR 2 or FSR 4 | FSR 4 only on RX 9000 | FSR 4 on RX 9000 series matches DLSS 4 quality closely |
| Intel Arc | XeSS | No | XeSS uses Intel XMX hardware and outperforms FSR on Arc GPUs |
| NVIDIA GTX / older | FSR 2 | No | DLSS requires RTX; FSR works on all GPUs including GTX |
DLSS in Cyberpunk 2077
DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) uses NVIDIA’s dedicated Tensor cores to reconstruct frames from a lower internal resolution using a neural network trained specifically for this task. In Cyberpunk 2077, DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation is available on RTX 40 series, meaning the GPU can generate multiple synthetic frames between each real frame for a significant apparent FPS increase.
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Mode comparison in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p on RTX 4070:
- DLSS Quality: renders at approximately 960p internally, upscales to 1440p. Image is nearly indistinguishable from native in motion. Adds approximately 35 to 45 percent FPS.
- DLSS Balanced: renders at approximately 855p internally. Adds approximately 45 to 55 percent FPS with slightly more visible softness on fine detail.
- DLSS Performance: renders at approximately 720p. Adds 70 to 90 percent FPS but produces noticeable softness in detailed environments. Only recommended at 4K where the higher output resolution compensates.
For most 1080p and 1440p play, DLSS Quality is the correct choice. At 4K, DLSS Performance or Balanced brings the GPU workload to a manageable level while the high output resolution maintains acceptable clarity.
FSR 2 in Cyberpunk 2077
FSR 2 (FidelityFX Super Resolution 2) is AMD’s temporal upscaling solution. Unlike FSR 1, which was a simple spatial upscaler, FSR 2 uses motion vectors and temporal accumulation — similar to DLSS but without dedicated AI hardware. It runs on all GPUs including NVIDIA and Intel, making it the universal option for non-RTX hardware.
FSR 2 Quality mode in Cyberpunk provides 25 to 40 percent FPS gain with image quality that is noticeably softer than DLSS Quality on equivalent hardware. The difference is most visible on fine geometric details — neon sign wire frames, vehicle panels, and hair. In motion, the gap reduces significantly.
FSR 4, available on RX 9000 series cards, uses machine learning acceleration and produces results that PC Gamer testing found genuinely competitive with DLSS 4 Quality for the first time in the technology’s history. If you have an RX 9000 series, use FSR 4.
XeSS in Cyberpunk 2077
XeSS (Xe Super Sampling) is Intel’s upscaling solution, using dedicated XMX matrix acceleration hardware on Intel Arc GPUs for AI-based reconstruction. On Intel Arc, XeSS outperforms FSR 2 noticeably in fine detail retention.
XeSS also runs on non-Intel GPUs in a fallback mode using shader-based reconstruction. On NVIDIA GPUs, XeSS in fallback mode typically performs similarly to or slightly below FSR 2 in quality. It is not the preferred option on NVIDIA or AMD hardware — use DLSS or FSR respectively on those platforms.
PC Gamer testing found XeSS Quality mode on Intel Arc produced results close to DLSS in certain Cyberpunk 2077 scenarios, particularly on neon-heavy Night City backgrounds where the XMX acceleration handles high-frequency reconstruction more cleanly than FSR’s shader-based approach.
Sharpness setting: why to change it
All three upscalers in Cyberpunk include a sharpness control with a default of 0.80. This default aggressively sharpens the reconstructed image to compensate for upscaling softness. The side effect: haloing artifacts on fine geometry. Chain-link fences, neon sign edges, and hair strands show a bright halo outline at sharpness 0.80 that creates a subtle artificial look during movement transitions.
Reducing sharpness to 0.65 eliminates haloing at the cost of slight overall image softness. In practice, the 0.65 result looks more natural in motion than 0.80 with its haloing. Cyberpunk’s neon aesthetic and dense environmental detail mask the softness better than other art styles would. I tested 0.65 vs 0.80 across ten minutes in Japantown and the 0.65 setting felt noticeably cleaner on metal surfaces and signs without looking unsharp on character models or buildings.
Frame Generation for RTX 40 series
DLSS Frame Generation inserts AI-synthesized frames between real rendered frames to increase the apparent frame rate. On an RTX 4070 in Cyberpunk at 1440p High settings with DLSS Quality, a base frame rate of 75 FPS becomes approximately 135 to 150 FPS apparent with Frame Generation. The synthesized frames produce some perceptible motion artifact on very fast camera movement but are largely transparent during normal play.
Requirements: base FPS must be above 60 real frames before Frame Generation is applied. Below this threshold, synthesized frames are visibly inconsistent. At 60+ base FPS, Frame Generation in Cyberpunk feels smooth and significantly more responsive than the base frame rate would suggest.
Common issues and fixes
Issue: DLSS enabled but image has shimmering or pixel flickering.
Fix: Reduce sharpness from 0.80 to 0.65 first. If flickering persists, switch from DLSS Quality to DLSS Balanced — the higher internal resolution reduces reconstruction errors. Also update GPU drivers.
Issue: FSR looks noticeably worse than DLSS screenshots I’ve seen online.
Fix: FSR 2 is objectively lower quality than DLSS on the same GPU because it lacks the dedicated AI hardware. The gap is most visible on fine detail and in side-by-side comparison. In active play at night in Night City, the gap is smaller than in still screenshots. If image quality is the priority and you have an RTX card, DLSS is the correct choice.
Issue: Frame Generation is on but mouse input feels delayed.
Fix: Frame Generation adds slight perceived input latency because the displayed frames include synthesized frames that do not correspond to your actual input state. Enable NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency in Cyberpunk settings alongside Frame Generation to compensate. NVIDIA Reflex On + Boost recovers most of the input latency cost of Frame Generation.
Frequently asked questions
Does using upscaling make Cyberpunk look bad?
At Quality mode, no. DLSS Quality at 1440p is nearly indistinguishable from native resolution in motion. FSR Quality is noticeably softer but still visually pleasing, particularly in Night City’s neon-lit environments where fine detail is less critical than ambient color and lighting. The visual tradeoff is worth the FPS gain on anything below an RTX 4090.
Can I use DLSS on an AMD GPU?
No. DLSS requires NVIDIA Tensor cores and only works on RTX 20 series and newer. On AMD GPUs, use FSR 2 or FSR 4 instead. FSR works on all GPU vendors.
Is DLSS Frame Generation worth enabling in Cyberpunk?
Yes, if your base FPS is above 60 with DLSS Quality enabled before Frame Generation. The apparent frame rate approximately doubles, making Cyberpunk with Ray Tracing enabled feel as smooth as the same game without RT. Enable NVIDIA Reflex alongside it to keep input latency acceptable.
Quick Cyberpunk 2077 DLSS FSR XeSS Checklist
- Upscaler selected: DLSS (RTX) / FSR 2 or 4 (AMD) / XeSS (Intel Arc)
- Mode set to Quality for 1080p and 1440p
- Sharpness reduced from 0.80 to 0.65
- Frame Generation enabled if RTX 40 series and base FPS above 60
- NVIDIA Reflex enabled alongside Frame Generation
- GPU drivers updated for current game version
Upscaling in Cyberpunk 2077 is not a compromise — it is the designed delivery method for the game’s highest visual modes. Configuring it correctly is the single most impactful change you can make for both performance and visual quality simultaneously. For a full overview of how all settings fit together across hardware tiers, our Cyberpunk 2077 best settings guide provides the complete picture. And if you’re deciding which hardware to buy to run Cyberpunk at your target resolution, our Cyberpunk PC specs guide covers VRAM requirements and GPU tiers with upscaling factored in.
PC Gamer’s Cyberpunk 2077 settings guide includes upscaler comparison screenshots. Tom’s Hardware provides DLSS vs FSR benchmark data with frame time analysis at equivalent quality modes.
Tested by Anir | FPSFlow.com
Hardware: RTX 4070 + Ryzen 7 5800X, 32 GB DDR4 3600MHz, NVMe SSD
Last updated: July 2026
Method: DLSS mode comparison tested at 1440p in Japantown with MSI Afterburner. Sharpness impact documented at 0.65, 0.75, and 0.80 with CapFrameX for frame consistency. FSR results based on published community benchmarks from RX 6700 XT and RX 7800 XT configurations.
