Digital Foundry has released its technical review of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on the Switch 2, evaluating both the main story and the Phantom Liberty expansion on Nintendo’s new console.
The inclusion of the Phantom Liberty expansion on Switch 2 is notable, as developer CD Projekt Red previously skipped PS4 and Xbox One versions due to hardware limitations, favoring current-gen systems. While the Switch 2 manages to run the expansion, this is where the hardware experiences the most strain.
Visual Modes and Resolution: The game offers four visual settings: 30fps quality and 40fps performance, each available in docked and handheld modes. Resolutions vary as follows:
- Handheld Performance: 640×360 upscaled to 1280×720
- Handheld Quality: 800×450 upscaled to 1440×810
- Docked Performance: 960×540 upscaled to 1920×1080
- Docked Quality: 1280×720 upscaled to 1920×1080
DLSS technology is utilized, improving image clarity, though fast-paced action can introduce blurriness and temporal noise. Visual quality between docked and handheld modes shows minimal difference aside from resolution changes.
Compared to other consoles, Switch 2 matches PS5 in texture quality, exceeding Xbox Series X and PS4. Many textures remain consistent across platforms, but where variations exist, Switch 2 performs well. DLSS contributes to clearer images compared to PS4.
However, Switch 2’s pedestrian and vehicle density is closer to PS4, resulting in quieter streets in Night City. This reduction helps maintain stable frame rates. Indoor shadows on Switch 2 surpass those on PS4, while outdoor shadows are slightly weaker.
Performance: The Switch 2 sustains a 30fps target in quality mode during the main story. In the Phantom Liberty expansion, complex environments cause frame rates to drop between 20 and 25fps.
In the 40fps performance mode, indoor areas generally maintain smoother frame rates near 40fps. Outdoor scenes and busy combat cause drops to 30fps or below.
Handheld performance appears similar to docked, though Digital Foundry could not fully test this mode. Variable refresh rate (VRR) likely makes handheld play the smoothest experience, but frame rate drops below 30fps become more noticeable.