This Cyberpunk 2077 tweak could really help PC performance
Or it could do nothing
Frankly, if your complaint with Cyberpunk 2077's performance is that your beefy PC doesn't run it as well as you hoped, my shonky PC's 30fps and I have little sympathy for you. Git. But if this is you, perhaps you might fancy fiddling with hidden memory settings one player found. Some people got huge boosts from this! For others, it did nothing. Worth a try?
Cyberpunker "ThePhoenixRoyal" posted on Reddit that they thought their reasonably-snazzy PC was running the game mysteriously poorly, perhaps not being used to its full potential, so they went poking around the game's config files. There, they noted it seemed that certain memory settings were set to what they believe are the same as on Xbox and PlayStation. With their PC being so much fancier, they bumped the numbers a bit. The end result, they say, is that the game now runs and loads much faster, even with the graphics settings bumped much higher. Some folks who tried this also reported impressive numbers - a few 50% boosts.
Now, I would be careful about over-reading into analysis of this. This is what one person thought they found, and what they thought it meant. But whatever the cause, the results for numerous people in that thread sound solid. However, others are reporting that the tweaks did nothing at all for them. It's not a clear-cut issue or a universal fix.
ThePhoenixRoyal warns that fiddling could cause crashes, too. It's definitely for advanced users who are familiar with poking in config files and aren't afraid of having to fix things if it goes wrong. But if you've got a hot datadeck yet poor performance, you might wanna give this a go. Carefully. With few expectations. You might be surprised?
As for what to actually do with memory_pool_budgets.csv and where to find it, someone shunted the info into a simple guide.
CD Projekt Red said today they'll be giving the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 "regular updates and fixes improving the game". I would be surprised if performance is not on their list of issues. As someone with a cheap 'n' cheerful older PC, ineligible for any of this trickery, that's what I'm banking on.