An expert tests whether one can still play Cyberpunk 2077 with an old graphics card. And he is disappointed. Even with features like AMD’s FSR, not much can be done if the graphics card is simply too old.
GCS Hardware, a hardware-focused channel on YouTube, tested whether it is still possible to play on a very old graphics card. He chose Counter-Strike 2, GTA V, Cyberpunk 2077, and Doom 2016 for his test and tested the games on a GTX 660.
The GTX 660 was released on September 12, 2012, and was considered an affordable and fast graphics card for Full HD gaming for under 300 Euros.
However, in the end, he was mainly disappointed with Cyberpunk. Because AMD’s “wonder technology,” FSR, cannot save a 13-year-old graphics card anymore.
With a 13-Year-Old Graphics Card and FSR Against Cyberpunk 2077
What is FSR anyway? FSR is a so-called upscaling technology from AMD and is the counterpart to Nvidia’s DLSS. The principle behind it is: A game is rendered in low resolution, such as Full HD, and then scaled up to a higher resolution, such as 4K. This allows games to run smoother, as the graphics card doesn’t have to calculate as many pixels.
While Nvidia relies on a closed system with DLSS, supporting only in-house and somewhat recent graphics cards (RTX 2000 series and above), AMD took a more open approach with the first two versions of FSR: FSR 1 and 2.1 also supported graphics cards from Nvidia and Intel.
How the tests went: The YouTuber tried to use FSR to increase performance but found that FSR did not bring any additional FPS improvements:
- Cyberpunk 2077 performed the worst with only 10 FPS or 15 FPS at the lowest possible settings at native 1080P.
- The performance mode FSR 2.1 could boost performance into the low 20s.
- The game eventually crashed with FSR, ending with a black screen. XeSS and FSR 3.1 were practically unsupported
What does the test show? Upscaling technologies are always considered “wonder technology” to squeeze more FPS out of older graphics cards. However, the test by the YouTuber clearly shows that there are very pronounced technical limits:
The attempt to use FSR upscaling in Cyberpunk 2077 and CS:2 shows that the GTX 660 is simply too old to effectively execute modern upscaling technologies. This is due to technical features that the old graphics card can no longer support.
Many users looking to buy a graphics card are currently leaning towards Nvidia. Because here, you get more features. But this could change now, as AMD is making a huge leap forward in software: Nvidia graphics cards could soon lose their main selling point compared to AMD.
