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Cyberpunk 2077 was undoubtedly one of the biggest and most-hyped E3 2018 games. And man if it didn't look the part, stunning us with its lush visuals and detailed sci-fi world. In case you were fearing it's all just a tad too good to be true, don't be; developer CD Projekt Red has released the specs of the PC running the Cyberpunk 2077 demo and they're... pretty reasonable, actually.
A quick clarification before we continue: the demo in question was behind closed doors, and is different from the trailer we saw on-stage during the Xbox E3 2018 press conference (though that too was rendered in-engine). So, what does it take to run Cyberpunk 2077 at that level of visual fidelity? According to the people making it:
An Intel Core i7 8700K at 3.70GHz CPU, Asus ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming model motherboard, 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 RAM with a speed of 3,000MHz, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080Ti graphics card, and a Samsung 960 Pro 512GB SSD, all powered by a Corsair SF600W power supply.
Even if you didn't understand a word of that, here's the cool bit: these are all parts you can run out and buy right now if you so desire. This means the game likely won't rely on future technology and, by the time it's been optimized and given a few sliders to tweak, should run fine on most modern hardware and consoles. In other words, you shouldn't need to start a new savings account now just so you can afford a machine capable of playing this thing.
But if you did want to spend that kind of money and run Cyberpunk 2077 on exactly the same specs, what would that cost? I plugged the components (plus a CPU cooler, case, and operating system) into the always helpful PC Part Picker for an estimate, and came up with the following:
CPU: Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core Processor ($349.89 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus - ROG Strix Z370-I Gaming Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($177.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($415.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung - 960 PRO 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($297.27 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB FTW3 GAMING iCX Video Card ($859.69 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair - 760T Black ATX Full Tower Case ($169.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair - SF 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply ($114.89 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus - DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.19 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($95.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $2519.77
Okay, $2,500 (give or take, not every part was a perfect match) might seem pretty steep compared to a PS4 or Xbox One, but remember that A, this is unfinished - and therefore not fully optimized - software, B, this is specifically to match a PC version of a game running at 4K resolution, 30fps, and C, those parts will definitely be cheaper by the time Cyberpunk 2077 comes out.
As for when that will be, well... who knows, maybe you'll have the money saved up by then.
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