2019: On stage in entrance of a rapturous viewers, Keanu Reeves introduced that Cyberpunk 2077 was approaching April 16, 2020. Essentially the most anticipated PC recreation of the last decade lastly had a launch date. Its first, however not its final—this yr Cyberpunk has been delayed to September 17, then November 19, and at last only a few extra weeks to December, which is almost right here. And as painful as these delays have been, in addition they arrange an thrilling and uncommon alternative: the most important recreation of the yr was going to return out simply weeks after the launch of highly effective new graphics playing cards that might really do it justice. 4K! Ray tracing! This is able to, absolutely, be a Crysis second for a brand new period of PC gaming.
There isn’t any resolution however to attend till there are sufficient playing cards to go round, or quit and make peace with a wonderfully respectable not-quite-4K-ray-traced expertise.”
Too dangerous these new graphics playing cards are unimaginable to purchase.
Greater than two months after the discharge of the RTX 3080, inventory remains to be offered out the world over. Resellers are nonetheless charging extortionate costs on Ebay. PC players collect in Discord channels and set up browser extensions that monitor net pages for an opportunity to purchase a card when it seems, figuring out it’s going to probably promote out in seconds. The RTX 3070 is simply as onerous to seek out. AMD’s opponents, the RX 6800 XT and RX 6800, additionally offered out immediately.
There are actually extra forms of leading edge graphics card to attempt to snag, however that seemingly hasn’t eased the availability crunch. Looking for 4 sold-out new graphics playing cards as a substitute of two nonetheless looks like dividing by zero.
In a manner, Cyberpunk 2077’s delays virtually appeared like the celebs aligning. Right here was this recreation folks have been ready for for seven years, and its ultimate launch date occurred to coincide with a tremendously thrilling few months for PC {hardware}. It is uncommon for AMD and Nvidia to be releasing new {hardware} so shut collectively, or for brand spanking new graphics playing cards to supply such a leap in efficiency as these new ones. The timing was good—till the scarcity ruined that stunning symmetry.
If Cyberpunk 2077 had really launched in April, few folks would’ve been speaking about ready to play the sport on new graphics playing cards; we nonetheless did not know when these could be popping out. However the delays primed us to get excited for an enormous second and yearn for the maxed out expertise that’s frustratingly not unobtainable. An enormous a part of PC gaming is that drive to achieve the leading edge, getting a little bit extra efficiency by overclocking or barely shinier graphics by selecting simply the proper settings. It is why we construct ridiculous computer systems like The Large Pixel Collider.
The scarcity has compelled many PC players into selecting between that leading edge expertise and taking part in Cyberpunk 2077 on their present {hardware} at launch. For instance: “My largest concern proper now will not be having an rtx 3080 or rx 6800xt earlier than cyberpunk launch. I’m freaking out!” writes one fan on the subreddit. “I simply cant convey myself to play it earlier than having a brand new graphics card. Does anybody else really feel this fashion?”
Realistically, should you’re not making an attempt to go all-out with 4K and ray tracing, Cyberpunk 2077 will run positive on extra modest {hardware}. And even when inventory was plentiful, the $700 worth of the RTX 3080 is much an excessive amount of for a lot of PC players. Essentially the most-used card on the Steam {hardware} survey is the GTX 1060, which launched for $250 in 2016. The coronavirus pandemic has been onerous on hundreds of thousands of individuals’s funds. Excessive-end PC gaming is completely a luxurious. However for hundreds of thousands of PC players, that is what an enormous second like that is all about—being completely immersed within the pleasure of taking part in a model new recreation on the absolute best {hardware}.
For many who lastly get a brand new graphics a number of months from now, the little thrill of taking part in video games on it and watching the framerate numbers go up will nonetheless be there. However the dialog round Cyberpunk 2077 itself can have trailed off; it will not be the identical buzz of tweets and discussion board posts and Discord chats that can dominate December. Simply by being on-line, we’ll all take in bits of information concerning the recreation and see issues we would have found by ourselves. Ready to play Cyberpunk will not damage the sport, similar to taking part in it proper now on an older graphics card will not damage it, both. Nevertheless it will not be fairly the identical as doing each on day one.
I do not suppose AMD and Nvidia are in charge right here—2020 has been as onerous on manufacturing because it has every little thing else. There isn’t any resolution however to attend till there are sufficient playing cards to go round, or quit and make peace with a wonderfully respectable not-quite-4K-ray-traced expertise. The fortunate few who managed to get their arms on a brand new GPU this fall can have that have.
However should you’re disillusioned that Cyberpunk’s launch may have been that good conflux of {hardware} and software program for a lot extra PC players—or should you’re nonetheless desperately looking for a card or making an attempt to resolve whether or not to play it now or wait till subsequent yr, you are positively not alone.