With the launch of theNintendo Switch 2, you can playCyberpunk 2077on the handheld console, exploring Night City in a dystopian sci-fi world to your heart’s desire. This expansive AAA RPG has a massive open-world, but theSwitch 2has ported the game over well, keeping the expansive title’s depth with few performance issues. However, going to one area inCyberpunk 2077has given players unexpected problems.
In the past, games with large worlds likeCyberpunk 2077were ported to Nintendo’s handheld console with lots of problems, including severe frame drops and extremely low graphic settings. With theSwitch 2,Cyberpunk 2077runs smoothly at 30 FPS most of the time, with only occasional stutteringrather than frequent disruptions.Cyberpunk 2077also looks incredibleon theSwitch 2, featuring a much higher resolution as you play.
Dogtown Is The One Area The Switch 2 Can’t Handle
The Expansion Location Causes Some Performance Issues
However, despite theCyberpunk 2077port running well in most areas of the game, theDogtown district is where performance takes a serious hit. Dogtown was introduced in the 2.0 update forCyberpunk 2077, which gave the game a free expansion into a new region of Night City. Dogtown is a huge location, almost as big as other sections of the open world, but filled with more content packed into its space.
Dogtown hosts new storyline quests, side missions, vendors, characters, and more, creating an almost miniature open world within the larger one of the connected city. This could be why it has a hard time running on theSwitch 2, which sees increased hits to performance whenever players enter the area.Dogtown causes far more frame drops and crashes than the rest of Night City, making it difficult to explore.
Performance issues in Dogtown do not usually extend to scripted moments, such as cutscenes or other story moments. The open world area of Dogtown seems to cause issues, not when you go to confined places in the region where the game has to handle less information.
It is unclear why Dogtown is the source of major performance issues, but they seem to extend to many aspects ofCyberpunk 2077’s gameplay on theSwitch 2. Shadows are shaky, frame drops often happen, and graphic quality seems to diminish the moment players set foot in this region. Since Dogtown holds some of the game’s most interesting missions, it’s a shame that it has the most problems.
Frame Drops & Game Crashes Make Cyberpunk 2077’s Most Interesting Location Hard To Experience
Dogtown Has Its Own Ecosystem Separate From Night City That’s Worth Exploring
What makes the performance issues tragic is thatDogtown is one of the most interesting locations inCyberpunk 2077. Dogtown is a walled-off section within Night City where the NCPD doesn’t operate, creating an almost anarchic land where those on the run go to carve out a name for themselves. This microcosm of the already oppressive larger city has tons of available content, making it a region you’ll want to visit on every playthrough.
That being said,the abundance of content in such a smaller space compared to the larger open-world map may be the cause of theSwitch 2’s performance struggles. The number of quests, items, enemies, or important locations and districts in Dogtown could all be collectively responsible for sudden crashes. Even though theSwitch 2is a considerable upgradeto the originalSwitch,Cyberpunk 2077is simply too big to run without any problems.
Theframe drops make the location difficult to explore freely, with particularly dense areas of Dogtown sometimes causingCyberpunk 2077to break entirely. This rarely happens in Night City, likely due to how more objects, shading, and other visual properties are spaced further apart. Driving is where the most issues occur, as you are loading far more visual content in Dogtown on a short drive due to the close density of everything in the area.
How To Increase Switch 2 Performance In Dogtown
Small Fixes Can Help Prevent Frequent Issues
Despite the issues that Dogtown creates, you are still able to experience some of the content it offers. While theDogtown area inCyberpunk 2077features less lighting and density on theSwitch 2by default,there are some tricks you can use to make performance issues happen less.
Here are some strategies you can try with yourSwitch 2to reduce performance issues in Dogtown while playingCyberpunk 2077:
Handheld mode is where players have noticed the most issues in Dogtown, so you may have to sacrifice some visual quality to support the amount of content in the area. Going into yourSwitch 2settings and changing its Display Mode to"Performance"will try to push higher frame rates. This will hopefully counteract the drops experienced in Dogtown, balancing it out into an experience you can enjoy with fewer struggles.
Alternatively, you can try to change to"Quality"display mode while your console is docked, optimizing your resolution without trying to push higher frame rates. When docked, theSwitch 2tries to push for 4k resolution and 60 FPS in this mode, so it might create a stable environment while you’re in Dogtown.
Do not attempt to go through Dogtown in"Quality"Display mode while using yourSwitch 2in its Handheld state. This tries to push a higher resolution already strained by the density of Dogtown’s content, leading to more performance problems and possible crashes.
Depending on whether you prefer to play games Docked or Handheld, you may have to switch between settings to maintain a stable visual performance while in Dogtown. Thankfully, these changes should help make the rest of Night City run even better inCyberpunk 2077on theNintendo Switch 2, reducing even any problems you may have had while exploring the base game.
