Run Resource Monitor on a second screen (if you have it) and see what's happening on your system. Then you can start shutting things down that aren't required to play. Start by making the shortcut to play not use the GOG loader.

Something like this (with your game drive/folders). grab a shortcut to this or change the Target in the present one
"P:\Cyberpunk 2077\bin\x64\Cyberpunk2077.exe"

Hmm I'll start trying that when the game runs weirdly to see what's going on. I also use the shortcut because, for whatever reason, Galaxy stopped letting me launch the game and GOG support says they believe it may be because I'm running it on Windows 7.

I've noticed a performance fluctuation as well, but it's not something my eye can directly perceive most of the time because it's a matter of going from 75 fps on average down to 60. The only place it's really noticeable is by the apartments, where my fps will go down to around 40-45 unless I turn off a few options that default to being on.

I suspect the game keeps random/spawned objects alive (with their attached scripts) for quite some time. Like, when you do a gig, and leave the area with some enemies alerted, and later return, those enemies are still there and looking for you.
However, if you reload, those enemies are gone. If you play for quite some times without reloading, this adds up considerably, gnawing at memory and processing power.

Do you know if your GPU is being used to its full potential? The other day, we had a heat spike in the area and games which usually run my GPU at around 70-80C were running closer to 90C, nearing the threshold for my GPU. Meanwhile, Cyberpunk didn't seem to get above 70C (and it normally doesn't rise above 60C), which makes me think the game isn't using my GPU to its full potential. That would make sense if that were the case, given what you're encountering. That's probably the case, I've noticed that it does seem to slow significantly over time. Plus, given what they talked about regarding data streaming and such, that would definitely make sense as well.

So the solution is to play on hard and die often, so you have to reload frequently ;-)

Haha I should do that on a new playthrough!

It's quite possible my gpu is under utilized. I haven't monitored it, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Yeah, if that's the issue and they fix it, the game should run relatively well. I mean, not 60 FPS or anything but I'm used to struggling through low framerates since I grew up on low-spec PCs. Right now, I'm able to run mostly everything on medium and when the game runs well, I'm getting close to 30 FPS which is 100% playable for me. Eventually, I aim to upgrade my CPU, though, as I'm sure that's bottlenecking things quite a bit too.

You'd be amazed how much even a small cpu upgrade can help a gpu out, if it's the right kind of cpu.

But you're pretty tech savvy so maybe not :) Anyway have a great day, today's my Friday and I have to start getting ready for work.

I've kind of given up on CP until it gets some more patching. It doesn't perform terribly, but every patch they release makes the game behave more bizarrely for me in some form or another.

Take care,
-Cym

Unfortunately, I can't afford the upgrade right now but it's my next major plan! I'm semi-tech savvy, I've never actually built my own PC (when I get a new one, that's the plan) but I have been using PCs since my childhood so I have a relatively broad, but also random, knowledge of PCs haha. But yeah, I'm still running an AMD FX-8320 with my GTX 980 so it's definitely the CPU and probably partially the fact that I still don't have/can't afford an SSD. I'm thinking about grabbing either a Ryzen 5 3600 or maybe a Ryzen 3 3200 if my budget won't allow for the former.

Have a good one too! I understand taking some time off from it, hopefully they're able to get back on schedule with patches and updates soon!

2077 has memory leak problems and although they claimed they have optimized memroy usage, the leak problem still exists. try to play for an hour or so and restart the game. also turn off any anti-virus or game updates while playing.

That's what I suspected at first but even after an hour or two of gameplay, it doesn't seem to be using too much RAM and the performance issues don't always arrive after long sessions.

The 3600 is rock solid and I enjoy having it a LOT. It's night and day compared to my old FX 8320. You will be amazed how much more efficiently your machine runs.

Also, building a pc is not that difficult. Just have your phone and youtube handy ;)