IO Interactive has released patch 1.2.2 for 007 First Light and openly acknowledged that players have been complaining about performance since the path tracing update. The patch fixes drops to 5-10 fps on the RTX 5070, speeds up heavy scenes on high-end cards and adds a recommended settings button. The studio also spelled out which path tracing mode and which resolution to use on each card.
The settings the studio recommends
| Graphics card | Path tracing | Resolution | What to expect |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 5070 | Medium | 1080p | around 60 fps, consistently above with 2X frame generation |
| RTX 5080 | Medium | 1440p | around 60 fps, consistently above with 2X frame generation |
| RTX 5090 | High | up to 4K | 200+ fps with 6X frame generation |
The order is: update the game and driver, go to Options, Graphics and restore defaults, pick the path tracing mode from the table, set DLSS upscaling to Auto and turn on frame generation from 2X to 6X. Dynamic frame generation is also an option, adjusting the multiplier on its own to keep frame rates steady. The figures in the table come from the studio itself and vary by mission and checkpoint.
IO Interactive also explains the difference between the modes. High computes more light bounces and gives more detailed reflections and shadows, but it is very expensive, so the studio recommends Medium for anyone not on an RTX 5090.
What the patch fixes
- Drops to 5-10 fps on the RTX 5070 in chapter 6, when Bond enters the gala and looks towards the crowd, and in chapter 8 during a camera zoom in the "Smoking Gun" cutscene.
- Performance on high-end cards in chapter 3: the opening drive, the hotel and the car chase.
- Heavy stuttering when starting online Escalations with path tracing on.
- More than twenty lighting bugs: light leaking through walls, shadows popping in and out, overly bright reflections showing areas outside the level, and patterns on Bond's white tuxedo.
This is the second hotfix in a week: version 1.2.1 on 17 September dealt with GPU hangs and crashes in the same chapters. The studio says it will keep working on path tracing together with NVIDIA.
What it means if you have a different card
Path tracing in 007 First Light is still aimed at RTX 50 cards only: the lowest card in the recommendations is the RTX 5070, and only at 1080p. Everything else runs the game with standard lighting. For Radeon RX 7000 and 9000 cards, the path tracing update added FSR 4.1 upscaling, while other cards fall back to FSR 3.1. What path tracing looks like in this game and what it demands was covered when the update landed.
Sources
IO Interactive: Game Update 1.2.2 and Game Update 1.2.1, Steam news, 25.09.2026 and 17.09.2026. Screenshots from the official Steam gallery.
