Cities: Skylines II performance beta: join, roll back and compare safely
Quick answer
The Steam performance-test beta requires a full game redownload. Back up your city before switching. The developer expects rendering gains; Kingy has not measured whether the download is worth it on your hardware.
The October 28 announcement makes this a Steam-only beta. In Steam’s game version/beta selection, choose performance-test. To leave, return to the same menu and choose Default Public Version. The virtual-texturing changes require a full game redownload.
The developer says saves work between the beta and live version. Keep an untouched backup anyway, and compare using a separate copy. This is a precaution; Kingy has not tested save compatibility or rollback.
The announced work includes building LODs, upscalers, UI and road textures. An expected rendering improvement is not a measured simulation-speed gain. No Kingy benchmark results are available.
Record hardware, game build, city population, mods and graphics/upscaler settings.
Use the same backed-up city, camera position, weather/time and settings on both branches.
Measure FPS and frame pacing over the same interval. Separately record how much in-game time advances at the same simulation setting.
Report both results and any changed settings; do not turn one smooth camera view into a claim about city simulation.
Sources · 1Official · checked 28 Oct 2026 · Research checked 28 Oct 2026
Open Beta for Performance ↗Steam performance-test branch, full redownload, Default Public Version rollback and developer save-compatibility claim. No Kingy benchmark or save test.Official ·
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