A new switching technique called ‘virtual cut-through’ has been recently proposed for computer communication networks. The paper presents the analysis of ‘virtual cut-through’ for multipacket messages. Also introduced is a modified virtual cut-through switching technique that allows partial cuts. The performance analysis of partial cuts is presented. Partial cuts have been shown to be more advantageous from the practical point of view. It has been observed, from the analytical results in the paper, that the use of partial cuts gives an assisting hand to boost the performance of a network exactly when it is badly needed, i.e. when the value of line utilisation lies between 0.4 and 0.8. Various performance curves that provide deep insight and better understanding of the behaviour of this switching technique are also given.