Support NeoGAF

[Hawk269]

the readme in the Witcher 2 folder explains a lot of this stuff for anyone wondering. I'm still not sure what to do about "Texture Memory Size"

heres the description from the readme

" -Texture memory size: sets the amount of graphics card memory allocated to textures. Larger values will decrease the amount of streaming that occurs in game and will make the game run more smoothly, but they can also cause the graphics card to run out of memory and even result in game crashes. Choose a reasonable value based on the amount of memory available on your graphics card."

I noticed someone with a similar card to me (5850 1g) had it set to high or very high. I left mine at medium because thats what it was set to for the recommended settings when I clicked that (yes I know it sets the presets to low the first time you do this but all you have to do is click it again)

I guess I should play around with that setting a bit more but I was wondering what other people have experienced with it so far. I don't want my game to be crashing because I set it to high.

The crash will only happen if the game is tryig to chew up more video ram that what your card has, so depending on your GPU and it's memory size will determine if you should have this set higher or lower. Like the Read Me file says, it will improve performance if you have the memory available. On my GPU which as 1.5gb, the game has not used more than 1gb so far and that is with setting that Texture Memory to it's highest setting.

You can use Afterburner and have it running, play the game for a bit and then "alt-tab" to the desktop and look at the graph to see how much memory is being used. Basically, if you can affort the video ram to set it higher, tehn go for it to further improve.

 

[RedSwirl]

This game suggested Ultra settings for my system. Too bad I'm gonna have to do a complete reinstall since GOG defaulted to the C drive again.

 

[metareferential]

Those nvidia beta drivers "benchmarks" look good.

Maybe it is worth a try.

 

[Truant]

I just tried loading a game with low settings, and guess what? 25-30 fps.

The only setting having a real impact is ubersampling. Everything else, including resolution or 3d vision, gives me 25-30. Lol.

Exactly the same.

Tried a complete reinstall of the drivers. Uninstalled, booted in safemode, ran driver cleaner, manually went through the registry, manually deleted leftover .dlls and then installed the new drivers.

Same result.

 

[mileS]

The crash will only happen if the game is tryig to chew up more video ram that what your card has, so depending on your GPU and it's memory size will determine if you should have this set higher or lower. Like the Read Me file says, it will improve performance if you have the memory available. On my GPU which as 1.5gb, the game has not used more than 1gb so far and that is with setting that Texture Memory to it's highest setting.

You can use Afterburner and have it running, play the game for a bit and then "alt-tab" to the desktop and look at the graph to see how much memory is being used. Basically, if you can affort the video ram to set it higher, tehn go for it to further improve.

I don't have afterburner but I'll go download it now. Thanks for this post.

 

[Kyaw]

Played the Prologue with Ultra with no SSAO and Uber sampling. Got low frames!

around 30 in combat, 40-60 in cutscenes. The bit just before the monastery courtyard was like 25 or lower.

AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.6ghz
Nvidia GTX480 1.5gb
4gb RAM

I'm downloading the latest nvidia drivers to see if there are any improvements.
Disabling DOF too.

I gotta say, this game is one hell of a good looking game.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Some might see it as unacceptable but to even get this to run at a steady 40-60 is a good thing for now. Unless you have CF/SLI or the newest cards, this is as good as you should expect it to run at 1080p. I'm not eager to burn 6-700 on a 6990 either. When I make the jump it's going to be in a more powerful card that is not going to break the bank.

The only issues I'm having are freezing. Like the image will freeze and my computer will completely freeze for like 1 or 2 minutes. I looked it up but I haven't found what could be causing it. It freezes a little less since enabling my CPU OC but it still does it. I do have a white flag in W7 saying I have an ATI driver issue so I don't know :/

 

[metareferential]

Exactly the same.

Tried a complete reinstall of the drivers. Uninstalled, booted in safemode, ran driver cleaner, manually went through the registry, manually deleted leftover .dlls and then installed the new drivers.

Same result.

Look at this: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=344509&page=2

They say the new beta drivers drastically improve performances. Have you tried them? I'm downloading right now.

@kyaw: latest drivers did nothing for me. We have the same rig, only difference being I have an i5 750.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

nvidia new beta suppose to increase the performance for witcher 2
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=344509

From 12 to 60 fps? wat

 

[KKRT00]

The friend didn't specify what settings he ran under, could be low settings.

Damn, forgot to write.
It was medium without AA.

 

[Sanjay]

May help some people:-

http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=3986118&postcount=116

"A Known BUG in 270.61, if you have the 3D vision driver installed Witcher 2 will run at 7 to 10 FPS on ALL settings, tested this myself. Uninstall 3D Vision and it will work fine"

 

[Kyaw]

Look at this: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=344509&page=2

They say the new beta drivers drastically improve performances. Have you tried them? I'm downloading right now.

@kyaw: latest drivers did nothing for me. We have the same rig, only difference being I have an i5 750.

Report back if the beta drivers are better please.
Also Vista beta drivers work for Win7?

 

[Alexios]

Is there a way to limit fps to 60 max without actual vsync on? Like fps_max 60 on Source engine? Vsync seems to have a performance hit but I also don't want the game to render menus at like 2000 fps and also overwork and go over 60 in dungeons and other indoor spaces. I got a decent settings config that gives me 30-40 fps in this town now but only with vsync off, it gets a noticable hit with it on.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

So, SLI doesn't work, right? Has anyone tested this config: http://h-7.abload.de/img/witcher2sli2u57.jpg

Not my pic.

 

[JWong]

Looks like I gotta get me some new drivers.

 

[Truant]

So, SLI doesn't work, right? Has anyone tested this config: http://h-7.abload.de/img/witcher2sli2u57.jpg

Not my pic.

It works on some setups, it seems. The issue for most people is that the game treats your SLI setup as a single GPU, so it just spreads that load evenly over the two GPUs, instead of pushing them both to the max as it should.

 

[Kyaw]

Has anyone tried out the nvidia beta drivers yet?

 

[Truant]

Yes. They work wonders for some, have no effect on others. I've read on other forums that they've even lowered performance on SLI systems.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Looks like I gotta get me some new drivers.

For Nvidia owners, it looks like uninstalling 3D Vision is what is causing the performance boost.

 

[Truant]

That only works for some users. Several people on the GOG boards, including myself, did not notice any performance changes from uninstalling the 3D drivers.

 

[gillty]

Encountered a game breaking bug right off the bat, have tried various settings and catalyst drivers and am at a loss. Permanent fog filter.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

lol yikes.

What's the best driver cleaning prog?

 

[Alexios]

Encountered a game breaking bug right off the bat, have tried various settings and catalyst drivers and am at a loss. Permanent fog filter.

Have u forced AA with programs outside the game (catalyst)?

Edit: nm you said you tried diff versions...

 

[JWong]

For Nvidia owners, it looks like uninstalling 3D Vision is what is causing the performance boost.

I don't have 3D... but it might be installed.

Anyways, at work, so I didn't even try it yet.

 

[timetokill]

So should I update my nvidia drivers to 270.61, or stick with what I have now and update only if my performance is really bad?

Kinda weird hearing stuff about new drivers having bugs that cause performance problems.

 

[TheExodu5]

NVidia and AMD should have worken with CD Projekt to get drivers up to par for this release. One of the biggest PC releases this year, as well as the most graphically demanding PC release in a long while, and drivers are clearly not up to speed. Not impressed.

 

[gillty]

Have u forced AA with programs outside the game (catalyst)?

Edit: nm you said you tried diff versions...

Nope, but oddly enough un-checking use application settings to force AA, fixed it...

 

[Gully State]

Is there a way to limit fps to 60 max without actual vsync on? Like fps_max 60 on Source engine? Vsync seems to have a performance hit but I also don't want the game to render menus at like 2000 fps and also overwork and go over 60 in dungeons and other indoor spaces. I got a decent settings config that gives me 30-40 fps in this town now but only with vsync off, it gets a noticable hit with it on.

d3doverrider...

 

[pahamrick]

Figured I'd post a bit of an update now that I've had some sleep and a chance to fiddle with radeonpro profiles some more.

The prior one I was using, CompatAFR-1x1 worked and gave some scaling but once you got to larger areas the FPS tended fluctuate pretty wildly between 30 and 60fps. Right now I've been trying the Dirt2 profile, with MVPUMode set to Alternate Frame Rendering.

Wondering around Chapter 1, I haven't had my FPS drop below 50 so far. Don't know if that will change but it's a bit better then the Compat profile. That's with using the Ultra preset, changing Texture Memory to Very Large and turning off Ubersampling.

 

[Dog Problems]

I'm on a 2500K at 3.3 (for now) with a 570 and I'm getting anywhere from 40-60 according to Fraps with ultra settings and ubersampling off. Mostly 50-60. With ubersampling on it's below 20.

Just thought I'd share.

Edit: I'm on 270.61 drivers.

 

[_Xenon_]

After cleaning my GPU fan (haven't done that for half a year) I can get a stable 30 fps finally ... with all settings to low (except texture size) and 1024x600.



This game is crack. GOTY right here. Other games ... just don't bother.

 

[BoobPhysics101]

NVidia and AMD should have worken with CD Projekt to get drivers up to par for this release. One of the biggest PC releases this year, as well as the most graphically demanding PC release in a long while, and drivers are clearly not up to speed. Not impressed.

This. It's embarrassing that AMD and Nvidia don't have Witcher 2 optimized drivers ready to go.

 

[Geoff9920]

Figured I'd post a bit of an update now that I've had some sleep and a chance to fiddle with radeonpro profiles some more.

The prior one I was using, CompatAFR-1x1 worked and gave some scaling but once you got to larger areas the FPS tended fluctuate pretty wildly between 30 and 60fps. Right now I've been trying the Dirt2 profile, with MVPUMode set to Alternate Frame Rendering.

Wondering around Chapter 1, I haven't had my FPS drop below 50 so far. Don't know if that will change but it's a bit better then the Compat profile. That's with using the Ultra preset, changing Texture Memory to Very Large and turning off Ubersampling.

Thanks for the update. I definitely want to experiment with this when I get home from work.

 

[metareferential]

Has anyone tried out the nvidia beta drivers yet?

I just tried'em out.

It doesn't seem to change that much, maybe a little boost, but that's all.

Playing ultra without ubersampling, and getting 25-45 fps depending on god knows what (certainly not based on elements on screen or environment size, since a simple corridor gave me 25 and an outdoor section was at about 35).

Maybe I should try uninstalling 3d vision. But that's a pain, since there's no guarantee that once re-installed it will be working again xD

 

[Salaadin]

This. It's embarrassing that AMD and Nvidia don't have Witcher 2 optimized drivers ready to go.

I thought that Nvidia did. Im almost certain someone on gaf was saying that they did at least

 

[Kenichi]

Hi I had a quick question. My native resolution is 1920x1080, but the game runs rather poorly at those settings. I would prefer to run the game at 1280x720, but when I change the resolution I get black bars along the edges. Is there an easy way to fix this? I am using an radeon HD5670.

 

[Alexios]

Ok these are my current settings and now it doesn't seem to drop below 30 fps in this first town, and is often comfortably above that, outside hitches from loading new areas/textures etc as I move back and forth. I dunno if they qualify as medium or whatever overall. I'm tired of messing around so I'll play like this unless anyone has solid tips on how to improve it visually or performance wise without a noticable drop in any other way. Or how to force 60 max fps without turning vsync on. This is how it looks. It's a little rough but alright, outside the obvious LOD (the actual objects aren't too obvious, but distant lighting and shadows can look vastly different as you approach or get further away.
http://i.picpar.com/e34d127a00ba8f01ba867985b2e2eac2834c8b75.png
http://i.picpar.com/667bc6c26d1d89e9b66bd5864de68f14485a5fdc.png
http://i.picpar.com/2a1a104363783ab999fd041b519ed2cc62f0249b.png
http://i.picpar.com/82252c2cdcec9e8e0dbff01b7e927fa7e153aa94.png
http://i.picpar.com/de1cf19b6d659a2a0294384eb7fc4100bc9dea2c.png
http://i.picpar.com/1cd164c47a9f9a5ced5a0b12b288165e8eb5c7b3.png

 

[BoobPhysics101]

Encountered a game breaking bug right off the bat, have tried various settings and catalyst drivers and am at a loss. Permanent fog filter.

Nope, but oddly enough un-checking use application settings to force AA, fixed it...

That's so weird, Hitman Blood Money for PC has EXACTLY the same bug on Vista/Windows 7! If you have AA enabled along with a post filter, it does the EXACT same thing... no textures or character models are visible. Turn off antialiasing, and it looks fine.

Perhaps Witcher 2 can't handle post filters with antialiasing enabled as well? That would explain the default usage of MLAA...

 

[Suairyu]

NVidia and AMD should have worken with CD Projekt to get drivers up to par for this release. One of the biggest PC releases this year, as well as the most graphically demanding PC release in a long while, and drivers are clearly not up to speed. Not impressed.

Okay, this is where my confusion kicks in:
Should CDProjeckt optimise their code for the hardware and API environment, not the other way around? There are far too many PC games in the world for ATI and Nvidia to make optimised drivers for them all.

 

[Hawk269]

NVidia and AMD should have worken with CD Projekt to get drivers up to par for this release. One of the biggest PC releases this year, as well as the most graphically demanding PC release in a long while, and drivers are clearly not up to speed. Not impressed.

Especially with Nvidia, they have their logo on the game box, one of the title screens has the "It plays better on Nvidia" so you would think Nvidia would of been a little more on-top of it. I know SLI is working cause I played with the visualizer and it is working. But, yeah, no reason why both NV and AMD would not of been working on drivers weeks ago to ensure the game performed well of users.

 

[boundedseven]

System: Intel i5 760@ 2.8GHz
Graphics Card: GTX 460 and driver 275.27
Settings: High spec with motion blur and uber off
Framerate: 30fps

 

[jett]

Ok these are my current settings and now it doesn't seem to drop below 30 fps in this first town, and is often comfortably above that, outside hitches from loading new areas/textures etc as I move back and forth. I dunno if they qualify as medium or whatever overall. I'm tired of messing around so I'll play like this unless anyone has solid tips on how to improve it visually or performance wise without a noticable drop in any other way. Or how to force 60 max fps without turning vsync on. This is how it looks. It's a little rough but alright, outside the obvious LOD (the actual objects aren't too obvious, but distant lighting and shadows can look vastly different as you approach or get further away.
http://i.picpar.com/e34d127a00ba8f01ba867985b2e2eac2834c8b75.png
http://i.picpar.com/667bc6c26d1d89e9b66bd5864de68f14485a5fdc.png
http://i.picpar.com/2a1a104363783ab999fd041b519ed2cc62f0249b.png
http://i.picpar.com/82252c2cdcec9e8e0dbff01b7e927fa7e153aa94.png
http://i.picpar.com/de1cf19b6d659a2a0294384eb7fc4100bc9dea2c.png
http://i.picpar.com/1cd164c47a9f9a5ced5a0b12b288165e8eb5c7b3.png

wow that is some ugly




probably how it's gonna look when I run this bitch. :|

 

[∀ Narayan]

Anyone running this with surround sound? I don't even know if the game supports it, as I just tried with an SPDIF passthrough to my receiver and had no results whatsoever.

 

[Hawk269]

I'm on a 2500K at 3.3 (for now) with a 570 and I'm getting anywhere from 40-60 according to Fraps with ultra settings and ubersampling off. Mostly 50-60. With ubersampling on it's below 20.

Just thought I'd share.

Edit: I'm on 270.61 drivers.

Hmmm. I have a 2600k OC to 4.5, SLI-580's OC to 875 and your numbers are the same as mine. Outside of Uber, do you have everything else turned on? I am just curious as your performance is the same as I am getting, but I am in SLI with 580's. Hopefully a better SLI profile is needed.

 

[metareferential]

Well, ultra settings with nvidia latest beta drivers are around 30 fps in most cases, sometimes well above, sometimes it dips into 20-25 territory.

I guess I'll play it like this, it still feel quite smooth (no v-sync) and it is stunning to watch.

Later I'll try running at 1080p to see if it get worse.

 

[Truant]

Well, ultra settings with nvidia latest beta drivers are around 30 fps in most cases, sometimes well above, sometimes it dips into 20-25 territory.

I guess I'll play it like this, it still feel quite smooth (no v-sync) and it is stunning to watch.

Later I'll try running at 1080p to see if it get worse.

Yeah, I gave up too. It is smoother without v-sync, I agree. Back to the game, I guess!

 

[Gully State]

Or how to force 60 max fps without turning vsync on.

Is there a reason you're avoiding D3DOverrider?

 

[Dog Problems]

Hmmm. I have a 2600k OC to 4.5, SLI-580's OC to 875 and your numbers are the same as mine. Outside of Uber, do you have everything else turned on? I am just curious as your performance is the same as I am getting, but I am in SLI with 580's. Hopefully a better SLI profile is needed.

Yes, everything is on and at its highest setting with the exception of ubersampling

 

[TheExodu5]

Okay, this is where my confusion kicks in:
Should CDProjeckt optimise their code for the hardware and API environment, not the other way around? There are far too many PC games in the world for ATI and Nvidia to make optimised drivers for them all.

Depends on the game.

This game in particular is pushing the hardware, meaning this game will actually sell high-end video cards. It's in NVidia and AMD's best interest to ensure that it runs well on their hardware.

Also, the API is meant to be hardware agnostic, meaning it's really up to those that link the hardware to the API (AMD/NVidia) to optimize the low level execution of the code.

CD Projekt can't really say "okay, let's create different rendering paths tailored specifically to each GPU". That's not their job, as it's simply not feasible for them to do so.

 

[metareferential]

Yeah, I gave up too. It is smoother without v-sync, I agree. Back to the game, I guess!

Yeah, the game is damn fun and it is already quite addicting, so I won't bother with tweaks and config anymore xD