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Witcher 3 PC Performance Thread

Majukun

Member
First thing first, i'm a noob, so sorry if it is a stupid question. Since my monitor broke, I have to use my old one that has a Max of 1680x1050... Would down sample it from 1080p be worth it? and how exactly I do that if so?
 
How good is the 30fps lock in this game? I will probably pick it up tonight. If it's smooth, I might play it on my TV with a controller and all bells and whistles.

Then again, I remember W2 being shit without a keyboard...
The 30fps limit with vsync works really well in this game. I played with locking to 30 to have hairworks and foliage distance on ultra and it felt smooth. I decided though to put foliage distance on high and turn off hw and lock at 60.

If you are worried about the 30fps lock don't be, it's good in this game.
 

JBourne

maybe tomorrow it rains
Decided to give up on the 60 fps dream and just embrace the 30. I can't give up hairworks. It's just too nice. I think 30 works for this game, and it has allowed me the freedom to crank everything up and downsample from 1620p.

witcher3_2015-05-19_07noo2.png

witcher3_2015-05-19_095of5.png

Resizing might have made them slightly blurry, but the files are too large for abload.de. If anyone has a better recommendation, I can upload them somewhere else.
 

spuckthew

Member
So the game runs rather decent on my system sporting an i7-2600k and a 2GB GTX 770 factory OC'd to 1150 MHz.

Everything on in post processing, with HBAO+.

In graphics, Hairworks off. Everything on Ultra excluding Grass Density and Foliage Visibility Range, both of which are on High.

Fps locked at 30fps at 1080p (unlocked fps ranges from 30 to 60).

Only issue is that I'm noticing minor stutters here and there. Is anyone else noticing this? If yes, have any of you been able to find a fix. Typing in "Witcher 3 pc stutter" into Google only brings up stuff about the Xbox One version. Thought you guys might know. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for posting these details. A factory OC'd 2GB 770 should perform similar to my 2GB 680 Lightning, so at least I can look forward to a constant 30fps with great image quality, which is what I aimed for anyway.

Have you tried halving your refresh rate in Nvidia CP? That should provide a slightly smoother experience if capping to 30.
 

dlauv

Member
So I'm playing right now:

660ti, 3770k, 900p, borderless windowed

All ultra, except for:
Foliage draw distance: minimum
Hair works: off

Steady 60fpsish
I wonder how it would do at 1080.
If I set foliage draw distance any higher it chugs every now and then, even at 30fps

For flavor: I turned off sharpening and ca, as it made things look blurry and flat. Hurt my eyes almost.
 

Static Jak

Member
Well, so far I can run everything at a stable 60FPS with everything set on High along with HBAO+.

That's with an i5-2500 (non k, no oc)
8GB RAM
MSI GTX 970
Samsung 850 500GB Pro

I'm actually surprised considering some of the complaints I've seen online about performance. I thought my CPU would do me in. Then again, I haven't gone far enough into the game to say it'll stay at that.

Plus, some cutscenes seem to be locked at 25 frames? Like the intro scene and a scene straight after you finish the tutorial.
 

Iceternal

Member
Decided to give up on the 60 fps dream and just embrace the 30. I can't give up hairworks. It's just too nice. I think 30 works for this game, and it has allowed me the freedom to crank everything up and downsample from 1620p.



Resizing might have made them slightly blurry, but the files are too large for abload.de. If anyone has a better recommendation, I can upload them somewhere else.

How did you lock it ? Vsync or ingame toggle ?
 
The 30fps limit with vsync works really well in this game. I played with locking to 30 to have hairworks and foliage distance on ultra and it felt smooth. I decided though to put foliage distance on high and turn off hw and lock at 60.

If you are worried about the 30fps lock don't be, it's good in this game.

Cool, thanks!
 

Thoraxes

Member
I'm having trouble deciding on 4k @ 30FPS with hairworks off or 2x1080p resolution DSR (can't remember the number) with hairworks on @ 45-60FPS depending on scene.

Either way though, every other setting I have as high as it can possibly go. The only variable for me is hairworks really.
 
Wow, the game runs much better than I anticipated on my GTX 970 and 3570K @4Ghz. I've played for about an hour around White Orchard and experienced no crashes whatsoever.

It's running at 60fps 95% of the time, with GPU usage hovering between 70 and 90% and CPU usage around 70-80% on each core. The only framerate-drops occur when the game seems to load something. But with adaptive vsync that doesn't really hurt gameplay.

My settings:
1080p, Vsync on, 60fps cap, Adaptive vsync and 8xAF forced in drivers.
AA on
HBAO+ on
Hairworks off
Foliage visibility range: High
Grass density: Low
Shadows: High
Detail Level: Ultra
Textures: Ultra
DoF on
You should be able to go higher. I have a 2500k @ 4ghz and a 970 and I only have to turn off hairworks and turn down foliage distance to high and I have a 60fps lock.
 

owasog

Member
Already tried, doesn't work for me. :'(
You can also try setting Power Management to Performance in the drivers. The intro cutscene is now 60 fps instead of that weird 49 fps. With Adaptive Power Management the GPU clocks drop down to 135Mhz in some cutscenes.
 

UnrealEck

Member
I'm having trouble deciding on 4k @ 30FPS with hairworks off or 2x1080p resolution DSR (can't remember the number) with hairworks on @ 45-60FPS depending on scene.

2160p I believe is 2x1080.

I'd go with that and Hairworks on. Seems like a happy medium.
 

H4r4kiri

Member
i5 4670k Stock
Msi 290, @ 1007mhz
16 gig Ram

I run the game at Ultra with 40-60 fps with HBAO+ without Hairworks though.
When I turn on Hairworks the fps just crash. It is between 18-48 fps then. :(

That means I run it unlocked without Hairworks.
 

Thoraxes

Member
2160p I believe is 2x1080.

I'd go with that and Hairworks on. Seems like a happy medium.

That's what i'm leaning towards at the moment. When I put it on on my TV it still looks quite nice, and I appreciate the hairworks.

Edit: wait, 4k is 2160p, so half the split.
 

Xasthure

Neo Member
So I have a Gigabyte 780 ti OC, which isf factory overclocked at 1020mhz core clock.
Am I supposed to under clock it to the clock of the reference 780 ti which is at 876mhz, or what? In MSI Afterburner I can only lower it by 105mhz, which isn't enough.

Someone help? The game keeps crashing all the f'ing time.
 

JBourne

maybe tomorrow it rains
I'm having trouble deciding on 4k @ 30FPS with hairworks off or 2x1080p resolution DSR (can't remember the number) with hairworks on @ 45-60FPS depending on scene.

Either way though, every other setting I have as high as it can possibly go. The only variable for me is hairworks really.

2x1080p is 2160p, which is 4K.

edit: oh, you got it.
 

Gbraga

Member
The 30fps limit with vsync works really well in this game. I played with locking to 30 to have hairworks and foliage distance on ultra and it felt smooth. I decided though to put foliage distance on high and turn off hw and lock at 60.

If you are worried about the 30fps lock don't be, it's good in this game.

It was fine to me as well, but I've seen many people saying they get crazy stuttering with the in-game limiter, so I'll test it with RTSS today.

Though I didn't really like vsync, felt a bit lagged, but it might be just placebo.

Borderless Window + 30fps lock and no vsync gave me pretty good results, I'll try Borderless + half refresh rate + RTSS this night to see if it's better.
 

Effect

Member
What's a good way to judge the FPS in game? Can you do that?

Running everything set to default High at the moment on the following system

FX-8320 3.5Ghz
GTX 960 2GB
8GB Ram
1440x900
Borderless Window

Seems to be running well enough but can't really tell what the FPS is just be looking at it.
 
Hairworks is the floppy hair physics right? Am I the only one who thinks it looks silly? Hair doesn't move like that!

for hair, yes it always looks doofy as fuck.

But for fur tech? It's definitely a notch above previous fur tech. I wonder if there's a way to just activate the fur stuff and not the hair part of it.
 

Godan

Member
So 2nd time i have got this screen just freezes but i can still move about and stuff as i can hear it. Then after aboiut 10 secs the game closes down.

Anyone else had this issue?
 

Klossen

Banned
Dissapointing results. When not crashing, I hover around 30 fps on High settings. PC is Windforce 670 OC and 3570K. Dissapointed how it's basically the PS4 version. I'll turn some things down and see if I can hit 60 fps. But I doubt I will.
 

Static Jak

Member
Hairworks is the floppy hair physics right? Am I the only one who thinks it looks silly? Hair doesn't move like that!

It looks good on monsters but yeah, I think it's a bit weird on humans.

It's why I'd love to see a monster only Hairwork option. We currently have On for all, Geralt only and Off.
 

Vuze

Member
What's a good way to judge the FPS in game? Can you do that?

Running everything set to default High at the moment on the following system

FX-8320 3.5Ghz
GTX 960 2GB
8GB Ram
1440x900
Borderless Window

Seems to be running well enough but can't really tell what the FPS is just be looking at it.
Fraps, MSI Afterburner overlay, Dxtory, even Steam has a FPS counter you can activate in the settings. :)
 

JBourne

maybe tomorrow it rains
What's a good way to judge the FPS in game? Can you do that?

Running everything set to default High at the moment on the following system

FX-8320 3.5Ghz
GTX 960 2GB
8GB Ram
1440x900
Borderless Window

Seems to be running well enough but can't really tell what the FPS is just be looking at it.

You have a few options. Steam offers a framerate counter now, you could use the one in Shadowplay, or you could download FRAPS.
 

owasog

Member
So I have a Gigabyte 780 ti OC, which isf factory overclocked at 1020mhz core clock.
Am I supposed to under clock it to the clock of the reference 780 ti which is at 876mhz, or what? In MSI Afterburner I can only lower it by 105mhz, which isn't enough.

Someone help? The game keeps crashing all the f'ing time.
Do you have any other overclocks? CPU or RAM? I used to get crashes in some games until I ran IntelBurnTest and discovered my RAM was not stable at 1600Mhz (XMP). Now I run it at 1333Mhz and my system has never been more stable.
 
Decisions, decisions..

I can play this either

@1080p/1440p with everything maxed out + hairworks = rock solid 60fps, looks Ok, feels amazingly smooth.

or

@4K with everything maxed out + hairworks = rock solid 30fps. looks amazing, feels horribly console'ish.
 

shandy706

Member
So 2nd time i have got this screen just freezes but i can still move about and stuff as i can hear it. Then after aboiut 10 secs the game closes down.

Anyone else had this issue?

Quite a few people.

It's one of the problems that is a constant for many.

Removing any overclocks has worked for some.

I'm waiting on a patch.
 

realcZk

Member
Here's my settings on my 780 that helped me get a locked, rock-solid 60fps

GTX 780 (EVGA SC and I did overclock this a bit and it helped: +40MHz core +150MHz mem)
i5 4670k
16gb ram
SSD
Windows 10 build 10074
NVIDIA 352.84 drivers
1080p

- All post processing is ON except for motion blur (i think its terrible, but it didn't affect perf)
- Hairworks OFF (this completely destroys my performance)
- Ambient Occulsion : HBAO+
- Foliage View Distance is HIGH
- Shadow quality is LOW (made no difference visually for me and increased FPS)
- Detail/Texture quality is ULTRA
- Water, Grass is HIGH
- AA is ON
- 60fps lock w/ vsync ON

I am running in borderless windowed mode but have heard fullscreen can increase FPS. Played almost 6 hours yesterday, and just made it out of the intro area after completing all the content there. The game did crash once on me about 3 hours in.

I also switched the cutscenes over to 60FPS since going from 60->30 was nasty. There's a setting in the ini file here: bin\config\base\visuals.ini, change:
MovieFramerate=60.0
MovieUbersampling=false
 

Static Jak

Member
Decisions, decisions..

I can play this either

@1080p/1440p with everything maxed out + hairworks = rock solid 60fps, looks Ok, feels amazingly smooth.

or

@4K with everything maxed out + hairworks = rock solid 30fps. looks amazing, feels horribly console'ish.

I'd go with the 60FPS option. That framerate makes a world of difference imo.
 
Played 2 hours so far and no crashes..yet. Runs pretty smooth and looks great.

Played the PC version twice for around the same length of time (75 minutes the first time when it unlocked) and have had no crashes either. Game is maxed out at 1920x1200 with HBAO+ and GameWorks on. Framerate averages around 45-50 fps but can dip to 30 fps during cutscene close-ups of faces (due to HairWorks?). I have a non-overclocked i7-4770K, 16 GB, GTX 980 and Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit using the latest v352.86 WHQL drivers.

Game is absolutely excellent so far with only the poor anti-aliasing and erratic performance letting it down. I stood facing a wall in the White Orchard inn and the framerate never rose above 51 fps which is surprising considering it is a small enclosed area. I even saw dips to low 30s fps when wandering from table to table talking to NPCs. Performance outdoors seems better!
 

M.D

Member
Is there an option to see the frame rate without impacting performance like in Steam? Playing the gog version
 
It was fine to me as well, but I've seen many people saying they get crazy stuttering with the in-game limiter, so I'll test it with RTSS today.

Though I didn't really like vsync, felt a bit lagged, but it might be just placebo.

Borderless Window + 30fps lock and no vsync gave me pretty good results, I'll try Borderless + half refresh rate + RTSS this night to see if it's better.

I got bad stuttering using either in game 30 Fps lock or using Afterburner. However the stuttering is gone If I use the 30 Fps lock in EVGA Precision.
 

Xasthure

Neo Member
Do you have any other overclocks? CPU or RAM? I used to get crashes in some games until I ran IntelBurnTest and discovered my RAM was not stable at 1600Mhz (XMP). Now I run it at 1333Mhz and my system has never been more stable.

No, no other overclocks. I guess I could check the RAM though, even if I've never touched them.

Regarding my initial question, do you have any idea about how much to down clock? It seems to have helped quite a few, but I'm quite new to clocking. :)
 

JBourne

maybe tomorrow it rains
Is there an option to see the frame rate without impacting performance like in Steam? Playing the gog version

Apparently it's not working for everyone, but I've been able to use all of the overlay features by just launching witcher3.exe through Steam.
 

Gbraga

Member
Decisions, decisions..

I can play this either

@1080p/1440p with everything maxed out + hairworks = rock solid 60fps, looks Ok, feels amazingly smooth.

or

@4K with everything maxed out + hairworks = rock solid 30fps. looks amazing, feels horribly console'ish.

I'd go with 60fps without thinking twice. Only reason I capped at 30 is because even on low, a 680 can't run at 60, so might as well cap it to 30 and play on High with HBAO+.
 

Soi-Fong

Member
I can go back to 1080p and get a locked 60 fps, but damn I can't handle the aliasing at 1080p. Downsampling from 1440p gets rid of a lot of the jaggies in the game. The only games I really need 60 fps on are shooters and racers.

Guess I got use to Uncharted and The Order: 1886 on consoles.
 
Here's my settings on my 780 that helped me get a locked, rock-solid 60fps

GTX 780 (EVGA SC and I did overclock this a bit and it helped: +50MHz core +150MHz mem)
i5 4670k
16gb ram
SSD
Windows 10 build 10074
NVIDIA 352.84 drivers
1080p

- All post processing is ON except for motion blur (i think its terrible, but it didn't affect perf)
- Hairworks OFF (this completely destroys my performance)
- Ambient Occulsion : HBAO+
- Foliage View Distance is HIGH
- Shadow quality is LOW (made no difference visually for me and increased FPS)
- Detail/Texture quality is ULTRA
- Water, Grass is HIGH
- 60fps lock w/ vsync ON

I am running in borderless windowed mode but have heard fullscreen can increase FPS. Played almost 6 hours yesterday, and just made it out of the intro area after completing all the content there. The game did crash once on me about 3 hours in.

I also switched the cutscenes over to 60FPS since going from 60->30 was nasty. There's a setting in the ini file here: bin\config\base\visuals.ini, change:


I use similar settings with my GTX 780 (not overclocked).

I have everything on in Post-processing except for motion blur and CA; I might use another AA because the one the game has isn't great.

For graphics settings, Hair works and V-sync are off, and Shadows and foliage at high.

The graphics settings in Nvidia experience are basically disgusting marketing bullshit; the 780 can obviously do better than their crappy optimal settings.
 

realcZk

Member
I use similar settings with my GTX 780 (not overclocked).

I have everything on in Post-processing except for motion blur and CA; I might use another AA because the one the game has isn't great.

For graphics settings, Hair works is off, and Shadows and foliage at high.

The graphics settings in Nvidia experience is basically disgusting marketing bullshit; the 780 can obviously do better than their crappy optimal settings.

Agreed, I was a bit worried reading the benchmarks. My 780 surprised me. I am on Windows 10 with the latest drivers but NVIDIA didn't release them alongside their "GameReady" ones, so I'm not sure if mine include the updated W3 profile. They do have a W3 profile, though. All in all, I'm pretty sure that running W10 is not helping me out any, but it doesn't seem to be hurting me.
 

void666

Banned
Played for 3 hours yesterday. Single gtx 980, I5 4670K@4ghz, W8.1, 8gb ram. Everything but hairworks maxed. It stays at 60 fps most of the time. No crashes, no stuttering. Perfect.

I don't think hairworks is worth the performance hit. It doesn't even look that good actually.

Edit: Just remembered that game hangs if i try to set unlimited fps. Also iirc my game is set to borderless window.
 
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