The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update Adds Higher-res Textures, Ray Traced GI, DLSS and FSR 2

[Tech_fanatic]

My 7900x feels like a bottleneck in this game with the RT turned ON. CDPR just made my fav RPG unplayable. The game doesn't even start on DX 12 for me now ( ).

 

[AusWolf]

My 7900x feels like a bottleneck in this game with the RT turned ON. CDPR just made my fav RPG unplayable. The game doesn't even start on DX 12 for me now ( ).

How? My 7700X only gets loaded up to 25% at 1080p, with the two leading threads around 50% (I have a 6750 XT, by the way).

 

[Tech_fanatic]

How? My 7700X only gets loaded up to 25% at 1080p, with the two leading threads around 50% (I have a 6750 XT, by the way).

I dunno but turning RT ON simply loads up all the cores to the max at ultra settings 1080p. The game load time has also significantly increased.

 

[Tech_fanatic]

With the newest update CDPR seems to have mitigated the issue to some extent but RT ON still isn't playable on my system and I doubt it will ever be on a first gen AMD gpu with rt support maybe the RTX 4000 and high end RTX 3000 series owners can comment on their experience after the latest update.

 

[igralec84]

With my 4090 RT ON + DLSS Quality + Frame generation ON, there's still 2-5s of stutter (GPU temp drops from 62°C to 45°C) when entering a new area or getting back to the game from the main menu / inventory / cut scene, but on 4K it's around 100-120FPS, in Novigrad it's around 100 so far. Used to stutter all the time down to 2FPS in indoor areas, outdoor was random. A fight right after a cut scene can be a little problematic though With this update i can at least have Frame Generation ON the whole time, the difference to it being OFF is around 20-30FPS.

Tried deleting/renaming the \Bin\x64_dx12\d3d11on12.dll but there isn't one in the bin folder, only in Windows/System32

 

[Tech_fanatic]

With my 4090 RT ON + DLSS Quality + Frame generation ON, there's still 2-5s of stutter (GPU temp drops from 62°C to 45°C) when entering a new area or getting back to the game from the main menu / inventory / cut scene, but on 4K it's around 100-120FPS, in Novigrad it's around 100 so far. Used to stutter all the time down to 2FPS in indoor areas, outdoor was random. A fight right after a cut scene can be a little problematic though With this update i can at least have Frame Generation ON the whole time, the difference to it being OFF is around 20-30FPS.

Tried deleting/renaming the \Bin\x64_dx12\d3d11on12.dll but there isn't one in the bin folder, only in Windows/System32

If your system is suffering from frame time spikes I don't think any other system right now can claim to have stable frametimes. The game clearly requires further optimization especially with RT ON and CDPR seems to be committed to solve this (hopefully).

 

[Punkenjoy]

With my 4090 RT ON + DLSS Quality + Frame generation ON, there's still 2-5s of stutter (GPU temp drops from 62°C to 45°C) when entering a new area or getting back to the game from the main menu / inventory / cut scene, but on 4K it's around 100-120FPS, in Novigrad it's around 100 so far. Used to stutter all the time down to 2FPS in indoor areas, outdoor was random. A fight right after a cut scene can be a little problematic though With this update i can at least have Frame Generation ON the whole time, the difference to it being OFF is around 20-30FPS.

Tried deleting/renaming the \Bin\x64_dx12\d3d11on12.dll but there isn't one in the bin folder, only in Windows/System32

I think one of the thing Hotfix did, was to remove that file. So it seem no longer there. so nothing to do there.

That is quite strange, make sure you have fast storage, i realized that my game was running on my old Sata SSD, moved it to my PCIE-E 4x nvme and i don't recall seeing those stutter. (altough it was after the hotfix).

I run with ReBAR on, but some people say that it could be the cause of the issue. (I have an AMD processor, it could be when you have a Intel + Nvidia combo).

 

[ARF]

My 7900x feels like a bottleneck in this game with the RT turned ON. CDPR just made my fav RPG unplayable. The game doesn't even start on DX 12 for me now ( ).

How? My 7700X only gets loaded up to 25% at 1080p, with the two leading threads around 50% (I have a 6750 XT, by the way).

I dunno but turning RT ON simply loads up all the cores to the max at ultra settings 1080p. The game load time has also significantly increased.

This is not a CPU issue but an issue in the patch or whatever you changed in the game.

 

[Deleted member 57642]

It's quite obvious by now - that the DX12 version is poorly optimized. And supposedly, needs a lot of work to be properly optimized (correction: it needs a lot of work - cause it's quite hard to be optimized for "general hardware - aka - PCs" - compared to "specific hardware - aka - VG Consoles"). They already released 2 x Hot-fixes to address some issues - even so, if we're to be real about its current stage - it's more accurate to call it W3 Next-Gen "Beta Release". So yeah, might take awhile till the game is patched to such level that's worth deeming as a "Stable Release". Nothing new imo, quite the opposite - "same old, same old..." That being said, it helps be more realistic in terms of expectations.

On the other hand... even while taking into account this beta release - the nitpicking of its benchmark fan-base is also unrealistic. And i get it - they paid a lot of money for High-End+ hardware - and thus - they expect every game to give them a FPS ego stroke, yet... W3 Next-Gen which is suppose to offer some of the best visual samples (which in theory - is meant to shine on cutting edge hardware) - is more ore less glitchy - and that's impacting the highest possible settings (the visuals are there but the FPS is kinda embarrassing - for the hardware in question - especially while using a high end GPU from previous generation). To be fair, when it comes to DX12 software and cutting edge hardware (not necessarily - tho obviously - that's where we'll see the most troublesome issues) - the improvements & fixes are also tied to proper drivers (aka, GPU driver devs working with W3 NG devs - to optimize a future driver release).

Last but not least and also quite ironic (all things consider) - maybe even a good news for some people: the state of the game is far from bad - even while pairing an ancient GPU (well, not in the true sense of the word - but for the tech world a product released 10 years ago IS sometimes regarded as "ancient") with a modern CPU (i5 12th Gen). As in, even an old GPU like GTX 760 - which used to be appropriate for the classic version of W3 (nVidia GTX 770 / AMD R9 290 used to be the Recommended GPU - while nVidia GTX 660 / AMD HD 7870 was the Minimum recommendation) - is still capable enough (or more like - good enough - if that's the only option available) - to experience some of the Next-Gen visual improvements. Maybe not the most ideal experience - but with some tweaks here and there it's definitely playable - for someone who cares more about the game...

 

[AusWolf]

It's quite obvious by now - that the DX12 version is poorly optimized. And supposedly, needs a lot of work to be properly optimized (correction: it needs a lot of work - cause it's quite hard to be optimized for "general hardware - aka - PCs" - compared to "specific hardware - aka - VG Consoles"). They already released 2 x Hot-fixes to address some issues - even so, if we're to be real about its current stage - it's more accurate to call it W3 Next-Gen "Beta Release". So yeah, might take awhile till the game is patched to such level that's worth deeming as a "Stable Release". Nothing new imo, quite the opposite - "same old, same old..." That being said, it helps be more realistic in terms of expectations.

On the other hand... even while taking into account this beta release - the nitpicking of its benchmark fan-base is also unrealistic. And i get it - they paid a lot of money for High-End+ hardware - and thus - they expect every game to give them a FPS ego stroke, yet... W3 Next-Gen which is suppose to offer some of the best visual samples (which in theory - is meant to shine on cutting edge hardware) - is more ore less glitchy - and that's impacting the highest possible settings (the visuals are there but the FPS is kinda embarrassing - for the hardware in question - especially while using a high end GPU from previous generation). To be fair, when it comes to DX12 software and cutting edge hardware (not necessarily - tho obviously - that's where we'll see the most troublesome issues) - the improvements & fixes are also tied to proper drivers (aka, GPU driver devs working with W3 NG devs - to optimize a future driver release).

Last but not least and also quite ironic (all things consider) - maybe even a good news for some people: the state of the game is far from bad - even while pairing an ancient GPU (well, not in the true sense of the word - but for the tech world a product released 10 years ago IS sometimes regarded as "ancient") with a modern CPU (i5 12th Gen). As in, even an old GPU like GTX 760 - which used to be appropriate for the classic version of W3 (nVidia GTX 770 / AMD R9 290 used to be the Recommended GPU - while nVidia GTX 660 / AMD HD 7870 was the Minimum recommendation) - is still capable enough (or more like - good enough - if that's the only option available) - to experience some of the Next-Gen visual improvements. Maybe not the most ideal experience - but with some tweaks here and there it's definitely playable - for someone who cares more about the game...

For me, this next gen update is still a disappointment for three reasons:

1. The visuals are not that much better than the original as I expected. I mean, they're better, but ray tracing doesn't do much if 1. the original lights were already good, and 2. the models are exactly the same. Skin still looks the same shiny, plasticky material in the rain as in almost every game. This is where game development should focus, not on adding RT to every old game that was already great to begin with.
2. The visuals aren't better enough to justify the performance drop. Like I said, they're better, but not 4 times better, while performance drops to 1/4 of the original.
3. Regardless of the performance, it stutters. With max graphics, I get 30 FPS, which is enough for me. I played the original game at its release on a GTX 750 Ti, and got exactly 30 FPS at high graphics, which was playable - but it's not playable now. Even if I decrease some graphics options to get a higher average FPS, the stuttering is still there, and ruins the whole experience. It feels broken, and is unusable this way.

 

[Tech_fanatic]

The stutters are really bad even on high-ultra settings with RT OFF. I hope they(CDPR) acknowledge it. The pre next gen update version ran flawlessly on ultra.

 

[chrcoluk]

Has it been confirmed yet it runs crap on anything older 2 years or so, then we have to decide which GPU manufacturer sponsored it.

Think I would rather it is a new seperate game, as I wonder if its now even possible to run it in legacy mode? As asides from the massive performance nerf I think I prefer a lot of the scenes visually on the older engine.

Also not seen before/after for VRAM usage anywhere.

I think both lighting and water are better on older version. The performance drop looks crippling.

Great news

https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/zlnwdt

For me, this next gen update is still a disappointment for three reasons:

1. The visuals are not that much better than the original as I expected. I mean, they're better, but ray tracing doesn't do much if 1. the original lights were already good, and 2. the models are exactly the same. Skin still looks the same shiny, plasticky material in the rain as in almost every game. This is where game development should focus, not on adding RT to every old game that was already great to begin with.
2. The visuals aren't better enough to justify the performance drop. Like I said, they're better, but not 4 times better, while performance drops to 1/4 of the original.
3. Regardless of the performance, it stutters. With max graphics, I get 30 FPS, which is enough for me. I played the original game at its release on a GTX 750 Ti, and got exactly 30 FPS at high graphics, which was playable - but it's not playable now. Even if I decrease some graphics options to get a higher average FPS, the stuttering is still there, and ruins the whole experience. It feels broken, and is unusable this way.

Yep I have always said RT tends to look better on new games as they seem to deliberatly make RT off look rubbish, but on a game where it was originally designed to look good without RT, its very 'meh'.

 

[Tech_fanatic]

Yes I too think the water on the pre update version looked much better than the water on ultra+ post update. It looks kind of muddy(brownish) and opaque as compared to the clear blue (maybe the witcher world of today has seen more pollutants going into its water bodies ) of the pre update version which clearly looked better to me.. Although I cannot comment on its particle physics.

 

[AusWolf]

Also not seen before/after for VRAM usage anywhere.

At 1080p Ultra, the old game consumed about 1.5-2 GB, the new version about 6-7 GB. It's not justified, imo.