The launch of The Witcher 3’s highly anticipated next-gen update hasn’t gone smoothly, as many players who’ve jumped in to see the game’s improved visuals and play through its new content are bumping into performance issues.
The main culprit seems to be the RPG’s ray tracing feature, which either tends to chop off a significant amount of frames per second or, in the worst of cases, outright crash the game for some players.
The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update Performance Issues
“RTX is causing the problems for me. On my 3070, running straight “ultra” with vsync on, I’m getting consistent 60+ framerates, no stuttering or tearing or anything,” Reddit user PinwheelsAndUnicorns wrote. “But the second I turn on RTX, even the most basic, I either crash, or I’m under 25fps.”
Other players haven’t been as lucky and are reporting worse performance even when using the same settings as they did before The Witcher 3’s next-gen update launched.
“3080, 5900x, 4K. DLSS set to Ultra Performance, RT disabled, High Graphics, Low Shadow Quality. FPS is around 60 with it being really laggy,” Reddit user Mayion wrote while noting that activating DLSS doesn’t seem to do anything.
The update introduced a number of new graphical settings, including ray tracing and an Ultra+ option for PC players, alongside revamped visuals, most noticeable in the shape of richer foliage throughout the world.
Although not everyone is experiencing worse performance, existing reports show that the issues aren’t limited to just players with older hardware, as RTX 3080 and RTX 4090 cards are mentioned by those negatively impacted by the update.
Prior to the next-gen update, my i7-8700K and Nvidia RTX 3080 didn’t have too many issues running The Witcher 3 on Ultra settings at 1440p, with maybe some slight stutters during the first few minutes.
This is no longer the case, and I now count myself among those who struggle to get a stable 60 FPS without ray tracing turned on, with DLSS doing nothing to help, regardless of which preset I use.
Thankfully, developer CD Projekt Red is aware of the problems and looking into player reports.
“We are aware of the issues PC players have been reporting since last night’s release of the update,” it wrote on Twitter. “We are actively investigating all of the reports and will be providing an update on particular issues as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!”
Hopefully, it won’t be too long before a patch is deployed to address the performance issues introduced in The Witcher 3’s next-gen update.
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