The Witcher 3: Performance Analysis

[DoomDoomDoom]

Nice to see that the older architecture is getting the shaft. /sarcasm

 

[techx]

I'm utterly shocked that nobody noticed that screenshot used in the article is a 2013 capture before the massive graphical downgrade. The game looks nothing like that today. Shame on the author.

 

[EarthDog]

You may want to look at the game today... it looks pretty damn close to me looking at screencaps of the game today versus that image.

 

[techx]

You may want to look at the game today... it looks pretty damn close to me looking at screencaps of the game today versus that image.

I and many others would disagree. It's a very misleading screenshot. Don't tell me this is "damn close".

 

[swaaye]

What does it matter? I guess maybe just don't buy the game? It's not the first time an early demo wasn't an entirely accurate portrayal of what the final product would be.

 

[techx]

What does it matter? I guess maybe just don't buy the game?

Just ballsy to use a misrepresentation of what the game really looks like as the feature image of the article. Tis all.

 

[swaaye]

Just ballsy to use a misrepresentation of what the game really looks like as the feature image of the article. Tis all.

I just assumed it was concept art or a old bullshot. But yeah maybe a screenshot would be better.

 

[EarthDog]

Just ballsy to use a misrepresentation of what the game really looks like as the feature image of the article. Tis all.

Ballsy... LOL. The article is about PERFORMANCE, not how the game looks. Wizz used a stock screenshot for a PERFORMANCE review. If this was a review on IQ, then I would say you have a beef.

Would an actual in game screenshot be better? I'll give you that. I just think you came into this with a bit more venom than was perhaps needed.

As far as the GIFs you posted, the scene completely changed. It looks great to me, comparable in fact. Its just that there isn't the same foliage around. But the shadows, and textures, look pretty damn good to me (for terrible way to compare them in GIFs).

 

[Saidrex]

Well, dunno what I do wrong, I'm getting 40-50 fps on minimum settings in 1080p, I have GTX770 and from what I heard I'm not only one getting sh**y performance on 700 series card, something to do with NVIDIA's drivers. Many people already starter conspiracy theories that NVIDIA intentionally tries to sabotage 700 series to force people to upgrade to 900 series.

 

[W1zzard]

Very good review W1zz, thanks for testing and posting. Can we assume Witcher 3 is going to be added into the test suite from here on out?

definitely, need to rebench all cards first though for project cars and witcher. rebench done already that includes gta v

I take it that there isn't a CFx profile for the game as the 295x2 didn't scale at all (negative scaling in fact)

third para in the conclusion

Would an actual in game screenshot be better?

i was just too lazy to take one and rather added kepler results. googled the first image that had a scene i liked, didnt pay attention to the displayed image quality

 

[mastrdrver]

How to run Hairworks on AMD without crippling performance.

 

[avatar_raq]

How to run Hairworks on AMD without crippling performance.

This reminds me of AMD's TressFX in Tomb Raider 2013, which ran on my 780ti rather well.

 

[gasolina]

The Hairwork is similar to physx ?? http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/physx/games here it's on the list ? I was wondering a GTX 980 + 1 Physx 760 performance will be better than a single 980 in case of Hairwork Enable ?

 

[cokker]

I and many others would disagree. It's a very misleading screenshot. Don't tell me this is "damn close".

Is that horse simulator 2015? What happened to the atmosphere?

 

[bug]

The patch released yesterday is supposed to improve things with HairWorks. Not that I care much about that particular tech (the Witcher series have always been about story and atmosphere), but is there any chance you guys retest some of the cards to check if there's indeed a performance gain?

 

[AsRock]

Great review Wiz but looks like at this time if you want to max the game a 980 at least is needed not a 970 as it only goes 4 fps more than the 290 which still is under 60 fps except for the 1st resolution you tested.

I am totally shocked on that ram usage, that is very well done indeed. Knowing CDR they will bring out a massive patch later too.


As nVidia have already got their updated drivers out i hope you can find the time to do a re test when AMD do too although i cannot see them getting much better as they are now really.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I'm utterly shocked that nobody noticed that screenshot used in the article is a 2013 capture before the massive graphical downgrade. The game looks nothing like that today. Shame on the author.

Actually, the game looks pretty damned good today. But, as I said the day before release when everyone was up in arms, the Witcher games have always been about the story, role-palying and atmosphere, not the graphics. The nice graphics you get are just a bonus.

For anyone who feels Kepler is getting hurt by the new drivers with this game, go back to 347.88, or whatever number that was that was last before the GTA V game-ready driver. I have found my Kepler running beautifully in this game with that driver. That was also the last driver, I hear, that was particularly attuned to Keplers, so that may be the difference.

@W1zzard, great review! Thanks!!

 

[VashCZ]

yes yes, I have GTX 760 and I really must wait for optimization
it takes 1000 - 1500 MB VRAM, which is good, but why, I would prefer 1900MB VRAM and 60FPS :-D

"the game definitely feels like a PC-first title" - JOKE?!? in performance way, maybe, but overall... no way mage!

 

[kloaf11]

I and many others would disagree. It's a very misleading screenshot. Don't tell me this is "damn close".

Well if you listened to news released that was an art rendered trailer and not an in game trailer like watch dogs had and did. It wasnt the finished product with all the in game details in it.

Also for those hating on amd are you really surprised a game nvidia helped optimise and develop works so well with the nvidia cards? probably the same reason they dont work on the 700 series with the newest drivers. They want people to buy their cards instead of amd cards and they want you to buy their newest cards not their older models. Its their business model. Make Money.

 

[RichF]

I and many others would disagree. It's a very misleading screenshot. Don't tell me this is "damn close".

"My recommendation for 4K is a GTX 970 SLI (because of its awesome price-to-performance ratio)"

"As you can see, Witcher 3 is very modest in its VRAM requirements, which is quite surprising given how beautiful the graphics are. To me this looks like good coding"

 

[haswrong]

"My recommendation for 4K is a GTX 970 SLI (because of its awesome price-to-performance ratio)"

"As you can see, Witcher 3 is very modest in its VRAM requirements, which is quite surprising given how beautiful the graphics are. To me this looks like good coding"

so tell me, is there a qualitative difference from tw and tw2? because i have 4GB kepler graphics card, and id rather prefer swifter performance than reduced texture data. i think i will have to play some older game to have a smoother performance.

 

[Hiryougan]

Downgrade? Please. You just need to play a bit with a rendering.ini file and use SweetFX if you prefer VGX trailer colors.
Check this: http://imgur.com/a/1wecL

 

[RichF]

Downgrade? Please. You just need to play a bit with a rendering.ini file and use SweetFX if you prefer VGX trailer colors.
Check this: http://imgur.com/a/1wecL

Does that bring back the atmospheric detail, smoke, dirt, vegetation detail, and draw distance? The poster's argument is about more than just the "colors". Also, why should people have to rely on a third-party utility in the first place?

 

[Hiryougan]

Does that bring back the atmospheric detail, smoke, dirt, vegetation detail, and draw distance? The poster's argument is about more than just the "colors". Also, why should people have to rely on a third-party utility in the first place?

Except SweetFX there are no 3rd party utilties. Everything is in the config files friend.

 

[bug]

Does that bring back the atmospheric detail, smoke, dirt, vegetation detail, and draw distance? The poster's argument is about more than just the "colors". Also, why should people have to rely on a third-party utility in the first place?

What do you mean "bring back"? They were never there to begin with.
Whatever you saw back in 2013 was obviously a tech-demo or pre-rendered. Neither the GTX980 nor the Radeon 290X existed back then so nobody could accurately predict what would be possible to ship in 2015. One could only guess.