The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Adds Performance Mode for Ray-Traced Global Illumination

[Tsing]

Some PC players have argued that the next-gen version of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt runs a lot worse with ray tracing enabled, but CD PROJEKT RED has rolled out a new patch that may help affected users cope with that. A list of changes for Patch 4.01 can confirm that a new performance mode for ray-traced global illumination has been created for the PC version of the game, designed to improve frame rate by prioritizing performance over range and precision. The update also improves ray tracing performance in the console versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

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[DrezKill]

Well the ray-tracing is less of a problem than DX12 in general. If you leave the graphics settings exactly the same between DX11 and DX12, just switching to the DX12 API alone tanks the framerate.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I look forward to testing this on both rigs but especially the 3700X. I've been tempted to install that mod for it that drops ray counts to something more manageable just to see if it becomes playable on something other than a 4090.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Well, I want to say good things about this but just can't. I finished the bonus mission last night. With DLSS on ultra-performance, which is mostly a downgrade, and then this RT performance setting, my hybrid-liquid cooled 3090 Ti that runs at ~2040-2085 Mhz, was averaging 55-75 FPS in the caves but once I got back outside it dropped to 35-45 again. My next experiment will be trying that mod that reduces the ray count. It really is a shame because using these settings pretty much defeats the purpose of the enhanced edition. I honestly think, for players with anything less than a 4090, you're better off playing the non-enhanced version but use Halk Hogan's latest mod pack. It really is fantastic and as simple as one install and go.