[Digital Foundry] The Witcher 3 Next-Gen - PS5 vs Xbox Series X - DF Tech Review - RT and Performance Modes Tested!

Lunatic_Gamer

Lunatic_Gamer

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The verdict on this Complete Edition of The Witcher 3 - with a focus on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. The ray tracing upgrades seriously impress here, as does the boosted foliage setting when compared to the last-gen PS4 Pro. And yet there are glaring issues with this release's frame-rate - which goes well under 30fps in the ray-tracing mode on PS5 especially. Add in the higher input latency and crashes on both premium consoles, and it's clearly a project with room to improve.

Note: input lag results include display latency at 22ms. Factor that out and you have 70ms in performance mode, 135ms in RT mode.

www.eurogamer.net

The Witcher 3 next-gen: ray tracing and performance modes tested on PS5 and Xbox Series X

Seven years since its first release, the new The Witcher 3 Complete Edition aims to enhance an already iconic game with…
www.eurogamer.net www.eurogamer.net
 
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I just played this game just now in performance mode.
When i was fighting an elemental golem, the frame rate suddenly plummeted to less than 15fps when the golem slam the ground, weird
 
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Summary:

General:
- PS5|SX have RT and Performance mode. Series S coverage will follow in later video.
- DF were told another patch will come soon to improve performance further on consoles
- RT improvements can vary from stark to barely notable depending on area
- RT includes RTAO and RTGI.
- RT mode also adds higher quality SSR compared to Performance mode
- DF were told by CDPR that enabling RT Reflections in combination with AO and GI would have been too taxing for consoles so they selectively chose what to add.
- On both modes, draw distances, texture resolution, shadow quality is vastly improved over last-gen

Resolution:
- In RT mode: PS5|SX target dynamic 1440p with FSR2.1 to scale to 2160p
- Perf mode targets dynamic 2160p (with lowest lows of 1080p) with FSR 2.1

Performance Mode:
- Series X often runs higher resolution in Performance mode (1440p to 1800p in same area)
- PS5 has foliage and shadow maps draw in farther distance than Series X. Series X can also exhibit minor tearing on the top portion of the screen
- Frame rate on either console can be ahead a few frames in different areas (eg Novigrad traversal shows PS5 a few frames higher and other combat areas and cut-scenes show SX a few frames higher)

RT Mode:
- In RT mode the frame rate runs at sustained 25 FPS in various areas on PS5 in world traversal
- RT mode also has a significantly higher input lag by comparison which makes this mode less responsive to play
- Series X is generally runs better than PS5 in RT mode with a stable 30 in world traversal and similar to PS5 in Novigrad

Conclusion:
- DF preferred playing the game in Performance mode.
- DF encountered multiple crashes in their testing and are hopeful the next patch will remedy this.
- PS5 and SX have significantly faster loading times (13 and 16 seconds) versus last gen (1 minute + on PS4 Pro)
 
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Markio128 said:
No clear winner here, but I'm happy with PS5 performance mode, especially when it comes to pop-in compared to Series X.
Click to expand...

Worth noting that the NXGamer video was done on patch 4.0 and in his video he showed the PS5 version having worse pop-in and Series having a farther distance.

This DF video is based on the 4.1 patch (and another one is coming soon).

Looks like the latest patch fixed the issue on PS5 but made it worse on Xbox.

Probably the next one will align it on both.
 
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Played a few minutes on both, and PS5 was marred with frametime spikes on the initial tutorial section + bar fight, while XSX did OK. Other than that, performance doesn't look too stable on XSX.

RT mode is terrible.
 
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adamsapple said:
Worth noting that the NXGamer video was done on patch 4.0 and in his video he showed the PS5 version having worse pop-in and Series having a farther distance.

This DF video is based on the 4.1 patch (and another one is coming soon).

Looks like the latest patch fixed the issue on PS5 but made it worse on Xbox.

Probably the next one will align it on both.
Click to expand...
Hopefully - if they can eke out slightly better performance on both, then I can't complain. But to be honest, even if the new patch helps the PS5 RT mode run at 30fps, I still wouldn't bother with it.
 
dj khaled GIF by Worldstar Hip Hop
 
Haven't had any crashes on PS5 I haven't tried the series x version yet I might play the DLC's there. I don't think either system is being fully taken advantage of but I'm still impressed
 
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The one thing, that is out of DF's scope, is that I hope people were able to get the complete version before the patch.

cause it was frequently on sale for $9.99 on both PS and Xbox stores.

But as soon as the patch came out, the price got increased to $24.99 on sale and $30 regular.

A bit scummy but understandable.
 
PS5 pretty clear winner for performance with better draw distance, foliage, no screen tearing.

XsX pretty clear winner with RT better performance overall.
 
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adamsapple said:
Summary:

General:
- PS5|SX have RT and Performance mode. Series S coverage will follow in later video.
- DF were told another patch will come soon to improve performance further on consoles
- RT improvements can vary from stark to barely notable depending on area
- RT includes RTAO and RTGI.
- RT mode also adds higher quality SSR compared to Performance mode
- DF were told by CDPR that enabling RT Reflections in combination with AO and GI would have been too taxing for consoles so they selectively chose what to add.
- On both modes, draw distances, texture resolution, shadow quality is vastly improved over last-gen

Resolution:
- In RT mode: PS5|SX target dynamic 1440p with FSR2.1 to scale to 2160p
- Perf mode targets dynamic 2160p (with lowest lows of 1080p) with FSR 2.1

Performance Mode:
- Series X often runs higher resolution in Performance mode (1440p to 1800p in same area)
- PS5 has foliage and shadow maps draw in farther distance than Series X. Series X can also exhibit minor tearing on the top portion of the screen
- Frame rate on either console can be ahead a few frames in different areas (eg Novigrad traversal shows PS5 a few frames higher and other combat areas and cut-scenes show SX a few frames higher)

RT Mode:
- In RT mode the frame rate runs at sustained 25 FPS in various areas on PS5 in world traversal
- RT mode also has a significantly higher input lag by comparison which makes this mode less responsive to play
- Series X is generally runs better than PS5 in RT mode with a stable 30 in world traversal and similar to PS5 in Novigrad

Conclusion:
- DF preferred playing the game in Performance mode.
- DF encountered multiple crashes in their testing and are hopeful the next patch will remedy this.
- PS5 and SX have significantly faster loading times (13 and 16 seconds) versus last gen (1 minute + on PS4 Pro)
Click to expand...

Series X the clear winner for RT. Series X if you prefer a higher resolution in Performance mode, PS5 if you prefer higher settings at a lower resolution in Performance mode.
 
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RT mode in PS5 is unplayable. Even if it hits 30fps it feels like 20. Geralt animation feels like if it was skipping animation frames, like Spiderman Spider-verse but not intentionally and not it the good way.

(I copy paste this message from the other thread as it will be closed)
 
TonyK said:
RT mode in PS5 is unplayable. Even if it hits 30fps it feels like 20. Geralt animation feels like if it was skipping animation frames, like Spiderman Spider-verse but not intentionally and not it the good way.

(I copy paste this message from the other thread as it will be closed)
Click to expand...

They really wanted to emulate that Witcher 3 launch experience.
 
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TonyK said:
RT mode in PS5 is unplayable. Even if it hits 30fps it feels like 20. Geralt animation feels like if it was skipping animation frames, like Spiderman Spider-verse but not intentionally and not it the good way.
Click to expand...
Agreed, even when it does reach 30fps it's extremely choppy. I don't think I've ever seen another game where animations look choppy at 30fps when standing still with zero camera movement. Something has gone terribly wrong in that mode.

darrylgorn said:
They really wanted to emulate that Witcher 3 launch experience.
Click to expand...
Funny thing is, I ran the PS4 version of the game back to back and it feels fine at also 30fps. This goes far beyond framerate/ framepacing/ latency.
 
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It's alrightish on PS5 in performance mode. It's meh on Xbox.

It sucks on PS5 in RT mode. It's meh on Xbox.

The only way to get RT and keep decent performance is with an RTX 40 GPU with frame generation. On everything else, even fairly powerful rigs with 3090 Tis/7900 XTX, the frame times with RT are just too awful and there's no way getting around the frame drops, even with DLSS.

The next best thing is PC running DX11.
 
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RT mode in Witcher 3 feels just awful to play. You can tell right away in the first scene. It doesn't feel like 30fps at all, and I say this as someone who has played 30fps games (Arkham Knight, Demons Souls PS5) right before this one. It's not acceptable especially since we've been waiting a year for this patch. The 60fps mode does play very well though.
 
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chilleverest said:
What mode are you guys playing on (consoles) ?
Click to expand...
I want to play in RT mode in PS5 so I stopped until a patch fixes the framerate to 30. I don't think I could replay it in performance mode because the graphical improve in that mode is not enough for me to justify a second 200 hours playthrough.
 
Gaiff said:
It's alrightish on PS5 in performance mode. It's meh on Xbox.

It sucks on PS5 in RT mode. It's meh on Xbox.

The only way to get RT and keep decent performance is with an RTX 40 GPU with frame generation. On everything else, even fairly powerful rigs with 3090 Tis/7900 XTX, the frame times with RT are just too awful and there's no way getting around the frame drops, even with DLSS.

The next best thing is PC running DX11.
Click to expand...
Performance on my 3080 is even worse than Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk i can at least run at a solid 60 fps if i drop down to dlss performance at 4k. this thing, 1440p isnt enough to get more than 30 fps in the city. its roughly 55 fps in the open world but the moment you enter the smallest of settlements with like 10 people, framerate tanks to 30.

frankly its unplayable and doesnt even look as good as some of the mods i had installed.
 
Performance mode seems nice considering it's a free update to an old game. The visual improvements, better foliage and specially the increased draw distance go a long way in making it look nice.

RT as usually doesn't seem worth the performance sacrifices. I've yet to see a RT that's worth it on anything but a high end PC GPU
 
SlimySnake said:
Performance on my 3080 is even worse than Cyberpunk. Cyberpunk i can at least run at a solid 60 fps if i drop down to dlss performance at 4k. this thing, 1440p isnt enough to get more than 30 fps in the city. its roughly 55 fps in the open world but the moment you enter the smallest of settlements with like 10 people, framerate tanks to 30.

frankly its unplayable and doesnt even look as good as some of the mods i had installed.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it sucks pretty hard. The only way I can play it is with frame generation but then this doesn't make the shadows/texture/characters pop-ins go away. There are also multiple other visual glitches such as smoke rendering incorrectly, and particle effect visual artifacts.

Good thing CD Projekt Red is moving to UE5, the Red engine seems terrible. I just hope to god the shader compilation stutter problems are fixed by the time UE5 sees widespread adoption.
 
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PS5 added 1440p as an output option a while back, didn't it?
If so, then CDPR should allow the option on both machines to turn off FSR2.1 (which has a moderate performance penalty) in RT mode and just output a native 1440p (for those with 1440p monitors). Removing the FSR overhead might help boost performance enough to stabilize the framerate at 30fps most of the time. The image quality might be a bit softer with just standard image scaling (when DSR kicks in), but I think it would be worth it for a more consistent framerate.
 
All I can say is that I played for somewhere around 10 hours on Sunday on PS5 in RT mode and had zero crashes and only minor-minor visual glitches/pop-ins. The framerate didn't seem too bad to me with motion blur enabled. But I'm incredibly tolerant of low framerates, so that helps.

And the whole time, my PS5 was dead silent.

Really feels like an all new game and I'm having a lot of fun with it.
 
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I booted this up two days ago and it looked the same and I could not find any graphics options. Is there a secret or something?
 
That draw distance on XsX is pretty disappointing. I was considering another play through, but i think i'll just wait until i build a new rtx5000 PC in a couple years. Hopefully the patch will be even better by then.
 
M1chl said:
Mainly getting rid of that DX11 > DX12 wrapper. Disgusting, they had so much time.
Click to expand...
The thing is: they kinda didnt

Port was being made by Saber before Putin fucking up the world with the war

So CDPR had to take the patch development from Saber, throw everything into the trash and develop the patch fast , from scratch, in order to deliver it in time for the holidays to please investors

So they had to cut a lot of corners, obviously. And they should absolutely be criticized for it.

Worst thing that happened to CDPR was becoming a publicly traded company. They now have to rush development to please investors, and this is what fucked Cyberpunk, now Witcher, and probably their next projects.
 
I don't have time to watch this yet. Anything about the dynamic res making it blurry and soft for a second when talking to someone, then normal, then soft yadda yadda yadda.
 
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