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[RedSwirl]

What's texture downscaling?

 

[SoulClap]

The detection is crap. It said I had about 4 GB of VRAM (I wish).

Can you tell me the rest of your specs and what fps your getting at the beginning?

CPU: Phenom II X4 965 (3.4GHz)
GPU: MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr II 2 GB
RAM: 6 GB
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Settings: Ultra (Ubersampling disabled, VSync disabled in-game, using D3DOverrider)
Driver: CCC 11.4

Framerate: Min - 24, Max - 47, Avg - 33
Location: Kings camp (By The Kings Will)

 

[Sanjay]

Problem fixed fellow SLI users!

I was able to fix the light source issue when using SLI. It does not happen when SLI is not used, only when SLI is in use. But if you go to the program settings and change the SLI rendering mode to "Force alternate frame rendering 2" the light source bleeding through walls disapears. There is also no other issues introduced by using this mode.

Withcer 1 had the same issue and some people suggested to use the alt. 2 rendering, but for me it did not work. Light sources did stop, but it introduced a bunch of other graphical issues and low framerate. I had to use Nvidia Inspector and a custome SLI bit to make it stop having light sources bleed through walls, but with Witcher 2 it does work and in my testing it has not had any issues with performance or any graphical anomolies.

For those not sure what this is, basically light sources like lamps, torches, the sun etc can bleed through walls/enviroment. When it is small light sources suchs as torches, it looks like orbs floating in the walls etc. In other areas like when you are in that giant moving thing that is used to attack the castle walls, the sun's light source is shining into it, which looks like crap. I really did not notice it at first cause I thought it was just a weird light source issue, but when I got farther in the prologue where you are underground and there are torches, I noticed them visible through walls and they look like orbs. When there are alot of them it looks horrible. However this fixes that problem.

So, if you have SLI just do the following:

1. Go to Nvidia Control Panel.
2. Manage 3D Settings
3. Program Settings --> The Witcher 2
4. Go down to SLI Rendering Mode, Select-> Force alternate frame rendering 2
5. Apply Settings
6. Launch Game
7. Enjoy Witcher 2 without light source bleeding through walls!!!

Now, Nvidia needs to fix this themselves so we dont have to do this or newer gamers dont have this issue along with proper SLI support. Sad thing is, this game has Nvidia's name plastered all over it you would thought they would of had proper support for the game.

It does indeed fix the problem, but I noticed lower gpu use and fps. A good quick test would be to try out at the start of chapter 1, outside the boat.

With your fix I got lower gpu usage and was getting 45 fps while without your fix I was getting 60fps with mostly maxed gpu usage. I did have v-sync on though but I don't see how that should affect the result.

Could you try this out your self, let me know if you notice similar drop.

 

[TheExodu5]

What's texture downscaling?

Reduces texture resolution. Try keeping it off as much as possible. It shouldn't affect performance...it only utilized VRAM.

 

[TheExodu5]

Wait...Hawk has been complaining about SLI all this time but hasn't even been using the working profile?

Hawk! Get NVidia Inspector and set up a profile!

@Minsc, you can update my performance with 80-100fps, with SLI working.

 

[~Kinggi~]

Here is a hopeful fix i came up with regarding installing the game off the retail discs with incompatible dvd drives. Shouldnt need another PC or external drives or anything.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27922181&postcount=5606

 

[Xtyle]

how does shadow high compare to ultra? Performance and graphical details wise

 

[Xtyle]

Hey, just wanted to throw this out there to see if helps anyone. In the User config file, there's a setting called Allocate Texture Memory or something like that. On High settings, it was set to 400 (I assume megs), so I changed it to 800 and I'm getting far less stuttering.

For reference, my HTPC is running a q9300 @ 3.0ghz, 8gb of DDR3, and a Radeon 6950 2GB (unlocked shaders + OC).

Curious if this helps anyone. Want to make sure I'm not falling for a placebo effect.

I can't find the Allocate Texture Memory setting on the user config

 

[chickdigger802]

core 2 quad q9550 non oc

gtx 460 768mb (oc 840mhz)

4 gb ram

Doing high with the heavy stuff off. Going around 30-35 in the forest areas. ~25 in the harbor town.

I just feel that something is off. Got beta drivers, no 3d drivers, no uber, etc. but still can't get it smooth without it looking bad, even low I get around ~30. T_T

I emailed the support fellas and they asked for my dxdiag so I emailed it to them.

Will report later if they respond.

 

[Snapshot King]

So yeah, going to get a new PC on a budget. Can any of you learned folks tell me what kind of performance I could expect from this PC in the guide linked in the op? http://techreport.com/articles.x/20722/2

Thanks!

 

[Truant]

Will creating a custom profile work better than altering a predefined one? I can't seem to get the new SLI bits to work with altering the default one.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Game is working great here with a i7 950 and a geforce 460 (installed those new beta drivers before I started playing). Working from the ultra preset, I bumped up the texture resolution, disabled aa, blur effects, depth of field gameplay, SSAO, motion blur, ubersampling, and v-sync (forcing v-synce and triple buffering with d3doverrider). In Flotsam now and it's still running smoothly. I think it's rather humorous that the game has a higher framerate and loads faster than The Witcher 1 on the same computer.

 

[Hawk269]

Wait...Hawk has been complaining about SLI all this time but hasn't even been using the working profile?

Hawk! Get NVidia Inspector and set up a profile!

@Minsc, you can update my performance with 80-100fps, with SLI working.

Perhaps you missed my response Exodus, this "fix" does not work for me. I have Inspector and have used it before. On my setup, modifing the Bit code does not give me better performance or full GPU usage. I do get full GPU usage if I turn UBER ON, but even with UBER On I get around 35 FPS or so, plus major light source bleeding.

Beleive me, I tried it before you even posted that. I was hoping to have the same results you have and that is in NON UBER mode I would get solid 60fps, but alas, it only ramps up GPU usage in Uber mode with that code and that code introduces the light source problem for me.

And to be clear, a working profile would not introduce light source bleeding like it does for almost everyone that uses that code. I know on the Nvidia forums a guy has 3x480's and my fix to elimate the light source issue does not work for him but it works for me when using the standard profile.

Also a few people on other forums that have 580's as well are also stating what I am saying in that profile with Inpector and the bit change only maxes GPU when in Uber mode.

 

[Hawk269]

It does indeed fix the problem, but I noticed lower gpu use and fps. A good quick test would be to try out at the start of chapter 1, outside the boat.

With your fix I got lower gpu usage and was getting 45 fps while without your fix I was getting 60fps with mostly maxed gpu usage. I did have v-sync on though but I don't see how that should affect the result.

Could you try this out your self, let me know if you notice similar drop.

After responding to Exodus above and reading all the stuff I have been reading, it is clearly apparent that it is different for each card we have. While no one i know that has 580's this modified profile works, people I know that have other cards they do work.

For me, without using the inspector modified SLI profile, I get 55-60fps with some drops to 50fps at times. I also modified via Nvidia Control panel the Alt. Frame 2 and have had zero performance loss.

What I did test is this. I used that Inspector Profile and turned on Uber settings. When I played I would get around 35 FPS with some spikes and drops, but mainly 35fps. However I had the light bleeding issue. When I modified to use Alt. Frame 2 I took a 10-15fps hit, which puts it in the ballpark of what you are experiencing when trying to use the Alt. Frame 2 to fix the light bleeding issue.

So, it seems like depending on what card you have that modified profile acts differently. For you, you get 60fps solid without Uber and almost full GPU load. For me with 580's I get 55-60fps with drops to 50 without Uber, plus I get light source bleeding and my GPU load is still in the 40-50's.

 

[Sanjay]

Yeah really is weird. I have the 2x460 and Exodus has 2x570 so a lot of inconsistency right now. Hopefully we get a universal fix with a new patch from Nvidia.

 

[Hawk269]

Well another night and another test's to get this game running better. I swear, this is the most bizarre game I have seen. Get this...

I have tried everything in the book to get solid 60FPS on SLI 580's. Tried the Nvidia Inspector with the Bit Code and it does nothing for me and the 580's. But, I did find something that did work and just got done playing over an hour at solid 60fps without any drops.

All I did was turn everything to enabled with the exception of Uber, Vysnc and Dangling Objects, those three are disabled.

Texture memory is set to Very Large, Shadow quality and Lights to Ultra, LOD Distance to Far and liek I said everything else to Enabled.

Now originally, I had Motion Blur, Blur Effects, Bloom and DOF- Gameplay to off cause I personally at first did not prefer those effects. So the entire time I was playing with those on off. After doing all the testing I did with the modified SLI profiles and all the b.s., I decided to just let it ride on what the pre-set had originally enabled, then bumped up the LOD and Texture Memory.

Vsync and Tripple Buff is forced through the Control Panel...but for some uknown reason, it improved my framerate. When you read the Txt file alot of the DOF and Blur Effects are stated to have a GPU and or CPU impact, but for some bizarre reason, leaving them all on it improved performance. I can only think of what some others have stated, that there are otehr things being turned on/off depending on what configuration you set..who knows, but I am glad it is working. The only other thing I did was modify the SLI Rendering to get rid of the light source bleeding issue.

Oh and to be clear, SLI is still an issue. This new solid 60fps I get, regardless if I have SLI enabled or if I go with just one card, I am still getting 60fps. The only thing that SLI does for me is in the games cinematics. If I use only 1 card, cinematics drop in FPS to about 30 or so. In SLI they stay at 60fps.

 

[Corky]

Well another night

Hawk, here's what I wrote a couple of pages ago

Alright this is getting wierd.

These are 3 graphs of (one of) my gpus running in sli with the new sli-bits ( that give me that annoying lightsource bleed or w/e).

Ok so here's the deal.


Graph one : everything ultra, except : no ssao, LoD normal and texture size high. ( notice that these lower settings somehow amounted to higher gpuusage at times spiking the ceiling )
Graph two : every setting on max, no uber
Graph three : every setting max, uber on.

And here's the conundrum ( no v-sync, d3dovr ) :

Fps 1 : 50-60
Fps 2 : 67-100 depending on virtually nothing, staring at the same vista the entire time!
Fps 3 : 30-40

Why do I get much higher fps when I crank up the settings? Why can I "feel" ingame that my gpu usage freaks out and gives me waay different results? Why is there almost an measly 10fps difference at times between the first gimped ultra setting and everything max + uber ?

 

[Phloxy]

Well another night and another test's to get this game running better. I swear, this is the most bizarre game I have seen. Get this...

I have tried everything in the book to get solid 60FPS on SLI 580's. Tried the Nvidia Inspector with the Bit Code and it does nothing for me and the 580's. But, I did find something that did work and just got done playing over an hour at solid 60fps without any drops.

All I did was turn everything to enabled with the exception of Uber, Vysnc and Dangling Objects, those three are disabled.

Texture memory is set to Very Large, Shadow quality and Lights to Ultra, LOD Distance to Far and liek I said everything else to Enabled.

Now originally, I had Motion Blur, Blur Effects, Bloom and DOF- Gameplay to off cause I personally at first did not prefer those effects. So the entire time I was playing with those on off. After doing all the testing I did with the modified SLI profiles and all the b.s., I decided to just let it ride on what the pre-set had originally enabled, then bumped up the LOD and Texture Memory.

Vsync and Tripple Buff is forced through the Control Panel...but for some uknown reason, it improved my framerate. When you read the Txt file alot of the DOF and Blur Effects are stated to have a GPU and or CPU impact, but for some bizarre reason, leaving them all on it improved performance. I can only think of what some others have stated, that there are otehr things being turned on/off depending on what configuration you set..who knows, but I am glad it is working. The only other thing I did was modify the SLI Rendering to get rid of the light source bleeding issue.

Oh and to be clear, SLI is still an issue. This new solid 60fps I get, regardless if I have SLI enabled or if I go with just one card, I am still getting 60fps. The only thing that SLI does for me is in the games cinematics. If I use only 1 card, cinematics drop in FPS to about 30 or so. In SLI they stay at 60fps.

Have you tried un-installing the 3d vision drivers?

 

[Hawk269]

Have you tried un-installing the 3d vision drivers?

Oh yeah. I tried everything. But as of right now, I am good man. I just played a bit more right now and no drops in FPS. I am at a solid 60FPS, Ultra and everything set as high as possible with the exception of Uber. So, for now I am good. I know that the SLI is not 100% right now, but if they do improve it perhaps Uber is in the cards for me when they do get things working better.

Now granted I am still early and I have no idea if there are some really intensive areas ahead of me that will make the GPU hurt, but for right now a solid 60fps even if SLI is not doing what it normally does, I am fine. The only thing that will get me to change anything is if they improve driver/sli to where I can play in Uber mode at 60fps.

 

[BoobPhysics101]

For any of you on an old 8800 GT/9800 GT/GTX+ or other various old hardware that doesn't want to spend a shitload upgrading for better performance, I found a nice deal for you

For less than $110, you can get a Radeon 5830 1 GB:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102878

It's in between the performance of a 5770 and 5850, so it's way faster than the old 8800 GT etc. It's comparable to a GeForce 460 GTX while still being cheaper (about $25 less). It's also less than the new 6790 while being faster in most cases.Spending any more than that will have diminishing returns unless you're dropping $250~ on a 6950 2 GB.

 

[godhandiscen]

Wait...Hawk has been complaining about SLI all this time but hasn't even been using the working profile?

Hawk! Get NVidia Inspector and set up a profile!

http://thejayzone.com/pics/witcher2/inspector.png

@Minsc, you can update my performance with 80-100fps, with SLI working.

I get the awesome performance, but this profile lets some light sources go through objects I tried forcing AFR2 as another poster suggested with no results. :/

 

[Corky]

Tried the new sli-bits.
V-sync/d3dover everything max , no uber balblalba

SLI off :

SLI on :

 

[Truant]

I'd murder for 45fps.

My GTX295 really should handle it.

 

[Lime]

Anyone know how to disable the HUD? Like a hotkey or a config edit?

 

[metareferential]

Guys, since the thread is moving quite fast, how did the guy whose pc basically rendered completely black scenes ore strange images solve the problem? I have a friend with the same issue, on this config: E6600 2.4 ghz dual core, 3 gb ram, hd5770 1gb ram.

This is what he's seeing: http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/114129361-4.jpg

I'd murder for 45fps.

My GTX295 really should handle it.

Did you try the 3d-vision trick? It worked for me.

 

[Minsc]

Guys, since the thread is moving quite fast, how did the guy whose pc basically rendered completely black scenes ore strange images solve the problem? I have a friend with the same issue, on this config: E6600 2.4 ghz dual core, 3 gb ram, hd5770 1gb ram.

This is what he's seeing: http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/114129361-4.jpg



Did you try the 3d-vision trick? It worked for me.

That's the you forced AA in your drivers and shouldn't have error, go to CCC or nVidia's drivers and turn off AA.

 

[Truant]

Setting up my custom profile. It defaults to 4 on "Numer of GPUs used", but I only have two. Does it matter, or will it just scale to 2?

 

[scitek]

Well another night and another test's to get this game running better. I swear, this is the most bizarre game I have seen. Get this...

I have tried everything in the book to get solid 60FPS on SLI 580's. Tried the Nvidia Inspector with the Bit Code and it does nothing for me and the 580's. But, I did find something that did work and just got done playing over an hour at solid 60fps without any drops.

All I did was turn everything to enabled with the exception of Uber, Vysnc and Dangling Objects, those three are disabled.

Texture memory is set to Very Large, Shadow quality and Lights to Ultra, LOD Distance to Far and liek I said everything else to Enabled.

Now originally, I had Motion Blur, Blur Effects, Bloom and DOF- Gameplay to off cause I personally at first did not prefer those effects. So the entire time I was playing with those on off. After doing all the testing I did with the modified SLI profiles and all the b.s., I decided to just let it ride on what the pre-set had originally enabled, then bumped up the LOD and Texture Memory.

Vsync and Tripple Buff is forced through the Control Panel...but for some uknown reason, it improved my framerate. When you read the Txt file alot of the DOF and Blur Effects are stated to have a GPU and or CPU impact, but for some bizarre reason, leaving them all on it improved performance. I can only think of what some others have stated, that there are otehr things being turned on/off depending on what configuration you set..who knows, but I am glad it is working. The only other thing I did was modify the SLI Rendering to get rid of the light source bleeding issue.

Oh and to be clear, SLI is still an issue. This new solid 60fps I get, regardless if I have SLI enabled or if I go with just one card, I am still getting 60fps. The only thing that SLI does for me is in the games cinematics. If I use only 1 card, cinematics drop in FPS to about 30 or so. In SLI they stay at 60fps.

If everything else being maxed includes Texture Downscaling being set to High, then maybe that's why it runs smoother.

 

[delirium]

For those that double dip for this game, can people install both the retail and GoG version to see if one is giving better performance because the lack of DRM?

 

[metareferential]

That's the you forced AA in your drivers and shouldn't have error, go to CCC or nVidia's drivers and turn off AA.

Thank you, solved everything.

 

[Sullen]

Just out of curiosity: What kind of machine can actually run this with everything on ultra and uber sampling and all that other nice stuff on?

Edit: by run it I mean at 25+ fps

 

[metareferential]

Just out of curiosity: What kind of machine can actually run this with everything on ultra and uber sampling and all that other nice stuff on?

Edit: by run it I mean at 25+ fps

Well, at 720p I get constant 50-55 fps.

At 1680x1050 I'm at 18-25. xD

i5 quad and gtx480.

But still, 1080p and ultra without ubersampling is a stunner.

 

[Truant]

Have anyone tried nHancer? It's pretty powerful when it comes to adding compability checks to the SLI profiles. I'm gonna try it tonight.

 

[BoobPhysics101]

Have anyone tried nHancer? It's pretty powerful when it comes to adding compability checks to the SLI profiles. I'm gonna try it tonight.

Use Nvidia Inspector instead. Nhancer is outdated and NVidia Inspector offers the same functionality + more.

 

[Corky]

I've been following this thread and I've seen lots of nice screenshots, with uber on and off. But I don't recall seeing a direct comparision so I thought I'd snap two quick shots for those who are wondering what kind of difference uber makes. I used my regular settings : everything enabled + triplebuffering + 16x AF :

Uber off :

Uber on :

The difference in lighting is due to the dynamic day/night cycle. If you open both screens and flick quickly through them you'll notice the groundtextures on uber are abit sharper. And the only way I've been able to tell between the two ingame has been the reduction in shadowdithering in cutscenes and obviously the framerate. Frankly, under no circumstance would I trade 50-70% performance for ever so slightly sharper textures.

 

[The Dutch Slayer]

ok so maybe someone can help me also.

I can´t read the damm text in this game its so small :|
The tutorial stuff that pop's up as soon as you come out of your tent.
Its impossible to read ! :O

Is their an .ini setting for text font?

 

[Truant]

Use Nvidia Inspector instead. Nhancer is outdated and NVidia Inspector offers the same functionality + more.

I know it's outdated, but unless I'm wrong you can add more SLI compability bits to each profile. This helped me A LOT during the Dragon Age launch period, where the nVidia hadn't yet released proper SLI profiles.

 

[Lime]

Has anyone gotten AMD's AA override to work yet? Through Radeonpro or whatever? The game's AA isn't that satisfactory.

 

[Fredescu]

- Nvidia owners should trying installing drivers without 3D drivers, may improve performance drastically on older drivers.

I have the latest drivers (270.61) and a GTX570 and removing the 3D drivers got me an extra 20-30fps. Amazing. This fix definitely does not apply to older drivers only.

 

[Sciel]

Not sure what exactly happened but i installed the 11.5a hotfix from
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33977265

My FPS just went went from 20-30 beforehand up to 55-60 fps on ultra with SSAO, motion blur & Ubersampling disabled. Beforehand i was getting shit while even at low settings ( running on a i7-920 and a 6850)

1600x900 = 55-60 FPS
1920 x 1080 = 45-55 FPS

 

[Truant]

Not sure what exactly happened but i installed the 11.5a hotfix from
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33977265

My FPS just went went from 20-30 beforehand up to 55-60 fps on ultra with SSAO, motion blur & Ubersampling disabled. Beforehand i was getting shit while even at low settings ( running on a i7-920 and a 6850)

This proves that CPU bottlenecking is definitely NOT an issue with 920 users, so we can finally put that to rest. Thank you!

 

[Krauser Kat]

Locked my game to 30fps solid. Has not dipped a bit with doube sync. Will totally try this new update though. Happy my 4890 is still chugging.

 

[Echoplx]

Has anyone done direct comparisons between the 270.61 and 275.27 drivers?

 

[Dascu]

Locked my game to 30fps solid. Has not dipped a bit with doube sync. Will totally try this new update though. Happy my 4890 is still chugging.

You're on a 4890? What's your CPU and what are your game settings?

 

[pahamrick]

Has anyone gotten AMD's AA override to work yet? Through Radeonpro or whatever? The game's AA isn't that satisfactory.

ATI users are going to need a new driver for Witcher 2, so hopefully they fix forcing AA in it. With any luck, the new drivers and CAP profile will make performance for crossfire and single gpu users jump.

I did a quick benchmark with crossfire off, then with crossfire on with about 5 different crossfire profiles, so here's a quick analysis for folks with 5800/5900 series ATI cards.

With CFX off avg FPS was 42 in the bottom floor of the basement in Flotsam, near the fist fighters.

Now, here's the kicker. I tested 5 different crossfire profiles (Dirt 2, Dirt 3, FEAR, and the 2 generic profiles) and all 5 gave me roughly the same average give or take 1-2 FPS and a few graphical errors..

With CFX on, in the same area, avg FPS was 46.

That's on a i7 920 OC to 3.6ghz HT On, 6 gigs of ram, CF 5870s.

One would think, once ATI pushes out the new drivers and cap update that folks with the newer 6800/6900 series cards in CFX should be able to get playable frame rates with ubersampling enabled.

 

[brotkasten]

CPU: Phenom II X4 965 (3.4GHz)
GPU: MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr II 2 GB
RAM: 6 GB
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Settings: Ultra (Ubersampling disabled, VSync disabled in-game, using D3DOverrider)
Driver: CCC 11.4

Framerate: Min - 24, Max - 47, Avg - 33
Location: Kings camp (By The Kings Will)

Thanks. Maybe my FPS aren't that off.

I think I'll wait for a new AMD driver before I continue playing the game. I'm not really satisfied with the performance.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

EVGA GTX 560 Ti (no oc)
i5 750
4GB RAM
High settings determined by launcher 1920x1080p
New Nvidia Beta drivers

FPS in early parts of prologue from 31-45 FPS

Turned off vertical sync, SSAO, bloom, and motion blur.

34-48 FPS.

 

[Refreshment.01]

So yeah, going to get a new PC on a budget. Can any of you learned folks tell me what kind of performance I could expect from this PC in the guide linked in the op? http://techreport.com/articles.x/20722/2

Thanks!

There's a very good pc thread floting around the forums, better place for recomendations. But doing a quick browse:
Video card: Go for a 6870 instead.
Power supply: Try for a 550w-650w range. Really important because it'll allow future upgrades.

Hope it helps.

 

[mxgt]

i5 2500k @ 4.4ghz
GTX 570 OC'd to 900/1850
4GB ram
1920x1080
Newest beta drivers with no 3d vision

Everything on ultra except no motion blur, no DOF in cutscenes and no ubersampling.

Just started the game and get anywhere from 30-60 in cutscenes (usually around 45) and it doesn't seem to drop below 50fps ingame. Solid 60 fps a lot of the time.

Quite impressed with how amazing it looks.

 

[TheExodu5]

The difference in lighting is due to the dynamic day/night cycle. If you open both screens and flick quickly through them you'll notice the groundtextures on uber are abit sharper. And the only way I've been able to tell between the two ingame has been the reduction in shadowdithering in cutscenes and obviously the framerate. Frankly, under no circumstance would I trade 50-70% performance for ever so slightly sharper textures.

It's much more noticeable in game. Uber pretty much eliminates all aliasing and texture shimmering. I wouldn't use it with today's hardware, but I'm glad the option is there so I can use it in a few years.