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[IronRinn]

Played for a bit yesterday. As mentioned before I'm running:

i5 2500K (stock)
SLI 970s (overclocked beyond MSI's overclock)
16 GB RAM
Windows 7

Running at 1080p with everything on Ultra (except for chromatic aberration). I'm getting a steady 60 fps, with occasional quick drops into the mid 50s, but I'm only beginning the first contract with the griffon, so I may not have hit a resource intensive area yet. If things continue to run fine I may see if I can push the resolution up a notch. Without the fps limit I was getting 70-80 so I think I have a little headroom.

What I have found is my crashes seem to center around the in-engine cutscenes. It was crashing at the very beginning pre-patch where the scene of Geralt in the tub starts and then later I had a second crash after the conversation with the innkeeper at the very beginning which was the beginning of another in-engine cutscene. We'll see how things go this weekend when I can put some serious time into it.

 

[Corpekata]

Since the patch has anyone re-enabled their overclocks and seen if it plays nicer with them?

 

[0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55]

No issues with my oc and the latest patch

 

[SirMossyBloke]

Since the patch has anyone re-enabled their overclocks and seen if it plays nicer with them?

Yes. It crashed within 2 minutes during a conversation.

 

[LordAmused]

Since the patch has anyone re-enabled their overclocks and seen if it plays nicer with them?

Yup, works good here.

 

[billmcdougal]

I have a 7850 oc'd to 1100 core 1350 mem.

Before patch, I was getting 99.x% gpu utilization. After patch I haven't broke 90%.

I'm capped at 30, but I'm pretty sure I was capped at 30 during one of my sessions that read at 99.x%.

I wonder if it increased performance and I should increase some settings.

 

[kinggroin]

Somewhat related...


...but do you guys feel like future gaming will want more threads/cores vs faster per core performance (and less of them)?


I ask because my Phenom IIx4 is being given to my kids and I'll be getting an FX8350. Just curious if that CPU will actually perform better in today's games than it did when it first launched.


Gracias.


Also, anyone here with one can comment on performance in Witcher 3?

 

[spuckthew]

Got the same card, just did some testing and setting everything to ultra with hairworks off does seem to give me a steady 30 FPS most of the time, but riding around Velen occasionally caused drops to 26 or so. With shadows and foliage range set to high, I get a rock-solid 30 FPS, so I'm going with that.

I'm doing this now too (also 680). I noticed that, even with foliage on High, I would occasionally get dips in more demanding areas, but High shadows gave me enough performance back to maintain 30fps at all times (so far least).

Also I totally didn't notice the game had a quick save button...I've been going menu -> save all the time! ;D

 

[Gbraga]

Not sure if it was yesterday's patch or disabling stream service or both, but my performance seemed to be quite a bit better on a 680 last night. I could even use Hairworks at 30fps if I so desire, or keep almost everything on ultra (Shadows and Foliage Distance on High) and play at a rock solid 30 (or 40~50, from the 15~20 minutes I tested without capping it).

I'm even more happy with the performance than I was before.

The new sharpen is terrible, but whatever, the new sharpen is still in as "low sharpen", and I liked it a lot.

Still no crashes or anything, so my only two complains left are camera stuttering and I still can't figure out how to make the steam overlay work. Activating custom Direct3D on RTSS didn't work.

I don't even mind the Steam chat or achievements, in fact, I'm glad I'm not having pop ups while playing, but the ability to pause cutscenes will certainly be missed sooner or later.

Gotta love this card, thinking about sticking with it at least until 2016 now. I was expecting to upgrade last year, but so far, so good.

 

[V1LÆM]

Not had a problem with my overclock with a 290.

 

[tuxfool]

Not had a problem with my overclock with a 290.

Me neither. Honestly it is weird for me to see all these complaints about crashes and bad performance. This game has super stable for me OC and all. In my case games aren't always that stable.

 

[datamage]

Has anyone gotten DS4Windows profiles to work with this game? I've noticed that my touchpad setup doesn't work.

 

[Gumbie]

Haven't had any crashes yet, but damn it gets my 780ti cookin. Reference cooler sounds like it's going to fly out of the case.

 

[kazinova]

i7-3770k @ 3.5ghz
8gb RAM
eVGA GTX 970 ACX 2.0

Currently getting 0fps as the GPU is stuck with a code 10 (Device won't initialize) that I can't fix. Anywho, the graphics in Safe Mode suck, am disappoint...

 

[kencey]

That's fine, the prologue was ok, but Velen is a much bigger area, probably that's part of the problem. Also I don't really get why does it load so much reloading the same area, almost everything same but a minute earlier...

True, i was like "this game has amazing loading times i dont even need to move it to my ssd" but then i got to Velen ... :/

 

[CHC]

Considering selling my GTX 780 and just swapping for a 970, it would barely cost anything out of pocket and if this middling performance is the future of my once-proud GPU, I'm not gonna be happy.

 

[Cerity]

i5 2500k (stock)
290x

All on ultra, HBAO+ on, Hairworks off, using those ini modifications and sweetfx settings posted earlier by viveks. Downsampling from 3200x1800 to 1920x1080, get a pretty stable 30fps, 45~ when at 1440p.

Game is looking gorgeous.

 

[buffelo]

True, i was like "this game has amazing loading times i dont even need to move it to my ssd" but then i got to Velen ... :/

If you spam space bar during the little dialogue interlude during the loads you can get into the game before the narration is completed.

 

[CyanideFuse]

Since the patch has anyone re-enabled their overclocks and seen if it plays nicer with them?

I am now running with my most aggressive OC on my 970 and I haven't had any crashes. Prior to the patch I was getting numerous crashes.

Prior to the patch I had slight drops but now it is staying at 60fps all the time. It might be that I am running with my highest over clock and am therefore benefiting or the patch has helped with frame rate performance.

 

[Enduin]

Feel like I'm getting worse performance post 1.03. Settings all the exact same as before, but I'm now dipping below what was a rather solid 30fps into the 26-28 range at random moments. Still mostly 30 but a lot more random hickups. As well my loading times are now taking significantly longer. Before it would load a save well before the last line of the synopsis was finished now it takes several seconds at least after the whole recap has finished.

 

[MisterM]

i7-3770k @ 3.5ghz
8gb RAM
eVGA GTX 970 ACX 2.0

Currently getting 0fps as the GPU is stuck with a code 10 (Device won't initialize) that I can't fix. Anywho, the graphics in Safe Mode suck, am disappoint...

I ordered an the SC version of that GPU two hours ago. I hope mine doesn't arrive faulty.

 

[ryushe]

This has probably been answered 100 times by now, but does the reshade sweetFX install impact the games performance in any way?

 

[Rodin]

So the game crashed again, but this time i waited a bit and i was able to return to desktop (after a short black screen) by pressing the Start button on my keyboard. The OS kept running normally and the game closed without a problem from task manager. What can i do to make this stop? It's super annoying, Nvidia and CDP need to get their shit together because the game is fantastic but all these crashes make it nearly unplayable. Worst thing is that first two days it only crashed once, after the 1.03 patch the issue seems to be more present so i don't really know if that caused it, if it's a driver issue or if the problem is a combination of both.

 

[| Praxis |]

Go find a ladder in the game and climb it. That has a really juddery camera too. If that's the issue you're describing, then chances are it's just the camera and not actual stutter. I haven't noticed it on horseback yet, but now it's been mentioned I bet I can't unsee it >.<

I'll see if I can check that before I go to work. Haven't climbed many ladders yet.

This has probably been answered 100 times by now, but does the reshade sweetFX install impact the games performance in any way?

I think somebody said it did, but that it was a minimal hit on fps, around 3-4 fps. I haven't tried.

I'm considering down sampling, considering I'm locking to 30 anyway, I may have the overhead to be able to get away with it. What's the best way to do this? (playing at 1920x1080 at the minute)

 

[0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55]

I want to downsample, I just can't part from the sweet sweet 60.
30 is just too much of a step backward, regardless of the superior image.

 

[PnCIa]

I want to downsample, I just can't part from the sweet sweet 60.
30 is just too much of a step backward, regardless of the superior image.

I made the drop because, quite frankly, the game is so busy visually even with smaa that i cant live without downsampling on this one. I just started to crank up the resolution and once the drops become bigger (35fps) the step isnt so big anymore.

 

[ramshot]

Okay, 4 nights of playing and about 20 hours under my belt, I'm confident I've found what I can run to get an absolutely solid 60fps. This means it doesn't drop below, ever, anywhere I've found in the game so far.

i3570k @ 4.2Ghz
16 Gigs DDR3/2133Mhz
GTX980 @ 1500Mhz / 7600Mhz
Game on Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Win8.1

1080p
HairWorks: Off
Foliage Draw Distance: High
Shadows: High
Both blurs, CA, DoF: Off (mostly because I don't like the effects, though)
Everything else Ultra.

After 1.03 I was able to raise shadows back to Ultra, and I haven't found a spot where it dips below 60fps yet, but I've found places where it's been really close, with GPU usage a couple % shy of 100. Looking at the geforce comparison shots, the difference between ultra and high shadows is nearly non existent - hell, for my tastes, the shadows even look better in the other comparison shot on high. So if I end up hitting any area that breaks my holy 60, back to high they go. While testing this setting I have noted that the performance hit it has varies a lot with location. At worst, while standing next to a bonfire in a thick forest while there was a storm going on, the difference in fps between shadows high and ultra was over 25%. In other scenes the difference can be very small. In that sense the geforce guide is a little misleading.

One crash during the ~20h. Asset streaming is of really high quality at least with my rig, with very little popup or asset stream stuttering detactable. Frame pacing is perfect.

Technically I'm blown away at how solid the game is for me. At the same time, looking at this thread and others, it's clear as day that I'm lucky, both in regards to no crashes, and in that I have high end hardware. Hard to say how this game scales down in regards to performance/looks without trying it myself.

 

[Deleted member 325805]

Since the patch has anyone re-enabled their overclocks and seen if it plays nicer with them?

This game hates GPU overclocks from my experience, I'm using a factory overclocked 970 which it can handle, but my usual +140/+500 crashes it in 10 minutes.

 

[kazinova]

I ordered an the SC version of that GPU two hours ago. I hope mine doesn't arrive faulty.

I've got a couple more things I'm going to try, maybe a fresh install of Windows is in order...

Until I've exhausted all the options I have left I'm not going to give up on the card. But there's a 10% it's just a bad card at this point.

 

[justsomeguy]

You should be more than fine. I have my i7 920 oc'd to 3.6 and have a 7950 3gb stock and I'm at 1080 locked in at 30fps with most everything on high, shadows on low, water/grass on medium, texture quality on ultra and some of the post processing off like blur, motion blur, vsync and AA off.

<3 thanks! *heads off to Steam*

 

[mintylurb]

I've played around a bit after the new patch. With hairworks on(shadow: high, foliage: high, rest ultra), now I'm getting anywhere between 52 - 60 fps, whereas before it never went above 50 fps.
Game still feels jittery though. After trying various vsync/framerate limit/full screen setting, vysnc on, unlimited framerate, full screen produced the best image quality/performance for my set up.

 

[Xyber]

This game hates GPU overclocks from my experience, I'm using a factory overclocked 970 which it can handle, but my usual +140/+500 crashes it in 10 minutes.

I have been running my 970 at 1455MHz (+140) since launch without any problems. But I do have my memory at +350, try lowering that and see if it's better.

 

[b0bbyJ03]

i5 2500k (stock)
290x

All on ultra, HBAO+ on, Hairworks off, using those ini modifications and sweetfx settings posted earlier by viveks. Downsampling from 3200x1800 to 1920x1080, get a pretty stable 30fps, 45~ when at 1440p.

Game is looking gorgeous.

Do you think the sweet fx settings have made it look better in your opinion or just different?

 

[b0bbyJ03]

Okay, 4 nights of playing and about 20 hours under my belt, I'm confident I've found what I can run to get an absolutely solid 60fps. This means it doesn't drop below, ever, anywhere I've found in the game so far.

i3570k @ 4.2Ghz
16 Gigs DDR3/2133Mhz
GTX980 @ 1500Mhz / 7600Mhz
Game on Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Win8.1

1080p
HairWorks: Off
Foliage Draw Distance: High
Shadows: High
Both blurs, CA, DoF: Off (mostly because I don't like the effects, though)
Everything else Ultra.

After 1.03 I was able to raise shadows back to Ultra, and I haven't found a spot where it dips below 60fps yet, but I've found places where it's been really close, with GPU usage a couple % shy of 100. Looking at the geforce comparison shots, the difference between ultra and high shadows is nearly non existent - hell, for my tastes, the shadows even look better in the other comparison shot on high. So if I end up hitting any area that breaks my holy 60, back to high they go. While testing this setting I have noted that the performance hit it has varies a lot with location. At worst, while standing next to a bonfire in a thick forest while there was a storm going on, the difference in fps between shadows high and ultra was over 25%. In other scenes the difference can be very small. In that sense the geforce guide is a little misleading.

One crash during the ~20h. Asset streaming is of really high quality at least with my rig, with very little popup or asset stream stuttering detactable. Frame pacing is perfect.

Technically I'm blown away at how solid the game is for me. At the same time, looking at this thread and others, it's clear as day that I'm lucky, both in regards to no crashes, and in that I have high end hardware. Hard to say how this game scales down in regards to performance/looks without trying it myself.

I have the exact same setup except i have a 3770k and no overclock on my 980. I had excellent performance since day one with no crashes (I went with the minimal approach of using display driver uninstaller, downloading fresh drivers with no extra software (no GFE, 3d vision, etc) and its been over 60 with just shadows on medium and everything else at ultra, including foliage, no HW. I was holding off on the 1.03 patch since its been so good. Do you recommend downloading it?

 

[martino]

I'm at work anyone to test 15.5 driver impact with/without crossfire and/or hairwork

 

[parabolee]

1.03 patch has been great for me. Was getting 2 crashes an hour before (although my constant setting tweaks may have been causing that), did not have a single crash in 4 hours of playing last night.

Getting a ROCK solid 60 fps with (even when fighting HairWorks monsters!) -

i7-4770
GTX 980
16GB RAM

Almost everything Ultra/ON. Including HairWorks! Exceptions -

Shadows = HIGH (can not see a difference)
Grass density = MEDIUM (still a TON of grass but makes draw distance less of a fps killer)
Foilage Draw Distance = HIGH (Visable difference between Ultra/high is tiny, but performance loss is massive)

TWEAKS =

HairWorks MSAA = 2X (ini edit, huge performance gain in 1.03!)

Nvidia Panel = FXAA forced (massive improvement to AA with tiny loss of fps)

Game is running fantastic and looks within a few % of everything maxed out. I tried locking to 30 and maxing everything out including down-sampling and other than the inferior framerate, I could only see the tiniest upgrade in visual quality.

I am currently very happy. Although a little disappointed the game is not as beautiful as the early promo videos, the game itself is incredible and I am really really enjoying it.

 

[Robobandit]

I was getting a lot of random ones this afternoon, but it mysteriously disappeared since. But now it crashes every time I go to the inventory. Not able to open it at all! :/

When I was using your ini tweaks, I got inventory crashes almost every time I went into it.

went back to my own default ini file and the crashes went away.

I was using SLI 980s at the time.

Might be worth investigating your ini tweaks. Try a default ini and see if your crashes disappear.

 

[TedNindo]

Getting 45-55 fps with a 4770k @ 4.8ghz 16gb ram and an oc'd r290 on water.

Haven't checked for more recent drivers though.

Everything on ultra at 1080p with hbao+ and without hairworks. Otherwise it goes into the mid 20's.

 

[| Praxis |]

i5 2500k (stock)
290x

All on ultra, HBAO+ on, Hairworks off, using those ini modifications and sweetfx settings posted earlier by viveks. Downsampling from 3200x1800 to 1920x1080, get a pretty stable 30fps, 45~ when at 1440p.

Game is looking gorgeous.

I tried downsampling from 3200x1800, but I was going from a locked 30fps (with hairworks enabled and everything on ultra plus HBAO+) to the mid twenties. I have settled for 2560x1440 now. The most I have seen it drop is 1fps.

Edit: I also tried playing with m&kb to see if that had any effect on the walking stutter, but it's still there.

 

[Barzul]

I haven't tried hairworks myself to see what it looks like, does it improve the experience for those who have it on?

 

[Deleted member 325805]

I have been running my 970 at 1455MHz (+140) since launch without any problems. But I do have my memory at +350, try lowering that and see if it's better.

Yeah I could have a fiddle with it later. Just odd how every other game and benchmark works perfectly with my old overclock, but Witcher 3 just says NOPE!

 

[CyanideFuse]

1.03 patch has been great for me. Was getting 2 crashes an hour before (although my constant setting tweaks may have been causing that), did not have a single crash in 4 hours of playing last night.

Getting a ROCK solid 60 fps with (even when fighting HairWorks monsters!) -

i7-4770
GTX 980
16GB RAM

Almost everything Ultra/ON. Including HairWorks! Exceptions -

Shadows = HIGH (can not see a difference)
Grass density = MEDIUM (still a TON of grass but makes draw distance less of a fps killer)
Foilage Draw Distance = HIGH (Visable difference between Ultra/high is tiny, but performance loss is massive)

TWEAKS =

HairWorks MSAA = 2X (ini edit, huge performance gain in 1.03!)

Nvidia Panel = FXAA forced (massive improvement to AA with tiny loss of fps)

Game is running fantastic and looks within a few % of everything maxed out. I tried locking to 30 and maxing everything out including down-sampling and other than the inferior framerate, I could only see the tiniest upgrade in visual quality.

I am currently very happy. Although a little disappointed the game is not as beautiful as the early promo videos, the game itself is incredible and I am really really enjoying it.

I have a 970 and it would be interesting to see just what I could get away with to switch on hair works; shadows seem to look almost the same from medium to ultra. I wish we could select monsters/animals and not Geralt as I am not particularly taken by the appearance of his hair with hair works on.

I am loathed to spend too much more time tinkering as it has affected my liking for the game. It has just started to really click without crashes and settings fiddling (and I love it) so I don't want to mess around much more. The Witcher 3 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying about p*ssing around with settings files and Love the Game.

 

[Yurikerr]

After the 1.03 patch i can now lock the game at 30fps and have everything on ultra (bar shadow quality and foliage draw distance at high) and enable hairworks for all.

The HairWorks .ini change to 2x and tesselation at x16 max on CCC made wonders for my HD7850.

And i'm injecting SMAA using RadeonPro so the game have a better AA.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

Asking on behalf of a friend, would the game run at PS4 setting at 1080p with a 7870 and Phenom II x4 @ 3.4ghz?

 

[Yurikerr]

Asking on behalf of a friend, would the game run at PS4 setting at 1080p with a 7870 and Phenom II x4 @ 3.4ghz?

Digital Foundry says that Ps4 runs the following settings:

V-Sync: On
Resolution: 1920x1080
Nvidia Hairworks: Off
Number of Background Characters: Low (console actually seems lower than this)
Shadow Quality: Medium
Terrain Quality: Medium
Water Quality: High
Grass Density: Medium
Texture Quality: Ultra
Foliage Visibility Range: Medium
Detail Level: Medium
Ambient Occlusion: SSAO
All post effects on except vignetting.

I think that he has a pretty good chance.... Maybe he will need to drop Texture Quality to high, but the only difference is the amount of VRam that is used by the game, because the textures will be the same.

 

[| Praxis |]

I haven't tried hairworks myself to see what it looks like, does it improve the experience for those who have it on?

For me it's worth it. Not so much on Geralt, but it looks great on the monsters. I have sacrificed 60fps to use it mind, but 30fps is fine for me in a game like this.

 

[scitek]

Anyone else had NPCs and even Geralt himself stuck in a T pose? I was just running around Novigrad and they started just scooting along without walking. I went in and started fist fighting and Geralt was stuck in one himself. His head was animated, but his hair and body weren't. Pretty hilarious.

 

[Richgard]

Has anyone else freeze problems in the menus does anyone know a workaround for this problem. That said I love this game so far

 

[CyanideFuse]

Well ****. I had my first crash

Spoiler

whilst following Keira Metz on the finding a witch task

. I checked the event viewer and it is related to the nVidia driver stopping. It happened when I went to my inventory; I could still hear the game progressing and task manager didn't say the game had stopped responding.

 

[mintylurb]

1.03 patch has been great for me. Was getting 2 crashes an hour before (although my constant setting tweaks may have been causing that), did not have a single crash in 4 hours of playing last night.

Getting a ROCK solid 60 fps with (even when fighting HairWorks monsters!) -

i7-4770
GTX 980
16GB RAM

Almost everything Ultra/ON. Including HairWorks! Exceptions -

Shadows = HIGH (can not see a difference)
Grass density = MEDIUM (still a TON of grass but makes draw distance less of a fps killer)
Foilage Draw Distance = HIGH (Visable difference between Ultra/high is tiny, but performance loss is massive)

TWEAKS =

HairWorks MSAA = 2X (ini edit, huge performance gain in 1.03!)

Nvidia Panel = FXAA forced (massive improvement to AA with tiny loss of fps)

Game is running fantastic and looks within a few % of everything maxed out. I tried locking to 30 and maxing everything out including down-sampling and other than the inferior framerate, I could only see the tiniest upgrade in visual quality.

I am currently very happy. Although a little disappointed the game is not as beautiful as the early promo videos, the game itself is incredible and I am really really enjoying it.

Oh, I have to give the hairworks to 2msaa ini edit a try when I git home today.