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The Witcher 3 Next Gen in the test: Community benchmarks for the (ray tracing) update

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Today the free next-gen update with DX12 for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released on GOG and Steam. It beautifies the DX11 title from 2015 – not only, but also through the use of ray tracing. The other side of the coin: The system requirements are increasing and things are anything but smooth at the start.

Table of contents

  1. Different than planned, but just right?
  2. The community is testing The Witcher III Next Gen
    1. These are the settings
    2. These are the test sequence
    3. This is the savegame
  3. First impressions of the editors
  4. Submit results
    1. Please note!
    2. Submit results with preset “RT Ultra”
    3. Results with preset “RT” Submit
    4. Submit results with preset “Highest”
    5. Submit results with preset “Medium”
    6. Submit results with preset “RT Ultra” + frame generation

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  5. The test results
    1. Benchmarks with preset “RT Ultra”
    2. Benchmarks with preset “RT”
    3. Benchmarks with “Highest” preset
    4. Benchmarks with “Medium” preset
    5. Benchmarks with “RT Ultra” preset + frame generation

    6. < li>How good is 2015 in 2022?

  6. Conclusion: unfinished

Different than planned, but just right?

It usually works like this: ComputerBase tries to get access under the NDA in advance of relevant new PC releases, tests the title extensively from a technical perspective before it is released and can provide the community with comprehensive information on the embargo. Any Day 1 patch will not change the collected results. In the case of The Witcher 3 Next Gen, however, things were different.

For the reasons mentioned, it has not been possible to create a classic, extensive technology test so far and, in view of the other current topics (e.g. a first test of custom designs of the Radeon RX 7900 XT), presents its benefits with a view to future ones Updates that quickly make all results obsolete.

Another problem with the final version: crashes when changing the RT settings
First a problem, but no longer to be found in the “final build”: Geralt's long hair with Intel Arc

The community is testing The Witcher III Next Gen

Against this background, there will be no extensive technology test by the editors for the time being. Instead, ComputerBase used the morning and created benchmarks in scenarios with selected graphics cards, which are then shared with the community – yes, it's ComputerBase community benchmark time again!

In this way, many more values ​​can be determined on a much larger range of systems in a short time than a technology test that is expected to be short-lived could do.

The community test is intended to show the performance of the game in a wide range, so four resolutions and six different graphics settings are “offered”. Nobody has to test all scenarios, especially not all at once. But the swarm of the community will definitely get a lot together.

What the community test will not be able to show is the topic of frame times, because in order to reduce complexity and thus exclude sources of error, only the average FPS will be queried as usual.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with next-gen update in UHD with RT -Ultra Preset and DLSS Quality

These are the settings

Benchmarks are always queried in four resolutions: Full HD, WQHD, UWQHD and Ultra HD. In addition, the editors have defined six quality settings. Your goal: to query various requirements from extreme to moderate. Because four resolutions with six quality settings already map 24 test scenarios, RT benchmarks without DLSS/FSR, which are likely to run (well) on very few computers, were not used. Also, the “Presets” were not changed with the resolution, because that would only have increased the error rate in the end.

The table below gives an initial overview of the scenarios to be tested.

These are the settings for the test for each resolution and quality level “Display” tab Full HD
1,920 × 1,080 WQHD
2560 × 1440 UWQHD
3440 × 1440 Ultra HD
3840 × 2160
  • Full Screen
  • VSync = Off< /li>
  • Maximum frames per second = Unlimited
  • DLSS Frame Generation = Off
  • Nvidia Low Latency Reflex = Off

“General” tab RT Ultra, DLSS/FSR Quality RT Ultra, DLSS/FSR Quality, dyn. Resolution = from RT Ultra, DLSS/FSR Performance RT Ultra, DLSS/FSR Performance, dyn. Resolution = from RT, DLSS/FSR Quality RT, DLSS/FSR Quality, dyn. Resolution = from RT, DLSS/FSR Performance RT, DLSS/FSR Performance, dyn. Resolution = off Highest Highest, TAAU, dyn. Resolution = off, SSAO = on, Screen Space = High Medium Medium, TAAU, dyn. Resolution = off, SSAO = on, Screen Space = High

DLSS and FSR should be strictly separated in the RT benchmarks: DLSS on Nvidia GeForce RTX, FSR on AMD Radeon RX. For users with frame generation (DLSS 3) there is an extra run below.

In order to be able to provide reproducible results, the savegame should be loaded, run once and then be reloaded. The reason: After the first loading, the game stutters extremely, the results are hardly reproducible.

The Witcher 3 – first run vs. second run benchmark 04080120160200milliseconds 012345678910111213141516171819202122232425seconds

This is the test sequence

The test sequence shown in the following video is tested. The 25-second benchmark in CapFrameX starts when it starts running. The path is walked, not run (no shift key).

This is the savegame

The test sequence can be found right at the beginning of the provided savegame (name in the game: “The Beast of Weissgarten”). The savegame (download) is in the following folder for both the GOG and Steam versions:

C:UsersNameDocumentsThe Witcher 3gamesaves

After the offered savegame has been stored there, it can be called up in the game.

First impressions of the editors

ComputerBase has tested all settings for a first overview and for plausibility in FHD, WQHD and UHD with the finally released version. The following were used:

ComputerBase tested these graphics cards
  • GeForce RTX 4080
  • GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
  • GeForce RTX 2060
  • Radeon RX 7900 XTX
  • Radeon RX 6700 XT
  • Radeon RX 5600 XT
  • Intel Arc A770 Limited Edition

ComputerBase carried out its own tests, including logging the frame times. It turns out that the next-gen update has massive problems with the so-called frame pacing when ray tracing is active (regardless of the level) in any resolution. After loading a saved game, it generally runs very poorly, but running the current area in the game (and possibly reloading it again) does not alleviate the problem on all systems.

Frametimes middle preset

Frametimes middle preset – 3,840 × 2,160

Unit: Frames Per Second (FPS) Frametimes Medium Preset – 2,560 × 1,440

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