CD Projekt Red plans to tackle performance issues with The Witcher 3’s future updates

Expect The Witcher 3’s next-gen version to run better on PC after the game’s next few updates

When The Witcher 3’s “Next-Gen” patch 4.0 launched last year, many PC gamers were disappointed by how the game ran on PC, especially when the game’s ray tracing effects were enabled. Even users of high-end systems couldn’t achieve solid 60+ FPS framerates thanks to the game’s huge CPU demands when ray tracing was enabled. CD Projekt Red are now actively working to address these issues, promising that future patches for The Witcher 3 will focus on improving the game’s DX12 performance on PC, and on increasing the game’s CPU utilisation. 

Additionally, CD Projekt Red are working to improve The Witcher 3’s performance on current-generation consoles, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and are actively working to improve the game’s ray traced global illumination support to prevent so-called “lighting leaks” and the game’s ray traced shadows to reduce “popping”. CD Projekt Red are also working to re-implement HBAO into The Witcher 3’s PC version.

It is currently unknown when CD Projekt Red plans to release these planned patches for The Witcher 3’s next-generation version and how much these patches will impact the game’s performance on PC.

You can join the discussion on The Witcher 3’s planned updates on the OC3D Forums.  

CD Projekt Red – We are currently investigating the following issues:

– CPU core utilisation.

We are working to improve how the game handles CPU core utilisation.

– Performance of the DirectX 12 version.

We are continuously working to improve the overall performance and stability of the DirectX 12 version of the game, and hope that you’ll see improvements with the coming patches.

– Performance on next-gen consoles.

We’ve received reports from players who have noticed a decrease in frame rate while playing in Performance Mode on next-gen consoles. This is especially noticed in more demanding areas of the game like Novigrad and Beauclair.

– Ray traced global illumination improvements.

We’re working on reducing global illumination lighting leaks.

– Ray traced shadows improvements.

We’re investigating an issue with vegetation shadows “popping” depending on Geralt’s proximity and angle.

– Restoring horizon-based ambient occlusion on PC.

– Game crashes.

We are continuously investigating game crashes that are reported to us via telemetry and tech support tickets.
Battle Preparations quest still not working after the patch for some players.
We are aware that some players who experienced an issue where it could be impossible to interact with Avallac’h before patch 4.01, may now experience an issue where there are no dialogue options that can progress the quest after the fix. We’re working on the underlying cause and steps to reproduce it.