Lower than Expected PC Performance? - 4.01

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TLDR - 4.01 suffers just as much as 4.00 from low CPU Utilization. Ideally, I'd like CDPR to acknowledge the issues and confirm more patches are coming.
See bottom of post for a collection of mods I've found that help smooth out RTX performance.

Wanted to start by saying as a long time Witcher fan and Witcher 3 being my all time favorite game, I'm really enjoying my return to the path. Thank you to everyone involved, the new quest is great and regardless I'm happy that this version of the game exists.

Unfortunately, my experience on PC like many others has been plagued by performance issues from release. I waited to post this until after 4.01 in case some significant fixes arrived (which didn't)

When Witcher 3 next gen was originally due to release (before the delays) I built a new PC with the hope of playing it with ray tracing of some kind.

My system specs are:
OSWindows 1122H2 (OS Build 22621.1194)
CPUAMD 5900xPBO on, single core 4.7 GHz
RAM4 x 8 GB (32 GB)3600 MHz, CL16
GPUNvidia RTX 3080 10GBGame Ready Driver 528.24
OS StorageSamsung 960 EVONVME
Game StorageSamsung 860 EVOSATA
Display34" Ultrawide 3440 x 1440 @ 144 Hz, Windows HDR on.VRR, Nvidia CP FPS capped to 60 (specifically for TW3)

Playing with all RT options on, RT performance mode*, DLSS balanced, everything set to Ultra+, Vsync off, Nvidia Reflex Boost + On.
AreaFPS 99% FPSAverage LatencyGPU UtilizationCPU Utilization
Novigrad - Hierarch Square31 - 4222 - 2962 - 112 ms82 - 90%4 - 10%
Velen - Hanged Mans Tree32 - 5024 - 3065 - 92 ms72 - 85%4 - 7%
White Orchard - Woesong Bridge43 - 5932 - 4540 - 90 ms84 - 92%4 - 10%
All metrics were taken from Nvidia overlay and I understand they aren't 100% accturate* but believe them to be a good indication.

Additional issues and things of note:
  • Performance can be significantly worse than this sometimes after fast travelling, loading a save, alt tabbing or simply playing for 2 hours or more.
    When this happens loading a save can somewhat help but the most reliable and effective way is to restart the game/application entirely.
  • I've excluded some GPU Utilization spikes from the table - on the odd occasion it will spike to 99% utilization, however it never lasts for long and doesn't coincide with any FPS increase.
  • I've never seen CPU Utilization above 10% and even then, it averages closer to 5%. As many online had noted that seems very underused and perhaps the core of the issue.
  • Low texture objects and clothing can often be seen in cutscenes as if the full quality texture never loaded in.
    Examples I've seen are:
    • Bomb cylinder when talking to Dijkstra about the vault investigation.
    • Silver goblet when talking to Caleb Menga in his office.
    • Whoreson Jnr's shirt when meeting in the Arena.
    • Various times when talking to witch hunters their jackets will appear as a blurry mess.
  • Spiderwebs and windows (particularly in Novigrad) on darker lighting conditions can appear purple. - I've read somewhere that this apparently has something to do with HDR? Unconfirmed.
  • Frame times simply appear to be all over the place and get particularly bad during fights with multiple opponents.
  • While on paper the FPS values look playable, it doesn't feel particularly great to play.
  • I've tried adjusting settings down from Ultra+ and IMO none give enough of a performance benefit to be worth the visual downgrade.
Would ultimately like to know if the performance above is expected for my systems specs?
RTX 3080 is listed as the GPU required for all RTX features:
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt System Requirements — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED
Is that for 30 FPS? or 60 FPS?
I would love to see a solid 60 FPS with my current specs and settings. - Is this an unrealistic expectation?
Confirmation from CDPR that they're working on further improvements would be much appreciated.

Curious to know what others think, suggestions and possible solutions welcome.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

For those looking for solutions. The best balance of performance and visuals I've managed to land on is using a combination of the following mods:

Optimized Raytracing at The Witcher 3 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com) - **Specifically the performance version.**
I've been using this one for a while, the testing above was on 4.01 release when this mod broke. Thankfully the latest version works with 4.01
Improves FPS, stability and frame times.


RTXGI Unlocker and 4.01 INI settings list at The Witcher 3 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com)
Require pre-requisite for Optimized Raytracing.

RTX Performance Tweaks at The Witcher 3 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com) - **Specifically the V1b version for compatibility with Improved RT Shadows**
For me this appears to have given another slight boost to FPS, but more specifically better 99% FPS and frame times. I had to remove the [RTXGI/GlobalGrid] section from this ini to make it compatible with Optimized Raytracing, otherwise all the distant buildings in Novigrad would be cast in shadow.

Improved Ray Traced Shadows at The Witcher 3 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com) - **Specifically the low version as I didn't too much of a performance hit.**
Low Improves the shadow pop-in for a low FPS cost. For more FPS you can skip this one. If you do I'd recommend just disabling RT shadows.

VibrantHDR at The Witcher 3 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com)
Haven't seen the purple windows or webs since using this one, will update if I do.
 

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Either get the Nexus mod Tweaks (much easier) or edit your Dx12UserSettings INI file.

Things you will be changing to get a good starting point are:

  • CascadeShadowmapSize=2048
  • TextureMipBias=0
There are definitely some more things to add to that list but for now see if it helps even the slightest for your FPS. If that changes absolutely nothing with no gains, and dropping your resolution down doesnt change anything, then your system is most likely hitting a wall with the "fixed" water reflections turning on when you turned RTGI on.
 
I still have the same problems with the 4.01 patch. It didn't help with the RT performance issue. I also changed the settings in the INI file and they didn't help.

DLSS helps reduce GPU utilization, but does not increase fps above 60fps. In Novigrad fps is 30 - 60 with DLSS ultra performance. GPU utilization ~50 - 75%. CPU utilization is ~25% and below. RTGI perfomance and quality adjustment drops GPU utilization by 5-10%. However, the fps does not increase more than maybe 1-3 fps. Spiderwebs can appear purple with RTGI on. In the distance, the RT shadows of the trees behave strangely when you move. Is that the point where the RT shadows turn into "normal" shadows?

I really hope that CDPR is making a fix for these problems. I also hope, on behalf of all the fans of the game, that CDPR would let us know about a possible patch. It's really annoying that it is now possible to turn on really nice graphics in the game, but you can't use them due to lack of optimization.

Specs
RTX 3090
AMD 3950x
RAM 64GB
Monitor 4K
 
For those whose performance was tanked by the 4.01 patch, your 'screen space reflections' probably wasn't working. You can get some of your FPS back by lowering SSR to 'low' but will need to lower other options as well to get it back to pre-4.01 performance levels.

I'm barely getting 40FPS now, with regular drops into the low 30s. Previously, I was in the 60s+. 6900 XT GPU.
 
The sad reality is the game is never going to perform well until they fix the CPU threading issue which I don't expect is going to happen until development on Cyberpunk ends with the Phantom Liberty DLC release ..... The devs that know the most about the game engine are simply tied up working on a paid DLC and although it sucks for us it really doesn't make any business sense to pull them from a paid DLC to service a free upgrade that's not really producing any income .... While CDPR does deserve some responsibility for hiring them the real problem was with the 3rd Party developers that obviously sold them a bill of goods by claiming they could make the Red Engine work with DX12 and basically handed back a broken game. Proper CPU threading is really hard to do well and CDPR aren't the only developers today having problems getting it right, nearly every new game released the last couple of years has been plagued by it
 
The sad reality is the game is never going to perform well until they fix the CPU threading issue which I don't expect is going to happen until development on Cyberpunk ends with the Phantom Liberty DLC release ..... The devs that know the most about the game engine are simply tied up working on a paid DLC and although it sucks for us it really doesn't make any business sense to pull them from a paid DLC to service a free upgrade that's not really producing any income .... While CDPR does deserve some responsibility for hiring them the real problem was with the 3rd Party developers that obviously sold them a bill of goods by claiming they could make the Red Engine work with DX12 and basically handed back a broken game. Proper CPU threading is really hard to do well and CDPR aren't the only developers today having problems getting it right, nearly every new game released the last couple of years has been plagued by it
If you are correct, I think I'd just like them to comment that fixes are coming but may take a while.
I'd hate to think that this version of Witcher 3 be left in this state indefinitely...
 
The sad reality is the game is never going to perform well until they fix the CPU threading issue which I don't expect is going to happen until development on Cyberpunk ends with the Phantom Liberty DLC release ..... The devs that know the most about the game engine are simply tied up working on a paid DLC and although it sucks for us it really doesn't make any business sense to pull them from a paid DLC to service a free upgrade that's not really producing any income .... While CDPR does deserve some responsibility for hiring them the real problem was with the 3rd Party developers that obviously sold them a bill of goods by claiming they could make the Red Engine work with DX12 and basically handed back a broken game. Proper CPU threading is really hard to do well and CDPR aren't the only developers today having problems getting it right, nearly every new game released the last couple of years has been plagued by it
CDPR will probably never fix the threading issues.
Any belief other then this is most likely a delusion.
The game will most likely remain the same. A stuttery, unoptimized, unplayable, memory leak mess unless one has 4090/4080 which have >=16gb VRAM and FG(which alleviate CPU bottleneck). And even then the experience is not free of issues.
 
Check out my RT optimalization guide, it may help you improve performance:
 
Check out my RT optimalization guide, it may help you improve performance:
Thanks heaps!
Memory leak issue was probably the worst issue that still remained for me. This is a great one stop guide for people to follow.
 

Digital Foundry has tested patch 4.01 for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on consoles and PC​

and its really bad the performance its all over the place something really wrong
 

Digital Foundry has tested patch 4.01 for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on consoles and PC​

and its really bad the performance its all over the place something really wrong

I'm really surprised DF didn't mention the screen space reflections issue. It's even in the official patch notes. Maybe it was just AMD cards?
Before the patch SSR wasn't working properly (or at all?) with my 6900 XT. Now I guess it's working because my FPS tanked without any settings change.

Edit - Witcher 3 just installed another update (already had 4.01), but the version number didn't change(?). Just did a bit of testing and If I turn off SSAO completely (including SSR) I get roughly the same FPS I was geting before the 4.01 patch. So, it seems like SSAO and SSR weren't working in 4.0. :rolleyes:
 
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I'm really surprised DF didn't mention the screen space reflections issue. It's even in the official patch notes. Maybe it was just AMD cards?
Before the patch SSR wasn't working properly (or at all?) with my 6900 XT. Now I guess it's working because my FPS tanked without any settings change.

Edit - Witcher 3 just installed another update (already had 4.01), but the version number didn't change(?). Just did a bit of testing and If I turn off SSAO completely (including SSR) I get roughly the same FPS I was geting before the 4.01 patch. So, it seems like SSAO and SSR weren't working in 4.0. :rolleyes:
SSR option cannot be set to OFF (only turning On RT reflections disabling SSR), it's only Low or High, in DX11 High not work, no visual/FPS difrenece between them. Patch 4.01 comes with "fixed" High quality of SSR but only for DX12 mode, causing disproportionately huge performance impact for what it changes. Other then that in DX12, when RT is On and RT Reflections is Off, then SSR option nothing change (it's the same in low or High setting but it's look like it's on High, even if you set it at Low), only when RT Reflection is On then SSR will be disabled/greyed. Nothing changed in this aspect in patch 4.01 + hotfix)
 
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SSR option cannot be set to OFF (only turning On RT reflections disabling SSR), it's only Low or High, in DX11 High not work, no visual/FPS difrenece between them. Patch 4.01 comes with "fixed" High quality of SSR but only for DX12 mode, causing disproportionately huge performance impact for what it changes. Other then that in DX12, when RT is On and RT Reflections is Off, then SSR option nothing change (it's the same in low or High setting but it's look like it's on High, even if you set it at Low), only when RT Reflection is On then SSR will be disabled/greyed. Nothing changed in this aspect in patch 4.01 + hotfix)
True about SSR and SSAO setting, but there's definitely more of a performance hit than just an enabled SSR - high.
Maybe, previously when SSR - high was selected, it was actually off(?) The patch notes literally say that this could be the case. Even when I take SSR down to low, my FPS is still substantiall lower than it was pre 4.01 patch. No other settings have been changed.

I do enjoy the features and eye-candy enhancement, but now they gotta optimize, optimize, optimize!

Edit - Something DID happen with that little update (that didn't change the version number). I was checking out ray tracing performance mode. It's still way too low for my rig with all the other settings maxed, so I went back to RT off and tried adjusting the screen space reflections to low again AND MY FPS IS BACK UP TO PRE-4.01 LEVELS!! Previously, even setting SSR to low didn't get me back the FPS I had before.

It seems that Witcher 3 is still a bit of a mess, from an optimization standpoint, but for those having FPS issues with the latest patch, try turning ON ray tracing and then turning it off again. Doing this and adjusting SSR to low has be back up in happy FPS territory (all other settings are maxed).
 
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