SOLVED Camera stutter with new nVidia drivers

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Camera stutter with new nVidia drivers

So, since I updated my drivers in October, I have this weird issue. When I pan the camera I get really choppy movement. The weirdest thing is that only certain distant objects (trees for instance) stutter. I assume that the new nVidia drivers are to blame, but it has been two months ant the issue persists. I did revert back to the older drivers for a while but most of my other games work better with new drivers.

A few other interesting things that I notices about this problem. I do get the feeling that it is far more pronounced when light shafts are present, but it doesn't depend on light shafts, motion blur or bloom. Another thing is that it accumulates over time. When I start the game camera moves fine, but after a minute or two it starts to stutter. The funny thing is that it resets with every pause of the game or when I open any menu. It almost feels like some sort of memory leakage.

I do have a fairly competent pc (GTX 980ti, 6700k, 32gigs ddr4...) and the game played flawlessly for a long time before, so I do not think that it has anything to do with my end. I did however expect to see more people complain about it so I don't know what to think now.

Does anybody by any chance know what the exact problem is and how to fix it, if there is a fix at all.

PS: maximum prerendered frames doesn't affect it, and I play with a controller.
 
It's likely something else with your system. Did you install the drivers using the CLEAN install option? Do you have Geforce Experience installed? Are you certain that the problem started after you updated the drivers?

You can try the following to start:

0.) Remove all mods, if using any.

1.) Disable overlay features through Steam / GOG / Origin.

2.) Ensure that TW3 is added to firewall / antivirus exceptions.

3.) Set everything to the following:

Nvidia CP, under witcher3.exe:
AA and AO = Controlled by the 3D application
AF = 16x (Great tweak that costs nothing.)
Frames to render ahead = 1
Power management = Maximum performance
Vsync = Controlled by the 3D application

In-game settings:
Pick a resolution of 1080p or lower.
Fullscreen
Vsync = ON
Frame Limit = 60

Let us know how that goes!
 
I tried all this to no effect. I'm pretty certain that drivers have something to do with this problem. As I said, When I revert back to old drivers the problem disappears. With the newest drivers it is a bit better, but it still is distracting.

I haven't mentioned it before, but this problem is present only in full-screen. When I put the game in borderless window it stops.

All in all, I'm pretty much certain that it has something to do with NVidia drivers, but it seems to be something very specific.
 
LukaMrk;n7356380 said:
With the newest drivers it is a bit better, but it still is distracting.

Sounds like your answer is right there. I would recommend using the drivers that work and sticking with those until there is a problem. I used 355.82 with no issues until I updated to 372.54...for No Man's Sky...of all things...
 
Hi guys,

I have the same problem. I wanted to replay the Witcher 3 and now I have this phenomenon where the game starts to stutter like LukaMRK described. Pausing the game sets everything back to normal, but after a short while it starts to stutter again. I have Windows 10, a GTX 980, 32 GB Ram and an i7 4770k with latest nvidia driver (high settings, exclusive fullscreen mode). I have played through this game a couple of times and never experienced this stutter before, it was always smooth. I tried everything that was mentioned, but nothing helps. Maybe the developers should look into this, because it seems like a bug, maybe because of an recent Win 10 update or a bug in the Nvidia Driver.
 
ArtDirector;n7369680 said:
Hi guys,

I have the same problem. I wanted to replay the Witcher 3 and now I have this phenomenon where the game starts to stutter like LukaMRK described. Pausing the game sets everything back to normal, but after a short while it starts to stutter again. I have Windows 10, a GTX 980, 32 GB Ram and an i7 4770k with latest nvidia driver (high settings, exclusive fullscreen mode). I have played through this game a couple of times and never experienced this stutter before, it was always smooth. I tried everything that was mentioned, but nothing helps. Maybe the developers should look into this, because it seems like a bug, maybe because of an recent Win 10 update or a bug in the Nvidia Driver.

Try reverting to 372.90. If the problem stops then we have exactly the same issue.
 
I reverted back to 372.90 and the stutter is gone :) So we have the same issue. I guess it is a bug introduced with the new nvidia drivers. Nvidia needs to fix this, because we can't stay on older drivers forever, the new games always require a game ready driver. Maybe we should both post this bug in the nvidia forum for the newest driver 376.33?
 
ArtDirector;n7373510 said:
I reverted back to 372.90 and the stutter is gone :) So we have the same issue. I guess it is a bug introduced with the new nvidia drivers. Nvidia needs to fix this, because we can't stay on older drivers forever, the new games always require a game ready driver. Maybe we should both post this bug in the nvidia forum for the newest driver 376.33?

That probably is the right thing to do now, as the problem is almost certainly caused by NVidia drivers. Every fall with all the new games NVidia gets a bit overly excited and inevitably screws something up, but I did expect it to be fixed by now. I'm not certain that they are even aware that the problem exists.
Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to send a ticket to CDPR support as well, there probably will be at least one more update to the game, and they may be able to fix it as well.
 
ArtDirector;n7379410 said:
I send a ticket to CDPR support and posted on the Nvidia forum. Let's wait and see...

Thank you, kindly!

If everyone else with the same problem / fix could also send in their own ticket, that would be wonderbar! (It's likely on Nvidia's end, but CDPR should probably be made aware if it's easy to re-create.)
 
I see that there are new drivers out today. Unfortunately I will not be able to test it to see if problems have been fixed until the February second. Has somebody else with the same problem tested it? ArtDirector, have you tried it out?
 
LukaMrk;n7569340 said:
I see that there are new drivers out today. Unfortunately I will not be able to test it to see if problems have been fixed until the February second. Has somebody else with the same problem tested it? ArtDirector, have you tried it out?

Hi,
I haven't yet, but I can install it this week and try it out.
 
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ArtDirector;n7577610 said:
Hi,
I haven't yet, but I can install it this week and try it out.

Please do, like I said I'm away form my gaming rig for a while, but I really want to know if they fixed it.
 
Newest drivers still haven't fixed anything for me, but as I said, I don't think that NVidia is even aware of the issue. It doesn't seem to wide spread, so it isn't anybody's priority.

Now, leet.Smithy, if you have the same camera stutter issue that ArtDirector and I are reporting, there are certain fixes, I for one am not satisfied with them, but they do alleviate the problem.
First thing you can do is to revert to 372.90 drivers.
Second thing is that the issue isn't present in borderless window mode, so you can try playing in bw if it suites you.

However, I'm beginning to get really frustrated with this issue. I have been playing this game on the same PC for almost two years now and never had a single problem, then I updated NVidia drivers last October and since then the camera stutters. As I said multiple times this is most definitely a graphic card issue, but I wont be reverting to the half year old drivers every time I decide to start up TW3.
NVidia clearly doesn't give a damn, as this bug is now 4 months old. In those 4 months I wrote multiple times on their forums and there hasn't been even a slightest indication that anybody noticed it and tried to address it. I hope that somebody from CDPR can do something about it. This game can't become unplayable forever more just because NVidia tries to "optimize" their graphic cards for newer games.
 
LukaMrk;n7671310 said:
Newest drivers still haven't fixed anything for me, but as I said, I don't think that NVidia is even aware of the issue. It doesn't seem to wide spread, so it isn't anybody's priority...
LukaMrk;n7671310 said:
However, I'm beginning to get really frustrated with this issue. I have been playing this game on the same PC for almost two years now and never had a single problem, then I updated NVidia drivers last October and since then the camera stutters.

When new drivers are released, they are specifically built to take advantage of the latest hardware and optimize functionality for present-market hit titles. This will often create legacy issues for prior titles and hardware. It's not as if new drivers "add to the pool", they completely add / change / remove certain functionality. This is why the "latest and greatest" drivers may give you silky smooth gameplay with the game you bought yesterday, but create massive stuttering and crashing with a 2-year-old game that has always worked fine.

PC gamers often do, in fact, have to swap out drivers if they want to play older titles without issues. There is also the problem of specific GPU architectures. As in the GTX 980 ti that was first released when the series debuted may be very different from the components and architecture used in a GTX 980 ti manufactured a year later. The drivers that work great on one may create major problems for the other. It's important for each person to find something that works for their, particular configuration, then leave it be. I can promise that players who constantly update will encounter regular problems with something.
 
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