I cannot get The Witcher 3 to stop stuttering

[Skridur]

I bought The Witcher 3 yesterday. and there is a big issue that is ruining it for me: Stuttering
This occurs on both DX11 and DX12 Versions. with DX12 having much worse performance overall
I have tried a bunch of different methods to try and fix it and none have worked

I bought the game from GOG, and installed it with the Offline Installer
Running the latest 4.04 Version
I have no mods Installed
I am running Windows 11 23H2
I have an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS CPU, RTX 4060 GPU with 8GB VRAM, and 16 Gigabytes DDR5 Ram
I am running all of the latest drivers for my computer.
I get about 110 FPS max on 1080p Ultra+ DX11

So far i have tried: Putting it on lowest settings, Disabling all Visual Effects such as Motion Blur, Vignette and CA, Disabling Hairworks, Putting FVR to Medium, Setting Reflections to low, Adding the game folder as an Exclusion in Windows Security and turning off all Exploit Protection settings, Clearing my %temp% files and all Temporary Files in settings, Closing all Background tasks such as Steam and Discord, Running a Debloat tool to remove potential Bloatware from my Computer, Disabling Xbox Game Bar, Presence Writer and Gaming Services, Disabling all Windows Visual Effects, Installing a Registry Tweak to make the game have High Priority CPU, Ram and Disk (Uninstalled that now). and putting my computer on the highest performance profiles

Have Game Mode on and the game is set to High Performance in the Graphics tab
Capping it to 60fps in-game, having it Unlimited in-game and capping it to 60 with RTSS (Rivatuner), and having both RTSS and in-game at 60 did not fix. also tried in-game on and off along with NCP's Frame limiter. Putting it on Prefer Max Performance and Low Latency Ultra didn't fix
Unlocked Frame Rate has very bad stuttering

Happens on Exclusive Fullscreen, Borderless and Windowed. no matter the resolution, Disabling Fullscreen Optimizations on Exclusive didn't fix.
I tried going into the Config and putting "AllowClothSimulationOnGpu" to true

I have tried all these solutions one by one in the same area of the game, so it cannot be caused by shaders or whatever. Shader Cache is turned on

I tried applying DXVK on DX11, which destroyed the frame rate. VKD3D on DX12 causes it to not start
AA on Off, FXAA and TAAU, Putting DLSS on in the DX12 version, and Sharpening on Off, Low and High didn't fix

This has been frustrating me ever since i started playing it. this does not happen in any other 3D Open World game on my computer, even before all the steps i took

I might just refund it if i can't find a solution...

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Not sure what you can try, knowing everything you already tried, but I suggest to directly contact the support ("contact us" button) if you didn't :

Performance issues — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | Technical Support — CD PROJEKT RED

Welcome to CD PROJEKT RED Technical Support! Here you will find help regarding our games and services, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.

support.cdprojektred.com

 

[Skridur]

Managed to fix most of the stutters by going into Windows Device Manager and disabling NVIDIA High Definition Audio, Virtual Audio Device. and AMD Audio Device, High Definition Audio and Streaming Audio. All in the Sound, Video and game controllers tab
All stuttering when moving the camera around in one singular area is gone

However, stuttering still occurs when running around in the game world. I think it's because of shader cache, i doubt a Shader Pre-Compilation Step will be added in a future update to alleviate this (if there isn't one currently)

 

[ParkerTrey]

Managed to fix most of the stutters by going into Windows Device Manager and disabling NVIDIA High Definition Audio, Virtual Audio Device. and AMD Audio Device, High Definition Audio and Streaming Audio. All in the Sound, Video and game controllers tab
All stuttering when moving the camera around in one singular area is gone

However, stuttering still occurs when running around in the game world. I think it's because of shader cache, i doubt a Shader Pre-Compilation Step will be added in a future update to alleviate this (if there isn't one currently)

It helped me also, thank you.

 

[MogNet]

Disable frame gen in game and limit your frame rate to 144 in game, then cap externally to your desired frame rate. Worked for me just now, so thought I'd share for people to try if they come across this thread.

 

[SheikOLin01]

Disable frame gen in game and limit your frame rate to 144 in game, then cap externally to your desired frame rate. Worked for me just now, so thought I'd share for people to try if they come across this thread.

Wdym cap externally, what are the exact steps?

 

[SigilFey]

Wdym cap externally, what are the exact steps?

Download RTSS (RivaTuner Statistics Server) and use it to hook the game and limit FPS to whatever value you choose. Its an extremely widely-used utility that allows for real-time adjustment of frame timing and analytics in a game (like an FPS display while playing.) Perfectly safe and easy to turn on and off in the game by just opening or closing RTSS itself. You can adjust RTSS settings while the game is running to see the effect.

Essentially, technology, whether new or old, can sometimes not sync well with certain games. Every PC is different. CP2077 can run at higher FPS, but the game functions seem to be built around 30 or 60 FPS. (It's not just graphics, it's key frames and physics that use frame rate as timers.) If you're seeing that sort of stuttering or hitching, it's often a good idea (in any game) to lower the FPS. It's also a good idea to do this as a general rule for games. If I have a 144 Hz monitor, it's only capable of putting out 144 FPS. Even if my GPU can render 300+ FPS, it can only ever draw 144 FPS. No reason to cook your hardware for frames you'll never even see.

My recommendation is to lock is to:

• set Nvidia Control Panel frame limit to "Use the 3D application setting"
• turn the in-game frame cap setting to "Unlimited"
• and then set RTSS frame limit to either 72 or 64.

You can just play around there and see what it does. (Often a frame limit divisible by 8 gives a good result.) The idea is, check to see what your average FPS is in game, then set the limit a little below that. That overhead will often prevent stutters.

Smooth gameplay is not a result of high FPS. It's the result of steady FPS.