Which console for optimum Witcher 3 experience (or PC)?

[last1standing100]

Which console for optimum Witcher 3 experience (or PC)?

Hello all. First post here.
Like everyone else here, I've been waiting for Witcher 3 to be released for what seems like an eternity, and am really looking forward to playing it. I read that the game will be available for several different console formats, as well as PC (I played the Witcher 1 and 2 on a PC). Now that we can finally see the end of our long wait for Witcher 3, my question is a simple one -if the cost of obtaining the hardware was not a factor, which format would you prefer for the ultimate Witcher 3 experience, and why? I make my living as a design engineer, so keeping a fairly high-end PC workstation is just part-and-parcel of my everyday existence. I have found that, with a few additions and tweaks, a good CAD workstation usually makes a great gaming rig. But I since I'm also planning to buy a new console of some sort sometime around the first of the year, I thought it worth asking here if the PS4 or Xbox1 versions for Witcher 3 are expected to be superior in any way (graphics quality, response time, controller layout better suited to the demands of this particular game, etc.)

Thanks in advance for any input or opinions.

 

[sidspyker]

If you can afford it and have no problems with it then PC is obviously the way to go.

 

[arkblazer]

PC, no argument there on ultimate experience. Graphics there will obviously be superior.

personally im going to go for console (PS4) for the following reasons:

1)I'm not a massive graphics whore. (no offense to anyone, i just didn't know what other term to use)
2)I wanted to play certain exclusive games on consoles.
3) I though that buying a console would be cheaper than upgrading the graphic card on my PC.
4) Im PC phobic and cant get used to the keyboard, especially the whole moving with the: W,A,S,D. keys, for me its a giant pain in my butt.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

My personal recommendation - build a good gaming PC. Or wait for Steam Machines to come out and CDPR porting Witcher 3 to Linux / SteamOS. That would be much better than any Xbox / PS options.

 

[KiriSilvermane]

Pc if you have the budget!
Console will be personal choice as both have pros and cons.

 

[ColinJ89]

PC's obviously going to give you the ultimate experience if you have the money to spend (or the existing rig.) But considering I've heard them say that 60 fps will be very difficult to achieve at max settings in 1080p, you're looking at a $4,000 rig if you want crisp framerates. If you game in 4K, as I do, you're looking at an even more expensive rig. I run an Intel Core i7-4930K @ 3.40 GHz with 2x SLI NVIDIA GTX 780 TI and 32 GB 1600 MHz RAM, and I have serious doubts about my rig's ability to play Wild Hunt smoothly in 4K with ooh shiny pretty maximum graphics settings. Still holding off on the upgrade to see how the machine handles Wild Hunt, but may have to upgrade again.

If you don't have the money to spend on the monstrous machine with the power to run this with high graphical fidelity, PS4 will at least let you play in 1080p.

 

[maciekka09]

PC's obviously going to give you the ultimate experience if you have the money to spend (or the existing rig.) But considering I've heard them say that 60 fps will be very difficult to achieve at max settings in 1080p, you're looking at a $4,000 rig if you want crisp framerates. If you game in 4K, as I do, you're looking at an even more expensive rig. I run an Intel Core i7-4930K @ 3.40 GHz with 2x SLI NVIDIA GTX 780 TI and 32 GB 1600 MHz RAM, and I have serious doubts about my rig's ability to play Wild Hunt smoothly in 4K with ooh shiny pretty maximum graphics settings. Still holding off on the upgrade to see how the machine handles Wild Hunt, but may have to upgrade again.

If you don't have the money to spend on the monstrous machine with the power to run this with high graphical fidelity, PS4 will at least let you play in 1080p.

Saying that you either spend enormous amount of money on PC from outer space or buy it on console is kind of extreme, no?

Personally I'd say PC, if you can afford a decent rig (decent, but not 4000$ decent). It just lets you personalize the experience and with some investment you can up the visual quality beyond the console one.
Also, mods and free updates sound good. The base game is cheaper too.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

@Talyn856 : It can be cheaper to buy a regular 1920x1200 monitor than to buy hardware (like SLI) which can support high framerate on 4K resolution

 

[MkTama]

PC's obviously going to give you the ultimate experience if you have the money to spend (or the existing rig.) But considering I've heard them say that 60 fps will be very difficult to achieve at max settings in 1080p, you're looking at a $4,000 rig if you want crisp framerates. If you game in 4K, as I do, you're looking at an even more expensive rig. I run an Intel Core i7-4930K @ 3.40 GHz with 2x SLI NVIDIA GTX 780 TI and 32 GB 1600 MHz RAM, and I have serious doubts about my rig's ability to play Wild Hunt smoothly in 4K with ooh shiny pretty maximum graphics settings. Still holding off on the upgrade to see how the machine handles Wild Hunt, but may have to upgrade again.

If you don't have the money to spend on the monstrous machine with the power to run this with high graphical fidelity, PS4 will at least let you play in 1080p.

No offense but you're talking cheap, no one (maybe including CDP) knows what will be final performance level. But in your case with that beastly rig unless some major performance hog options (like ubersampling) you'll be fine. No game is built to run at maximum at good resolution (talking about HD, 4K is still exotic for now) with SLI, a single top card is meant to be sufficient (since you're already spending €5-600+). Both PS4 and XONE are not yet confirmed nor denied to run the game at 1080p.

Anyway back to question, still early to talk but if you're looking for top graphical experience and fluidity, mods and a better experience overall AND you can afford a good rig PC will outclass console versions. But new consoles are powerful and the game will be beautiful also there so the question is, are you PC enthusiast or not? If yes you already know the answer.. If not you'll enjoy your great experience also on console

 

[ColinJ89]

Saying that you either spend enormous amount of money on PC from outer space or buy it on console is kind of extreme, no?

True. Poor choice of words on my part, as that wasn't my intended point. If you're looking for the maximum gameplay experience though (taking into account graphical fidelity and gameplay) PC is the way to go. Always will be. But if you don't have a PC from outer space, what I was trying to get across is that it might be a better experience on consoles. Trying to fiddle with graphical settings to get a good framerate on a less than top of the line PC can be a pain, I know from experience. I built my rig from outer space after running Witcher 2 on my old Alienware.

@Talyn856 : It can be cheaper to buy a regular 1920x1200 monitor than to buy hardware (like SLI) which can support high framerate on 4K resolution

But why would you want to play with 5,990,400 fewer pixels? Priorities, I guess.

No offense but you're talking cheap, no one (maybe including CDP) knows what will be final performance level.

I'm only parroting what the news on this game has been saying for the last 6 months. True, no one but CDPR knows what the final specs are going to be to max it out, but it's not hard to guess unless they come up with some revolutionary optimization processes.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

But why would you want to play with 5,990,400 fewer pixels? Priorities, I guess.

Because I don't want to pay insane money for such monitor and SLI setup to support it? ;D I think so far such resolution is needed only for professional video and photo editing and design work. Until such monitors will become more common and prices will drop 2-3 times, it's just not reasonable. It might happen soon, but it didn't happen yet.

 

[ColinJ89]

Because I don't want to pay insane money for such monitor and SLI setup to support it? ;D I think so far such resolution is needed only for professional video and photo editing and design work. Until such monitors will become more common and prices will drop 2-3 times, it's just not reasonable. It might happen soon, but it didn't happen yet.

Yeah, the SLI setup to support is becoming the limiter. Already you can find 4K monitors (pretty decent quality too) in the $500-600 range, which is around the same price as some of the top end 1080-1200 monitors. The hardware to actually run that resolution probably won't be economical for several years.

 

[Scholdarr]

PC is the way to to for "the ultimate experience" because

1) you can choose between mouse/keyboard or controller input
2) you can enjoy the game with the best possible visual fidelity (e.g. much better anti aliasing, no resolution or framerate limitation, 3D or multi-monitor support,...)
3) modding support for both technical improvements and new content (!!!)

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Yeah, the SLI setup to support is becoming the limiter. Already you can find 4K monitors (pretty decent quality too) in the $500-600 rang

I also value colors not less than the resolution, so such kind of monitors are crazy expensive so far (example: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=860-BBCD)

 

[ColinJ89]

I also value colors not less than the resolution, so such kind of monitors are crazy expensive so far (example: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=860-BBCD)

Yeah, that's ridiculous at $1,000 for a 24" monitor. I got the Samsung UHD 28" for $600ish. Pretty good color accuracy (and 4K obviously), nice and big, but you sacrifice viewing angle. Not usually an issue for me with monitors as much as it is on TVs. http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/monitors/LU28D590DS/ZA

 

[sidspyker]

Still waiting on the day when low latency IPS panels at 4K, 144hz are a thing and affordable. Maybe it'll happen by the time I'm 70 or 80....

And we're all(me included) going offtopic >_> let's not do that

 

[Scholdarr]

Still waiting on the day when low latency IPS panels at 4K, 144hz are a thing and affordable. Maybe it'll happen by the time I'm 70 or 80....

And we're all(me included) going offtopic >_> let's not do that

Still doesn't solve the problem that you need at least about 2000€ alone for the GPUs which are powerful to run a modern game (like Witcher 3) in all its visual glory in 4k at 144 FPS. But due to optimization problems in multi-GPU setups I doubt that even a quad-SLI setup consisting of four 780TI would be capable of delivering constant 144 FPS at 4k resolution at maximal visual fidelity/settings.

So all of that is definitely a thing of the future, not of present day.

Back to topic, sry.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

144 FPS.

Why do you need such FPS? Human eye can't even feel any difference at such frequencies.

 

[octavian123]

PC is and will always be superior to consoles, except on optimization but AMD and Nvidia are working on it. PC is the way to go. AA, ultra texture resolution, huge view distance, more vegetation...if you want you can also use an Xbox controller from your couch.

 

[eskiMoe]

PC or if that's not an option, PS4.