The Witcher 3 wild hunt ultra graphics. Three PCs for The Witcher
A lot of good games came out last year, but only one was able to combine a great story, addictive gameplay and photorealistic graphics. Of course, we are talking about the RPG The Witcher 3. Wild Hunt.
Alas, in a crisis, not everyone can afford powerfulth gaming PC that will pull The Witcher 3 (especially at maximum settings).
With the help of colleagues from, we decided to assemble three inexpensive computers that will allow you to play The Witcher 3 at minimum, medium and maximum graphics settings. The final amount does not include the monitor, as well as the mouse, keyboard and other peripherals - only the system unit.
So, the three cheapest gaming computers assembled for the system requirements of The Witcher 3.
Comparison of the graphic settings of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Anti-crisis
Processor: AMD Athlon X4 860K
Price: 5500 rubles
Motherboard: MSI A78M-E45 Socket FM2+
Price: 4800 rubles
Video card: ASUS Radeon R7 240 770Mhz PCI-E 3.0 4096 MB
Price: 5500 rubles
RAM: Kingston HyperX Savage DDR3 8GB
Price: 3300 rubles
Hard drive: Western Digital WD5000AAKX 500GB
Price: 3600 rubles
Chassis with power supply: AeroCool V2X Red Edition 550W Red
Price: 4300 rubles
____________________
Total: 27 000 rubles
Vitaly Borovkov, ESET technical support specialist:
Due to the rational selection of components, the computer optimally balances between price and performance. This machine will quite pull The Witcher 3 (and other modern games) at low or medium settings; The "margin of safety" of such an assembly before the upgrade is enough for six months or a year.
Optimal
Processor: Intel Core i3-6100 3700MHz
Price: 9700 rubles
Motherboard: MSI H170 GAMING M3
Price: 9500 rubles
Video card: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 750 Ti 1059Mhz PCI-E 3.0 4096MB
Price: 12,000 rubles
RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY DDR4 2133Mhz 8GB
Price: 3600 rubles
Power Supply: ATX FSP ATX-500PNR 500W
Price: 2700 rubles
Hard drive: Western Digital 1Tb (WD10EZEX)
Price: 3800 rubles
Chassis: AeroCool V2X Orange Edition, no PSU
Price: 2300 rubles
___________________
Total: 43 600 rubles
Vitaly Borovkov:
According to the test results, this build should give out 54 FPS in The Witcher 3 at high graphics settings and 48 FPS at ultra (at a resolution of 1920x1080). This configuration will be the golden mean between "gaming" and "working" PCs. The motherboard will provide this computer with a long life - in a year or two you can easily upgrade it at a relatively low cost.
Bought dollars at 30
Processor: Intel Core i5-6600K, 3.50GHz, 6MB, LGA1151
Price: 15,000 rubles
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-D
Price: 4400 rubles
Video card: ASUS GeForce GTX 960 1190Mhz PCI-E 3.0 4096MB
Price: 16 600 rubles
RAM: Crucial CT4G4DFS8213 4GB (2 pcs.)
Price: 3600 rubles
PSU: Aerocool 675W Retail HERO 675
Price: 4800 rubles
Solid state drive:Nexport NX SSD-240G25SATA3 240GB 2.5"
Price: 5700 rubles
Chassis: AeroCool V2X Black Edition Black, no PSU
Price: 2400 rubles
Cooler: DeepCool THETA 31 PWM
Price: 900 rubles
____________________
Total: 53 400 rubles
Vitaly Borovkov:
This configuration is well suited for solving any problems. Games on such a computer will not slow down even at maximum settings, and the need for an upgrade will appear at least in two to three years. Usage
The recent release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, despite all the coolness of the game, turned out to be controversial. Many players do not understand how the game, after so many years of development and a noticeable decrease in visual quality, manages to slow down even on top systems. We decided to turn to the work of Nvidia engineers and present you with a guide to fine-tuning graphics in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Here you will learn which settings are best to turn off and how they affect overall performance.
Before proceeding to the topic of this article, we recommend that you The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as well. In addition, those who wish to understand the fine-tuning of graphic parameters The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt by editing the configuration file can do this (in the process of writing).
- CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 4.4 GHz;
- RAM: 64 GB;
- Video card: SLI x GeForce GTX Titan X 12 GB.
General graphic settings
The number of characters on the screen (Number of Background Characters)
This setting sets a limit on the maximum number of NPCs that the game will render, depending on the selected setting - 75, 100, 130 or 150. However, it currently has no effect on gameplay, and the number of NPCs does not exceed 75. We will wait for this to be fixed bug from the developers.
In general, it can be assumed that the “number of characters” increases the load on the processor, and not on the video card, so owners of weak or old CPUs are not recommended to set this setting above average.
Shadow Quality
Considering the number of possible values, this setting has little effect on image quality, regardless of the selected scene or scenario, which may even seem surprising.
Judge for yourself, in terms of performance, "shadow quality" consumes less than 10 frames per second, if you take the difference between low and outrageous quality:
However, you can always adjust the "quality of shadows" to suit your needs and tastes, since the developers have provided for fine-tuning this parameter through .
Terrain Quality
This option is designed to increase the geometric detail of various terrain surfaces by applying tessellation. However, changing the setting in the final version of the game does not have any effect on the terrain and visual quality.
It is not yet clear when the developers will fix this bug, which means it is impossible to assess how much this parameter affects performance.
Quality of detail (Detail Level)
This setting was taken from Witcher 2, and its name is in no way responsible for setting the level of detail, scaling or polygon count. "Detail Quality" on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt adjusts the amount of blood, the visibility of blood splatter and body parts that usually appear during the next bloody battle, as well as the distance at which they start to be drawn.
In terms of performance, the setting does not have a big impact and will cost 1-2 FPS, moreover, it very rarely manifests itself, since the game world The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is filled with vegetation that hides everything.
This parameter can be improved by editing the game's configuration files, we are talking about this.
Water Quality
This option works in two ways. If you travel in the game world crossing ponds and lakes, then regardless of the selected value, the appearance of the water surface will not change much. If you cross the ocean, the difference between the levels of detail will be immediately visible.
The higher the level of detail - the higher the quality of the water and the number of waves, the level of tessellation will be stronger and "randomly" change the curvature of the water surface, ripples, foam, splashes will appear.
We also note that at “high” and “outrageous” quality, the simulation of the physics of the interaction between water and the boat is activated, which will give the latter a realistic rocking. Something like this first appears in video games and the developers deserve a lot of praise.
In terms of performance, water quality has little to no effect on FPS, so you might as well set it to "high" quality:
Foliage Visibility Range
This graphics setting has almost no effect on performance, enabling it, you will lose about 1 frame per second. However, you can neglect chromatic aberration for reasons of better visual quality.
Vignetting
CD Projekt RED has prepared another interesting post-effects setting. "Vignetting" darkens the image around the edges, which some people might find interesting.
It is quite logical that vignetting does not affect image quality and only owners of weak video cards, who deny themselves all post-effects, should turn it off.
Light mines / Twilight rays (Light Shafts aka God Rays)
This parameter is responsible for the display of rays of light passing through foliage, gaps in buildings, windows in dark rooms, and so on.
The effect of Light Mines on performance is negligible, and activating them will greatly enhance your impression of visual quality and overall atmosphere. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and will speed up the immersion in the game world. We strongly recommend that you enable this setting.
Nvidia technologies
Optimization The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for PC was held by CD Projekt RED in collaboration with Nvidia, and now it's time to talk about the proprietary features of this video card manufacturer.
hairworks
Let's start with Nvidia HairWorks technology, which recreates the believable appearance of animal hair. This is achieved by tessellation of hundreds of thousands of hairs, and each of them realistically interacts with the surrounding space and the physical parameters of the world, such as wind. Thanks to the dynamic lighting capabilities, each hair casts its own shadow and reflects on other hairs, giving the image an even greater quality.
AT The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Nvidia HairWorks technology is used to model Geralt of Rivia's hair and beard, enhance the lush mane of his trusty horse Roach (as well as the manes of other horses), and, of course, is used to enhance the impressions of three dozen monsters and some others enemies.
To make Geralt's hair and beard more realistic (which, by the way, grow as you progress through the game), Nvidia has developed a new, more advanced rendering engine that takes into account dynamic lighting, weather changes in the game, atmospheric humidity, wind strength, and so on. As a result, the gray hair of the protagonist will correspond to the surrounding conditions as fully as possible, get wet and dry, fluctuate in the wind and become dirty.
For example, let's note that Geralt's beard contains 6,000 hairs, while the total number of similar elements in the main character's model is from 30,000 to 115,000 (depending on the selected quality). Most of the enemies you see up close have an average of 40,000 to 125,000 hairs, at a medium distance their number decreases markedly - from 10,000 to 40,000 hairs.
The adaptation of MSAA technology for Nvidia HairWorks has reduced the number of bugs and . In addition, HairWorks anti-aliasing is no longer dependent on which anti-aliasing mode you select in the game menu. AT The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt debuts MSAA for Nvidia HairWorks for the first time, and you can adjust this setting in the GameWorks software.
Now let's talk about performance. HairWorks settings has three presets: "Off" (the setting will be turned off), "Only Geralt" and "Everything" (all objects will use the capabilities of HairWorks). Because the game world Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is very diverse, in different situations the FPS will change a lot.
Consider, for example, the situation in which Geralt has dismounted from his horse and is killing wolves. In this case, you will lose about 15-20 frames if you turn on the "All" preset compared to turning off HairWorks technology. According to Nvidia, it's worth it - action scenes and battles will become much more memorable. Difference between "Off" and "Only Geralt" during the battle about 10 FPS, but the visual changes will not be as noticeable as in the example above.
Going for a walk around the open world on a horse, get ready to lose about 10-15 FPS if you turn on the "Everything" preset compared to turning off HairWorks technology. Difference between "Off" and "Only Geralt" about 10 FPS, but this is an average cost for visual quality, because you will constantly look at Geralt and his horse.
If you try to consider only one main character, then the “Everything” and “Only Geralt” presets will be equal to each other in terms of the number of selected frames per second. As a result, we can conclude that the “Only Geralt” preset consumes 10-15 FPS, but as soon as you get involved in a fight with other hairy enemies, you will lose up to 10 more frames.
Thus, we would not recommend that you activate this feature in any way if your video card is not the top one - FPS jumps, especially during a tense battle with a bunch of enemies, will only make you nervous, but will not add any pleasure, no matter how Nvidia praises HairWorks features.
HBAO+ (Nvidia's Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion)
AT The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt supports two global shading technologies - common to all SSAO and Nvidia-specific HBAO + technology. Wherever you are in the game world, the global shading technique will have a significant impact on visual quality.
Global shading adds more realism to nearby objects, from grass to the last glass in a tavern. If we talk about the achievements of HBAO +, then this technology allows you to get the highest quality shadows, avoid excessive darkening of fine details or unrealistic halos that are sometimes visible around objects and characters:
Another example is a room with lighted corners. Notice how accurately HBAO+ renders some areas, both on the walls and on Geralt's back:
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt wasting resources - you could see the interactive comparisons above.
About fine-tuning graphics using configuration files Witcher 3 read in (in the process of writing).
The economic crisis in the country will not end soon, and a powerful computer is now worth several average wages. That is why we publish various useful materials especially for you, where we offer reasonable savings on the choice of components, conduct informative workshops on how to properly configure demanding games for weak PCs, and much more.
By the way, just today, May 31, 2016, a new large-scale expansion for The Witcher 3 called Blood and Wine was released. Already looking forward to how you will pass it?
First, let's remember the system requirements for The Witcher 3.
Minimum system requirements for The Witcher 3
Operating system: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0 GHz
The amount of RAM: 6 GB
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2 GB / AMD Radeon HD 7870 2 GB
Sound card:
40 GB
So here is the computer configuration needed to run The Witcher 3. Having a PC that does not even meet the "minimal wages", the game can not even try to run. As the long-term experience of the author of this article shows, in such cases, at any graphics settings, FPS will not rise above 20 units, and the gameplay will turn into a kind of “slide show”.
If this, unfortunately, is about you, then you can try one of the cloud gaming services. Among the Russian speakers, the largest at the moment is Playkey.
Recommended system requirements for The Witcher 3
Operating system: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1
CPU: Intel Core i5 3770 @ 3.4 GHz / AMD FX-8350 @ 4 GHz
The amount of RAM: 8 GB
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4 GB / AMD Radeon R9 290 4 GB
Sound card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
Free hard disk space: 40 GB
If you have a computer similar in configuration to the recommended system requirements, then The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt should run at least on high settings and in FullHD resolution (1920 × 1080 pixels). However, it is not a fact that the game will give out a stable 60 FPS with all the “pretty things” turned on. Therefore, it will also be useful for you to know what graphics options you can sacrifice so that both beauty and frame rate are not affected.
This material will be most useful to those who are between the minimum and recommended requirements. That is, those who have a processor more powerful than the AMD Phenom II X4 940, but weaker than the Intel Core i5 3770, and a video card more powerful than the AMD Radeon HD 7870, but weaker than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4 GB, and so on.
Customizing The Witcher 3 Graphics
The following lists all the picture settings in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Some of them affect performance more, some less, and some do not affect performance at all. We tried to briefly describe the essence of each of these parameters, as well as give advice on how to optimize them.
NVIDIA HairWorks
very high.
Roughly speaking, NVIDIA HairWorks is an analogue of TressFX from AMD. The latter was first used in the 2013 game Tomb Raider. Both technologies are designed to make the behavior of the hair of the characters, as well as the hair of various furry animals and monsters, more realistic. And both technologies are quite gluttonous. When enabled, you can lose up to 20 frames on GeForce graphics cards and up to 30 on Radeon, especially in dynamic scenes. Therefore, just turn off this option completely and move on.
NVIDIA HBAO+ Background Shading
Performance impact: low.
At its core, NVIDIA HBAO+ is an evolution of SSAO technology. In another way, SSAO is sometimes also called background shading. Thanks to him, highly detailed objects can throw those on themselves, as well as on each other. If the older and more primitive SSAO works straightforwardly: just spreading additional shadows wherever possible, then HBAO + is more subtle: it removes the so-called reshading effect, cleaning up everything superfluous.
As for performance, then, surprisingly, this parameter does not affect it much. Usually no more than 4-5 frames are lost. You can try enabling HBAO+, or leave SSAO as a last resort.
Smoothing
Performance impact: average.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt uses CD Projekt RED's proprietary anti-aliasing technique. By the principle of operation, it is somewhat similar to FXAA, but with some improvements, such as more efficient removal of "ladders" along the edges of objects during camera movement.
If your computer is even slightly more powerful than the minimum required configuration, then leave this setting enabled. Without it, the picture looks much worse. You can always sacrifice something more resource-intensive.
glow
Performance impact: low.
Daylight, torches, campfires, and the like look much less natural when this option is turned off. Yes, and consumes resources "Glow" a bit. Therefore, turn it off only as a last resort.
Blur
Performance impact: very low.
"Blur", as you might guess, blurs the background environment while moving the character. This adds some visual dynamism to the picture. If in the first games where it was used (at least The Witcher 2), the FPS drop could be quite significant, but now even during action scenes only a couple of frames are lost. Another question is that not everyone likes this effect. Therefore, you can customize this option to your taste.
Chromatic aberration
Performance impact: very low.
"Chromatic aberration" is simply a filter that adds a lens effect to an image, like in some fashion photography. When enabled, less than one frame is lost, so you can experiment and leave the setting of this parameter as you like.
Depth of field
Performance impact: low (in open areas), medium (in cities).
This option is useful for those who do not have a powerful enough system to run The Witcher 3 in 4K (3840x2160). Only with this resolution, even remote objects of the environment have full detail. But the gradually aging standard Full HD (1920 × 1080), unfortunately, cannot boast of such. To hide some "failure" of the picture, the effect of depth of field has long been used. When turned on, everything that is on the horizon in relation to the player's character is covered with a slight semblance of fog. However, many consider this effect more of a cinematic property of the image.
If your computer barely meets the minimum requirements, then it's better to turn off Depth of Field, as in some situations FPS can sag quite seriously (up to 10-12 frames). If you are the owner of a quite powerful "machine", then you can turn it on to your taste - not everyone likes this effect.
Detailing
Performance impact: low.
A slightly clumsily named parameter. Very strange, but "Detail" in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has nothing to do with the elaboration of the geometry of three-dimensional objects. This setting is responsible for the visibility range of blood spatter during battles.
Resources such effects consume little, so you can leave this option enabled.
plant visibility range
Performance impact: medium (in cities), high (in open areas).
The name of this option does not accurately reflect its essence. It is rather not "Range", but "Density" of plants or even "Quality of vegetation". At long distances, with the maximum value of the Plant Visibility Range, there will be a lot of various trees and shrubs, and the forests near the horizon will become more dense. And at medium and close range, all of them will also have a high degree of detail. In addition, the "Visibility of Plants" affects the density of grass, as well as the quality of shading of all greenery in the game.
In most cases, this parameter slows down the game quite seriously, so if you are reading this text, you can hardly afford a setting higher than "Medium Quality" and "Medium Draw Distance". It is better to put something less demanding on the maximum.
grass density
Performance impact: average.
Makes the grass cover, as well as the density of ears in cultivated fields, even more saturated. The setting is an addition to the previous one. Resources are not so few, and the effect is barely noticeable. Therefore, in most cases, it is better to leave this option disabled.
Rays
Performance impact: very low.
Another parameter that has become undemanding relatively recently. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt it is simply referred to as "Rays", while in other games it is often referred to as "God Rays" or "God Rays". This is a very beautiful effect, which gives the picture a special charm, thanks to the golden light passing through the branches of plants or through window openings into a dark room.
As mentioned above, the number of FPS "Rays" practically does not affect. So don't deprive yourself of the visual aesthetic and leave this option enabled.
Number of processed characters
Performance impact: high (theoretically).
With the "Number of processed characters" a rather interesting situation comes out. With a “Low” value, the number of people (as well as various e people) around us is limited to 75, with "Average" - 100, with "High" - 130, and with "Maximum" 150 units. However, it is very difficult to find a place in the game or get into a situation where at least the above 75 of the minimum option will be located next to the player's character at the same time. Even walking around Novigrad, we will be among a much smaller crowd at any setting.
In theory, this parameter should have a high impact on performance. It is possible, of course, that in the Blood and Wine supplement released today, there are situations suitable for it. Therefore, we recommend that you set, just in case, the minimum value of the “Number of processed characters”.
PhysX
Performance impact: low (GeForce), medium or low (Radeon, depends on CPU power).
Everything is simple here. If you can boast not the oldest video chip from NVIDIA, but ideally also a sufficiently powerful processor from Intel, then the physical effects in the game will be of the highest quality and work quickly. Moreover, this parameter cannot be configured.
If Radeon is responsible for graphics in your computer, then a more primitive physical model will be used, and the main processor will calculate it, which can affect performance quite significantly.
Shadow quality
Performance impact: high.
The higher you set the value (Low, Medium, High or Maximum), the better the shadows will be and appear at a greater distance. If the option is set to minimum, then during a gallop on Roach (especially through thickets), shadows will grow right in front of the nose.
We recommend that you set it to "Low" if your PC is weak enough, otherwise you can try "High". The maximum is still hardly accessible to readers of this article because of its voracity, and there is practically no difference between “Medium” and “Low”.
sharpness
Performance impact: very low.
A fairly standard post-processing effect that makes the image sharper. The number of frames is practically not lost, so you can adjust as you like.
Ground surface quality
Performance impact: very low (actually), average (in theory).
Another strange setting that was never really implemented even after all the updates. Perhaps, with the release of today's add-on, the situation will change (if so, be sure to tell us in the comments). The essence of the "Quality of the surface of the earth" is ... the quality of the surface of the earth. That is, tessellation is applied to the geometry of the earth's surface, due to which its detail should be visually increased, such as more voluminous cobblestones on the pavement, bumps and other landscape irregularities.
You can experiment with this option yourself, and in extreme cases, just turn it off.
Texture quality
Performance impact: low.
Since The Witcher 3 is, by definition, a fairly demanding game, such a trifle as the quality of textures does not have much effect on performance. Therefore, you can safely set a high value. The only clarification is that ultra-settings are intended for graphics cards with at least 4 GB of video memory. The picture from this is clearer than at high settings, it will not. It's just that more data will be loaded into the extra memory so that there are no ugly texture loads during fast movement on a horse.
Vignetting
Performance impact: very low.
Turning on Vignetting will darken the corners of the screen. Which is quite interesting and cinematic looks. This effect has almost no effect on performance, so you can customize it as you wish.
Water quality
Performance impact: very low.
In fact, in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you cannot change the quality of the water render. And this option regulates only the elaboration of additional effects on the surface of puddles, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water. If you turn on the highest Water Quality settings, then the FPS indicator will practically not change at all. The boat with Geralt will begin to sway realistically, and if he dives into the pond, beautiful ripples will appear around him.
* * *
This was the second article in the 60 FPS column. We hope you found it useful.
We will be glad to see you on our main site, where you can play beautiful powerful games, even if you have a very weak computer.
See you soon, and don't forget to go for a walk!
Recently, Polish developers have pleased fans of role-playing games with the third part of The Witcher, which has become even larger and more epic. Many have already managed to join this virtual adventure and get bogged down in it for a long time. Along with interesting story adventures, the game pleases with a beautiful picture, being a good incentive to buy a new video card or to fiddle with the settings for a long time in order to achieve a comfortable level of performance. We will try to help with this. Let's test a number of video cards and find out which of them show the best results in the game. And then we will go through the graphic settings in detail. This topic is extensive and subtle, because different parameters have different effects on the final performance. And often subtle manual adjustments allow you to achieve a better ratio of image quality and performance compared to standard profiles.
In The Witcher 3, the visual heritage of the second part is recognizable, but with improved detail and a significantly increased visibility range. Surfaces have become more textured, work with light has been improved.
To enjoy such graphics, you need a powerful modern graphics card with DirectX 11 support. Which one? This is what we will find out. But first, let's give a description of the computer system on which all the tests were performed.
Test configuration
The test bench configuration is as follows:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K (3, [email protected].4 GHz, 12 MB);
- cooler: Thermalright Venomous X;
- motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Formula/Battlefield 3 (Intel X79 Express);
- memory: Kingston KHX2133C11D3K4/16GX (4x4 GB, [email protected] MHz, 10-11-10-28-1T);
- system disk: Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB (240 GB, SATA 6Gb/s);
- secondary drive: Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 (1 TB, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm);
- power supply: Seasonic SS-750KM (750 W);
- monitor: ASUS PB278Q (2560x1440, 27″);
- operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64;
- game version 1.07;
- GeForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 353.62;
- Radeon driver: ATI Catalyst 15.7.1.
Test Methodology
The performance measurement was carried out by replaying a small scene with fps measurement using Fraps. A trip was made in the direction of the settlement Bely Sad. The procedure was repeated. Five repetitions for each test mode.
Video card performance comparison
Previously, we have repeatedly included the game in separate reviews, from which you can get a general idea of the balance of power between different video cards. But the developers continue to supplement the game with new content and make some changes. At the time of writing this article, the latest current version was numbered 1.07, and earlier we tested it in version 1.05. According to reviews, recent updates have led to a slight drop in performance. Is it so? Answer below.
With the complete deactivation of HairWorks, we really have a 2% difference between the old and new versions of the game. That is, the performance drop is minimal, at least in our gaming scene. In this case, it is worth considering the difference in the software of video cards. In the new version, we used updated video drivers. It is possible that with the same video driver, each participant would show a big difference. With HairWorks, the situation is somewhat different, but we will talk about this below.
Now let's take a look at a general comparison of performance at Ultra-quality graphics settings with two manual edits - enabling HBAO+ advanced global shading mode and completely disabling HairWorks. Test resolution 1920x1080.
Among our participants, the GeForce GTX 980 has the best results. Radeon R9 290X is 5-14% behind, Radeon R9 290 is 15-23% behind the leader. The past generation is seriously lagging behind the leaders. This can be seen both in the performance of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti and in the results of the Radeon R9 280X. Between the GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 780 Ti the difference is at the level of 26-33%, between the Radeon R9 290 and the Radeon R9 280X the difference is more than 50%. The younger AMD members are on a par with the GeForce GTX 960. But without overclocking, none of them is able to provide an acceptable fps level. The minimum option for a resolution of 1920x1080 is the GeForce GTX 780, and better with higher frequencies.
If NVIDIA HairWorks is enabled in Full HD, then it will be possible to play comfortably only on the GeForce GTX 980. This can be clearly seen from the results of an additional comparison.
Modern realities dictate new conditions, and for some players the resolution of 2560x1440 is also relevant. Will the older members cope with it?
The GeForce GTX 980 is once again out of competition, although the Radeon R9 290X is only 3-9% behind. The gap with the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is closing.
Activation of HairWorks leads to a drop in fps by 10-20% for NVIDIA video cards and by 16-22% for AMD representatives. Even the leader hardly overcomes the milestone of 30 frames. So there is no need for overclocking. Or you will have to think about buying a GeForce GTX 980 Ti. I would like to draw attention to the fact that with the old video driver Radeon R9 290X in such conditions showed a result of 20/23 frames. AMD had serious performance issues when activating NVIDIA HairWorks technology. And on the new software in the new version of the game, the overall ratio between NVIDIA and AMD competitors is already weakly dependent on the activation of HairWorks.
NVIDIA HairWorks
It's time to finally talk in more detail about HairWorks. This item in the main section of graphic settings comes first after the resolution and screen mode. So with it we will begin a detailed study of all the settings.
This technology itself implements more lively dynamic hair and fur for the characters. The first major demonstration of the technology was Far Cry 4, with its abundance of animals in a large open world. In The Witcher, HairWorks also helps to improve the appearance of animals, making their fur more lush and dynamic. And, of course, this technology is used for the hair of Geralt and other characters.
Here it is worth noting that the hair is very well implemented without HairWorks. Lush head of hair of the protagonist by default is well detailed and develops in the wind. HairWorks allows you to improve the detail and dynamics. Visually, it becomes clear that there are more strands, and they behave more naturally, depending on the influence of the external environment.
Rain affects hair. They get wet and hang with wet strands, gradually dry out and return to their previous appearance. Looks very realistic.
Such nuances are most striking in the dialogues and in the moments when the camera approaches the hero. And one could say that the influence of HairWorks is not particularly critical. But this technology allows you to improve the fur of animals, which is more noticeable in the exploration mode of the world.
A clear comparison can serve as two animated illustrations that are available (NVIDIA HairWorks) and (normal mode).
If you select the high quality settings profile, then the game already includes HairWorks, but only for Geralt. Selecting an Ultra quality profile activates HairWorks for everyone. At the same time, the quality of the HairWorks technology itself is always at a high level when smoothing in 4x mode. With these parameters, we tested video cards in the previous section of the article.
Previously, these settings were hidden, they could be adjusted by manually editing the configuration file. HairWorks anti-aliasing and quality are now available in the main menu. HairWorks anti-aliasing uses a multisampling method in three modes - from 2x to 8x. Improves the quality of hair display by smoothing the edges of individual hairs, "softening" the overall contours of the hairstyle. We studied the effect of anti-aliasing for HairWorks on the example of the GeForce GTX 960 video card. Note that the test scene is quite good for such a comparison, because there are two characters and two horses with a mane in the frame. But in dialogs, when the camera takes close angles, fps drawdowns at high HairWorks quality can be even higher.
Enabling HairWorks for Geralt (by default, anti-aliasing is 4x) reduces fps by 2-8% on a GeForce GTX 980 video card. Activating the technology for all characters reduces performance by another 6-8%. And if we additionally raise anti-aliasing to the maximum level, then we will lose even more than 2%.
As a result, we can say that HairWorks is a very resource-intensive technology and its impact on overall performance is most noticeable against the background of many other parameters. Therefore, on certain video cards, it will have to be sacrificed in order not to reduce the quality of detailing and elaboration of the game world
Number of characters on screen
Now let's move on to the rest of the graphic settings section. Let's examine their impact on the image and performance one by one. The test card will be the GeForce GTX 960 at a working resolution of 1920x1080. The next item on the list is the parameter that controls the number of characters displayed (Number of Background Characters).
The parameter has several gradations - from the minimum to the prohibitive level. At the same time, even at the minimum level, the limit on characters is 75 persons. It is difficult to find a place in the game where the same number of characters will be simultaneously in the frame. So it is hardly possible to talk about any significant impact of these settings on the final performance.
Number of Background Characters Ultra
Number of Background Characters Low
Shadow quality
Shadow Quality affects the number of shadows displayed and their detail. You can track the changes in the screenshots below.
Shadows Ultra
Shadow High
Shadows Medium
Shadows Low
In the first scene, there are practically no changes. It is only noticeable that the shading of the distant building on the left side of the frame is weakening, a bright zone appears around this building. And this is noticeable between the extreme positions of Ultra and Low. The shadows from the fence and horses do not change. In the second scene, the dynamics of shadow changes is more obvious. As the corresponding parameter decreases, shadows on distant trees disappear. There are more gaps in the shaded areas, but this, again, is weakly expressed. At some points, such a simplification of the shape of shadows from complex objects (tree crowns, etc.) is more noticeable. And it is also clearly visible in the dynamics, when you ride a horse during dawn or sunset - unnatural light zones in the distant vegetation are striking.
Well, now let's see how shadows affect performance. We leave the maximum parameters, we change only the quality of the shadows.
The video card responds well to their change. It gains a significant leap of 10-19% when moving from Ultra to High, and it is between these two modes that the difference in image quality is most difficult to notice.
Terrain quality
The next parameter is to adjust the quality of the land relief. In fact, it doesn't affect her at all. Try to find the differences between the maximum and minimum levels.
Terrain Quality Ultra
Terrain Quality Low
The test results confirm this. No difference.
The fact is that it was planned to use tessellation in the game to improve the geometry of the earth's surface, but it never appeared. Perhaps in future updates this technology will be added and the presence of this option in the menu will make some sense. For now, you can ignore it.
Water quality
This parameter determines the quality of visualization of water surfaces.
In statics, it is problematic to determine the difference between different levels of water quality - it looks very similar.
Water Quality Ultra
Water Quality Low
This difference is more noticeable in the dynamics, in the behavior of the waves.
Testing the effect of this parameter on overall performance in our test scene is problematic, it is not designed for this. But even when moving directly through the expanses of water, a change in the quality of the water surface has little effect on performance. Lowering this parameter makes sense only on weak video cards.
Amount of grass
The parameter controls the density of the grass (Grass Density). The higher - the more grass on the screen. A visual comparison is below.
Grass Density Quality Ultra
Grass Density Quality High
Grass Density Quality Medium
Grass Density Quality Low
As the quality of the grass decreases, the number of its bunches decreases, there are more clearings on the ground. But even at the minimum level, the grass remains, does not completely disappear.
Now let's look at the performance impact.
The GeForce GTX 960 video card reacts rather weakly to changes in grass density. Reducing this parameter gives a minimal increase in the final performance, but it is present.
vegetation visibility range
Another parameter related to vegetation determines the range of its rendering on the screen (Foliage Visibility Range).
Grass Density Quality Ultra
Grass Density Quality High
Grass Density Quality Medium
Grass Density Quality low
There is a clear effect on the number of trees. As this parameter decreases, some distant trees first disappear, then thickets at medium distances thin out, and the distance at which grass is displayed decreases. With the minimum quality, the general simplification of the rendering of distant trees becomes obvious - they become more of the same type, shading is simplified. In the simplest mode, the grass thins even at a small distance from the character, as when changing the “amount of grass” parameter.
Decreasing the vegetation display range gives a significant performance boost. The main jump in fps is present when decreasing from Ultra to High - at the level of 22-27%. There is little quality between the high and medium levels, and the transition to the minimum level gives a new significant leap. That's just the last mode is associated with a serious simplification of the image. The inclusion of such a configuration can be justified only on very weak video cards, where it is not possible to achieve an acceptable level of performance due to other settings.
Texture quality
The effect of Texture Quality is always the most obvious to the visual. The screenshots below confirm this once again.
Texture Quality Ultra
Texture Quality High
Texture Quality Medium
Texture quality low
When textures are reduced to a high level, the clarity of the surfaces of distant objects and characters is lost. At an average level, clarity also decreases in the near zone, and blurriness increases on far surfaces. At the minimum level, things get even worse.
Decreasing from the maximum level of textures to high provides an increase in the minimum fps to 7%. Further reduction in texture quality yields a more modest performance boost.
Note that in our test scene at Full HD resolution, about 1.1-1.2 GB of video memory was loaded. Even at 2560x1440 with HairWorks active, the memory load is less than 2 GB. So reducing the quality of textures makes sense only on video cards with 1 GB of memory.
Detail Quality
The level of detail usually affects the overall geometry. But in The Witcher, the Detail Level parameter determines the amount of detail in battles and when interacting with the environment - blood spatter, sparks, etc.
In normal mode, when you are traveling on a horse, this setting does not affect performance at all. This can be seen from the lack of difference between the two extreme levels of quality.
If you do not experience drawdowns in combat mode relative to the normal state, there is no point in playing with this parameter and somehow changing it.
ambient occlusion
The game has a section of post-processing effects. Almost all parameters have two states - the effect is on or off. The settings for the global shading mode are also placed here. Let's dwell on it in more detail.
By default, the game always offers SSAO mode. You can switch to HBAO+ if you wish. It is possible to completely disable Ambient Occlusion. How the image changes in each mode is shown below.
In the first scene, in the marketplace, we can see that SSAO makes the overall picture darker due to more saturated shadows compared to HBAO+. This is most noticeable in the shadows on the walls and under the canopy of the stalls. Complete disabling of AO leads to the disappearance of penumbra and the influence of objects on each other. In the second scene, the situation is different. With HBAO+, grass and bushes have rich shadows that make them stand out and add volume to the whole picture. With SSAO, the shadows are less pronounced. Notice also how the slope of the hillock in the left part of the frame is evenly shaded and the shadows from the stones at its base are completely absent. With HBAO+, the slope itself is lighter, and the shadows from the bush and stones are more saturated. Without AO, there are no penumbras and shadows from vegetation on the ground at all. As a result, the grass merges into one green mass - the attractiveness of the final picture suffers greatly.
As a result, we strongly recommend using one of the AO modes. And after comparing the screenshots, it is clear that the most attractive picture, where the vegetation acquires the maximum volume, is provided with HBAO +. In this AO mode, the influence of objects on each other is taken into account most fully. This is partly visible in the first comparison scene, where SSAO seems to give more saturated shadows. If you pay attention to the tray in the center of the frame, you will see a slight shading under the barrel and a slight shading on the barrel from the adjacent crate. There are no such details with SSAO. Or pay attention to the cart on the left. With HBAO+, the illuminated side is brighter, while the entire underside of the wheel is darker. HBAO+ explicitly takes into account more factors to form the final shading pattern.
HBAO+ is also the most resource intensive mode. SSAO allows you to win a few percent of the performance. Without AO, performance is even better.
post-processing
Now let's take a quick look at the features of the remaining parameters of the post-processing section and, at the end, take a look at how they affect performance.
The Blur and Motion Blur options affect the blurring of the picture during sudden movements. This gives a slight cinematic effect and enhances the sense of speed.
The game uses its own method of "anti-aliasing" through post-processing like FXAA and other similar methods.
Anti-Aliasing On
Anti-Aliasing Off
Anti-aliasing neutralizes stairs and steps at the edges of objects, but the clarity of details is slightly lost. To compensate for this, the “Enhanced Definition” parameter allows, which, due to processing with special filters, enhances or weakens the sharpness of the image (Sharpen).
sharpen high
sharpen low
sharpen off
The impact is obvious and the increased clarity seems to be the most attractive. But such sharpness can be excessive. So some users may like the picture without such an effect - everything will depend on personal perception and the monitor.
The Depth of Field effect slightly blurs the background, allowing you to achieve a more natural perception of the overall panorama.
Depth of Field On
Depth of Field Off
"Chromatic aberration" (Chromatic Aberration) gives the appropriate photo effect. It is difficult to call it useful, because it introduces small distortions - the sides of the image are slightly out of focus. But since we are used to photographic and video materials with such visual features, this gives a certain associative effect, allowing us to improve the subjective perception of the game. Vignette also relies on the effect of subjective perception, which darkens the side areas.
It is better to trace the influence of these effects when they are gradually turned off. Below you can take a look at the screenshot with all the effects. Then a screenshot without vignetting, and then with chromatic aberration turned off.
Light Shaft Off
Turning off the light rays has the same effect. The only difference is that with Bloom turned off, the light spot from the sun on the horizon is even weaker.
Well, at the end we will give the same frame with both effects turned off.
Bloom & Light Shafts Off
The conclusions are obvious. It is not recommended to turn off "Glow" and "Light Mines". This can be an extreme measure only on weak video cards.
Well, now consider the impact on performance. We take the results of the GeForce GTX 960 at Ultra-quality as a basis and turn off one effect in turn, without touching the rest.
The effect of disabling anti-aliasing is most noticeable, performance increases by 3-5%. A little more than a percent can be won by disabling one of the blur options. A couple of percent "eats" the glow. The influence of other effects is more insignificant. With a complex disabling of various effects, the final increase should be greater. What we will now check in practice.
Comparison of performance in non-standard modes
Let's take three mid-range graphics cards - GeForce GTX 960, GeForce GTX 770 and Radeon R9 280X. At 1920x1080 resolution and Ultra-quality without HairWoks, they fall short of the 30 fps milestone.
Let's try to achieve it by gradually turning off some effects and reducing certain parameters. First, let's adjust the configuration of the post-processing effects. Let's leave the shading mode SSAO, "Glow" and "Light mines", the effect of maximum sharpness. We'll turn off the rest. We will not touch the main parameters for now.
Disabling secondary post-processing effects increased productivity for all participants by 7% or more.
Now let's add to this configuration of settings the reduction in the quality of the shadows from the level of "outrageous" to "high".
We get an even more significant increase in fps. At the same time, the overall detail does not suffer. Although it is still impossible to talk about complete comfort. Achieving an ideal result on three of these video cards will allow you to reduce the rendering range of vegetation. It is worth noting that as the settings are changed, the GeForce GTX 960 responds best of all, allowing the budget newcomer to confidently take the lead when the quality of the shadows decreases. The Radeon R9 280X reacts the most sluggishly to this change.
conclusions
In order to get the most out of Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with maximum graphics quality, you need a powerful latest generation graphics card. At a resolution of 1920x1080, with all parameters at the maximum, the GeForce GTX 980 can provide complete comfort. At 2K, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti would be the best option, and the GeForce GTX 980 will already need overclocking. The Radeon R9 290X is inferior to the GeForce GTX 980, but based on the results of the comparison, we can assume that the newer version in the face of the Radeon R9 390X will be almost comparable to the competitor.
If you need to increase performance without losing detail, then you can start with HairWoks - reduce anti-aliasing, turn off technologies for all characters except Geralt, or completely deactivate it. NVIDIA HairWoks technology provides certain visual benefits, but it is better to sacrifice them than other parameters.
Among the main graphics settings, the most critical for performance are the quality of shadows and the distance of drawing vegetation. In this case, the first point gives the least noticeable changes in image quality, the differences between Ultra and High are generally difficult to notice. But the range of vegetation noticeably affects the overall impression. This parameter can be used in conjunction with the grass quality (density) adjustment, which will give a more noticeable increase in performance. Some parameters do not affect anything at all, for example, adjusting the quality of the relief. It is strongly not recommended to reduce the quality of textures. The game is quite enough 2 GB of video memory even for the most difficult modes. Downgrading textures is justified only for the simplest video cards with a minimum amount of memory. And even with just 1 GB of memory, we would not recommend moving the texture slider below the "High" level.
It is worth noting that some parameters can be set above the level that the menu offers. This operation can be performed when manually editing the user.settings settings file. Such experiments are justified for owners of top computer systems.
Post-processing affects the overall image quality no worse than the main parameters. Some effects can be safely sacrificed, which will allow you to gain a little performance. But you should definitely turn on "Glow" and "Light mines" - the picture with them is juicier. Among the shading modes, the best option is HBAO+. With SSAO, the grass loses some volume, but the performance is slightly higher. Any AO mode does a good job of improving the overall perception of the picture, and it makes sense to completely abandon it only on weak systems, when there is no other choice. At the same time, it should be understood that if you have seriously reduced the quality of the shadows beforehand, then there is no point in clinging to AO either. A similar bunch should be considered "Glow" and "Light Mines". Disabling at least one item will immediately affect the deterioration of the image, and their combination will provide maximum attractiveness.
NVIDIA has released the official game optimization guide. Let's go through the points:
- NVIDIA Hairworks(improves the display of Geralt's hair, monster fur)
Performance impact: You can set the options "Off", "Only Geralt", "All". In combat scenes, it eats at least 12-15 fps, in the open world - at least 10 fps.
- NVIDIA HBAO+ Ambient Occlusion(greatly improves the look of the game)
: Instead of NVIDIA HBAO +, you can put SSAO or disable the option altogether. Switching from NVIDIA HBAO+ to SSAO will give you at least 4fps, turning it off completely will give you another 4-5fps.
- Anti-Aliasing(improves geometry)
Performance Impact: The higher the resolution, the greater the drop in fps. Disabling gives about 4-5 fps.
- Bloom(improves lighting from some sources)
Performance Impact: Minimal effect, disabling this effect will do almost nothing.
- Blur & Motion Blur(adds blur effect)
Performance Impact: Each effect individually has very little effect. But if you disable both of them, then in battle you can get an increase of several fps.
- Chromatic Aberration(slightly distorts the image, optional effect)
Performance Impact: About 0.3 fps, that is, the minimum. Option for your taste.
- Depth of Field(affects the display of remote objects)
Performance Impact: In open spaces, the option eats up less than 2 fps, but in cities this figure can increase.
- Detail Level(level of detail, geometry)
Performance Impact: Oddly enough, not so big (NVIDIA assures). Details are visible at close range. If you turn it to zero, you can get 1-2 fps in big battles.
- Foliage Visibility Range(distance after which distant objects begin to be shaded)
Performance Impact: The most "expensive" option in the game, has a VERY big impact. Reducing the option from Ultra to Low gives a very large increase in FPS. At the same time makes you a little short-sighted. This option should be tormented in the first place if you want an increase in performance.
- Grass Density(how much grass)
Performance Impact: Visually, there is little difference between a high and a low value. Well, the performance gain is also small, a few fps.
- Light Shafts(adds beautiful sunbeams)
Performance Impact: Minimum, do not turn off.
- shadow quality(shadow quality)
Performance Impact: Visually, the difference between high, low and medium shadows is not that great. But switching from high shadows to medium (or low) gives a few fps.
- Sharpen(“sharpening” the details of the picture)
Performance Impact: About 0.5 fps or less, optional.
- Terrain Quality(quality of terrain)
Performance Impact: In the pre-release build - almost none. The developers promise that after special patches the difference between the settings will appear, this is one of the important points for optimizing the game.
- texture quality(texture quality)
Performance Impact: On "Low" the game consumes about 1GB of VRAM, on "High" it consumes 2GB of VRAM. There is no difference between "High" and "Ultra" textures, on "Ultra" the game simply loads more textures, which reduces the likelihood of seeing texture loading, for example, when driving fast.
The impact on the performance itself is insignificant, the amount of video memory of your video card is important.
- Vignette(shades screen corners)
Performance Impact: Minimal impact, option to your taste.
- water quality(water quality)
Performance Impact: Very small, it is recommended to set it to "High". The difference in the settings of the option is very noticeable in the open sea, it is invisible in rivers and ponds.
These are the settings presented in the game menu. Also, the developers give the opportunity to customize the user.settings game file to set some settings to your taste, including higher values presented in the game. The file is located at: C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\The Witcher 3.
Please note that performance fluctuations on different systems may vary. On weak computers, you will get less fps after disabling certain options than on powerful ones.
