The Witcher 3‘s Next Gen update is out now, however, many players are experiencing poor performance and need a solution. While it does have features like DLSS, Ray Tracing, and more, the issue began with the DX12 version. It hasn’t been optimized to its full potential. Thus, a number of difficulties may arise throughout gameplay. Players using Nvidia 3080 and even 4090 graphics cards have reported surprisingly low performance, with many attributing stuttering to the game’s inability to handle high resolutions.
How to Fix Stuttering and Low FPS in Witcher 3 Next-Gen?
Unfortunately, test runs reveal that stuttering and FPS drops occur frequently in the game. CD Projekt Red plans to release an update to fix this issue in the next few days, but in the meantime, here are some workarounds to keep your Witcher experience from being completely unplayable.
Turn off Ray Tracing
If you’re experiencing issues like the game crashing, try turning off Ray Tracing. And can even impair your performance, so turning it off and restarting your game is your best bet for a more consistent gaming experience. Your problems should be resolved by the game starts up again.
Don’t Use DX12
Choose DirectX 11 (DX11) if you don’t want to disable Ray tracing manually. The catch is that features such as DLSS, HDR, Ray tracing, and others are not available in the DX11 version. However, the overall frame rate will be significantly higher than when using the DX12 port. On The Witcher 3’s page in the GOG Store, you’ll find a settings cog next to the Play button; click that to toggle DirectX 11. Then, under Additional Executable, select “The Witcher 3 DX11.”
Play the Game in Fullscreen
If you’re experiencing frame rate drops or stuttering while playing Witcher 3 in Windowed mode, try switching to Full-Screen mode. Setting it to Full Screen is a simple solution to minimize lag and FPS drop. Here is how you do it:
- Prepare to run Witcher 3.
- Select the Settings menu from here.
- Select Video and then head to the Display menu.
- The last step is to switch from Windowed mode to Full-Screen mode
- To see if those problems persist, you should restart the game.
Unlock FPS Limiter
Limiting frames per second may not be a good idea because it may cause performance concerns. Setting it to “Unlimited” is the best option. Follow these steps to do it on your system:
- Boot up Witcher 3 and then navigate to the Options menu.
- Go to Video, then head to the Display tab.
- Maximum FPS will be the fourth option available. You can increase it from whatever it is set to now to Unlimited.
- To take effect, you’ll need to restart the game after making these adjustments.
Stop Using MODs
CD Projekt Red has published a list of mods that function with the next-gen update, but some of them apparently still don’t. Despite CD Projekt Red’s assurances that the Super Turbo Lightning Mod is compatible with the update, reports were seen in which players were unable to use it to fast travel to Velen.
Other options include disabling background processes and performance monitoring tools like MSI Afterburner, as well as installing the latest drivers for your graphics card. With that, we are done with this guide on how to fix Witcher 3 Next-Gen update stuttering and low FPS on PC. Please check out more content on Witcher 3 by clicking on this link. Thank you for reading this article.
It is simply not true that Witcher 3 Next Gen runs smoothly with DX11. It may be better than with DX12 and ray traycing. But the stuttering is still bad enough to make the game pretty unplayable for longer. And then there are still the crashes and the game breaking bugs they introduced with Next Gen.
At the moment Witcher 3 Next Gen is no fun to play on PC.