The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered

The Witcher 3 has been revamped with new graphics, and I’ve benchmarked each setting to find which options have the biggest impact on performance. The settings below generally run from most impactful to least impactful, with related options grouped together.

Graphics Preset

Graphics Preset has a large impact on both performance and visuals. Compared with RT, RT Ultra adds more shadows and changes how the scene is lit.

Across the other presets, texture quality and sharpness change, but the most noticeable difference is how much distant scenery disappears as you lower the setting. Moving from Ultra through High, Medium, Low, and finally Steam Deck removes distant trees and terrain detail, leaving the largest landmarks against smoother, treeless scenery. I’d say the game looks fantastic at Medium and above.

Ray Tracing

Ray Tracing has the largest performance cost of the individual settings. It adds detail to shadows and changes how objects are lit by their surroundings, but average FPS more than halved in this test, dropping from 122.3 to 55.3.

Unless you’re comfortable playing at around 30 FPS, I wouldn’t recommend enabling it if you can’t stay near 60 FPS with it on.

Upscaling (DLSS)

Upscaling gives you more room to work with when adjusting the other settings. DLAA averaged 95.4 FPS on my NVIDIA RTX 5080 in this test, but not everyone has that kind of hardware.

I’d start with Quality and adjust the rest of the graphics settings from there. If you’re playing at 4K, Balanced is also worth considering. Once you’ve adjusted the other options, lower the upscaling quality further only if you still need more FPS.

Native Anti-Aliasing

If you’d rather play at native resolution, you can disable upscaling and choose a native anti-aliasing option. With anti-aliasing off, edges look pixelated and jagged, and FXAA doesn’t do much to fix that. XeSS Native AA produced some flickering in certain lit areas during my testing.

DLSS DLAA gave me the best image overall, at a performance cost similar to XeSS Native AA. If you have FPS to spare, that’s what I’d choose.

AMD FSR doesn’t have a native mode in this game’s menu; its highest quality option is Quality.

Screen Space Reflections

Screen Space Reflections has a large effect on water and other reflective surfaces, along with a larger performance cost than I expected. The water in my benchmark scene also showed some odd animation resets and abrupt changes, which made it harder to compare.

I’d use High if you can afford it. The reflections add enough detail to water and lighting to make the cost worthwhile.

NVIDIA HairWorks

NVIDIA HairWorks has a large performance cost for an effect limited to hair and fur. Even setting it to Geralt drops FPS, though it costs less than enabling it for everything.

Hair does look better with it enabled. If you have FPS to spare, I’d turn it on; otherwise, it’s an option you can lower without changing the rest of the scene.

The other HairWorks options have less impact on performance, but I’ve moved them up here to keep them together.

NVIDIA HairWorks AA

HairWorks anti-aliasing costs quite a bit of performance for little visible improvement in screenshots or general gameplay, especially when the camera is farther from the character. Setting it to 8 dropped average FPS from 54.0 at 0 to 45.7.

I’d use 2 at most unless you already have more FPS than you need.

HairWorks Preset

The HairWorks preset makes little visible difference, but moving from Low to High drops performance. I’d leave it on Low.

Path Traced Hair

Path Traced Hair adds detail to the lighting on hair. Oddly, turning it on also raised average FPS in my test, from 33.6 to 39.8. Try it on your system and compare the results.

I noticed performance fluctuations that didn’t seem related to what was immediately around me. This result could reflect that variation rather than a repeatable benefit from enabling the setting; I couldn’t establish the cause.

Ray Traced Shadows

Ray Traced Shadows has a noticeable performance cost, but Quality and Performance look almost identical in the scenes I tested. Their FPS results are close, too.

Turning the setting off removes some shadows and replaces others with less accurate approximations. The game still looks good with ray traced shadows disabled, so I’d turn them off if you need more performance.

Depth of Field

I mainly noticed Depth of Field during conversations and other short character cutscenes. It has a performance cost while visible, but I rarely saw it during general gameplay. I’d leave it on for the appearance of those interactions.

Vignetting

Vignetting darkens the corners and edges of the screen. My test recorded higher FPS with it on, but I suspect that reflects the performance variation I noticed elsewhere rather than a benefit from the effect itself.

The visual change is subtle. I’d consider leaving it on if you like the look, rather than choosing based on this FPS result.

Chromatic Aberration

I couldn’t find an area where Chromatic Aberration was obvious. I’d expect little performance impact from this effect, so I wouldn’t treat the higher FPS recorded with it on as a reliable gain. Choose based on whether you like the look.

Shadow Quality

Shadow Quality had a relatively small performance impact between Ultra and Low. I’d keep it toward the higher end for sharper shadows, though Ultra+ costs a little more.

Ultra is my recommended starting point. If you need more FPS, Medium gave a small boost over High, with little reason to go lower based on these results.

Foliage Visibility Range

Foliage Visibility Range made less visual difference than I expected during general gameplay. Performance improved at Medium and Low, while the higher settings were fairly close, with some variation between runs.

I’d use Ultra or Ultra+ for the extra distant foliage. If you’re looking for more FPS, try Medium.

Screen Space Ambient Occlusion

Screen Space Ambient Occlusion adds shading where objects meet or sit close together, making the scene look less flat than it does with the setting off. The enabled options performed similarly enough that I didn’t see a clear quality-versus-performance trend.

I’d keep it enabled on one of the GTAO options.

Camera Lens Effects

Camera Lens Effects was subtle in the scenes I tested. It seems most likely to stand out during particular scenes or effects, such as magic. I’d leave it on for those moments.

Screen Space Shadows

Screen Space Shadows adds depth to the scene, and I’d leave it on. The test showed slightly higher FPS with it enabled, but I wouldn’t count on that being a repeatable performance gain.

Path Tracing

Path Tracing added detail to the ray traced lighting and cost less FPS than I expected in this test. Average FPS dropped from 56.2 to 52.1 with it enabled.

If you’re already using ray tracing, I’d consider enabling this too, particularly if DLSS Ray Reconstruction is available.

Blur

I couldn’t see a clear difference with Blur on or off in the areas I tested. This is a separate setting from Depth of Field, and I’m not sure which scenes make its effect visible.

Texture Quality

Texture Quality makes a large difference to the game’s appearance, with little FPS impact in my tests. Set it as high as your system can handle. If you’re short on VRAM, lower it to avoid stuttering or other problems caused by exceeding the available memory.

Terrain Quality

Terrain Quality was difficult to compare because lighting changes were more noticeable than the setting itself. Low seemed slightly different, but the options above it looked much the same, with little change in performance.

I’d leave it high or use the value that comes with your chosen preset.

Detail Level

I saw little visual difference between the Detail Level options in these scenes. I’d leave it at the value that comes with your chosen preset.

Water Quality

Water Quality has a more noticeable visual effect. The higher settings make the water look more realistic to me, while Low makes it easier to see through to the bottom. I’d try High and compare it with Medium to see which you prefer.

Number of Background Characters

It was hard to spot changes in background character counts in most of the areas I tested. Many of the characters there were ones I could interact with, rather than background crowds. Lowering this should reduce the number of background characters in relevant scenes, and I’d expect it to matter more on a CPU-limited system.

I’d leave it high for general gameplay. Ultra didn’t seem to cause a problem on my system. Ultra+ had slightly worse 0.1% lows, though that could be variation between runs.

Sharpening

I’d set Sharpening to Low. It made the image look clearer to me with no meaningful performance cost, while High looked too sharp.

Motion Blur

Motion Blur is a matter of preference. Turn it off if it makes you uncomfortable or you’re sensitive to motion sickness. Leaving it on can help mask small frame stutters and hitches, though it won’t fix them. I didn’t notice many in these tests, so I’d choose based on how you like movement to look.

RT Global Illumination

Ray traced global illumination showed little visual difference between Performance and Quality in my test, with a small FPS cost for Quality. If you’re already using ray tracing and have room for that cost, I’d choose Quality.

Grass Density

Grass Density was difficult to compare in some scenes, but lowering it reduces the amount of vegetation, especially nearby. The clearest changes were from High to Medium and then Low, where much of the grass disappeared.

I’d leave it on Ultra for denser vegetation, as lowering it gave little performance improvement in this test.

Bloom

Bloom adds to the lighting, but it can also make scenes look foggy or blurry. I’d leave it on, though this comes down to preference.

RT Reflections

Ray traced reflections had a small FPS cost in this test and can improve the appearance of water and other reflective surfaces. If you’re using ray tracing, I’d leave this on.

DLSS Ray Reconstruction

DLSS Ray Reconstruction gave me a small performance boost with ray tracing enabled, with little visible difference in this scene. If the option is available, I’d turn it on.

Light Shafts

Light Shafts produces the beams of light often called god rays. They were hard to keep visible long enough for a consistent comparison, but I could see changes to the light in parts of the scene. I’d leave this on for the visual effect, given the small performance cost in this test.

RT Ambient Occlusion

Ray traced ambient occlusion had the smallest measured FPS cost here, while adding depth and extra shading to the scene. If you’re using ray tracing, I’d leave it on.