The upcoming remastered version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, set to release tomorrow, brings numerous visual enhancements to modernize the 11-year-old title. However, achieving the game's maximum graphical fidelity, particularly with path tracing enabled, appears to require a high-end gaming PC.
CD Projekt Red has updated The Witcher 3's system requirements, revealing that while the lower end remains accessible, pushing the game to 4K resolution with path tracing demands an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080. This graphics card, currently priced around $1,650, still necessitates DLSS upscaling and frame generation to reach a target of 60 frames per second. Even with this powerful GPU, the game reportedly struggles with its demanding graphical features.
Testing with an RTX 5080 in Novigrad, a notoriously performance-intensive area since the game's original 2015 launch, revealed an average of 30 FPS at 4K with all settings maxed, including path tracing and Hairworks, and DLSS set to 'Performance.' Enabling frame generation boosted this to 59 FPS, though this performance level was accompanied by noticeable artifacts, particularly in ground textures.
Disabling Hairworks, a feature known for its significant performance impact, improved frame rates. With Hairworks off and path tracing enabled at 4K with DLSS 'Performance,' the RTX 5080 averaged 44 FPS, jumping to 80 FPS with frame generation. For smoother gameplay without frame generation, disabling path tracing entirely offers a more reasonable 55 FPS average on the RTX 5080, though other ray tracing effects can still be adjusted to further optimize performance.
The updated system requirements indicate that The Witcher 3 Remastered should scale well to lower-end hardware, but players will likely need to make compromises on graphical settings to achieve acceptable performance. The game is scheduled for release as a free update on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch on September 29.