The Witcher 3 Remastered Demands a $1,650 GPU for 30 FPS
The Witcher 3 Remastered launches September 29 as a free upgrade, but a new report from IGN suggests maxing it out will cost you. The outlet tested the game's new path tracing feature on an Nvidia RTX 5080, a graphics card currently retailing for around $1,650.
At 4K resolution with all settings maxed, including path tracing and hairworks, the RTX 5080 averaged just 30 frames per second, per IGN's testing. Enabling DLSS upscaling and frame generation boosted the rate to 59 fps, but the outlet noted noticeable visual artifacts at such a low base frame rate.
Turning off the notorious performance-hog hairworks helped, but the 5080 still couldn't hit 60 fps without frame generation, IGN reports. With it disabled, the average rose to 44 fps, jumping to 80 fps with frame gen turned on.
The only surefire way to get smooth performance on high-end hardware, according to the testing, is to disable the new path tracing entirely. Doing that allowed the RTX 5080 to hit 55 fps in the demanding city of Novigrad.
CD Projekt Red has released updated PC system requirements and detailed patch notes for the remaster. The patch notes, published on The Witcher website, confirm a range of visual, combat, quality-of-life, and miscellaneous improvements. The developer also issued a warning that the new features have changed the game's system requirements.
The remaster is available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo's latest Switch console.
