The Witcher 3 next-gen update brought visual improvements and new features like ray tracing support, but performance and stability are not where they are supposed to be. While NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR can reduce frame rate drops and stuttering issues, CD Projekt Red still has a lot of work to do on the game to make it run smoothly on most system configurations.
Lucky owners of an NVIDIA RTX 4000 series GPU can now get a solid performance boost with the unofficial NVIDIA DLSS 3.0 Frame Generation 1.3 update, which can be downloaded from Nexus Mods. Judging from the reports, the new update improves performance considerably, so it is likely it will be implemented officially by CDPR with future patches.
The first proper The Witcher 3 next-gen update patch has yet to be released on PC and consoles, so it has been up to modders to improve the experience so far. Among the works that bring considerable performance improvements are the unofficial ray tracing optimizations, which are getting updated frequently to achieve better performance with minimal impact on the visuals.
The Witcher 3 is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch worldwide. You can learn more about the next-gen update by checking out Alessio's hands-on piece.
The free The Witcher 3 Next-Gen update is finally here, at last, featuring a host of quality-of-life and gameplay improvements in addition to all the technical enhancements. On PC, players can enjoy a brand new Ultra+ graphics preset. Then, on top of that, they can enable four ray traced effects: global illumination, ambient occlusion, shadows and reflections, with the latter two unavailable on consoles.
With everything turned on, the game looks absolutely fantastic. Granted, it had a great base to begin with, but the textures are clearly higher quality here (partly thanks to the integrated mods), and the draw distance is massively improved, just like the accuracy and sharpness of reflections and shadows. The star of the show is the ray traced global illumination, though, which elevates the game's lighting to new heights.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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