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The best graphics settings for The Witcher 3 depend on your PC, target resolution, and the scenes you play. Start by choosing a realistic resolution and frame-rate goal, then use a preset as a baseline and adjust demanding features one at a time. Be sure to identify your game version: the 2026 Remastered release has different features from the 2022 Next-Gen Update.
Check which version of The Witcher 3 you have
This guide uses The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered, announced as available on September 29, 2026, as its baseline. Its feature set includes path tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 2.0, according to CD PROJEKT RED’s Remastered notes. The notes also recommend installing current graphics drivers.
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Do not assume advice written for the December 2022 Next-Gen Update describes Remastered. The earlier release added ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion, PC ray-traced reflections and shadows, FSR 2.1, Ultra+ settings, and DLSS 3 on compatible hardware. See CD PROJEKT RED’s 2022 change list for that baseline.
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- Confirm the installed version and update it. Check the game’s version in your launcher or game menu, install available updates, and use a current graphics driver recommended by the official Remastered notes.
- Choose your output resolution and frame-rate target. Set these before judging a preset. CD PROJEKT RED warns that higher resolution significantly affects frame rate, and performance also varies with the scene, hardware, and graphics settings (official PC performance and requirements guidance).
- Start from a preset, then tune one demanding feature at a time. Change a single option, play a representative location or gameplay scene, and assess whether the result meets your target. This is a practical tuning method, not a published benchmark or guaranteed configuration.
- Evaluate ray tracing and path tracing against your target. Treat them as optional visual features: keep them only if the resulting performance suits your system and resolution. The available official evidence does not establish one best setting for every PC.
- Choose an upscaler your GPU and game version support. Remastered lists DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction, FSR 4, and XeSS 2.0, but availability depends on hardware and compatibility. In particular, CD PROJEKT RED says FSR 4 with Frame Generation and Anti-Lag 2 is supported on Radeon RX 7000-series and newer GPUs; on unsupported GPUs, the game uses FSR 2. The notes also list XeSS 2.0 with Frame Generation and Low Latency (Remastered notes).
What the official performance tests can—and cannot—tell you
CD PROJEKT RED says its published ray-tracing and path-tracing performance tests used automatic upscaling. Its path-tracing preset also enabled frame generation. Those results are therefore not native-resolution results, and they should not be treated as a promise of the same frame rate on your PC. The developer notes that performance changes with scene, system configuration, settings, and resolution (official performance guidance).
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Compare options on your own system at the resolution you intend to play. Consider the visual effect, how performance changes in representative scenes, whether your GPU and game version support the feature, and whether upscaling or frame generation is active.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Check the PC requirements before troubleshooting
The current CD PROJEKT RED PC requirements guidance lists SSD storage as required (system requirements). That is a compatibility requirement; it is not evidence that an SSD by itself improves graphics quality or frame rate. The detailed CPU and GPU tiers are presented in an image on the support page, so this guide does not reproduce thresholds that are not available in its text.
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