If The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered is running poorly on PC, test these changes in order: turn off ray tracing or path tracing, lower your output resolution or enable a GPU-compatible upscaler, then reduce graphics quality settings gradually. Compare each change in the same gameplay scene. These are practical troubleshooting priorities, not guaranteed frame-rate gains; performance varies with your hardware, settings, resolution and the scene.
First, check which PC version you have
This advice is for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, released for PC on September 29, 2026. CD PROJEKT RED says existing owners can upgrade for free within their platform ecosystem. Remastered uses DirectX 12, and NVIDIA describes it as DirectX 12-only. Do not assume recommendations for the 2022 Next-Gen release apply: that version had a choice between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12, while Remastered does not.
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Install current graphics drivers, as CD PROJEKT RED advises in its Remastered announcement. Check your platform’s installed game version before changing settings or comparing advice.
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What to turn down first for more FPS
1. Disable ray tracing or path tracing
If the GPU is struggling and frame rate matters more than advanced lighting, switch off ray tracing or path tracing first. Path tracing combines lighting effects into a more unified rendering approach and adds lighting detail; NVIDIA presents it as a high-end feature. This makes it a sensible first setting to test, not a promise of a particular FPS increase.
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NVIDIA says RTX 40- and RTX 50-series GPUs benefit from Shader Execution Reordering for path tracing. That is a vendor statement about those GPU generations, not a guarantee that path tracing will run smoothly on every supported system. CD PROJEKT RED’s official performance targets for ray tracing and path tracing used upscaling set to Auto; the path-tracing target also used Frame Generation. Those conditions matter when comparing the targets with your own setup.
2. Reduce output resolution or use a compatible upscaler
CD PROJEKT RED says higher output resolution can significantly affect FPS. If you want to keep more visual detail, try a supported upscaler for your GPU; otherwise, test a lower output resolution. Availability varies by graphics hardware, and frame generation is not a universal option.
- NVIDIA: The Remastered announcement lists DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction.
- AMD: It lists FSR 4 with Frame Generation and Anti-Lag 2 on Radeon RX 7000 series and newer; FSR 2 is used on unsupported GPUs.
- Intel: It lists XeSS 2.0 with Frame Generation and Low Latency.
These are the options named by CD PROJEKT RED, not a claim that every feature is available on every card or in every configuration. Change one option at a time and check the result at the resolution you actually play.
3. Lower other graphics settings in small steps
If performance is still short of what you want, lower quality settings one step at a time, testing the same scene after each change. The current official sources do not give per-setting FPS costs for Remastered, so no individual setting can be presented as a quantified performance win.
The 2022 Next-Gen release identified Ultra+ categories including background-character count, shadows, grass density, textures, foliage visibility range, terrain, water and detail level. These are examples of settings to investigate if they appear in your version, but the list is version-specific and does not establish the Remastered cost of each option.
Compare changes fairly
- Choose a repeatable scene. Use the same gameplay area and repeat the same route or actions; scene complexity can affect frame rate.
- Keep resolution and other settings fixed. Change one setting or group at a time so you can tell what affected performance.
- Record the version and upscaling state. Note whether ray tracing or path tracing is on, which upscaler is active, and whether frame generation is enabled.
- Keep the result in context. CD PROJEKT RED says performance varies with system configuration, graphics settings and output resolution, and that occasional frame-rate fluctuations can depend on the scene and gameplay.
Official targets are not a prediction that every player will see the same result. The support page says RT Minimum, RT Recommended and Path Tracing measurements used DLSS, FSR or XeSS set to Auto; other listed configurations used native resolution with upscaling off. The path-tracing configuration also used Frame Generation. Those conditions make the targets unsuitable as direct comparisons unless your setup uses the same relevant settings.
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Check the installation drive if loading or streaming is a problem
CD PROJEKT RED says an SSD is required to support the latest technical enhancements, citing faster loading and smoother asset streaming. Check that the game is installed on an SSD if loading or asset-streaming issues are a concern. The requirement does not establish that NVMe is necessary, and an SSD should not be treated as a fix for a GPU-bound frame rate.
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There is no universal best preset established by the available Remastered performance data. Choose based on your priorities and test with your own GPU and output resolution:
- For a higher frame rate: First test with ray tracing or path tracing off, then reduce resolution or use a compatible upscaler.
- For more lighting detail: Keep advanced lighting on if performance allows, and test upscaling options supported by your GPU.
- For a balanced result: Change one setting at a time in the same scene, stopping when the visual trade-off is no longer worthwhile.
Do not use the 30 FPS and 60 FPS targets discussed in the 2022 Next-Gen announcement as PC results; those targets were for console modes. Likewise, NVIDIA’s 2015 graphics guide describes the original renderer, not Remastered performance.
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