The economic crisis in the country will not end soon, and a powerful computer is now worth several average wages. That is why we publish specially for you various useful materials, where we offer reasonable savings on the choice of components, conduct informative workshops on how to properly configure demanding games for weak PCs, and much more.

By the way, just today, May 31, 2016, a new large-scale expansion for The Witcher 3 called Blood and Wine was released. Already looking forward to how you will pass it?

First, let's remember the system requirements for The Witcher 3.

Minimum system requirements for The Witcher 3

Operating system: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0 GHz
The amount of RAM: 6 GB
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2 GB / AMD Radeon HD 7870 2 GB
Sound card:
40 GB

So here is the computer configuration needed to run The Witcher 3. Having a PC that does not even meet the "minimal wages", the game can not even try to run. As the long-term experience of the author of this article shows, in such cases, at any graphics settings, FPS will not rise above 20 units, and the gameplay will turn into a kind of “slide show”.

If this, unfortunately, is about you, then you can try one of the cloud gaming services. Among the Russian speakers, the largest this moment is Playkey .

Recommended system requirements for The Witcher 3

Operating system: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1
CPU: Intel Core i5 3770 @ 3.4 GHz / AMD FX-8350 @ 4 GHz
The amount of RAM: 8 GB
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4 GB / AMD Radeon R9 290 4 GB
Sound card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
Free hard disk space: 40 GB

If you have a computer that is similar in configuration to the recommended system requirements, then The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt should run at least on high settings and in FullHD resolution (1920 × 1080 pixels). However, it is not a fact that the game will give out a stable 60 FPS with all the “pretty things” turned on. Therefore, it will also be useful for you to know what graphics options you can sacrifice so that both beauty and frame rate are not affected.

This material will be most useful to those who are between the minimum and recommended requirements. That is, those who have a processor more powerful than the AMD Phenom II X4 940, but weaker than the Intel Core i5 3770, and a video card more powerful than the AMD Radeon HD 7870, but weaker than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4 GB, and so on.

Customizing The Witcher 3 Graphics

The following lists all the picture settings in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Some of them affect performance more, some less, and some do not affect performance at all. We tried to briefly describe the essence of each of these parameters, as well as give advice on how to optimize them.

NVIDIA HairWorks

very high.

Roughly speaking, NVIDIA HairWorks is an analogue of TressFX from AMD. The latter was first used in the 2013 game Tomb Raider. Both technologies are designed to make the behavior of the hair of the characters, as well as the hair of various furry animals and monsters, more realistic. And both technologies are quite gluttonous. When enabled, you can lose up to 20 frames on GeForce graphics cards and up to 30 on Radeon, especially in dynamic scenes. Therefore, just turn off this option completely and move on.

NVIDIA HBAO+ Background Shading

Performance impact: low.

At its core, NVIDIA HBAO+ is an evolution of SSAO technology. In another way, SSAO is sometimes also called background shading. Thanks to him, highly detailed objects can throw those on themselves, as well as on each other. If the older and more primitive SSAO works straightforwardly: just spreading additional shadows wherever possible, then HBAO + is more subtle: it removes the so-called reshading effect, cleaning up everything superfluous.

As for performance, then, surprisingly, this parameter does not affect it much. Usually no more than 4-5 frames are lost. You can try enabling HBAO+, or leave SSAO as a last resort.

Smoothing

Performance impact: the average.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt uses CD Projekt RED's proprietary anti-aliasing technique. By the principle of operation, it is somewhat similar to FXAA, but with some improvements, such as more efficient removal of "ladders" along the edges of objects during camera movement.

If your computer is even slightly more powerful than the minimum required configuration, then leave this setting enabled. Without it, the picture looks much worse. You can always sacrifice something more resource-intensive.

glow

Performance impact: low.

Daylight, torches, campfires, and the like look much less natural when this option is turned off. Yes, and consumes resources "Glow" a bit. Therefore, turn it off only as a last resort.

Blur

Performance impact: very low.

"Blur", as you might guess, blurs the background environment while moving the character. This adds some visual dynamism to the picture. If in the first games where it was used (at least The Witcher 2), the FPS drop could be quite significant, but now even during action scenes only a couple of frames are lost. Another question is that not everyone likes this effect. Therefore, you can customize this option to your taste.

Chromatic aberration

Performance impact: very low.

"Chromatic aberration" is simply a filter that adds a lens effect to an image, like in some fashion photography. When enabled, less than one frame is lost, so you can experiment and leave the setting of this parameter as you like.

Depth of field

Performance impact: low (in open areas), medium (in cities).

This option is useful for those who do not have a powerful enough system to run The Witcher 3 in 4K (3840x2160). Only with this resolution, even remote objects of the environment have full detail. But the gradually aging standard Full HD (1920 × 1080), unfortunately, cannot boast of such. To hide some "failure" of the picture, the effect of depth of field has long been used. When turned on, everything that is on the horizon in relation to the player's character is covered with a slight semblance of fog. However, many consider this effect more of a cinematic property of the image.

If your computer barely meets the minimum requirements, then it's better to turn off Depth of Field, as in some situations FPS can sag quite seriously (up to 10-12 frames). If you are the owner of a quite powerful "machine", then you can turn it on to your taste - not everyone likes this effect.

Detailing

Performance impact: low.

A slightly clumsily named parameter. Very strange, but "Detail" in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has nothing to do with the elaboration of the geometry of three-dimensional objects. This setting is responsible for the visibility range of blood spatter during battles.

Resources such effects consume little, so you can leave this option enabled.

plant visibility range

Performance impact: medium (in cities), high (in open areas).

The name of this option does not accurately reflect its essence. It is rather not "Range", but "Density" of plants or even "Quality of vegetation". At long distances, with the maximum value of the Plant Visibility Range, there will be a lot of various trees and shrubs, and the forests near the horizon will become more dense. And at medium and close range, all of them will also have a high degree of detail. In addition, the "Visibility of Plants" affects the density of grass, as well as the quality of shading of all greenery in the game.

In most cases, this parameter slows down the game quite seriously, so if you are reading this text, you are unlikely to be able to afford a setting higher than "Medium Quality" and "Medium Draw Distance". It is better to put something less demanding on the maximum.

grass density

Performance impact: the average.

Makes the grass cover, as well as the density of ears in cultivated fields, even more saturated. The setting is an addition to the previous one. Resources are not so few, and the effect is barely noticeable. Therefore, in most cases, it is better to leave this option disabled.

Rays

Performance impact: very low.

Another parameter that has become undemanding relatively recently. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt it is simply referred to as "Rays", while in other games it is often referred to as "God Rays" or "God Rays". This is a very beautiful effect that gives the picture a special charm, thanks to the golden light passing through the branches of plants or through window openings into a dark room.

As mentioned above, the number of FPS "Rays" practically does not affect. So don't deprive yourself of the visual aesthetic and leave this option enabled.

Number of processed characters

Performance impact: high (theoretically).

With the "Number of processed characters" a rather interesting situation comes out. With a “Low” value, the number of people (as well as various e people) around us is limited to 75, with "Average" - 100, with "High" - 130, and with "Maximum" 150 units. However, it is very difficult to find a place in the game or get into a situation where at least the above-mentioned 75 of the minimum option will be located next to the player's character at the same time. Even walking around Novigrad, we will be among a much smaller crowd at any setting.

In theory, this parameter should have a high impact on performance. It is possible, of course, that in the Blood and Wine supplement released today, there are situations suitable for it. Therefore, we recommend that you set, just in case, the minimum value of the “Number of processed characters”.

PhysX

Performance impact: low (GeForce), medium or low (Radeon, depends on CPU power).

Everything is simple here. If you can boast not the oldest video chip from NVIDIA, but ideally also a sufficiently powerful processor from Intel, then the physical effects in the game will be of the highest quality and work quickly. Moreover, this parameter cannot be configured.

If Radeon is responsible for graphics in your computer, then a more primitive physical model will be used, and the main processor will calculate it, which can quite significantly affect performance.

Shadow quality

Performance impact: high.

The higher the value is set (Low, Medium, High or Maximum), the better the shadows will be and displayed at a greater distance. If the option is set to minimum, then during a gallop on Roach (especially through thickets), shadows will grow right in front of the nose.

We recommend that you set it to "Low" if your PC is weak enough, otherwise you can try "High". The maximum is still hardly accessible to readers of this article because of its voracity, and there is practically no difference between “Medium” and “Low”.

sharpness

Performance impact: very low.

A fairly standard post-processing effect that makes the image sharper. The number of frames is practically not lost, so you can adjust as you like.

Ground surface quality

Performance impact: very low (actually), average (in theory).

Another strange setting that was never really implemented even after all the updates. Perhaps, with the release of today's add-on, the situation will change (if so, be sure to tell us in the comments). The essence of the "Quality of the surface of the earth" is ... the quality of the surface of the earth. That is, tessellation is applied to the geometry of the earth's surface, due to which its detail should be visually increased, such as more voluminous cobblestones on the pavement, bumps and other landscape irregularities.

You can experiment with this option yourself, or in extreme cases, just turn it off.

Texture quality

Performance impact: low.

Since The Witcher 3 is, by definition, a fairly demanding game, such a trifle as the quality of textures does not have much effect on performance. Therefore, you can safely set a high value. The only clarification is that ultra-settings are intended for graphics cards with at least 4 GB of video memory. The picture from this is clearer than at high settings, it will not. It's just that more data will be loaded into the extra memory so that there are no ugly texture loads during fast movement on a horse.

Vignetting

Performance impact: very low.

Turning on Vignetting will darken the corners of the screen. Which is quite interesting and cinematic looks. This effect has almost no effect on performance, so you can customize it as you wish.

Water quality

Performance impact: very low.

In fact, in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you cannot change the quality of the water render. And this option regulates only the elaboration of additional effects on the surface of puddles, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water. If you turn on the highest “Water Quality” settings, then the FPS indicator will practically not change at all. The boat with Geralt will begin to sway realistically, and if he dives into the pond, beautiful ripples will appear around him.

* * *

This was the second article in the 60 FPS column. We hope you found it useful.

We will be glad to see you on our main site, where you can play beautiful powerful games, even if you have a very weak computer.

See you soon, and don't forget to go for a walk!

Recently, Polish developers have pleased fans role playing the third part of The Witcher, which has become even larger and more epic. Many have already managed to join this virtual adventure and get bogged down in it for a long time. Along with interesting story adventures, the game pleases beautiful picture, being a good incentive to buy a new video card or to fiddle with the settings for a long time in order to achieve a comfortable level of performance. We will try to help with this. Let's test a number of video cards and find out which of them show the best results in the game. And then we will go through the graphic settings in detail. This topic is extensive and subtle, because different parameters have different influence on the final performance. And often fine manual adjustments allow you to achieve a better ratio of image quality and performance compared to standard profiles.

In The Witcher 3, the visual heritage of the second part is recognizable, but with improved detail and a significantly increased visibility range. Surfaces have become more textured, work with light has been improved.

To enjoy such graphics, you need a powerful modern graphics card with DirectX 11 support. Which one? This is what we will find out. But first, let's give a description of the computer system on which all the tests were performed.

Test configuration

The test bench configuration is as follows:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-3930K (3, [email protected].4 GHz, 12 MB);
• cooler: Thermalright Venomous X;
• motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Formula/Battlefield 3 (Intel X79 Express);
• memory: Kingston KHX2133C11D3K4/16GX (4x4 GB, [email protected] MHz, 10-11-10-28-1T);
• system disk: Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB (240 GB, SATA 6Gb/s);
• secondary drive: Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 (1 TB, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm);
• power supply: Seasonic SS-750KM (750 W);
• monitor: ASUS PB278Q (2560x1440, 27″);

• operating system: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64;
• game version 1.07;
• GeForce driver: NVIDIA GeForce 353.62;
• Radeon driver: ATI Catalyst 15.7.1.

User Account Control, Superfetch and interface visual effects were disabled in the operating system. Driver settings are standard.

Test Methodology

Performance measurement was carried out by replaying a small scene with fps measurement using Fraps. A trip was made in the direction of the settlement Bely Sad. The procedure was repeated. Five repetitions for each test mode.

Video card performance comparison

In the past, we have repeatedly included the game in separate reviews, from which it was possible to get a general idea of ​​​​the balance of power between different video cards. But the developers continue to supplement the game with new content and make some changes. At the time of writing this article, the latest current version was numbered 1.07, and earlier we tested it in version 1.05. According to reviews, recent updates have led to a slight drop in performance. Is it so? Answer below.

With the complete deactivation of HairWorks, we really have a difference of 2% between the old and new versions of the game. That is, the performance drop is minimal, at least in our gaming scene. In this case, it is worth considering the difference in the software of video cards. In the new version, we used updated video drivers. It is possible that with the same video driver, each participant would show a big difference. With HairWorks, the situation is somewhat different, but we will talk about this below.

Now let's take a look at a general comparison of performance at Ultra-quality graphics settings with two manual edits - enabling HBAO+ advanced global shading and completely disabling HairWorks. Test resolution 1920x1080.

Among our participants, the GeForce GTX 980 has the best results. Radeon R9 290X is 5-14% behind, Radeon R9 290 is 15-23% behind the leader. The past generation is seriously lagging behind the leaders. This can be seen both in the performance of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti and in the results of the Radeon R9 280X. Between the GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce GTX 780 Ti the difference is at the level of 26-33%, between the Radeon R9 290 and the Radeon R9 280X the difference is more than 50%. The younger AMD members are on a par with the GeForce GTX 960. But without overclocking, none of them is able to provide an acceptable fps level. The minimum option for a resolution of 1920x1080 is the GeForce GTX 780, and better with higher frequencies.

If NVIDIA HairWorks is enabled in Full HD, then it will be possible to play comfortably only on the GeForce GTX 980. This can be clearly seen from the results of an additional comparison.

Modern realities dictate new conditions, and for some players the resolution of 2560x1440 is also relevant. Will the older members cope with it?

The GeForce GTX 980 is once again out of competition, although the Radeon R9 290X is only 3-9% behind. The gap with the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is closing.

Activation of HairWorks leads to a drop in fps by 10-20% for NVIDIA video cards and by 16-22% for AMD representatives. Even the leader hardly overcomes the milestone of 30 frames. So there is no need for overclocking. Or you will have to think about buying a GeForce GTX 980 Ti. I would like to draw attention to the fact that with the old video driver Radeon R9 290X in such conditions showed a result of 20/23 frames. AMD had serious performance issues when activating NVIDIA HairWorks technology. And on the new software in the new version of the game, the overall ratio between NVIDIA and AMD competitors is already weakly dependent on the activation of HairWorks.

NVIDIA HairWorks

It's time to finally talk in more detail about HairWorks. This item in the main section of graphic settings comes first after the resolution and screen mode. So with it we will begin a detailed study of all the settings.

This technology itself implements more lively dynamic hair and fur for the characters. The first major demonstration of the technology was Far Cry 4, with its abundance of animals in a large open world. In The Witcher, HairWorks also helps improve appearance animals, making their coat more lush and dynamic. And, of course, this technology is used for the hair of Geralt and other characters.

Here it is worth noting that the hair is very well implemented without HairWorks. Lush head of hair of the protagonist by default is well detailed and develops in the wind. HairWorks allows you to improve the detail and dynamics. Visually, it becomes clear that there are more strands, and they behave more naturally, depending on the influence of the external environment.

Rain affects hair. They get wet and hang with wet strands, gradually dry out and return previous view. Looks very realistic.

Such nuances are most striking in the dialogues and in the moments when the camera approaches the hero. And one could say that the influence of HairWorks is not particularly critical. But this technology allows you to improve the fur of animals, which is more noticeable in the exploration mode of the world.

A clear comparison can serve as two animated illustrations that are available (NVIDIA HairWorks) and (normal mode).

If you select the high quality settings profile, then the game already includes HairWorks, but only for Geralt. Selecting an Ultra quality profile activates HairWorks for everyone. At the same time, the quality of the HairWorks technology itself is always at a high level when smoothing in 4x mode. With these parameters, we tested video cards in the previous section of the article.

Previously, these settings were hidden, they could be adjusted by manually editing the configuration file. HairWorks anti-aliasing and quality are now available in the main menu. HairWorks anti-aliasing uses a multisampling method in three modes - from 2x to 8x. Improves the quality of hair display by smoothing the edges of individual hairs, "softening" the overall contours of the hairstyle. We studied the effect of anti-aliasing for HairWorks on the example of the GeForce GTX 960 video card. Note that the test scene is quite good for such a comparison, because there are two characters and two horses with a mane in the frame. But in dialogs, when the camera takes close angles, fps drawdowns at high HairWorks quality can be even higher.

Enabling HairWorks for Geralt (4x anti-aliasing by default) reduces fps by 2-8% on a GeForce GTX 980 video card. Activating the technology for all characters reduces performance by another 6-8%. And if we additionally raise anti-aliasing to the maximum level, then we will lose even more than 2%.

As a result, we can say that HairWorks is a very resource-intensive technology and its impact on overall performance is most noticeable against the background of many other parameters. Therefore, on certain video cards, it will have to be sacrificed in order not to reduce the quality of detailing and elaboration of the game world

Number of characters on screen

Now let's move on to the rest of the graphic settings section. Let's examine their impact on the image and performance one by one. The test card will be the GeForce GTX 960 at a working resolution of 1920x1080. The next item on the list is the parameter that controls the number of characters displayed (Number of Background Characters).

The parameter has several gradations - from the minimum to the prohibitive level. At the same time, even at the minimum level, the limit on characters is 75 persons. It is difficult to find a place in the game where the same number of characters will be simultaneously in the frame. So it is hardly possible to talk about any significant impact of these settings on the final performance.

Number of Background Characters Ultra

Number of Background Characters Low

Shadow quality

Shadow Quality affects the number of shadows displayed and their detail. You can track the changes in the screenshots below.

Shadows Ultra

Shadow High

Shadows Medium

Shadows Low

In the first scene, there are practically no changes. It is only noticeable that the shading of the distant building on the left side of the frame is weakening, a bright zone appears around this building. And this is noticeable between the extreme positions of Ultra and Low. The shadows from the fence and horses do not change. In the second scene, the dynamics of shadow changes is more obvious. As the corresponding parameter decreases, shadows on distant trees disappear. There are more gaps in the shaded areas, but this, again, is weakly expressed. At some points, such a simplification of the shape of shadows from complex objects (tree crowns, etc.) is more noticeable. And it is also clearly visible in the dynamics, when you ride a horse during dawn or sunset - unnatural light zones in the distant vegetation are striking.

Well, now let's see how shadows affect performance. We leave the maximum parameters, we change only the quality of the shadows.

The video card responds well to their change. It gains a significant leap of 10-19% when moving from Ultra to High, and it is between these two modes that the difference in image quality is most difficult to notice.

Terrain quality

The next parameter is to adjust the quality of the land relief. In fact, it doesn't affect her at all. Try to find the differences between the maximum and minimum levels.

Terrain Quality Ultra

Terrain Quality Low

The test results confirm this. No difference.

The fact is that it was planned to use tessellation in the game to improve the geometry of the earth's surface, but it never appeared. Perhaps in future updates this technology will be added and the presence of this option in the menu will make some sense. Until then, you can ignore it.

Water quality

This parameter determines the quality of visualization of water surfaces.

In statics, it is problematic to determine the difference between different levels of water quality - it looks very similar.

Water Quality Ultra

Water Quality Low

This difference is more noticeable in the dynamics, in the behavior of the waves.

Testing the effect of this parameter on overall performance in our test scene is problematic, it is not designed for this. But even when moving directly through the expanses of water, a change in the quality of the water surface has little effect on performance. Lowering this parameter makes sense only on weak video cards.

Amount of grass

The parameter controls the density of the grass (Grass Density). The higher - the more grass on the screen. A visual comparison is below.

Grass Density Quality Ultra

Grass Density Quality High

Grass Density Quality Medium

Grass Density Quality Low

As the quality of the grass decreases, the number of its bunches decreases, there are more clearings on the ground. But even at the minimum level, the grass remains, does not completely disappear.

Now let's look at the performance impact.

The GeForce GTX 960 video card reacts rather weakly to changes in grass density. Reducing this parameter gives a minimal increase in the final performance, but it is present.

vegetation visibility range

Another parameter related to vegetation determines the range of its rendering on the screen (Foliage Visibility Range).

Grass Density Quality Ultra

Grass Density Quality High

Grass Density Quality Medium

Grass Density Quality Low

There is a clear effect on the number of trees. As this parameter decreases, some distant trees first disappear, then thickets at medium distances thin out, and the distance at which grass is displayed decreases. With the minimum quality, the general simplification of the rendering of distant trees becomes obvious - they become more of the same type, shading is simplified. In the simplest mode, the grass thins even at a small distance from the character, as when changing the “amount of grass” parameter.

Decreasing the vegetation display range gives a significant performance boost. The main jump in fps is present when decreasing from Ultra to High - at the level of 22-27%. There is little quality between the high and medium levels, and the transition to the minimum level gives a new significant leap. That's just the last mode is associated with a serious simplification of the image. The inclusion of such a configuration can be justified only on very weak video cards, where it is not possible to achieve an acceptable level of performance due to other settings.

Texture quality

The effect of Texture Quality is always the most obvious to the visual. The screenshots below confirm this once again.

Texture Quality Ultra

Texture Quality High

Texture Quality Medium

Texture quality low

When textures are reduced to a high level, the clarity of the surfaces of distant objects and characters is lost. At an average level, clarity also decreases in the near zone, and blurriness increases on far surfaces. At the minimum level, things get even worse.

Decreasing from the maximum level of textures to high provides an increase in the minimum fps to 7%. Further reduction in texture quality yields a more modest performance boost.

Note that in our test scene at Full HD resolution, about 1.1-1.2 GB of video memory was loaded. Even at 2560x1440 with HairWorks active, the memory load is less than 2 GB. So reducing the quality of textures makes sense only on video cards with 1 GB of memory.

Detail Quality

The level of detail usually affects the overall geometry. But in The Witcher, the Detail Level parameter determines the amount of detail in battles and when interacting with the environment - blood spatter, sparks, etc.

In normal mode, when you are traveling on a horse, this setting does not affect performance at all. This can be seen from the lack of difference between the two extreme levels of quality.

If you do not experience drawdowns in combat mode relative to the normal state, there is no point in playing with this parameter and somehow changing it.

ambient occlusion

The game has a section of post-processing effects. Almost all parameters have two states - the effect is on or off. The settings for the global shading mode are also placed here. Let's dwell on it in more detail.

By default, the game always offers SSAO mode. You can switch to HBAO+ if you wish. It is possible to completely disable Ambient Occlusion. How the image changes in each mode is shown below.

In the first scene, in the marketplace, we can see that SSAO makes the overall picture darker due to more saturated shadows compared to HBAO+. This is most noticeable in the shadows on the walls and under the canopy of the stalls. Complete disabling of AO leads to the disappearance of penumbra and the influence of objects on each other. In the second scene, the situation is different. With HBAO+, grass and bushes have rich shadows that make them stand out and add volume to the whole picture. With SSAO, the shadows are less pronounced. Notice also how the slope of the hillock in the left part of the frame is evenly shaded and the shadows from the stones at its base are completely absent. With HBAO+, the slope itself is lighter, and the shadows from the bush and stones are more saturated. Without AO, there are no penumbras and shadows from vegetation on the ground at all. As a result, the grass merges into one green mass - the attractiveness of the final picture suffers greatly.

As a result, we strongly recommend using one of the AO modes. And after comparing the screenshots, it is clear that the most attractive picture, where the vegetation acquires the maximum volume, is provided with HBAO +. In this AO mode, the influence of objects on each other is taken into account most fully. This is partly visible in the first comparison scene, where SSAO seems to give more saturated shadows. If you pay attention to the tray in the center of the frame, you will see a slight shading under the barrel and a slight shading on the barrel from the adjacent crate. There are no such details with SSAO. Or pay attention to the cart on the left. With HBAO+, the illuminated side is brighter and the whole Bottom part the wheels are darker. HBAO+ explicitly takes into account more factors to form the final shading pattern.

HBAO+ is also the most resource intensive mode. SSAO allows you to win a few percent of the performance. Without AO, performance is even better.

post-processing

Now let's take a quick look at the features of the remaining parameters of the post-processing section and, at the end, take a look at how they affect performance.

The "Blur" and "Motion Blur" options (Blur and Motion Blur) affect the blurring of the picture when sudden movements. This gives a slight cinematic effect and enhances the sense of speed.

The game uses its own method of "anti-aliasing" through post-processing like FXAA and other similar methods.

Anti-Aliasing On

Anti-Aliasing Off

Anti-aliasing neutralizes stairs and steps at the edges of objects, but the clarity of details is slightly lost. To compensate for this, the “Enhanced Definition” parameter allows, which, due to processing with special filters, enhances or weakens the sharpness of the image (Sharpen).

sharpen high

sharpen low

sharpen off

The impact is obvious and the increased clarity seems to be the most attractive. But such sharpness can be excessive. So some users may like the picture without such an effect - everything will depend on personal perception and the monitor.

The Depth of Field effect slightly blurs the background, allowing you to achieve a more natural perception of the overall panorama.

Depth of Field On

Depth of Field Off

"Chromatic aberration" (Chromatic Aberration) gives the appropriate photo effect. It is difficult to call it useful, because it introduces small distortions - the sides of the image are slightly out of focus. But since we are used to photo and video materials with such visual features, this gives a certain associative effect, allowing us to improve the subjective perception of the game. Vignette also relies on the effect of subjective perception, which darkens the side areas.

It is better to trace the influence of these effects when they are gradually turned off. Below you can take a look at the screenshot with all the effects. Then a screenshot without vignetting, and then with chromatic aberration turned off.

Light Shaft Off

Turning off the light rays has the same effect. The only difference is that with Bloom turned off, the light spot from the sun on the horizon is even weaker.

Well, at the end we will give the same frame with both effects turned off.

Bloom & Light Shafts Off

The conclusions are obvious. It is not recommended to turn off "Glow" and "Light Mines". This can be an extreme measure only on weak video cards.

Well, now consider the impact on performance. We take the results of the GeForce GTX 960 at Ultra-quality as a basis and turn off one effect in turn, without touching the rest.

The effect of disabling anti-aliasing is most noticeable, performance increases by 3-5%. A little more than a percent can be won by disabling one of the blur options. A couple of percent "eats" the glow. The influence of other effects is more insignificant. With a complex disabling of various effects, the final increase should be greater. What we will now check in practice.

Comparison of performance in non-standard modes

Let's take three mid-range graphics cards - GeForce GTX 960, GeForce GTX 770 and Radeon R9 280X. At 1920x1080 resolution and Ultra-quality without HairWoks, they fall short of the 30 fps milestone.

Let's try to achieve it by gradually turning off some effects and reducing certain parameters. First, let's adjust the configuration of the post-processing effects. Let's leave the shading mode SSAO, "Glow" and "Light mines", the effect of maximum sharpness. We'll turn off the rest. We will not touch the main parameters for now.

Disabling secondary post-processing effects increased productivity for all participants by 7% or more.

Now let's add to this configuration of settings the reduction in the quality of the shadows from the level of "outrageous" to "high".

We get an even more significant increase in fps. At the same time, the overall detail does not suffer. Although it is still impossible to talk about complete comfort. Achieving an ideal result on three of these video cards will allow you to reduce the rendering range of vegetation. It is worth noting that as the settings change, the GeForce GTX 960 responds best of all, allowing the budget newcomer to confidently take the lead when the quality of the shadows decreases. The Radeon R9 280X reacts the most sluggishly to this change.

conclusions

In order to get the most out of Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with maximum graphics quality, you need a powerful latest generation graphics card. At a resolution of 1920x1080, with all the parameters at the maximum, the GeForce GTX 980 can provide complete comfort. At 2K, the GeForce GTX 980 Ti would be the best option, and the GeForce GTX 980 will already need overclocking. The Radeon R9 290X is inferior to the GeForce GTX 980, but based on the results of the comparison, we can assume that the newer version in the face of the Radeon R9 390X will be almost comparable to the competitor.

If you need to increase performance without losing detail, then you can start with HairWoks - reduce anti-aliasing, turn off technologies for all characters except Geralt, or completely deactivate it. NVIDIA HairWoks technology provides certain visual benefits, but it is better to sacrifice them than other parameters.

Among the main graphics settings, the most critical for performance are the quality of shadows and the distance of drawing vegetation. In this case, the first point gives the least noticeable changes in image quality, the differences between Ultra and High are generally difficult to notice. But the range of vegetation noticeably affects the overall impression. This parameter can be used in conjunction with the grass quality (density) adjustment, which will give a more noticeable increase in performance. Some parameters do not affect anything at all, for example, adjusting the quality of the relief. It is strongly not recommended to reduce the quality of textures. The game is quite enough 2 GB of video memory even for the most difficult modes. Downgrading textures is justified only for the simplest video cards with a minimum amount of memory. And even with just 1 GB of memory, we would not recommend moving the texture slider below the "High" level.

It is worth noting that some parameters can be set above the level that the menu offers. This operation can be performed when manually editing the user.settings settings file. Such experiments are justified for owners of top computer systems.

Post-processing affects the overall image quality no worse than the main parameters. Some effects can be safely sacrificed, which will allow you to gain a little performance. But you should definitely turn on "Glow" and "Light mines" - the picture with them is juicier. Among the shading modes the best way is HBAO+. With SSAO, the grass loses some volume, but the performance is slightly higher. Any AO mode does a good job of improving the overall perception of the picture, and it makes sense to completely abandon it only on weak systems, when there is no other choice. At the same time, it should be understood that if you have seriously reduced the quality of the shadows beforehand, then there is no point in clinging to AO either. A similar bunch should be considered "Glow" and "Light Mines". Disabling at least one item will immediately affect the deterioration of the image, and their combination will provide maximum attractiveness.