Witcher 3 Graphics Options Performance Guide

Witcher 3 Graphics Options Performance Guide by ekoh8873

If you’re looking to save a few frames this should help.

Here’s a summary I made for myself of Nvidia’s take on the graphic settings.

Anti-Aliasing: High cost

Bloom: Low cost

• Suggested ON as lighting is flat without it

Blur & Motion Blur: Low cost (noticeable in fights)

Chromatic Aberration: Very Low cost

• Suggested OFF for clean image

Depth of Field: Low cost (Increase in Cutscenes)

• Can make long distance textures look better

Detail Level: Low cost

• Only adjusts visibility of decals (e.g. blood splatter) generated during combat
• Can be turned down for a few frames as it is not really noticeable

Foliage Visibility Range: Very High cost (Most demanding setting)

• Amount of trees, grass, and bushes increase along with detail and foliage shadows.
• Very noticeable visual increase at a massive performance cost
• Preferably High as difference between High and Medium is very noticeable.

Grass Density: Low cost

• Barely noticeable, even from Low vs Ultra
• Suggested lower setting if you need to save a few frames

Light Shafts: Low cost

• Suggested ON as they are a “must-have”

Number of Background Characters: Unknown cost

• Intervals are 75, 100, 130, or 150 depending on detail level chosen

PhsyX: CPU based (High cost?)

• “effects and things like cloth are more realistic, additional particles, persist longer”

Shadow Quality: Low cost

• “Insignificant impact on image quality”

Sharpening: Very Low cost

• “bit crisper, if slightly less natural” Up to preference

Terrain Quality: Unknown

Texture Quality: Very Low cost

• Suggested High for 2GB GPU
• Ultra does not increase quality, only increases memory budget

Vignette: Very Low cost

• Darkens edges of screen (up to preference)

Water Quality: Low cost

• Does not affect water / ponds. Only affects ocean
• Suggested High as needed for water simulation (really bad without it)

Further settings can be changed in the .ini files though nvidia only mentions it when talking about increasing things above their max settings.