The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt got a native PS5 release when the Complete Edition launched back in December, marking the first time PlayStation players could travel The Continent and murder much of its wildlife at a silky-smooth 60fps.
And while it all looked and ran well, there was still room for improvement, and so in early February, we got the performance-focused patch 4.01. The wizards over at Digital Foundry have had some time to kick the tyres on the update, and their findings were quite surprising.
Using a busy section of the city of Novigrad as a testing ground, Digital Foundry found that RT Mode benefited from the latest update, gaining around 3-4fps in most areas. RT Mode comes far closer to hitting its 30fps target than the launch build did, which would hover around the low 20s in this busy area.
Bizarrely, however, Performance Mode has taken a massive step back in patch 4.01 in the same location. Whereas at launch, Performance Mode could and would hit 60fps, it appears to have taken a hit of as much as 8 or 9 frames for no discernable visual upgrade, running far closer to 50fps than the advertised 60.
Digital Foundry does point out this is perhaps the most technically taxing area in the game, and performance gains can be observed outside the city, but it is also one of the most crucial. Players spend a lot of time in the sprawling metropolis, which is home to a significant stretch of critical path quests.
Have you noticed a drop in performance in The Witcher 3's Performance Mode since patch 4.01 was released? Or has it been business as usual as far as you are concerned? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 26
This next gen patch has kind of been a mess, took a finished game and turned it into something that needs more patching. It's nice to have next gen optimizing, but it feels like it might as well be a new game by this point.
I’d be more irritated if not for the fact I’ve been playing another huge game and since this is my second play through I can bench Witcher 3 till future patches iron out the issues. TBH it hasn’t been too bad, my major issue is how the game literally freezes for 3 seconds whenever the game auto saves, which when clearing side quests and any question mark on the map is a frequent occurrence and takes me out of the immersion.
Another reason for me to never play this game. I can't get into TW3 for some reason.
Regardless of the patch, I could never get over the weird floaty controls. Everyone seems to love this game but I just couldn’t get into it.
@Arnna I'm past the point of wondering why I don't 'get' it. There are countless games that I love, but popularity is definitely not an indicator of quality. Haters gonna hate, but I just think that TW3 is lacking when it comes to actual gameplay. And if you are going to spend hundreds of hours in a game, then at least it should FEEL good to play it.
I replayed it and all the dlc prior to this patch and had a great time, and experienced no more bugs than in the original game. It has always been a bit buggy and this is still a marked improvement. Still, taking a downgrade on the latest patch is a bit odd!
Well, if I want to play it now, i'll just insert the PS5 disc version and disconnect from the internet so it doesn't update.
@NeThZOR The PS5 disc surely has the previous version, so you can play without updating.
@Arnna that's my only issue with the game, controls are just not great, esp when most of the attraction is slaying monsters.
Its just not a great remake in my eyes.
Even more so than last of us part one, at least they change character models and improved basically everything graphics wise.
All they've done to this is slapped a 4k sheen to the game and touched nothing else.
This sounds about right in terms of qc testing for CDPR.
@Bez87 Yeah when the action mechanics of an RPG game are sub-par it really breaks the game for me.
Especially when there are games like Nioh 2 which have the deepest and most elite combat while also being a functional RPG.
@NeThZOR No problem. I've tried 5 times to get into Skyrim, and I can only manage about 4 hours.
Hopefully Kingdom Come gets the same treatment soon
@Fyz306903
The gameplay was crap even back then, writing mediocre and combat just meh.
Completely understandable
@Bez87 Its not a remake its just a current gen version. They also done way more they just adding 4K to it with way mire foliage, bigger crowds, bigger draw distance, a new camera position, added a photo mode, better textures, an RT mode, 60fps and much more. Also all of this is free.
@BoldAndBrash I disagree with all your points. The combat is actually solid and it's fun to play as a mage or go full melee.
Go figure. The cracks in CDPR's perceived competence are getting larger.
@Leonhart You are 100% incorrect. The combat is objectively horrendous.
@brazzios_84 Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk are among my favourite games despite their flaws. CDPR have some serious talent in the writing department and with whom they hire for original scores/soundtracks. I whole heartedly agree however that they are not a AAA studio whatsoever when it comes to polish. Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Sucker Punch and Sony Santa Monica lead the way for me.
@TJ81 The writing is all they have going for them. Unfortunately, these are GAMES and need to be more well rounded. Otherwise they should just make point and click or visual novels.
Meanwhile I'm busy enjoying a game AT RELEASE that isn't as buggy as any of CDPR's recent games after 2+ years AFTER release. Namely, Hogwarts Legacy. And it's a blast.
One of the reasons I like physical is the option to play unpatched. Especially if purchase is long after release where digital copies are patched whether I want it or not. Sometime it is content/ larger files not wanted, nerfs not wanted, glitches still wanted, and the rare performance downdate.
The PS3 would message that a patch is available which could be declined, end of story if disc left in. With my PS4 nomatter how often I decline it wants to auto add an update. Not even the option to install after downloading an unwanted update/downdate. No settings eliminate that. Thankfully firmware updates only install when I give permission.
GTA 5 on PS3, disc, is interesting in that all updates are in a seperate file and download individually in chronological order. Nice if in offline play if I want to play before something changed in the next patch. Overall that seperate file along with games having seperate dlc content files on the PS3 is nice. Nice that game data from a disc can be deleted and then installed again without the need to download dlc again.
CDPR.. good one again mate
@NeThZOR There's few of us, but we do exist. We've been forced into the underground. Game did nothing for me also, tried 3 times, felt nothing.
Hopefully they'll release another free update to fix these issues!
@NoCode23 Main difference was that the PS3 has to ask you if it can go busy downloading a patch.
The PS4 has a dedicated download chip that handles all the downloading in the background so it will have various patches available to your games without you interacting with it.
I assume that there's probably an option to not auto download patches but it's probably on by default - either that or disconnect from the PSN?
@NeThZOR @Arnna I am also surprised by the amount of praise that this game receives. Normally, I'm all over a Western RPG but this just left me baffled. From Geralt running around like he's got piles to the wafty combat, I just couldn't get into it.
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