In the field of computer technology, games have long ceased to be just entertainment. They have become a sport, so huge funds are invested in teams and individual players (perhaps even more than in football), and they have also become an impetus for the development of more powerful computers, programs, accessories. These include the legendary The Witcher, the third part of which, Wild Hunt, was almost the most anticipated game in the last few years.
The concept of "system requirements" and its essence
The Witcher 3 system requirements mean a set of technical and operational characteristics necessary to use a particular software or game. For each type of software (and even modifications to an existing version), individual requirements are put forward, so each time the “set” may change. But, in principle, the most important positions in the hardware and software environment are:
- frequency and type of processor;
- volume of disk C;
- free disk space (in % ratio);
- RAM size;
- availability of certain system services and components);
- the presence of certain system components, etc.
The list of requirements is created by the software or game developer.
Boundary system requirements
For most programs, there are two types of requirements:
- the minimum requirements of The Witcher 3 are the conditions without which the game or program will not even be installed on the computer, and if installed, it will not start and will not be able to work. But their presence does not cancel the ability to run the program on a computer whose characteristics are weaker than the minimum;
- recommended requirements - list of parameters. under which the application or program will work optimally. But even if the computer has these parameters, the software may not work at the maximum - there are games in which it is impossible to set the highest graphics settings declared by the manufacturer.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt system requirements
Even when The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was only planned to appear before the general public, Marcin Iwiński, director of CD Projekt RED, hinted that gamers would have to update some of the components of their PCs. But practice has shown that these fears were unfounded, if not a well-thought-out advertising move, since the game turned out to be quite “loyal” to computers, moreover, the requirements of many not so announced games were much tougher
Minimum computer hardware requirements
| Description | Requirements |
|---|---|
| OS: | |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz/ AMD Phenom II X4 940 |
| RAM: | 6 GB |
| Video card: | Nvidia GeForce GTX 660/ AMD Radeon HD 7870 |
| HDD: | 40GB free space |
| Other: | Keyboard, Mouse |
| Internet connection: | Not required |
| Description | Requirements |
|---|---|
| OS: | Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 (64-bit) |
| CPU: | Intel Core i7 3770 3.4 GHz/ AMD AMD FX-8350 4 GHz |
| RAM: | 8GB |
| Video card: | Nvidia GeForce GTX 770/ AMD Radeon R9 290 |
| HDD: | 40GB free space |
| Other: | Keyboard, Mouse |
| Internet connection: | Not required |
Ultra computer settings
| Description | Requirements |
|---|---|
| OS: | Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 (64-bit) |
| CPU: | Intel i7-4790 |
| RAM: | 16 GB |
| Video card: | Geforce GTX 980 |
| HDD: | 40GB free space |
| Other: | Keyboard, Mouse |
| Internet connection: | Not required |
Experienced players immediately noted that the system requirements of The Witcher 3 are 90% identical to the requirements for Assassin's Creed Unity, although this "toy" even more meticulously "chooses" processors from the AMD brand and video cards.
In terms of RAM, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is similar to Advanced Warfare or Watch Dogs Call of Duty, but gamers claim that the game runs with fewer gigs of RAM.
Also, the creators of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have repeatedly stated that their "creation" is "revolutionary", capable of unlocking the full potential of modern PCs and game consoles. In particular, this was reported by Michal Platkov-Gilewski, the company's leading manager of public relations and marketing, in his interview with VG247 (October 2014), noting that thanks to Xbox One and PS 4, developers managed to create a simply luxurious world, because the past generation consoles would not be able to "pull" the game due to lack of power.
The issue with resolution and frame rate was resolved, the hype around which began after the words of Balas Torok that The Witcher could be limited to 30 fps, which is necessary in order to maintain high graphics resolution. But the game entered the market with a resolution of 1080p and a frequency of 60 frames per second, which was a pleasant surprise for all lovers of high speeds.
Conclusions and results
Summing up, we can say that gamers were not in vain waiting for two whole delays in the official release of the game - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt lived up to their expectations, immediately turning into a cult game of 2015. Recall that the game was presented on 05/19/2015. in all CIS countries, as well as all, without exception, regions of Russia in two editions - a collector's edition (with a figure of Geralt and an album of illustrations) and a standard one. The company "SoftKlab" and the Russian branch of CD Projekt RED were responsible for this, having completed their work on "5+". Indeed, it was not in vain that it was called the most anticipated game of the outgoing year, since it won more than 150 various awards, which testifies to the good taste of Russian gamers.
Today, the game continues to lead the lists of sales, forcing gamers to lay out rather big sums for a purchase or for the time spent in Internet clubs. But the pleasure is worth it!
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 various useful materials especially for you, 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 at the 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 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: 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 it is 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 can hardly 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: 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, which 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 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 you set the value (Low, Medium, High or Maximum), the better the shadows will be and appear 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, and 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!
The recent release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, despite all the coolness of the game, turned out to be controversial. Many players do not understand how the game, after so many years of development and a noticeable decrease in visual quality, manages to slow down even on top systems. We decided to turn to the work of Nvidia engineers and present you with a guide to fine-tuning graphics in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Here you will learn which settings are best to turn off and how they affect overall performance.
Before proceeding to the topic of this article, we recommend that you The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as well. In addition, those who wish to understand the fine-tuning of graphic parameters Witcher 3: Wild Hunt by editing the configuration file can do this (in the process of writing).
- CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X @ 4.4 GHz;
- RAM: 64 GB;
- Video card: SLI x GeForce GTX Titan X 12 GB.
General graphic settings
The number of characters on the screen (Number of Background Characters)
This setting sets a limit on the maximum number of NPCs that the game will render, depending on the selected setting - 75, 100, 130, or 150. However, it currently has no effect on gameplay, and the number of NPCs does not exceed 75. Let's wait for a fix for this bug from the developers.
In general, it can be assumed that the “number of characters” increases the load on the processor, and not on the video card, so owners of weak or old CPUs are not recommended to set this setting above average.
Shadow Quality
Considering the number of possible values, this setting has little effect on image quality, regardless of the selected scene or scenario, which may even seem surprising.
Judge for yourself, in terms of performance, "shadow quality" consumes less than 10 frames per second, if you take the difference between low and outrageous quality:
However, you can always adjust the "quality of shadows" to suit your needs and tastes, since the developers have provided for fine-tuning this parameter through .
Terrain Quality
This option is designed to increase the geometric detail of various terrain surfaces by applying tessellation. However, changing the setting in the final version of the game does not have any effect on the terrain and visual quality.
It is not yet clear when the developers will fix this bug, which means it is impossible to assess how much this parameter affects performance.
Quality of detail (Detail Level)
This setting was taken from Witcher 2, and its name is in no way responsible for setting the level of detail, scaling or polygon count. "Detail Quality" on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt adjusts the amount of blood, the visibility of blood splatters and body parts that usually appear during the next bloody battle, as well as the distance at which they start to be drawn.
In terms of performance, the setting does not have a big impact and will cost 1-2 FPS, moreover, it very rarely manifests itself, since the game world The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is filled with vegetation that hides everything.
This parameter can be improved by editing the game's configuration files, we are talking about this.
Water Quality
This option works in two ways. If you travel in the game world crossing ponds and lakes, then regardless of the selected value, the appearance of the water surface will not change much. If you cross the ocean, the difference between the levels of detail will be immediately visible.
The higher the level of detail - the higher the quality of the water and the number of waves, the level of tessellation will be stronger and "randomly" change the curvature of the water surface, ripples, foam, splashes will appear.
We also note that at “high” and “outrageous” quality, the simulation of the physics of the interaction between water and the boat is activated, which will give the latter a realistic rocking. Something like this first appears in video games and the developers deserve a lot of praise.
In terms of performance, water quality has little to no effect on FPS, so you might as well set it to "high" quality:
Foliage Visibility Range
This graphics setting has almost no effect on performance, enabling it, you will lose about 1 frame per second. However, you can neglect chromatic aberration for reasons of better visual quality.
Vignetting
CD Projekt RED has prepared another interesting post-effects setting. "Vignetting" darkens the image around the edges, which some people might find interesting.
It is quite logical that vignetting does not affect image quality and only owners of weak video cards, who deny themselves all post-effects, should turn it off.
Light mines / Twilight rays (Light Shafts aka God Rays)
This parameter is responsible for the display of rays of light passing through foliage, gaps in buildings, windows in dark rooms, and so on.
The effect of Light Mines on performance is negligible, and activating them will greatly enhance your impression of visual quality and overall atmosphere. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and will speed up the immersion in the game world. We strongly recommend that you enable this setting.
Nvidia technologies
Optimization The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for PC was held by CD Projekt RED in collaboration with Nvidia, and now it's time to talk about the proprietary features of this video card manufacturer.
hairworks
Let's start with Nvidia HairWorks technology, which recreates the believable appearance of animal hair. This is achieved by tessellation of hundreds of thousands of hairs, and each of them realistically interacts with the surrounding space and the physical parameters of the world, such as wind. Thanks to the dynamic lighting capabilities, each hair casts its own shadow and reflects on other hairs, giving the image an even greater quality.
IN The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Nvidia HairWorks technology is used to model Geralt of Rivia's hair and beard, enhance the lush mane of his trusty horse Roach (as well as the manes of other horses), and, of course, is used to enhance the impressions of three dozen monsters and some others enemies.
To make Geralt's hair and beard more realistic (which, by the way, grow as you progress through the game), Nvidia has developed a new, more advanced rendering engine that takes into account dynamic lighting, weather changes in the game, atmospheric humidity, wind strength, and so on. As a result, the gray hair of the protagonist will correspond to the surrounding conditions as fully as possible, get wet and dry, fluctuate in the wind and become dirty.
For example, let's note that Geralt's beard contains 6,000 hairs, while the total number of similar elements in the main character's model is from 30,000 to 115,000 (depending on the selected quality). Most of the enemies you see up close have an average of 40,000 to 125,000 hairs, at a medium distance their number decreases markedly - from 10,000 to 40,000 hairs.
The adaptation of MSAA technology for Nvidia HairWorks has reduced the number of bugs and . In addition, HairWorks anti-aliasing is no longer dependent on which anti-aliasing mode you select in the game menu. IN The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt debuts MSAA for Nvidia HairWorks for the first time, and you can adjust this setting in the GameWorks software.
Now let's talk about performance. HairWorks settings has three presets: "Off" (the setting will be turned off), "Only Geralt" and "Everything" (all objects will use the capabilities of HairWorks). Because the game world Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is very diverse, in different situations the FPS will change a lot.
Consider, for example, the situation in which Geralt has dismounted from his horse and is killing wolves. In this case, you will lose about 15-20 frames if you turn on the "All" preset compared to turning off HairWorks technology. According to Nvidia, it's worth it - action scenes and battles will become much more memorable. Difference between "Off" and "Only Geralt" during the battle about 10 FPS, but the visual changes will not be as noticeable as in the example above.
Going for a walk around the open world on a horse, get ready to lose about 10-15 FPS if you turn on the "Everything" preset compared to turning off HairWorks technology. Difference between "Off" and "Only Geralt" about 10 FPS, but this is an average cost for visual quality, because you will constantly look at Geralt and his horse.
If you try to consider only one main character, then the “Everything” and “Only Geralt” presets will be equal to each other in terms of the number of selected frames per second. As a result, we can conclude that the “Only Geralt” preset consumes 10-15 FPS, but as soon as you get involved in a fight with other hairy enemies, you will lose up to 10 more frames.
Thus, we would not recommend that you activate this feature in any way if your video card is not the top one - FPS jumps, especially during a tense battle with a bunch of enemies, will only make you nervous, but will not add any pleasure, no matter how Nvidia praises HairWorks features.
HBAO+ (Nvidia's Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion)
IN The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt supports two global shading technologies - common to all SSAO and Nvidia-specific HBAO + technology. Wherever you are in the game world, the global shading technique will have a significant impact on visual quality.
Global shading adds more realism to nearby objects, from grass to the last glass in a tavern. If we talk about the achievements of HBAO +, then this technology allows you to get the highest quality shadows, avoid excessive darkening of fine details or unrealistic halos that are sometimes visible around objects and characters:
Another example is a room with lighted corners. Notice how accurately HBAO+ renders some areas, both on the walls and on Geralt's back:
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt wasting resources - you could see the interactive comparisons above.
About fine-tuning graphics using configuration files Witcher 3 read in (in the process of writing).
A lot of good games came out last year, but only one was able to combine a great story, addictive gameplay and photorealistic graphics. Of course, we are talking about the RPG The Witcher 3. Wild Hunt.
Alas, in a crisis, not everyone can afford powerfulth gaming PC that will pull The Witcher 3 (especially at maximum settings).
With the help of colleagues from, we decided to assemble three inexpensive computers that will allow you to play The Witcher 3 at minimum, medium and maximum graphics settings. The final amount does not include the monitor, as well as the mouse, keyboard and other peripherals - only the system unit.
So, the three cheapest gaming computers assembled for the system requirements of The Witcher 3.
Comparison of the graphic settings of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Anti-crisis
Processor: AMD Athlon X4 860K
Price: 5500 rubles
Motherboard: MSI A78M-E45 Socket FM2+
Price: 4800 rubles
Video card: ASUS Radeon R7 240 770Mhz PCI-E 3.0 4096 MB
Price: 5500 rubles
RAM: Kingston HyperX Savage DDR3 8GB
Price: 3300 rubles
Hard drive: Western Digital WD5000AAKX 500GB
Price: 3600 rubles
Chassis with power supply: AeroCool V2X Red Edition 550W Red
Price: 4300 rubles
____________________
Total: 27 000 rubles
Vitaly Borovkov, ESET technical support specialist:
Due to the rational selection of components, the computer optimally balances between price and performance. This machine will quite pull The Witcher 3 (and other modern games) at low or medium settings; The "margin of safety" of such an assembly before the upgrade is enough for six months or a year.
Optimal
Processor: Intel Core i3-6100 3700MHz
Price: 9700 rubles
Motherboard: MSI H170 GAMING M3
Price: 9500 rubles
Video card: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 750 Ti 1059Mhz PCI-E 3.0 4096MB
Price: 12,000 rubles
RAM: Kingston HyperX FURY DDR4 2133Mhz 8GB
Price: 3600 rubles
Power Supply: ATX FSP ATX-500PNR 500W
Price: 2700 rubles
Hard drive: Western Digital 1Tb (WD10EZEX)
Price: 3800 rubles
Chassis: AeroCool V2X Orange Edition, no PSU
Price: 2300 rubles
___________________
Total: 43 600 rubles
Vitaly Borovkov:
According to the test results, this build should give out 54 FPS in The Witcher 3 at high graphics settings and 48 FPS at ultra (at a resolution of 1920x1080). This configuration will be the golden mean between "gaming" and "working" PCs. The motherboard will provide this computer with a long life - in a year or two you can easily upgrade it at a relatively low cost.
Bought dollars at 30
Processor: Intel Core i5-6600K, 3.50GHz, 6MB, LGA1151
Price: 15,000 rubles
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-D
Price: 4400 rubles
Video card: ASUS GeForce GTX 960 1190Mhz PCI-E 3.0 4096MB
Price: 16 600 rubles
RAM: Crucial CT4G4DFS8213 4GB (2 pcs.)
Price: 3600 rubles
PSU: Aerocool 675W Retail HERO 675
Price: 4800 rubles
Solid state drive:Nexport NX SSD-240G25SATA3 240GB 2.5"
Price: 5700 rubles
Chassis: AeroCool V2X Black Edition Black, no PSU
Price: 2400 rubles
Cooler: DeepCool THETA 31 PWM
Price: 900 rubles
____________________
Total: 53 400 rubles
Vitaly Borovkov:
This configuration is well suited for solving any problems. Games on such a computer will not slow down even at maximum settings, and the need for an upgrade will appear at least in two to three years. Usage
NVIDIA has released the official game optimization guide. Let's go through the points:
- NVIDIA Hairworks(improves the display of Geralt's hair, monster fur)
Performance impact: You can set the options "Off", "Only Geralt", "All". In combat scenes, it eats at least 12-15 fps, in the open world - at least 10 fps.
- NVIDIA HBAO+ Ambient Occlusion(greatly improves the look of the game)
: Instead of NVIDIA HBAO +, you can put SSAO or disable the option altogether. Switching from NVIDIA HBAO+ to SSAO will give you at least 4fps, turning it off completely will give you another 4-5fps.
- Anti-Aliasing(improves geometry)
Performance Impact: The higher the resolution, the greater the drop in fps. Disabling gives about 4-5 fps.
- Bloom(improves lighting from some sources)
Performance Impact: Minimal effect, disabling this effect will do almost nothing.
- Blur & Motion Blur(adds blur effect)
Performance Impact: Each effect individually has very little effect. But if you disable both of them, then in battle you can get an increase of several fps.
- Chromatic Aberration(slightly distorts the image, optional effect)
Performance Impact: About 0.3 fps, that is, the minimum. Option for your taste.
- Depth of Field(affects the display of remote objects)
Performance Impact: In open spaces, the option eats up less than 2 fps, but in cities this figure can increase.
- Detail Level(level of detail, geometry)
Performance Impact: Oddly enough, not so big (NVIDIA assures). Details are visible at close range. If you turn it to zero, you can get 1-2 fps in big battles.
- Foliage Visibility Range(distance after which distant objects begin to be shaded)
Performance Impact: The most "expensive" option in the game, has a VERY big impact. Reducing the option from Ultra to Low gives a very large increase in FPS. At the same time makes you a little short-sighted. This option should be tormented in the first place if you want an increase in performance.
- Grass Density(how much grass)
Performance Impact: Visually, there is little difference between a high and a low value. Well, the performance gain is also small, a few fps.
- Light Shafts(adds beautiful sunbeams)
Performance Impact: Minimum, do not turn off.
- shadow quality(shadow quality)
Performance Impact: Visually, the difference between high, low and medium shadows is not that great. But switching from high shadows to medium (or low) gives a few fps.
- Sharpen(“sharpening” the details of the picture)
Performance Impact: About 0.5 fps or less, optional.
- Terrain Quality(quality of terrain)
Performance Impact: In the pre-release build - almost none. The developers promise that after special patches the difference between the settings will appear, this is one of the important points for optimizing the game.
- texture quality(texture quality)
Performance Impact: On "Low" the game consumes about 1GB of VRAM, on "High" it consumes 2GB of VRAM. There is no difference between "High" and "Ultra" textures, on "Ultra" the game simply loads more textures, which reduces the likelihood of seeing texture loading, for example, when driving fast.
The impact on the performance itself is insignificant, the amount of video memory of your video card is important.
- Vignette(shades screen corners)
Performance Impact: Minimal impact, option to your taste.
- water quality(water quality)
Performance Impact: Very small, it is recommended to set it to "High". The difference in the settings of the option is very noticeable in the open sea, it is invisible in rivers and ponds.
These are the settings presented in the game menu. Also, the developers give the opportunity to customize the user.settings game file to set some settings to your taste, including higher values presented in the game. The file is located at: C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\The Witcher 3.
Please note that performance fluctuations on different systems may vary. On weak computers, you will get less fps after disabling certain options than on powerful ones.
