Low Frame Rate On The Witcher 3 (GTX 980 Ti)

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
My brother plays The Witcher on a 2k monitor at ultra settings (no AA and ambient occlusion set on SSAO). In certain demanding areas of the games such as Novigrad he is getting frame rates in the mid 40's and it drops to that fps count quite often. With the PC build he has he should be getting a solid 60 fps even in the most demanding areas of the game and much higher in not so demanding areas. Here is his system:

OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit
MOBO: ASRock H97 Anniversary
CPU: i5-4690k
GPU: PNY GTX 980 Ti
RAM: A-Data 8 GB 1600 MHz
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache
PSU: EVGA 600 B

Does anyone know why his frame is so low?
 
Solution


Um, no. Problem is definitely not the proc bottlenecking.

Is your RAM filling up all 8 GB while playing? Access time to that HDD is going to be really slow.

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
It seems like a GTX 980 Ti would be able to handle that resolution just fine especially without AA and ambient occlusion turned down. I've seen benchmarks of The Witcher 3 at 1440p resolution running on a GTX 980 Ti and it rarely dropped under 60 let alone into the 40's. The Digital Foundry 1440p benchmark test showed the 980 Ti staying slightly above a 60 fps average:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxzpcmvnPJU
 

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
The drivers are updated but I don't think he has patch 1.7 installed yet. I'll have that done. I doubt it'll make a huge frame rate difference but it's worth a shot. Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't even thought if I had the latest patch installed.
 

GamingMaster

Reputable
Sep 21, 2014
108
0
4,710
2 solutions to this. First optimize the game in GeForce Experience, if doesn't allow you to optimize look at the optimal settings and see what is what. I can run it with my 680 no problem and GeForce Expeirnece is setting most settings on ultra to high so you shouldn't have a problem... also this is very important make sure your drivers are updated. Display Drivers.

Other thing that might be happening is bottlenecking. Your processor doesnt seem that powerful however your card is. I advise looking into that. Good luck
 

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
So you're saying that the i5-4690k CPU might be bottlenecking the GTX 980 Ti? I didn't think that resolution would hinder CPU performance too great because I thought the GPU handled most of the pixel rendering.
 

mdsiu

Distinguished
Oct 1, 2010
448
0
18,860


Um, no. Problem is definitely not the proc bottlenecking.

Is your RAM filling up all 8 GB while playing? Access time to that HDD is going to be really slow.
 
Solution


Novigrad averages about 15 FPS lower then other parts of the game, from my experience. So I'd expect some pretty hefty FPS dips running @ Ultra settings. Sounds reasonable for that GPU.
 

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
I'm just going off the basis of the Digital Foundry benchmark where the 980 Ti was running above 60 in Novigrad and only occasionally dipping into the 50's. Also, the 980 Ti averaged much higher in the wilderness up into the 70's.

Is there anyone who uses a GTX 980 Ti and also plays The Witcher 3 at 2k resolution? I'd like to hear what kind of performance other people with similar rigs are getting.
 

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
I did lower the settings and even tested each setting individually as well to see which had the greatest hit on performance. The frame rate barely changed at all when I lowered the settings. There was about 5-10 fps gain by lowering to medium.
 

GamingMaster

Reputable
Sep 21, 2014
108
0
4,710
well i guess your computer is fine and witcher 3 requirements are really high. I think it might be your cpu since the recommended is a intel core i7. But i might be wrong.

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/pc-and-av-hardware-909394553/the-witcher-3-pc-ultra-runs-at-1080p-60fps-on-gtx--31923616/

these guys run it at 60fps with a i7 and 980. To my knowledge just wait as the people from nvidia release new drivers that will help with performance. Meanwhile make sure your computer isnt set to power saver... reset to defaults in bios.. and make sure you have no unnecessary graphics drivers are left over in case your computer had another graphics card before. Moreover go to nvidias website. search for your card and just download the latest driver out. Install it. hope this works out for you.
 

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
It definitely isn't the CPU, resolution doesn't affect CPU performance as badly as does with the GPU. The i5-4690k is a beast of a CPU and the only way I can see it being a bottleneck is if he was doing a 980 Ti SLI. I haven't had the chance to get on my brother's computer today to check the RAM usage but I should be able to do so tomorrow.
 

nolcek

Reputable
Jul 22, 2015
23
0
4,520
Is the game updated? Some games need updating or if you have cracked version you need a different crack. I tryed Metro: Last Light at my friends house and it was lagging and stuttering like hell even at minimal settings (he had a R270 or R280)! So he was asking me how can I fix this and I went online and downloaded a newer crack and it worked perfectly on high settings. So yeah try updating or getting newer crack.
 

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
I know it's been awhile but I thought I'd update this thread anyway. I checked the RAM and apparently it was running at 1333 MHz and not 1600 MHz. After changing it to 1600 MHz it ran at a slightly higher frame rate. I also updated to patch 1.08 that also increased the fps by a little. the game runs a decent amount better now but it's still not where I think it should be. For now it'll do though. It looks like the frame rate dips are now in the low 50's and not mid 40's like they were.
 

Daniel_60

Reputable
Nov 5, 2015
4
0
4,510
This is an old post, but I found issues in the settings where if I ran v-sync AND limited FPS to 60, I would drop between 54-60 FPS. Changing the FPS to UNLIMITED in the graphics settings, with v-sync still on gave me a solid 60FPS. Didn't drop once.
Plus the port seems pretty good with no recognisable input lag with v-sync on, and for Witcher it is recommended to use a controller anyway, which doesn't seem to be affected at all either.
And yes everything is on ultra, AA and HBAO+ included and even hairworks @8xAA, all at 1080p. With the exception of Motion Blur, Blur, Vignetting, Chromatic Aberration all OFF, because they IMO they should never be on.

EDIT:
I have i7 4770k, gtx 980 Ti, 8gb RAM
 

Dennis McCarty

Honorable
Sep 3, 2013
6
0
10,510


I just got the 'Evga 980ti sc+ w/backplate' today and I'm getting solid 60fps with barely any drops at ultra/1440p. I even have HBAO+ Ultra enabled. I have AA ON, motion blur off, hair works AA 2, hair works preset low. Everything else is cranked to max.
Edit: It dips down sometimes but never below 54.
 

Matthew-san

Reputable
Feb 25, 2014
886
0
5,060
When I started this thread it was before many of the patches had been released. Optimization is much better now and my brother no longer has fps problems with The Witcher 3/ He runs it at a solid 60 fps+ for the most part.
 

Nikodeemus

Commendable
Feb 26, 2016
3
0
1,510
I'm a little late on this, but I have a very similar system and found that by turning shadows down to High instead of Ultra removed all of the framerate drops I was experiencing. There were areas in the open woods where my FPS would drop from 60 to the miod/low 50's. I have everything else on Ultra (Hairworks and AA off of course) @1440p and no more dips. My system specs are: i5 6600k 4.5ghhz, 16gb DDR4, sdingle GTX 980Ti and the game is loading from a SSD.
 

cdyshack14

Honorable
May 10, 2012
58
0
10,630


An i5-4690k is more than enough for this, right? CPU's these days are very rarely the bottleneck - correct?

I have the same CPU, and a PNY GTX 980ti 6gb, plus 16 GB of RAM. When playing anything, the CPU is barely taxed at all. I'm not trying to be argumentative - I really am curious if the CPU these days is ever really the problem. I had an i5-2320, and it was never a problem either. I do however have a Samsung 840 Pro for my OS, and the games mostly run on a 256gb EVO.

I'd say upgrading discs to SSD for your OS and Apps is a no brainer these days, as they are practically giving them away now. About $0.35/GB