What settings will I be able to run on The Witcher 3 with my system?

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CK7

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Saw the recent Witcher 3 system requirements and felt that my system was close to the edge:

i5-4670 3.4 GHz
GTX 760 2GB Windforce
8 GB RAM
Samsung 21.5″ 1920 x 1080 monitor

Will the lack of an i7 CPU & a 760 rather than a 770 prevent me from running it on high at 60fps?

My system has no trouble running Bioshock Infinite maxed at 100+fps, & doesn't even flinch at running Mafia II maxed at a steady 60fps, but only averages 40fps on Metro 2033 (original).



 
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You won't be able to max due to the lack of the 8 thread CPU. You are good with the 8GBs of ram.

Toms recent test show the 760, which used to be on par with the 7950/280, to be slightly slower then the 270X, which is the 7870. So having the 760 will hold you back some. It will run, but because of the "weak" CPU and GPU I don't think you'll be able to max it. Remains to be seen if they meant higher then 1080. With the recent release of games however it seems the new consoles are having a big increase in PC requirements.
You won't be able to max due to the lack of the 8 thread CPU. You are good with the 8GBs of ram.

Toms recent test show the 760, which used to be on par with the 7950/280, to be slightly slower then the 270X, which is the 7870. So having the 760 will hold you back some. It will run, but because of the "weak" CPU and GPU I don't think you'll be able to max it. Remains to be seen if they meant higher then 1080. With the recent release of games however it seems the new consoles are having a big increase in PC requirements.
 
Solution
Obviously an i5 isn't weak as it's basically the best gaming CPU period so far. A lot of games released late 2014 had drastic requirements that wasn't true in real life. On the other hand we know how good Witcher 2 was in graphics and how it was harder to run. If any devs will make a game run on 8-Cores it will be CDPR. They probably needed to do that on consoles to make it look as best as possible on the weak single core performing soc.

Best case scenario game is optimized to run well on i5s and additional boost on CPUs with 8 threads. This would be perfect for my AMD rig that passes the recommended specs

As far as the GPU it will probably run well enough as the game is a GameWorks game but I don't see 60fps 1080p with all maxed out. Even if AA is off
 


Metro 2033 just turn off advanced DOF and / or tesselation and you'll be at 60fps solid I'm sure

Witcher 3 I don't know, but I'm confident that with your hardware you'll be able to play it in 1080p and it will look pretty good for you too :)
 
Weak was in quote.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/witcher-wild-hunt-recommended-minimum-specs,28362.html

the minimum system requirements will require at least an Intel Core i5-2500K (3.3 GHz) or an AMD Phenom II X4 940 processor. On the GPU front, PC gamers will need at the very least the Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or the AMD Radeon HD 7870...the recommended specs, PC gamers will need an Intel Core i7-3770 (3.4 GHz) or an AMD FX-8350 (4 GHz) processor. For the GPU, the specification lists the Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 and the AMD Radeon R9 290...As we've seen throughout 2014, 6 GB of RAM and a 64-bit operating system are becoming the norm in minimum PC requirements. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Assassin's Creed: Unity and Watch Dogs are perfect examples.

Minimum doesn't mean maxed out. And he falls short of the recommended. With the new consoles out games are being coded for them. DX9 for AAA games is a thing of the past, which means the requirements are going to go up. Way up as the list of games at the end of that article show. Will he be able to run it? Yes, he meets the minimums just fine. Will he be able to max it out with 60FPS at 1080? No.
 


I tend to take the minimum requirements with a grain of salt now as usually it doesn't mean running the game on Low-Settings like I thought in beginning of my PC gaming adventures. OPs PC passes minimum requirements fine, problem is the recommended which usually doesn't mean max settings 60FPS on 1080P either. That being said unless Witcher 3 utilizes all 8 Threads well in the i7 there will be no advantage over the i5 that is drastic. The i5 might perform just as well, only difference being that the CPU will be worked harder (higher CPU usage). Problem here is the GPU which is slightly lower than the recommended requirements. The important thing here is that the Witcher will have been integrated with lots of NVIDIA GameWorks code and settings so the GTX 760 will likely have an advantage over the slightly stronger 270X with more settings on. That is in a good case scenario with the Gameworks/Game working as NVIDIA wants. In the good overall scenario the game works fine on both AMD/NVIDIA products. I don't even think the Recommended Requirements will be enough for a truly maxed out 1080p 60FPS so I don't think it will work with the OP. But no one knows for sure. The minimum specs looking close to the PS4 as far as GPU might mean that the lowest setting will look similar to the console versions which doesn't look that bad honestly
 


Yeah, although I have a feeling pure Dual-Cores will not be able to run the game at all or very badly. Even the i3 may have issues but nothing is for sure until May. God May is way too long away. They should take $5-10 off my preorder price for delaying the games so many times. I was ready for the game in Autumn 2014 then they delayed until February. I was okay with that because I would either have some sort of school break or have graduated from college by then. But then the May delay was the killer. If I was going to school I would have to get through another semester of school just to play the game. At least it's far enough I can forget about it until the actual release.
 
The thing you fail to understand or mention is the vast importance of IPC and per core performance. This is why an Intel Core i3 is often as fast or faster than an AMD FX 8 core CPU. 4 Intel cores are much more powerful than 8 weak threads from AMD.

? IPC hasn't been mentioned yet. It's important yes, but not quite in this conversation yet. The issue is the new consoles are all 8 threads machines. It doesn't matter how high your clock speeds or IPC is. When a game is coded to need 8 threads, that's what you'll need. Which is why the NEW games coming out recommend the 3770 or 8320. 8 thread (or more) is where we are heading, and having a fast high IPC that handles only 4 threads won't let you max out games.
 
I appreciate the help, guys. And some interesting discussion since.

So, let's say I can't max the game--what do I need to upgrade? GPU, CPU, or both?

BTW, I will probably just play every game I can max in the meantime, and only "risk" an upgrade when it becomes absolutely necessary. So the parts I use may be those on the market 1 or even 2 years from now.
 


Just a gpu upgrade should be enough, your CPU is good
 


I'm not calling it bad or weak. Just saying we don't know how things will end up in the future. Hyper Threading is the one thing saving it from being a Pentium. Anyone building for big AAA games should look at locked i5s instead of i3s as the cheapest 1150 i5 vs i3s is only ~$30-70. If you look at some of the newer games you can see the FX CPUs with more than 4 threads performing better than the i3 (just barely in AVG). Hyper-Threading will help in some games while it won't like in MGS:GZ which utilizes up to 12 threads as far as DSO Gaming says. DA:I has a huge difference between (simulated) Intel Dual-Core vs Tri-Core vs Quad/Hexa Core. Difference here DA:I uses HT well so that means a huge boost to the i3.

To be on the safe side I would rather have people look at an i5 that is a true Quad-Core vs an i3 that is a Dual-Core with HT because some games won't utilize the extra threads well enough where there is no boost or to a point where the performance may have a negative impact.

.:edit:.

Like LucoTF said, an upgrade in GPU should be all you need for pretty much any game that is released even in the near future as the Haswell i5 is a good processor. I don't see a CPU upgrade really being needed for the next year at the least. I honestly don't think Broadwell or even Skylake will be a huge increase in performance compared to the Haswell architecture. Only thing that will require an upgrade for you is in the case every single new game starts programing games to run on 8+ threads normal or make HyperThreading a bit more useful
 
Wow, that was fast; <<TMI>> there were already 2 responses up.

Alright then, I'll continue saving for a (most likely) GTX 980 then (GPU's are 30%+ more expensive where I am than in US/CAN).

Thanks again.
 




Lol, do mods really edit posts for TMI?

Now that you mention Link I need to try DA:I in Mantle mode now that I have a 8350 and R9 290. Mantle mode ran much worse on my 860K (Quad-Core) and 7850 1GB. I don't know if it was the fact I was playing games on a 5400RPM HDD during that time, the 1GB VRAM, or only an AMD Quad-Core but Mantle would net me 20+ FPS lower than on DX11 mode plus lots of more crashes when traveling and loading cut scenes. Maybe now that I am running the games on a 7200RPM HDD, R9 290 with 4GB VRAM, and a stronger CPU will net me more stable Mantle gameplay while relieving some CPU workloads off the 8350.

.:edit:.

Nevermind. Overall people seem to agree that Mantle performs worse than DX11 in most cases. The improvements are usually seen in the higher resolutions but barely. Even in the link you provided although the 290X achieves a higher AVG FPS in Mantle mode there are huge tradeoffs that make Mantle mode not worth in DA:I. Those negatives are the increased load times (up to 2.5x slower) and the bigger frametime variances that leads to stuttering in game (doesn't look as smooth). No need to waste time to even try to see for improvements I guess.
 
A modern Intel core i3 is all you need for running games.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/watch-dogs-pc-performance,3833-8.html

CPU-FR.png


You can go that route, but you'll only get about half of what you could be getting. I get what you are saying but it just isn't true anymore. I suggest you look into this more.

Seeing as this has a best answer and the conversation isn't following the lines the should I'm closing this now.
 
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