The Witcher 3’s latest update brings performance and optimisation improvements

It has been roughly six weeks since The Witcher 3's next-gen update landed for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5. The update brought huge graphical upgrades, particularly on PC, where ray-tracing effects can be cranked up even further. Now, we have our first patch, bringing a number of stability and performance improvements. 

While The Witcher 3's next-gen update is graphically impressive and adds some new content to the game, including a pretty lengthy new questline, it also brought along some new pain points. The new DX12 version doesn't run as well as the older DX11 version, so it felt like there was some room for improvement. Some of those improvements have now arrived with Patch 4.01, which began rolling out this week.

Here are some of the key patch notes:

PC:

• Fixed an issue where the Screen Space Reflections setting wasn't working on PC despite being turned on. Players who had previously set their SSR setting to high may notice a performance impact.
• Added a new performance mode for ray-traced global illumination, which can be toggled by players with compatible hardware. It improves frame rate by prioritizing performance over range and precision.

Console:

• Fixed an issue where consoles could create a higher amount of saves than their set limit, resulting in various issues with saving the game or user settings being reset.
• Improved Screen Space Reflections quality on next-gen consoles.
• Optimized ray-traced global illumination on next-gen consoles to improve the performance of Ray Tracing Mode.

A number of fixes have also been applied to a few in-game quests, patching out crashes and progression-blocking bugs in quests like Battle Preparations, Family Matters, King's Gambit and others. Minor glitches with other quests and cutscenes have also been patched out.

You can check out the full patch notes, HERE. Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: Have many of you been diving back into The Witcher 3 since the next-gen update landed? Have you noticed any improvements with the new patch? 

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