Exploration highlights in Witcher 3
Exploration highlights in Witcher 3
While playing Witcher 3, I consistently achieve around 60-65 FPS and peak speeds of 75 FPS at ultra with my GTX 1070 at 1440p. However, during intense scenes in Novigrad or when there are many NPCs, my performance drops to 45-50 FPS and the frame time jumps to 50ms or longer, making the game nearly impossible to enjoy. Your PC specifications appear in your profile, but I suspect nothing is limiting a 1070 with an overclocked 4690k and 16GB RAM. Please note that GPU utilization can fall to 65% while CPU usage reaches up to 99% (as reported by MSI afterburner).
Did you understand the entire message? The GPU usage decreases in areas with more NPCs, which seems unusual.
I handled it and my words remain unchanged. Your setup runs smoothly at 70 FPS on a 1070 at 1440p. Adding more factors will cause performance issues. The idea is quite basic.
I thought that was the case but even when I set the background population to medium, frame drops persist, which doesn’t align with the overclocked 4690k.
You're experiencing a CPU bottleneck. I'm guessing your GPU usage drops in areas like Novigrad as well as the framerate. The GPU is unable to get to 100% because the CPU is already maxed out running all of the NPC logic. I find that the best way to alleviate this is to reduce the number of background NPCs to medium or high. There isn't much of a visual difference between high and ultra, but there is a significant performance difference. My Core i3 4160 doesn't max out with it set to high, although you might still notice a slight decrease in performance, as there are a ton of objects for your GPU to render. If you're using ambient occlusion (which everyone should in this game), it'll just add to it.
It doesn’t add up since higher rendering tasks usually increase both GPU and CPU load.
I include my system details in my signature, but I’m unsure if an NH-D15 can push a 4690k to overclock.