Recommendations for Ray-Traced Features
Ray-Traced Shadows: Off. Conventional Ultra settings provide sufficient quality without the performance cost.
Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO): Off. GTAO High achieves similar results with lower overhead.
Path Tracing: Off for optimized profiles. While visually impressive indoors, it imposes massive CPU/GPU costs and reduces contrast outdoors. A community mod (see below) can improve viability by reducing light bounces.
DLSS Ray Reconstruction: On for NVIDIA RTX GPUs. Replaces hand-tuned denoisers with NVIDIA’s neural system, improving quality without compromising performance.
Optimized Graphics Settings Without Ray Tracing
- Number of Background Characters: Ultra+
- Shadow Quality: Ultra
- Screen Space Shadows: On
- Terrain Quality: Ultra+
- Water Quality: High
- Foliage Visibility Range: High
- Grass Density: Medium
- Texture Quality: Ultra
- Detail Level: Ultra+
- SSAO: GTAO High
- Screen Space Reflections: Low
- HairWorks: Off (optional if GPU headroom allows)
Performance Gains: Optimized settings increase average FPS by 76% over Ultra+ (176 FPS vs. 100 FPS), with significant improvements in 1% and 0.1% lows.
Optimized Graphics Settings With Ray Tracing
- Ray-Traced Global Illumination (RTGI): Enabled (core RT feature)
- Ray-Traced Reflections/Shadows/Ambient Occlusion: Off (rasterized alternatives suffice)
- Path Tracing: Off (see mod recommendations below)
- DLSS Ray Reconstruction: On for NVIDIA RTX GPUs
Performance Gains: Optimized RT profile improves average FPS by 53% over maxed-out ray tracing (87 FPS vs. 57 FPS) and 97% over Path Tracing (87 FPS vs. 44 FPS).
Performance Comparisons
| Graphics Configuration | Average FPS | 1% Low | 0.1% Low |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultra+ & Path Tracing | 44 | 38 | 33 |
| Ultra+ & Ray Tracing | 57 | 53 | 51 |
| Optimized Ray Tracing | 87 | 77 | 68 |
Tips for Optimization
1. Path Tracing and Ray Tracing Optimization Mod
- Reduces path tracing from 2 to 1 light bounce, improving performance by ~10% outdoors and up to 30% indoors.
- Enables optional toggles to disable Ray-Traced Shadows/Caustics for further gains.
2. Less Stutter FPS Boost Shader Cache Mod
- Reduces shader compilation stutter by pre-warming the GPU driver’s shader cache.
- Discourages clearing shader caches to avoid redundant compilation.
Final Words
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered delivers impressive visuals but faces performance challenges due to REDengine 3’s limitations. Optimized settings and mods can dramatically improve frame rates while retaining key RT features like RTGI. For most players, the rasterized optimized profile offers the best balance, while RTGI-enabled settings provide a compelling middle ground. Community mods remain critical for maximizing performance on CPU/GPU-limited systems.
