trying to achieve decent fps in witcher 2

so i'm using ASUS G74SX-A1 Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.00GHz NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M 3GB GDDR5 12GB DDR3 1333 and really want decent fps to play witcher 2. So far i've ruled out high settings because at the start when you leave the tent and your walking around the encampment I get 20ish fps...

Anyone with a similar rig have any suggestions for settings? Ideally i'd like to keep it as high as possible. I'm guessing take my resolution down a notch to 1600x1024, but i'd like to keep it at 1920x1080.

Even at 1600x1024 with ubersampling, anti-aliasing, motion blur and bloom disabled i'm only getting around 30fps. Is it that the area i'm in is just intense like that and I shouldn't expect high fps there? I'm not getting any stuttering or slow down, even when in high setting with 20ish fps, but that number is disconcerting none the less.

 

My settings are these:

Use Ultra preset,
then disable SSAO and Motion Blur/UberSampling.

Keep the AntiAliasing if you wish, but note that its not a common multisampling, but edge to edge anti aliasing. in other words, theres zero difference.

If you disable AA as well, since it works only in conjuction with Ubersampling, youll get from 25-35 at 1080p.

You can still lower the resolution, but since Motion Blur makes me sick and SSAO doesnt add anything beside some shadows here and there, youll be fine.

Also drivers starting from beta 280.19 (now WHQL 280.26) give a nice performance boost, plus the newer patch should help as well (1.3.5).

 

Pretty simple really. You mention you have ubersampling on. The 560M is not that powerful

You need a crossfire setup or at least I would say a 580M or 6990M to be able to have Ubersampling giving you more than 30FPS.

Turn it off and you will get the frames you are looking for

 

Oh no, I meant to say ubersampling was disabled, along with anti-aliasing, motion blur and bloom being all disabled.

I was thinking of trying an overclock, but i'm hesitant to do so. stock values are 775/1550/1250. i've managed to push it to 9o5/1810/1401 but again, I worry about heating as it got up in the 60's when normally it's in the 40's celsius.

My system has great cooling but i'm still concerned since it's a laptop, I guess. And honestly, i'm just not tech enough(yet) to feel confident in getting an overclock correct and stable. I'd just be playing the game nervous as hell that my computer will melt. =P

"Also drivers starting from beta 280.19 (now WHQL 280.26) give a nice performance boost, plus the newer patch should help as well (1.3.5)." -Kingpinzero

Roger that, i've got WHQL 280.26 and patch 1.3.5 installed. Thanks for the advice.

 

Dont worry about temps. Still even if you manage to get up to 80-82c which happens to me with 814/1648/1625 after 2 hours of BFBC2...youre perfectly in range.
Tjunction of 460/560m is 100c. If you stay below 80 is equivalent to stay icy cool.

 

Have you got the latest Witcher 2 patch installed?

You can try my custom settings I get 30-40fps standard with these.

Spoiler

[Rendering]
TextureDownscale=0
AtlasTextureDownscale=0
DetailTextureDownscale=0
MaxTextureSize=2048
MaxAtlasTextureSize=4096
TextureMemoryBudget=1000
TextureTimeBudget=10
MaxCubeShadowSize=1024
MaxCubeShadowCount=2
MaxSpotShadowSize=1024
MaxSpotShadowCount=2
FoliageDistanceScale=1.0
MeshDistanceScale=1.0
CharacterLodGameplayDownscale=0
AllowBloom=0
AllowShafts=1
AllowAntialias=1
AllowBlur=1
AllowDOF=0
AllowDecals=1.0
AllowVignette=1
AllowSharpen=1
AllowRain=1
AllowSSAO=1
AllowMotionBlur=0
AllowScatterDOF=0
AllowCutsceneDOF=0
DanglesLimiter=0
ShadowQuality=2
ShadowedLights=2
Fullscreen=1
VSync=0
UberSampling=0

You will need to copy these and replace the onces in the User.Ini but make sure you mark the file as Read only afterwards otherwise when you load the game your settings selected in the config program will be used.

 

One thing that helps is to either force triple buffering on or turn vsync to always off in nvidia control panel. I think this game has vsync on by default so using triple buffering gives boost in framerates.

Also turn shadow quality to low or medium.

Edit: been playing this game for the past week and it's awesome!

 

thanks for all the info everybody. Dallers, gotta say those custom settings and messing with files intimidates me at the moment so i'm gonna have to hold off on making those changes, as tempting as 30-40fps is.

So, i've pretty much disabled all the usual suspects in high settings and went to medium with shadow quality and number of shadowed lights. Not sure if those medium settings are giving me any noticeable difference in performance but I assume it's adjustable for that reason..

I'm getting fps in the low 30's so far, occasionally dipping into the high 20's. This is without oc'ing at the moment, as i'm warming to the idea, there goes a pun. I'm happy with the performance so far, as the game is stunning even without all the pluses.

one thing for me, is the necessity of vsync on. When I disable vsync it creates what i've learned is called tearing. This effect is quite noticeable when i'm moving and it's such an eyesore I can't play. I'd much rather take the hit in fps than play with tearing.

edit: one more thing, when it comes to sound, does anyone recommend the asus xonar u3 sound card as a significant improvement? I hear it's great with gaming, or should I get a FiiO E7 USB DAC?
Also would you recommend a cooling pad? I hear it's not necessary considering the cooling setup in the g74. Thanks.

 

The settings I gave you above are already in the User.ini you are just changing them so things run better. The biggest problem is not the shadows rating etc because I run them both on Ultra and it makes no difference it is all about the Shadow resolution and the foliage amount and that is why my custom settings tweak this but the config facility in Witcher 2 does not do that. It also allows the game to utilise more Vram because the max settings only allows the game to choose upto 700mb max and that is not enough when we have cards with plenty more accessible.

1 means on 0 means off as well so its pretty simple stuff. Your call but also the ATI does seem to perform in the Witcher 2 quite well it might just be that.

Intensive but fantastic game, if you haven't decided yet might I suggest the non human route You will get what I mean once you get there.

 

Thanks again for the info Dallers, i'll be cautiously looking into changing the user.ini for that performance boost as soon as I work up the courage. (wary of messing with things, i'm a novice)

I'm surprised you have vsync off in your settings, I couldn't stand the tearing. Most notable when I was running around the camp and looking at the tents. Eyebleed

In regards to the non human route, can't wait to get there and make the choice Believe it or not, i'm just about to get my first chance to make some serious headroom into playing this game. Still sitting around the camp talking to barbarian guys about amnesia.

 

Strange as I dont see any tearing but maybe my eyes are broken but as long as you copy and paste a copy of the User.ini then you can play all you like you cannot break anything it is just a config program but without all the fancy buttons you are either telling something to turn on or not and selecting how high or low you would like certain graphical properties to be. Worse case scenario it wont load up or slows right down if that happens just put your copied version back in and start again.

But Nvidia cards can work differently to Ati I still think you should be seeing higher frames as it should be optimised for you.

 

Its the opposite dallers, ive tried your config with clocks 814/1648/1625 which are my stable, and so far i get an average of 28fps at 1080p..

If you say that at 1080p with your hd5870m oced you can get 30-40 we're talking about an enormous 10 fps difference.

Thing that i would expect in a match between gtx460m vs gtx485m.

Essentially you're sayin that your performance in the witcher 2 is comparable to a desktop HD5850 or GTX560ti.

Its a bold statement; care to share more infos?

 

I already have in the original witcher 2 posts go hunt them down, posted screenshots and likewise but I dont need to prove myself use my settings or dont I am only offering what I use and see and you cannot compare Nvidia to Ati. Bold statement...

You also cannot compare a mobile card to a desktop card. The HD5850 or GTX560ti will get vastly superior fps at 1080p so your argument is futile.

Since the 2nd patch I average between 30-40fps unless the scene is intensive. Removing Bloom & SSAO + adjusting shadow resolution/foliage made the biggest difference.

 

Man, why you're so angry at me. Im not saying i need proofs, or that you're a lier, GOD.

If theres a problem with me, ill refrain to ask you something.

Read my post back, i was just asking for your thoughts on how the game handles on your card, the settings in the specific, and other things.

Well sorry if i ever asked you. Thanks anyway.

 

How is that being angry at you? If anything you were claiming I was making ''bold statements'' that aren't true and I am telling you that:

A: What you might see with an Nvidia card which is slightly weaker than my ATI along with my XM running much higher clocked than your QM is going to produce different results. We have totally different setups so I was saying to the OP he can try my settings and see if that makes a difference.

B: The settings quoted seem to have worked more effectively for others who use ATI cards and I seem to hear less than positive results from Nvidia users this could be the way in which the cards are optimised for the game.

C: It would appear they fixed a lot of problems for ATI cards in the second patch because before that I was getting a dismal 19-27fps tops. My XM has certainy made a difference in the lower frame threshold though I drop below 30 far less than I did with my 720QM.

 

Thats a good reply, so thank you for your time again.
You mentioned disabling SSAO, but afaik in those settings SSAO is enabled?
Im just amazed that the hd5870m runs this beauty with such fps, it should be a marvelous thing to see.

 

Yeah I just grabbed them off an old Witcher 2 post so they might not be what I was using at current I lost all my settings when my HDD died and I still need to reinstall Witcher 2 on my SSD as I haven't done the human side yet

I know that for me SSAO and Bloom seemed have a dire effect when I was in the cities and the shadow settings made no difference between Ultra or below. AA was a debatable setting it maybe lost me 1 or 2 frames but when testing I notice a real difference between the quality in game AA seems to be more noticable in Witcher 2.

As mentioned upto the second patch it was awful I had to drop it to 900p and run it through my laptop screen and still only saw low 20's.

One thing I will mention is that I own the game but the exe of Witcher 2 is how should I say... it does not wear a policeman's uniform, as such the naughty exe seems to perform better than the official one. But that is not something I can mention on the forum. :wink:

 

I think he runs his at 1600x900 not 1080p.

 

i think not, i think he's running a fhd screen and res.

 

Oh I think so. All his previous posts about Witcher 2 he was running at 900p, so yes, I think so.

And also running his config at 1080p, no way I'm getting anywhere near 30-40 fps. Running OC at 815,1125. I'm averaging 25 FPS in Chapter 1 with the GoG version. I get around 30-40 with 900p, but definitely not 1080p.

If you don't believe me, look up his previous posts about running 30-40 FPS. They are with 900p resolution.

Here is the thread where Dallers likes to brag about his Witcher 2 performance where he gets 30-40 fps with 900p.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/572091-witcher-2-g73jh.html

 

My laptop is the BBX05 so has the 900p screen yes but in this instance I am talking about running it at 1080p now after patch 1.2 on my external screen with amended settings not the full bloom + SSAO I was using in my old screenshots at 900p

But believe what you like I have no reason to lie it proves nothing, I dont claim to run it at 40fps either notice the 30-40fps mostly but every scene is different.

I will pop back once I get all my games reinstalled and post some screenshots as I make my way through the human route.

Brag, how mature. Would you like a packet of Haribo to go with that comment? Or maybe a bedtime story?

 

Well guys i tried to run at 900p using this config, the one im using:

900p resolution
Preset ULTRA
Disabled SSAO,Motion Blur,AntiAliasing,UberSampling
Everything else is set to ultra (draw distance,memory budget,so on).

Standard clocks:




Overclocked to 814/1628/1625:





Im not sayin that i dont trust Dallers, let me make this point clear. But at 900p the performance at least on my G53SW is near to what he gets based on his tests, which is very good, althought its not 1080p...
At 1080p with same settings i average 28fps, with spikes in 35fps, being 25 the lowest.
IVe posted the screenshots already in the GTX460m overclocking thread (about the 1080p performance).

@Dallers if you happen to reinstall the game, and if you want/have time,can you take some screenshots with same settings im using, just for my personal reference?
Thank you in advance.

 

To be honest i wouldn't trust me so you would be right not to make this clear

Will upload some images shortly.

 

Thank you.
Also if you can share your config it will be great!

 

Well, I disabled depth of field and that helped. Without an overclock i'm getting average mid to high 30's, plateaus in the low 40's and bad spots give me a low of 28ish. Not bad for 1080p I say. I'll put up screenshots when I get time.

 

What I do is this now.

I use Witcher 2 Tweaker: Use the Uber Profile, I turn off Bloom/DOF/Blur/AA off since they all ANNOY me. I set the Ubsersample to 1 to enable AF. Anistropic Filtering is disabled by default and only enabled with Ubersampling. Ubersampling has two settings.
The Witcher 2 Tweaker at The Witcher Nexus - The Witcher 2 mods and community

Resolution 1600x900

Apply FXAA - Anti-Aliasing with only 2 FPS hit.
3DCenter Forum - Alles rund um FXAA

 

You may find this useful.. its what I used for my g53 and im getting 35-40 at 720p

http://www.geforce.com/#/Optimize/Guides/witcher-2-tweak-guide

 

Cool, thanks. I'm gonna use the 560's settings @ 1920x1080:

Optimal Playable Settings: Witcher 2 The Assassins of Kings: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 - GeForce

 

its kinda sad Asus put graphic card that was barely better than the last in the new series.

 

...if you're too conservative to OC and run stock. That's against an OC'd G73.

 

lol its just not a good upgrade from the last. they should have stuck a 6970 in there and i would have paid 2k for it. i just love asus and thats why i only buy their laptops.

 

Yeah me too. I'm guessing Asus wants the ROG series to be pretty frosty and quiet. But on the bright side, I hope Asus will make us happy on the G75. Some companies still roll with the 'tick tock' principle.

 

yea lol thats why im just happy with my g73 till then. my desktop is not in good shape so lappy it is till next year. only gonna play skyrim and swtor on it so it will hold up just fine till then.

 

my rig got from 20-35 FPS on FHD, mostly at 27-28FPS

 

I need to reinstall the game too, can't you post the user config? or did you not edited it (because If anyone still does not know, editing those changes into the config file is way better that did it in the game config, since the launcher can screw up many things...)

 

This is how I achieved my frames by adjusting the config file thoroughly but the settings I posted on the other page where old ones from the Witcher 2 thread I lost mine when my HDD died so going to have go back and test it to find what I had

Downloading the game again now though so will update once I do. The in game configuration utility as mentioned does not adjust the memory or the foliage amount and shadow resolutions and can run too hard causing a loss in frames.

 

I didnt edited the user.ini at all. Check my post with the images: I'm using ultra preset, ive disabled only SSAO,uber,vsync,motion blur,AA (since it works only with uber enabled).
Also using the config I've manually set all the "limit" options to disable, memory budget to large, draw distance to far.
With oc I'm able to stay at 28fps in flotsam and kadwen @1080p; at 900p I'm able to stay around 35-42+ with same settings.
The lowest is 25-26fps.

 

Thanks for the program, it made me stay stable around 29-30 fps even in flotsam and kadwen with alot of eyecandy.
Heres my configuration:

Code:

[Engine]
CustomRenderingSettings=1
PerformancePlatform=2

[Gameplay]
UsePad=1

[Input]
KeyboardLayout=QWERTY

[MouseInput]
SensitivityX=0.5
SensitivityY=0.5
Smoothness=1

[Rendering]
AllowAntialias=1
AllowBloom=1
AllowBlur=1
AllowCutsceneDOF=1
AllowDOF=1
AllowDecals=1.0
AllowMotionBlur=0
AllowRain=1
AllowSSAO=0
AllowScatterDOF=1
AllowShafts=1
AllowSharpen=1
AllowVignette=1
AtlasTextureDownscale=0
CharacterLodGameplayDownscale=0
DanglesLimiter=0
DetailTextureDownscale=0
FoliageDistanceScale=1.0
Fullscreen=1
MaxAtlasTextureSize=4096
MaxCubeShadowCount=3
MaxCubeShadowSize=2048
MaxSpotShadowCount=3
MaxSpotShadowSize=2048
MaxTextureSize=2048
MeshDistanceScale=1.0
ShadowQuality=2
ShadowedLights=1
TextureDownscale=0
TextureMemoryBudget=1200
TextureTimeBudget=10
Vsync=No
uberSampling=0

[Viewport]
Height=1080
Width=1920

As you can see, AA is enabled, and its 1080p.

 

The Witcher 2 is one of my favorite game. I like doing boss fights with Saskia the Dragon and Letho. To enjoy this experience fully, I need all the FPS I could get and at the same time maintaining good visuals. I always play at 1080p, high decals, very large texture memory and no texture downscaling. I only use Vignette and Blur for they are the only thing I need visual-wise. Bloom is something I will never use, it totally ruins the clarity of images and scenery for me. Anti-aliasing is something I will never need for it doesn't make any difference at all with my CMO 1726 1000:1 contrast screen, plus I'm already playing at 1080p.

I have so many screenshots, I thought I'll share with the OP.

Please view them at at 100% Browser Zoom, for they get stretched and loses detail once uploaded here. Remember 100% browser zoom ..

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4032/witcher2201108150819587.jpg
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/718/witcher2201108150814501.jpg
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/2701/witcher2201108150834580.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1159/witcher2201108150802002.jpg
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5959/witcher2201108150740035.jpg
http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/1599/witcher2201108150850156.jpg
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/3576/witcher2201108150959494.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5964/witcher2201108151017009.jpg
http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/7939/witcher2201108151009121.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6910/witcher2201108150829444.jpg

 

+1 my friend thank for you proving on my behalf that 30-40fps+ is possible at 1080p.

This shows that the 460M can produce it so no doubt my 5870M did and will and I will upload my screenshots of this shortly as well. I hope this confirms to any doubters that it is possible if you amend and sacrifice certain graphical properties. Can I ask if you amended the config file yourself or just used the in game configuration utility?

I agree with you as well the Witcher 2 through both my playthroughs was massively enjoyable and one of the few games that excels on par or higher than the first release. I loved The Witcher but the Witcher 2 although shorter really was a well made game.

 

I'm beggining to think that it's all in the screen image production. I'm not bragging but this CMO 1726 is one of the best screens I've ever seen to produce image quality that's out of this world. Totally crisp image, vivid colors and as the german group that tested it, it's the 1000:1 contrast that makes it surreally unbelievable.

Shadows doesn't make a difference, LOD distance no difference. The depth of field gameplay tries to make trees real, but the truth is it all makes them blurry and the leaves detail just diminishes. So these things I don't use.

Vignette and blur has the same effect the way I see in my screen. I try to convince myself that blur adds something aside from Vignette being on, ..but it really doesn't. I prefer Vignette On. Turning Blur On is just redundant and will take another FPS out if Vignette is already On.

Cinematic depth of field and depth of field gameplay has totally no effect on gameplay. It will take fps away though during cut scenes with no added visual effect.

Motion blur causes motion sickness, SSAO has some effect but costs FPS, so I don't use it.

 

Im happy to see that having stable 30fps with the tweaker posted and a few details scaled back is awesome.

Think about it as benchmark: ive disabled Motion Blur and SSAO only (instead of other things like my original config) while keeping 1080p, but ive raised some values and enabled others. And still it keeps that framerate.
Its amazing.
Im just curious to see how much i can push this little gtx460m before scaling back details.
And if i use the FXAA wrapper, it takes 2 fps, so its a smooth 28fps. But the quality is AMAZING.

Then im the first to scale down details and options in favor of smoothness, its all about it. But hell, the witcher 2 looks and plays sexy even at 30fps...dunno why i think so...maybe because the rpgs are made to be smooth and slow paced...