GTX 1060 6gb + i5 6500 Witcher 3

[kokakolia]

Hi,

 

I recently built my first ever gaming computer and it's seems to be running fine. However, I am confused about in-game video settings with the Witcher 3. I just don't know what settings to run, and I just recently realized that the game was running on the lowest setting by default. I immediately pushed the settings to High and it remains buttery smooth.The game looks better overall but not by a huge leap. It's kinda like comparing Second Cup coffee to Tim Horton's. Better, but Tim Horton's is plenty good   I see that benchmarks run the Witcher 3 on Ultra settings with the GTX 1060. But the game felt slightly "choppy" at that setting. Is it normal that I can only run the Witcher 3 on High smoothly? BTW, I am using GOG as my game client. 

 

Here's my rig:

 

MSI B150M Bazooka 

2x4gb Patriot Viper DDR4 2666 MHz RAM (running at 2133 MHz, bought it because 2133 MHz RAM is more expensive for no reason)

Zotac GTX 1060 6gb Mini

WD Blue 1Tb

A-Data Sp600 120gb SSD

EVGA 500b

Intel Core i5 6500 (stock cooler)

 

 

 

[don_svetlio]

It's caused by GimpWorks - turn that off and you can run on Ultra

[Heavygun1450]

You can run ultra. Turn off Nvidia hairworks.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Jorgen297 said:

HairWorks looks decent when it's decent, but usually it's way to vibrant like the hair is going back and forth 20 times per second. In a cutscene with horse riding it was just abysmal, but I like the concept and it just needs refining. 

That's what TressFX 3.0 is for - I ran that on a 860M without losing performance in the new Tomb Raider. Looked good and didn't affect my performance at all.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, Jorgen297 said:

I hope that becomes the new standard then. Apparently HairWorks is biased towards Nvidia aswell, no reason why the developers should have used it for otherwise such a great game. 

Nah, it's biased towards the OEM with the most Tess power - cause by default it's at 64x

[kokakolia]

Hair Works was never turned on. But I can give it another try, I suppose.

 

EDIT: Hairworks was indeed turned on in the Ultra Preset. The game runs fine in Ultra without it. But it feels ever so slightly smoother in High. Thank you!

[dams3]

id get another 4gb stick to be sure. I think that it might be your problem.

[kokakolia]

5 hours ago, dams3 said:

id get another 4gb stick to be sure. I think that it might be your problem.

Well good thing I have 4 RAM slots. I should have spent an extra $30 at the time though. Silly me

[SteveGrabowski0]

6 hours ago, kokakolia said:

Hair Works was never turned on. But I can give it another try, I suppose.

 

EDIT: Hairworks was indeed turned on in the Ultra Preset. The game runs fine in Ultra without it. But it feels ever so slightly smoother in High. Thank you!

You can leave most settings on ultra with Hairworks off and still get a really smooth 60 fps. I can with my GTX 970, and your GTX 1060 should be about 10-15% faster. Just cut down foliage distance to high and make sure to turn HBAO+ to on, it makes an enormous difference for indoor lighting. If my 970 can run HBAO+ smoothly with a small overclock your 1060 should do it easily at stock. Maybe turn down shadow quality one tick to high also if needed.

[SteveGrabowski0]

14 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

Well good thing I have 4 RAM slots. I should have spent an extra $30 at the time though. Silly me

Witcher 3 ran great for me on 8GB at 1080p ultra, and that was on older less optimized versions of the game than what you have now. Witcher 3 really is a masterpiece both technically (try to get it to use more than 2GB VRAM at 1080p w/o Hairworks) and in gameplay.

[SteveGrabowski0]

Also if you don't have the game of the year edition, get the two expansions. They're both outstanding.

[kokakolia]

8 minutes ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

You can leave most settings on ultra with Hairworks off and still get a really smooth 60 fps. I can with my GTX 970, and your GTX 1060 should be about 10-15% faster. Just cut down foliage distance to high and make sure to turn HBAO+ to on, it makes an enormous difference for indoor lighting. If my 970 can run HBAO+ smoothly with a small overclock your 1060 should do it easily at stock. Maybe turn down shadow quality one tick to high also if needed.

Thanks! That's definitely the kind of response I was looking for. I doubt that things like Shadow quality and super high foliage distance would make a noticeable difference from High to Ultra. If it makes the game smoother, then I am all for it. I have to say that the game still looked fantastic on lower settings, despite farther mountains looking...gross. It makes me wonder why I bought a GTX 1060 LOL. I am sure that a used R9 380 would have been good enough...for less than half the price! 

[kokakolia]

4 minutes ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

Also if you don't have the game of the year edition, get the two expansions. They're both outstanding.

Yeah, I got the full "GOTY" package on G2A and I saved a lot of money that way. It's a great place to buy games. It's like a grey market of CD keys. I accidentally bought the game on the GOG platform instead of Steam though. I didn't want to do that but it works the same anyway.  

[SteveGrabowski0]

29 minutes ago, kokakolia said:

Thanks! That's definitely the kind of response I was looking for. I doubt that things like Shadow quality and super high foliage distance would make a noticeable difference from High to Ultra. If it makes the game smoother, then I am all for it. I have to say that the game still looked fantastic on lower settings, despite farther mountains looking...gross. It makes me wonder why I bought a GTX 1060 LOL. I am sure that a used R9 380 would have been good enough...for less than half the price! 

Nah man, you want as much gpu power as you can get for Witcher 3. There are areas of the game that would probably slaughter an R9 380. For instance, Crookback Bog. The GTX 1060 is a way better value than the R9 380 anyways.

[kokakolia]

44 minutes ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

Nah man, you want as much gpu power as you can get for Witcher 3. There are areas of the game that would probably slaughter an R9 380. For instance, Crookback Bog. The GTX 1060 is a way better value than the R9 380 anyways.

$150 CAD for a used XFX R9 380 4gb was a pretty sweet deal. It's probably gone now. I got my GTX 1060 for $340 CAD but it came with a pretty lousy cooler. It's quiet though. 

[xAcid9]

First thing I'll reduce to gain performance is Foliage Visibility. Barely noticeable between High and Ultra but the frame drop is pretty high. 

 

Hairworks looks great of the animals or monster but not on Geralt. I use mod that enable Hairworks except on Geralt. Look great and performance drop is pretty minimal.