The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: GPU requirements and performance
An older game given a modern renderer. In rasterisation it is undemanding by current standards; switch on the ray-traced global illumination added in the next-generation update and it becomes a serious workload for mid-range cards.
What actually limits performance here
The part that generic system requirements never tell you.
- The rasterised DirectX 11 mode runs comfortably on almost any current card.
- The DirectX 12 mode with ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion is dramatically heavier.
- Ray-traced global illumination is the single most expensive setting; reflections cost much less.
- DLSS, FSR and XeSS are all supported in the next-generation update.
Published system requirements
The publisher's own figures. They describe a baseline, not the hardware needed for high settings at a high frame rate.
| Tier | Graphics card | Processor | Memory | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 / AMD Radeon R9 290 | Intel Core i5-2500K / AMD FX-8310 | 6 GB | 1080p, 30 FPS, Low preset |
| Recommended | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 | Intel Core i7-4790K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | 8 GB | 1080p, 60 FPS, High preset |
Technologies supported
Which vendor features this title implements, which decides how much your graphics card's feature set is worth here.
Ray tracing
SupportedCompareYourGPU classifies the ray tracing load as heavy.
DLSS
SupportedNVIDIA cards can render at a lower internal resolution and reconstruct the image.
FSR
SupportedAMD's upscaler is available, and works on other vendors' hardware in its earlier versions.
XeSS
SupportedIntel's upscaler is available, with dedicated hardware acceleration on Arc cards.
Frame generation
SupportedAvailable on hardware that supports it. It raises the displayed frame rate without improving responsiveness.
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Estimated
Which graphics card do you need for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?
The least expensive in-production cards whose estimated frame rate in this title is centred at or above 60 FPS, at High settings with no upscaling. The range shown for each card is the model's uncertainty band, so the lower bound can fall under 60.
Modelled from the estimated performance index and this title’s demand classification. Not a measured benchmark. How the model works.
1080p
Around 60 FPS, High settings, no upscaling
1440p
Around 60 FPS, High settings, no upscaling
4K
Around 60 FPS, High settings, no upscaling
- RX 9070
$549 MSRP · estimated 75-110 FPS
- RTX 5070
$549 MSRP · estimated 70-95 FPS
- RX 9070 XT
$599 MSRP · estimated 90-125 FPS
Measured
Verified benchmark data
Frame-rate figures transcribed from named third-party measurements.
No verified benchmark data for this game yet
CompareYourGPU only publishes frame-rate figures it can attribute to a named, linkable measurement. None have been transcribed for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt yet, so nothing is shown here rather than numbers that would look authoritative without being verifiable.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: common questions
What are the recommended system requirements for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?
Does The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt support ray tracing?
Does The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt support DLSS, FSR or XeSS?
How demanding is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt?
Sources
- Steam store pagePublisher-stated system requirements for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Last reviewed . Demand classifications are CompareYourGPU’s editorial judgement, not measurements.