The Witcher 3 Remastered path tracing benchmarks show even an RTX 5090 can’t get beyond 62fps at 1080p

Performance and Visual Issues

The results are underwhelming for high-end hardware. The RTX 5090 delivers nearly identical performance to the RTX 5080, while the RTX 5070 Ti trails by only 1 FPS. It appears these GPUs are unable to push past the 60 FPS barrier in this mode. When tested at 4K with DLSS set to Performance, the RTX 5090 averages 59 FPS.

The benchmarks focused on a busy area in Novigrad, where frame rates can rise to approximately 80 FPS once outside the city. However, a bottleneck remains evident as the RTX 5080 performs at the same speed as the RTX 5090. Interestingly, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D showed only about 35% load during these tests, suggesting that the issue may lie with game optimization or drivers rather than CPU limitations.

Visually, the path tracing implementation has also been criticized. Tests indicate that the mode can look washed out and over-exposed compared to standard Ray Tracing on Ultra presets, which offers better shadow definition. The lighting also tends to lean towards warmer, reddish-orange tones.

Competitive Comparison and Best Settings

While Nvidia cards are capable of running the mode, AMD's performance lags behind. The Radeon RX 9070 XT averages 43 FPS at 1080p and drops to 23 FPS at 4K when using FSR upscaling.

For a smoother experience, the following settings are recommended:

• RT Ultra: Provides high-quality visuals without the massive performance hit of path tracing. For 1440p, the Radeon RX 9070 GRE is cited as the minimum requirement, averaging 58 FPS (1% low of 49 FPS).
• Medium: A highly efficient preset for most users. At 1440p, the Intel Arc B580 achieves 102 FPS, the RTX 5060 hits 85 FPS, and the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB delivers a solid 121 FPS.

Players can likely expect improved performance in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered as future driver updates and game optimizations are released.