Of witchers, games and graphic cards obscura

[Konjad]

Now that all DLCs will be out for The Witcher 3 and the game will be "finished" I am considering getting it.

Unfortunately, to get it I would first have to upgrade eGPU setup, which would cost me some significant amount of money (for a Polish student, at least). I really liked the first Twitcher, it was a great game even though the very beginning and then huge part of end game sucked because of too much combat, and the combat system was total crap. I loved storylines and quests, the atmosphere and dialogues, the art and the music. It really surprised me positively. Twitcher 2, however, while was enjoyed by me too, failed to be a memorable experience. It was alright, but hardly anything special. Just a decent cRPG.

I have a capable hardware of running them and had at themoment when they came out.

However, I am not able to run Twitcher 3. If I did I would get it long time ago, but since it requires me to put some more money into it, therefore I am uncertain if it's worthwhile. If it's just as good as Twitcher 2, then I do not want to waste money, if it's as good as Twitcher, then with regret, but I still don't want to waste my money. If it's much better, then I might want to. Is it?

Another thing is, what else actually requires a good GPU? Purchasing a new expensive GPU just for one game, no matter how amazing it is, still feels like a total waste of money, especially since it's a cRPG, which means you play and finish it. Maybe replay it at some point, but it's not a game to be played for months to justify spending so much cash on it. What are other worthwhile games that would not run on low-end? I don't even want to bother with XCOM 2 as I already got burned out after XCOM, Long War and crappy Xenonauts). Action games do not interest me and I no longer care about new Total Wars seeing as gameplay is never improved, they just put better graphics in new games. I can't find any other worthwhile games where a new GPU would be necessary and I just don't want to spend savings just for one single game.

 

[Neanderthal]

Witcher 3s fair good game but I think tha right, not worth gettin new card for, still be there in a bit, card an game'll be cheaper an all mods you want probably be out. Times thee ally.

 

[PlanHex]

Twitcher 2...cRPG

I like the twitchers and all, but they're not really cRPGs. They're aRPGs.


In any case, why don't you just "demo" it and see if you can run it regardless? If you could run the second one, you can probably run the third one.

 

[Konjad]

JarlFrank Jaesun Infinitron WhiskeyWolf

Thanks the faggot (one of the above) for moving my thread from General Gaming to CDProjekt subforum, so nobody will recommend me games to play on new GPU. Looks like sole mention of Twitcher triggers you so much that you can't stand it and need to isolate it to push your agenda. Fuck you too.

 

[Perkel]

I would buy GPU for TW3 if i had to. It is really good.

Anything else that will come after 2013 ?
I have 7970 and i already feel like soon i will need to change gpu.

IMO if you are student and over 18 just get fucking weekend job. 3-4 weeks and you will get some proper power for next 5-6 years. NEVER BUY NEW.

 

[JarlFrank]

JarlFrank Jaesun Infinitron WhiskeyWolf

Thanks the faggot (one of the above) for moving my thread from General Gaming to CDProjekt subforum, so nobody will recommend me games to play on new GPU. Looks like sole mention of Twitcher triggers you so much that you can't stand it and need to isolate it to push your agenda. Fuck you too.

I didn't do anything, bro. Stop assuming I move shit just because I'm a moderator/admin.

I'm the cool mod who never does anything.

 

[Lambach]

Do you know for certain you can't run it? As in, you've tried to and failed? I have an nVidia GT 740, 8 Gigs or RAM and an Intel i3-4130 at a respectable 3.4GHz. I'm below the minimum reqs and I've managed to run it at 1440x960, all settings lowest. Character models still manage to look quite good, but the textures take a huge hit. In closed areas without a lot of things happening, it can go up to 40+ FPS and in open ones with plenty of enemies it ranges between 25-30. There is a bit of fucking around with system options involved to maximize the FPS output, but there's plenty of instructions available online. Maybe your jury-rigged setup can run it too. I'd try pirating it first and checking that way, if you haven't done something like that already.

As for whether getting a better graphics card for that alone is worth it, that depends on the amount of money you intend to spend. Like I've said, I can run the game with a GT 740, and that one costs the equivalent of 100 Euros here. It's probably even cheaper in Kurwaland because of the retarded taxes we have to pay on imported electronics.

 

[Sjukob]

Dude , I've finished the game with GTX 560 ti and AMD athlon II x4 640 . The game was stuttering heavily on my 1920x1080 resolution , so I had to lower it , but I was able to crank a lot of other setings on high . It was running in about 40 FPS .

 

[taxalot]

With the graphics almost at the max, I was getting 20/30 fps in crowded areas on a AMD 6950 . However suboptimal this was, I'd like to point out that it felt fluid enough and the gameplay didn't take a hit, considering how forgiving the game is.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

JarlFrank Jaesun Infinitron WhiskeyWolf

Thanks the faggot (one of the above) for moving my thread from General Gaming to CDProjekt subforum, so nobody will recommend me games to play on new GPU. Looks like sole mention of Twitcher triggers you so much that you can't stand it and need to isolate it to push your agenda. Fuck you too.

I'm too lazy to do any of that.

 

[Konjad]

IMO if you are student and over 18 just get fucking weekend job. 3-4 weeks and you will get some proper power for next 5-6 years. NEVER BUY NEW.

I already have enough savings, however, the point is that spending this money just for one game is a waste, regardless if I already have it or not. Hence I want people to tell me what else is worth playing.

Lambach Sjukob taxalot
Thanks for the information guys. Though I do not want to play on minimum 800x600, Twitcher seems to have too great art direction and graphics to pass on this and play on such low details. If I was buying a new card I think it would be GTX 960 with 4 GB. Should run Twitcher on high. If I do not buy a new card, then I'll postpone playing the game even for years, but to finally enjoy it in great graphics later on. Sjukob yeah, I think the game should run on GTX 560Ti in a desktop, but with eGPU there's almost always some performance lost and from what I read Twitcher 3 loses even up to 20% performance (at least on GTX 970), which is a significant performance hit (probably due to the game being open world).

EDIT: Oh yeah, now I remember a test on GTX560Ti on a Polish site. I think the game on the lowest settings run 25-35 FPS

 

[Paul_cz]

Of course there are other gpu-intensive games worth playing. This year I am looking forward to Dishonored 2, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Kingdom Come Deliverance, next year will be Mass Effect which might hopefully not be trash.

As for TW3, I had GTX560Ti, but got GTX970 so I did not have to drop details to keep 60fps. It was worth it, it is better than either previous Witcher games, which I also enjoyed the shit out of.

Btw get some god damn monitor, playing on that tiny laptop LCD must be shit.

 

[Severian Silk]

I think I am below the minimum reqs too.

 

[Doktor Best]

I upgraded for it, and for me it was worth it. There is also Dark Souls 3 and also the new Doom, while polarizing the codex, seems to be well receptioned and certainly does some things right. Also like Paul_cz mentioned there are several other promising games releasing in new future.

 

[Cadmus]

I can play on GTX460 2Gb or smth with medium to high details. 8 GB RAM, 3.2 GHz processor or something and the game is perfectly playable. The lowest to medium settings don't affect my performance much so it looks good but I cant afford the max resolution.
It's a nice game but the atmosphere is worse than in TW1 imo. I wouldn't upgrade just for this out of sheer laziness. Maybe if you also want other current games.

 

[AetherVagrant]

You could always get the egpu setup now, put in a used cheap card at like $100 or less and be able to play it reasonably now, and upgrade the card in like a year when all the 1000s series has been out and prices drop as well as more game releases. Ditto Dark Souls 3

on an i3 and gtx750 i play on medium-high settings and 1080p for 35-45fps.
and later this year comes UnderworldAss, Dishonoured2, Technomancer, Deus Ex,

 

[Konjad]

Yeah, maybe I should get a slight upgrade over my previous setup, GTX 580 or GTX 660Ti. At least until mid 2017. I'm still considering all the options. To be honest I don't care whether I play on High or Low graphic details at all (all the same to me), but I would like to at least be able to run 30+ FPS in Twitcher 3, Desu Ex 4, Torment 2 and Divinity: OS 2. Although I'm not sure if I will play the new Deus Ex, because the gameplay of the third one was shit, even if I liked the characters and story. I don't really want more of that.

How long is Twitcher 3 with expansions?

Sucks that if I want to play all those RPGs I will have to install Winfuck again. Of course I will use it only for those games and use Linux for everything else, but still a sheer thought of using Windows again makes me shiver in disgust. Of course it will bea non-updated Windows 7, because that was the last useable Windows. Fuck "free upgrade" to Windows 10 too.

 

[Excidium II]

To be honest I don't care whether I play on High or Low graphic details at all (all the same to me)

You can definitely notice the texture, grass and draw distance low <> high on twitcher unless ur blind.

 

[Konjad]

To be honest I don't care whether I play on High or Low graphic details at all (all the same to me)

You can definitely notice the texture, grass and draw distance low <> high on twitcher unless ur blind.

I do not doubt I can notice it, but I clearly do not care about it.

 

[janior]

I'd say it takes 150h to complete base game + hos, really depends on how much you're willing to explore though.

 

[bonescraper]

How long is Twitcher 3 with expansions?

This long (without B&W, obv).

 

[Konjad]

How long is Twitcher 3 with expansions?

This long (without B&W, obv).

Wow, that's damn long. It's like 4 average RPGs. I don't think there ever was an RPG that took me even 100 hours to finish, the longest ones were around 70. In this case I guess I can justify an upgrade to myself even if Twitcher 3 will be the only GPU intensive game I will play on it.

 

[AetherVagrant]

I took about 60hrs for it, and that was concentrating on main quests and sides that had "story". Could have been far longer for a completionist, and Im just starting Hearts of Stone now to tide over till Blood and Wine.

 

[bonescraper]

How long is Twitcher 3 with expansions?

This long (without B&W, obv).

Wow, that's damn long. It's like 4 average RPGs. I don't think there ever was an RPG that took me even 100 hours to finish, the longest ones were around 70. In this case I guess I can justify an upgrade to myself even if Twitcher 3 will be the only GPU intensive game I will play on it.

Mind that i took my sweet time and it was pretty much a completionist run.

 

[Gord]

Fell for the current GOG sale...

With some tweaking it runs with medium-ish settings (a few things on high, slightly lowered resolution) on my toaster (Phenom 2 X4 965, HD7850 2GB) at ~50fps (occasional dips into the 30s, villages ~40).
I could put most stuff on high, use native resolution and still get 30-40 fps, but the frame times seem pretty bad in that case and the experience is much smoother with my current choices.
Haven't played much yet, however, so no idea how it will run once I hit a town.

 

[MicoSelva]

Witcher 3 framerate hint: Durante (of DSFix fame) recommends using an external framerate limiter to get the game working at a steady 30 FPS instead of letting the framerate fluctuate between 35 and 45 (for example) - that gives a much more smooth experience due to constant intervals between frames.

The game has its own framerate limiter, as well as VSync, but something like Riva Tuner Statistics Server gives better results.

http://www.pcgamer.com/durantes-witcher-3-analysis-the-alchemy-of-smoothness/

I have used this method and I can confirm thate the game plays better with constant FPS.

Obviously if your rig never drops below 40, you probably can set the limit at 40 (etc.), although I am not sure how that works together with 60Hz refresh rate.

 

[Perkel]

Wow, that's damn long. It's like 4 average RPGs. I don't think there ever was an RPG that took me even 100 hours to finish, the longest ones were around 70. In this case I guess I can justify an upgrade to myself even if Twitcher 3 will be the only GPU intensive game I will play on it.

I finished game in 110 hours and i skipped all sidequests on skellige and majority in novigrad area + few in velen. This is only base game:

They lied about 50h main story. Or should i say this is probably if you would go straight from point to point on easy without doing anything else.

 

[Perkel]

Obviously if your rig never drops below 40, you probably can set the limit at 40 (etc.), although I am not sure how that works together with 60Hz refresh rate.

You need to set it to 30 then. if you have only 60hz refresh rate then you will have skipped frames every second.

 

[Perkel]

After year of drivers improvements from AMD i can lock TW3 @ 1440p @ 30fps.

Will be doing playtrought @ 30fps and will be doing shitload of screenshots.

edit:

also will be doing it with this reshade:

 

[Paul_cz]

I dunno why but any reshade/lightning mode I have seen makes the game not better, but just different looking than vanilla. And so far I have always preferred vanilla.

Also, playing at 30fps ? fuck that.

 

[Konjad]

Witcher 3 framerate hint: Durante (of DSFix fame) recommends using an external framerate limiter to get the game working at a steady 30 FPS instead of letting the framerate fluctuate between 35 and 45 (for example) - that gives a much more smooth experience due to constant intervals between frames.

The game has its own framerate limiter, as well as VSync, but something like Riva Tuner Statistics Server gives better results.

http://www.pcgamer.com/durantes-witcher-3-analysis-the-alchemy-of-smoothness/

I have used this method and I can confirm thate the game plays better with constant FPS.

Obviously if your rig never drops below 40, you probably can set the limit at 40 (etc.), although I am not sure how that works together with 60Hz refresh rate.

Are you new to computers? I use frame rate limiters to have stable FPS since Voodoo2 3DFx