Patch 1.03 Improves The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt PS4/Xbox One Performance, But Could Have Been Better: Tech Analysis

Digital Foundry has provided an analysis focused on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's 1.03 patch, concentrating on how the game works after the update was released in comparison with day one performances. The results are good but they could have been better.

Let's start with Xbox One. Microsoft's console is the one that benefits most from the 30fps cap delivered by CD Projekt RED, according to Eurogamer's tech experts:

"On Xbox One especially, we see the addition of a proper 30fps cap giving us a far more consistent rate of motion in play. Where before it ran unlocked between 30-40fps, causing stutters as frame-rates lurched up and down the graph, patch 1.03 forces all motion to a single rate of refresh."

Anyway, in presence of many simultaneous effects, frame-rate is far away from being rock solid. Digital Foundry takes Novigrad City as an example of this:

"Though far from perfect, Xbox One's updated performance has most frames arriving at set 33ms intervals while avoiding any sudden spikes above. Single frame drops are an issue in busy areas like Novigrad City, where streaming textures, world geometry and NPCs still cause the console to stutter. However, it's much more refined compared to what we had before - if still let down by serious texture pop-in around this area while on horse-back (a likewise issue on PS4)."

Being an already good starting point, PlayStation 4 version could have improved much more than it actually does, according to DF. Stuttering is still an issue:

"PS4 performance is improved too, if not to quite the extent we had hoped. Compared to patch 1.01, the latest update lowers the frequency of stutter as we wind through Novigrad's marketplace, with hiccups cut down by a noticeable margin - though they're still an issue (you can see this visualised by the frame-time graph in the video - there are fewer latency spikes above 50ms)."

Finally, a comparison between both console versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with 1.03 patch applied:

"In terms of direct platform-to-platform comparisons on patch 1.03, PS4 and Xbox One are both capped to 30fps now, but Microsoft's console does hold a steadier line on balance. In almost every segment of gameplay tested, the performance overhead on Xbox One prior to the patch now translates to a confident 30fps cap - and with far fewer stutters below.

On balance, it's an improvement on both sides but Xbox One owners have a bigger reason to celebrate this update. Though it struggles to match the clarity of PS4's native 1920x1080 output, the 30fps cap is better adjusted for Microsoft's platform in practice, with fewer stutters during play giving it a tangible performance advantage. Neither PS4 or Xbox One releases are perfect, and pop-in is still a major issue in built-up areas - plus a jitter (also seen on PC) when changing the speed of camera motion."