By The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is finally here, and I’ve been putting it through its paces on the Steam Machine. The short version: 4K still isn’t really feasible, but drop the resolution a little and there’s a great experience to be had, with or without ray tracing.
4K isn’t the way to play
I started off at 4K with the ray tracing preset, and it looks fantastic as long as you stand completely still. Unfortunately, no matter which settings I tried at 4K, the Steam Machine just isn’t up to the task. Even dropping down to medium only just about gets you 30 frames per second. It hovers around 30 to 40 FPS while moving, but there’s quite a lot of input latency and it really doesn’t feel like the way this game should be played.
1440p with ray tracing
Dropping to 1440p while keeping the ray tracing preset gives a much more decent balance, holding over 40 FPS most of the time. That’s still a little low for this resolution, but the ray-traced visuals are exceptionally nice, especially on a big screen. If you’re sat back and used to 30 FPS, this is going to be a fantastic experience.
Frame generation
The game now has frame generation built in. The XeSS frame generation option won’t be available to you on the Steam Machine’s hardware, so if you use the built-in option, go with FSR. Mako frame generation is also available, and keeping the ray tracing preset with FSR on Quality it will push things up to 90 FPS quite happily.
There is a little extra input latency, but it’s minor and easy to live with, especially if you’re used to game streaming. The bigger trade-off for me was some extra blurriness from FSR Quality. It’s not very noticeable in cutscenes or if you’re sat back from the screen, but in motion, particularly when riding your horse, I did notice it with Mako frame generation enabled.
1080p ray tracing ultra
If you don’t have a massive screen, or you’re playing on a TV from a fair distance, 1080p is a great option. With FSR on Quality and the ray tracing ultra settings, I was getting over 60 FPS all of the time and up to 80 in less demanding areas. There are minor dips here and there, but you won’t notice them while you’re busy surviving and enjoying the visuals, and you get a great-looking game with buttery smooth performance.
My recommended settings
As much as I like frame generation, I prefer a good balance, and XeSS still wins for me because it gives a sharper image with less blur overall. My recommended setup is:
- Resolution: 1440p
- Graphics preset: High
- Upscaling: XeSS on Quality
- Frame generation: Off
That gives 50 to 60 FPS, hitting 60 sometimes. You can add either frame generation option if you want, but I preferred playing without it. The game felt much smoother overall, and I didn’t notice much of a visual difference between the ray tracing preset and the High preset.
Final thoughts
The Witcher 3 Remastered runs really well on the Steam Machine once you step down from 4K, and it’s clearly pulling people back in, with over 120,000 concurrent players beating its all-time record. With another DLC on the way soon, it’s a great time to jump back in, whether that’s on the Steam Machine, the Steam Deck or elsewhere.