The RT effect is beautiful - but performance is the best way to play.
Foliage is improved too, filling out the landscape with more plant life.
A bulk of pixel counts do hit that top 1440p number, however.
Secondly, there are very visible differences in foliage and shadow draw distance.
The star of the show is the ray tracing mode.
Of course, not every effect makes it to the PS5 and Series X.
The Complete Edition delivers on the visual front and the trades between RT and performance modes are fair.
On balance, I’d recommend the performance mode for both Series X and PS5 users.
Up front I will say that most areas are a locked 60fps; it’s really excellent.
It’s not clear why there’s bigger drops on Series X here.
The 30fps ray tracing mode is problematic, however.
Series X fares much better in overall frame-rate at 30fps.
In fact, a bulk of play locks to the target with no problems at all on.
Series X in RT mode runs better than PS5 for almost every case.
Outside the city though?
Series X has a much more level 30fps.
Even so, there are further issues.
The verdict on which version is best is hardly clear cut then.
Certainly the 60fps performance mode improves the stuttering frame-rates and higher latency.
There’s no perfect solution right now.
Again it’s a sign this update just needed more time in the oven.
Finally, loading times are dramatically improved from the last-gen versions.
This is a huge positive to end on.
Equally though, being free doesn’t spare it from criticism.
Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine much more being added to The Witcher 3 via a free update.
