The Witcher 3 Remastered Is Still A Blast on the Steam Deck

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CD Projekt Red (CDPR) has been on a roll with the games they’ve been working on, bringing out hit after hit and following it up with incredible support. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was really when they started to get noticed, as it turned out to be one of the best RPGs ever made, and it still holds up today. So, color me surprised when they announced that, over 11 years after launch, it was getting a huge “Remaster” update that completely overhauls the game. And to make it even more appealing, the update would be completely free.

This update is huge, going far beyond what we have seen from other remasters. It seems to touch on everything, from heavily updated visuals to new finishers to reworked mount handling. It’s hard to quantify exactly everything that has changed, but it seems to be going in and modernizing the game, fixing long-standing issues, and making it appealing to dive back in and revisit the Witcher world again.

Thanks to CDPR, I was given the chance to try this new update out early to not only check out all of the changes, but to see how Steam Deck performance has changed. With the updated visuals, I expected it would be harder to run, so I wanted to see just how much harder it gets. Now, I’ve had the chance to check it out and go back and forth, and I’m pleased that my worry was a little unwarranted.

The new update is incredible, from the skill tree changes to the new effects and Transmog system. However, in this article, I want to focus more on how this update will affect us on the Steam Deck and just how playable the game still is.

First off, I have to acknowledge that I didn’t realize just how badly Witcher 3 needed a tune-up. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great-looking game, but the compromises on the Steam Deck (on the Steam Deck graphical preset) were extremely visible. Some textures looked ugly; the lack of an upscaler or anti-aliasing by default makes the game look too sharp in the distance, and the shadows looked a little too intense. The remaster update fixes all of that and defaults to FSR being turned on. It’s truly amazing just how much better the game looks from this update with the Steam Deck preset.

Looking at the settings, it appears that the Remastered version has more turned on, with Screen Space Ambient Occlusion on GTAO and High, along with Screen Space Shadows on. Everything else is about the same, with most other settings on Low and Ray-tracing off. The game still looks massively different, thanks to the new lighting rework and shading model, and I’d consider it a worthwhile improvement.

With the new visuals, it will affect performance, and it does get a bit worse. Areas where I was hitting 50-60 FPS were now sitting at around 42-44 FPS. This is consistent throughout the entire game, and from my playthrough, I was averaging around 44 FPS versus the high 50s I was hitting before.

Based on the experience I had, I would definitely still consider it playable. It sticks above 40 FPS consistently, with only 1 drop that I saw go to 39 FPS, so I would say a 40 FPS lock with the stock Steam Deck preset should be solid and enjoyable. Playing around with the settings, we can push some of the settings up to High if we have a 30 FPS lock, but there may still be some drops in later fights or areas that I didn’t test. The Steam Deck preset has enough extra performance that could account for other areas. It’s also important to mention that I did experience a crash or two when trying to change settings to High, but a reboot brought the game back with those settings turned on.

I did notice that loading times between the two versions were about the same, but the text size of some of the UI has gotten bigger. It was much easier to read the current quest details and current time. It’s a small but appreciated change that will make it easier to play this way. I did notice that loading into a recent save game after dying took way longer than it should, but first-time loading wasn't too bad.

Ultimately, we are going to see slightly worse performance in Witcher 3 after the Remastered update, but it isn't enough to harm the experience. It's still the same Witcher 3, but with improved visuals and systems that make it even better to enjoy than before. I love it, and can't believe how much CDPR did with a free update. However, I am not complaining, and can happily say this is a worthwhile reason to get back into the world of the Witcher.

The Witcher 3 is currently on sale for $24.99 on Steam.

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