A NVIDIA RTX 5070 paired with a Intel Core i5-12400F lands around 34 fps in The Witcher 3 (Next-Gen) at 1440p with Ultra textures, High shadows and DLSS Quality. Ray tracing is set to Medium. These values come from the same model the interactive optimizer uses, applied to this exact hardware pair rather than a generic preset.
Based on benchmark data and community reports for this hardware combination — treat as an estimate, not a guarantee. How we calculate this.
The next-gen update gave The Witcher 3 ray tracing and a DirectX 12 renderer that is noticeably harder on the CPU than the original build. On older processors the update can actually run worse than the version it replaced, especially in Novigrad.
Ray-traced global illumination is the headline feature and the largest cost by a wide margin. Everything else in the menu is comparatively cheap, so the practical decision is a binary one: RT on with upscaling, or RT off at high frame rates.
Covers the next-gen PC update with the DirectX 12 renderer. Novigrad is the CPU reference scene.
Same CPU, different GPU
Same GPU, different CPU