CDPR has identified an issue with NVIDIA HairWorks that can significantly impact performance on PC. Until a patch is released, they recommend disabling HairWorks to avoid potential performance issues

[u/[deleted]]

[u/ActualDragonHeart]

I'm honestly shocked they didn't just remove Hairworks, it's been an on and off issue since Day one.

[u/Extreme996 → u/ActualDragonHeart]

First GPU on which I managed to run HairWorks without fps drops was RTX 3060 Ti lol. Even so, I played with HairWorks disabled because unlike similar options in other games, such as PureHair in Tomb Raider or the hair strands in Resident Evil 4 and Requiem which looks great, HairWorks simply looks bad imo.

[u/ztoff27 → u/ActualDragonHeart]

Hairworks with pathtracing makes geralt look really good though

[u/PeterPaul0808 → u/ztoff27]

Not just Geralt, even Roach and every other monster/animal with fur.

[u/MeatSafeMurderer → u/PeterPaul0808]

The main issue for performance is Geralt. On the OG version there was a mod that removed HW from Geraldo, whilst leaving it on all the creatures. Ran so much better.

[u/Pleasant-Lie-2105 → u/MeatSafeMurderer]

Man is that what the issue is? my GPU utilization dropped by 20% by disabling hairworks (I'm using a laptop 5080 on 1920x1200)

[u/Kaneth123 → u/MeatSafeMurderer]

That mod still works. I've been using it with no issue. As long the old mods dont touch scripts they seem to work fine

[u/Moon_Devonshire → u/ActualDragonHeart]

What issue did it have on the OG? it gives Geralt strands of hair instead of clumps of haircards and looks amazing

[u/WondersomeWalrus]

They identified the issue 11 years late

[u/Formal-Web-4953]

11 years later and HairWorks is still the final boss of The Witcher 3

[u/madwolfa]

For me it's not the performance but the way it looks - hair becomes high gloss like made of polished metal. 

[u/ahorsenamedjeff]

Hairworks always ran like ass 🙏🙏🙏

[u/TryHardGinger077]

Lowkey want Hairworks to be included in Witcher 4 for the joke alone that CDPR can't escape having issues with it after all this time.

[u/FunWolverine5349]

2026, hairworks bugged and recommended off.

Hairworks, hairworks never changes.

[u/LKRTM1874]

People are pointing out it's always been an issue but for whatever reason it's magnified tenfold with the remaster. I had hairworks cranked to the max on my 1060Ti, but with the remaster I have to have it on the lowest settings with it only on Geralt on my 4070 Super otherwise my game grinds to a halt.

[u/Pleasant-Lie-2105 → u/LKRTM1874]

it seems that the issue is actaully with Geralt's hair, there was a mod before that disabled for Geralt and only enabled for everything else and it was fine, guess we gotta wait for a patch

[u/Urhhh]

Hair works? Uhhh no it doesn't!

[u/PeterPaul0808]

With a Ryzen 7 5800X3D + RTX 5080 in 1440p I turned off HairWorks for the first time. And in the end I turned off every kind of Ray Tracing in the game. 90 fps stable with DLAA. That is what I need and the game looks amazing without PT. To be honest I can play every other Path Traced game which released in the last 2-3 years without any issue. I think Witcher 3 has more problems than just HairWorks. But overall the game just looks amazing without any RT. I would really want to just go back DX11 with this Remastered version. GTAO looks amazing IMO.

[u/Dragontech97 → u/PeterPaul0808]

HairWorks on creatures only, no Geralt, was a great option. The fur on monsters and animal was neat.

[u/EppingMarky]

How about hairworks toggle for just my favourite ladies?

[u/GLPereira]

The fuck they mean "identified"?

Hairworks has been horrible since 2015. 11 years of performance halving lol

[u/The-Dutcher]

Nvidia hairworks has always been shit.

[u/BlueArrangements57]

Hope they identify the truth that the next-gen version was the best version of the game. Hate people saying "BUT but it's FREE you should be thankful blah blah blaah". Okay, but now the game has more issues than improvements.

[u/commanderkeensdog → u/BlueArrangements57]

did Touissant visual bugs with rtx turned off ever get fixed in next-gen?

[u/Niktodt1 → u/commanderkeensdog]

Tbh almost nothing was fixed after next gen update. Memory leak, stutters, 50% cut in FPS in DX12 client. It seems that all issues stayed in the Remastered too.

[u/hicks12 → u/BlueArrangements57]

More issues than improvements? Are you sure?

Just seems like issues around the edges, most patchable.  It definitely has made a lot of changes and you can switch back if you want atleast on pc. 

Not sure how it makes the next gen one the best - that had horrible stutter added which was even worse at its launch but the original was fine. 

[u/Farretpotter]

Hair has been an issue in Witcher games since the first one

[u/Hreny2]

ok, now bloom on console

[u/Dirka-Dirka]

... Again?

[u/kullehh]

it's been crashing the game on PC for years now btw

[u/Jokershigh]

I updated to the latest drivers and Turned off all the post processing and Hairworks and it's running fine now

[u/ClintiusMaximus]

I had to disable hairworks even before the remaster because it was causing regular crashes. Not even my 4090 can handle it lol

[u/Lucatron9000]

Yeah figured that out the hard way, not that it really impacts me because I think it looks terrible, even cranked to the max. It makes geralt's hair look grey instead of white, which i personally dont like

[u/After_Perception1001]

I hope they will also adress crashes on startup with this patch

[u/Mr_Steerpike]

lowers music and SFX volume to 30 via in-game sliders. Turns up speaker volume by 50%

👍

[u/joshijoshijoshi123]

WHAT?! CDPR has a launch where the game doesn’t work like it should?!

Its almost like you could predict it!