The Witcher 3 Switch 1 & Switch 2 Remastered Graphics Comparison
To say Nintendo gamers have been clamouring for The Witcher 3 to receive a Switch 2 upgrade would be an understatement, and despite rumours swirling around since before the Switch 2’s launch, we hadn’t heard much beyond a few whispers around the Gwent tables. That was until a month ago, when The Witcher 3 Remastered was announced, and CD Projekt Red even decided there was no need to toss a coin to your Witcher, with the upgrade being free for both digital and physical owners of the game. The difference this upgrade makes is nothing short of phenomenal, so I thought I would put together a graphics comparison to take a closer look at how The Witcher 3 on Switch 2 shapes up against the original Nintendo Switch version, from lighting and environmental detail to level of detail, performance and everything in between.
Before we jump into the comparisons, it is worth pointing out that The Witcher 3 Remastered brings a whole host of changes and improvements beyond what we are looking at here. This isn’t intended to be a deep dive into every single upgrade or a definitive technical analysis; instead, this is just a fun look at how the original Switch version compares visually with the new Switch 2 Remastered version. We will be covering the game in much more detail in our full review, which should be live in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that if you want to know what the full experience is like.
Starting at the Novigrad docks, the differences are immediately noticeable, with the frame rate being one of the first things that stands out as we make our way along the waterfront. The improved lighting and resolution are also hard to miss, but perhaps the biggest change is just how much more detail there is across the entire scene. There is more texture detail, more environmental detail and generally more going on around us, creating a much more believable world. There is a significant increase in detail across the board, thanks to a myriad of improvements that all come together to make this version look considerably more impressive.
Walking through the city in the late afternoon shows just how much impact the lighting has. The Switch 2 doesn’t have ray-traced lighting, but they have still done an incredible job here, with the warmer lighting making the city feel much more believable and atmospheric. Again, ground clutter detail is much more volumetric and looks stunning on the remaster.
Changing to nighttime shows the lighting in effect once more as we cross the bridge at Oxenfurt. The increased level of detail and reduced view distance pop-in here really shows off the extra power of the Switch 2 hardware. You can also see increased detail in the soldiers around us, while on Switch 1, some of the soldiers at a distance have their animations culled, something that isn’t present on Switch 2. There is still some pop-in, but the view distance has been increased, while the improved lighting from the fires adds to the overall mood and atmosphere of the game.
Riding on horseback, the animation is much smoother thanks to the improved frame rate, although we will get into the frame rates a little later with counters for all the lovers of frames out there. What really stands out here, though, is the sheer amount of ground clutter and environmental assets that the Remaster is able to render, many of which the Switch 1 simply couldn’t handle. There is also a more volumetric appearance to the vegetation and ground clutter, which gives the world a greater sense of depth and density. Out in the wild, this creates a huge difference in how the game looks and feels, with the world feeling much more alive as you ride through it.
This footage shows a bit of a tiff at the Pit, as Geralt takes on a group of deserters. The Switch 1 version already had some great-looking spell effects, so I will let this footage play out and cast Igni a bunch of times, particularly because people seem to be divided on the changes to the visual effects in the Remaster. You might also notice that combat itself has changed, particularly when it comes to targeting and the overall fluidity of Geralt’s movements. It feels great in the Remaster, with the improved performance and changes to combat making everything feel that little bit smoother and more responsive.
There are a lot of visual improvements to keep an eye out for as we make our way from the Inn at the Crossroads to the Bloody Baron’s castle. The lighting, view distance and environmental detail are immediately noticeable around the castle, but one of the biggest differences is the ground clutter. The Remaster replaces much of the flat, 2D-looking grass from the Switch 1 version with much more volumetric vegetation and environmental detail, giving the ground a much greater sense of depth. As we move towards the swamp, you can also see the improved shadows and volumetric fog before reaching the wooded area where the lighting and shadow detail really starts to have a tremendous impact on the environment. The difference here really is incredible, and it is a great example of how all these individual improvements come together to make the world feel so much more detailed and atmospheric.
Finally, let’s return to Novigrad and take a look at our frame rates. While the Switch 1 version generally held its 30 FPS target, Novigrad could still cause it to chug, particularly as the game loads in all of its assets, so we’re going to stroll from the gate, across the bridge and towards Electors Square to see how the two versions compare. As we make our way through the city, we can see the Switch 1 version dropping below 30 FPS as it loads in assets, while the Switch 2 version sits much closer to the 40 FPS mark. You might notice that the frametime graph actually looks worse on Switch 2 at first glance, but this is because lower frametime numbers represent a higher frame rate. At 30 FPS, a frame takes around 33.3ms, while at 40 FPS it takes just 25ms, so the Switch 2 is producing frames more frequently, and the result feels noticeably smoother. The Switch 2 doesn’t stick to 40 FPS for the entire journey, however, and we do see it dip to around 32 FPS when it is rendering the lighting and a lot of detail in one of the more open street areas. Despite these dips, there doesn’t appear to be any obvious hitching in the footage, and for most of the journey the game stays close to that 40 FPS mark, giving the Remaster a much smoother look and feel than the original Switch version.
There we have it, a quick visual comparison between the two versions of The Witcher 3. As mentioned earlier, there is a lot more going on under the hood with the Remaster, which we will be covering in much more detail in our full review, so keep an eye out for that.
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