The Witcher 3 Switch dynamic resolution will be prioritizing the game’s frame-rate over the resolution you’ll see on screen. While some had thought that it wasn’t likely for a game as powerful as The Witcher 3 to make it to Nintendo’s hybrid handheld console, but CD Projekt Red has managed to pull it off. Unfortunately for some, it seems like the Nintendo Switch version of the game has had to make some compromises to ensure a smooth frame rate.
A person on Twitter asked the official The Witcher twitter account what resolution the game was going to be running at. “540p handheld, 720p, with dynamic resolution enabled, on screen,” replied the game’s official account, highlighting the reality of The Witcher 3 Switch dynamic resolution.
“It’s one of the most daring Switch conversions to date, and so there’s clearly a need for a lot of smart adjustments,” Digital Foundry‘s Tom Morgan reported. “Resolution-wise it’s actually running much higher than I’d expected [—] and I can confirm CDPR’s claim here. It does use a dynamic system to adjust for rendering load on-screen, and testing the footage and screens available, it shows a native 1280×720 at maximum, while other shots count in at around 896×504 lowest.”
“The range may change in the final game – and we’ll be back with more testing,” he continued. “But from a quick look here, most shots are coming in at 720p.”
While The Witcher 3 is well-known for being an awfully pretty game on a high-end PC, compromises have to be made to get such a title to run on consoles. The Xbox One and PS4 are weaker than many gaming PCs out there today, and the Nintendo Switch is the least powerful console of the bunch — especially when it’s in portable mode.
As unfortunate as it may seem, The Witcher 3 Switch dynamic resolution is intended to ensure that the game runs smoothly. Antialising, texture streaming, and overall resolution may not be as good as one would hope, but a smoother game experience at a lower resolution is much better than dropping frames in the middle of combat.
