Here's what I'm running:

Windows 7 64bit
Core i5 running at 3ghz
4GB RAM
Geforce 560 TI Twin Frozr 1GB
120 Sandforce2 SSD
Running 270.61 Nviidia drivers (latest version available)

So... not top top of the line, but pretty respectable. I booted up in Nvidia 3D vision with Ultra settings just because I can run Crysis 2 and whatever else at near max settings. Ok, slideshow, maybe I was too ambitious.

Go in, start disabling things that might be performance hogs, still slideshow.

I continue to disable things until I've set the graphics to absolute minimum, everything at minimum, Low overall settings. Looks like junk. The initial part with Geralt running in the rain always runs fine. But once it's in the jail, it runs at maybe 10fps, even running on low where it looks like the textures were made in MS Paint.

Pretty unplayable at this point.

What gives?

i have the exact same issue. GTX 460, e8400 @ 3 Ghz. Auto-detect puts everything at minimum and i still get a slideshow.

I have a 580 twin frozr OC and I'm able to run all max (minus ubersampling) no problem, so make sure you have ubersampling turned off. Also try updating your drivers.

same here mate its so bad :( im getting 23fps on the lowest settings when theres people on screen.

i7 2600k 3.4ghz
8gb ram
ati 4890

I don't use and have never installed Nvidia's 3d drivers, but there is a lot of chatter on the official site that people have performance issues unless those are uninstalled. Might be worth giving it a shot.

Thanks for the reply, and you do have a slightly better card than I do, but I'm beyond having ubersampling turned off. I literally have 100% disabled, absolute minimum settings, looks like my laptop should run it, and it's butter smooth in the intro in the rain, but then 10-15fps in the jail.

Also, edited my original post to include my driver version which is the latest. Must be some random setting or something about that jail scene. I noticed in Dragon Age 2 when there were certain lightsources it would drop to 10% fps, so maybe it's related to that, there does seem to be a lot of reflection in the jail.

i've got the latest 270.61 nvidia drivers... can't think of anything except the game's not seeing my hardware correctly.

Runs fine for me win 7 64 i5 3ghz 8gig ram ATI 5850x2 maxed settings with the uber turned off 40+FPS.

Ive been fiddling with the options for the last hour or so and I have found that if you decrease the resolution there is a GINORMOUS difference - I am just trying to find an appropriate resolution to play it on but I suggest you give it a try.

sager np8662
q9200 3Ghz
nvidia 260GTXm 1GB
4GB

Running it at my native resolution 1680x1050

Same issues here... I know my laptop today isn't as powerful as it used to be.

But still....

Setup auto detects the game at "medium" settings.

The game always stays in the range of 20-28fps, it never goes above 29fps no matter what.

I'm running the game on low now, with everything disabled/low and the fps is horrible. Running a game in a non native resolution means 2 things for me:

A scaling, looks worse

B CPU have to allocate more power to scale

Still if you can gain more fps, good for you sir!

Why would it do that? It's up to the monitor to do the scaling, not the CPU.

And running high in a lower resolution arguably looks better than running low in a higher resolution. Well, as long it's not a very low resolution like 640x480 or something.

I'm having the same issues on my 560Ti. Crysis2 runs perfectly on maximum settings at 1680x1050, but I can't even run this past the jail scene on 1280x800 with everything on minimum. It's a slideshow.

What a disappointment after such a long wait...

I have the same problem with a decent rig and nvidia 460. It really shouldnt perform this badly. Unplayable as al lthe immersion is gone if I even try to play with that slideshow.

You can't really compare your performance to Crysis2 because Crysis2's graphics is generally worse that Crysis1's graphics.

If you can MAX Crysis1 and Metro2033 (Both not made to run on console) then you can max Witcher2 (uber-sampling might be disabled).