cornbredx: I have the same issue- it crashes within 5 or 10 minutes every time I try to play- except it crashes my whole computer. I cant even stop the process from task manager- I have to hard reboot.
I don't even want to continue to try playing it right now because I'm afraid it's going to break my computer.
This sucks. I'm really disappointed. I've played all the Witcher games and none have had this problem for me before.
With all the hype this game has right now this feels like every game website I go to is lieing because this isn't a 10/10 experience. That implies to me it works out of the box- which it 100% does not. Hell you get a 1/10 just for a game starting up and being playable. This doesn't even qualify for that right now.
Now I know why critics all got XBOXone versions of the game. Consoles may not be the "optimal" way to play this game, but at least it works!

Intel Core i7-2600k CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Win 7 X64
8 gigs of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

And no. No other anything on my computer crashes (I just finished playing Max Payne 3 on Ultra settings this morning with 0 issues for anything in that game).
This game is broken, and completely unplayable.
I'll go play something else, and maybe this game will work by next year when I have time again to play it.

I'm sorry if my post seems angry, but I am kind of angry. I feel I have a right to be. Mostly, though, I'm a sad panda =(

ohland: I've settled with 350.12 drivers and after 2 days of constant troubleshooting and testing I've finally been able to play some Witcher 3.

I reset my CPU and GPU overclocks, turned off EPU power saving and a ton of other things and followed this guide thingy:

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/36088-A-compendium-of-tweaks-and-fixes-for-the-PC-version?p=1658887#post1658887

V-Sync off, Fullscreen, Hardware Cursor, Prefer maximum performance in NVIDIA CP, force 60fps cutscenes and Max pre-rendered frames set to 1 and Witcher3.exe to High Priority and I haven't gotten a crash yet. (also Hair Works off) Wish it was easier but this is the only thing that's worked for me. I got crashes with the new drivers and even earlier 347's.

fragonard: If you're running the game through Steam or Galaxy, shut them down and run the exe directly. That's the only thing that worked for me.

Crix_01: turn vsync off, that worked for me.

ohland: I've settled with 350.12 drivers and after 2 days of constant troubleshooting and testing I've finally been able to play some Witcher 3.

I reset my CPU and GPU overclocks, turned off EPU power saving and a ton of other things and followed this guide thingy:

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/36088-A-compendium-of-tweaks-and-fixes-for-the-PC-version?p=1658887#post1658887

V-Sync off, Fullscreen, Hardware Cursor, Prefer maximum performance in NVIDIA CP, force 60fps cutscenes and Max pre-rendered frames set to 1 and Witcher3.exe to High Priority and I haven't gotten a crash yet. (also Hair Works off) Wish it was easier but this is the only thing that's worked for me. I got crashes with the new drivers and even earlier 347's.