My system stuff

-My Computer is an XPS 8700 model

-Windows 7 64bit

-Intel Core i7-4770 CPU @3.40GHz

-12 GB RAM

-NVIDIA GeForce GT 635

Story of my experience with the Witcher
I've had this game for a while but only got to play it recently when I played the game on Dad's Alienware PC. I maxed out the settings for the hell of it and I really liked how smooth it was in addition to looking clear, I'm used to gaming on consoles. So jump to yesterday, I finally get a new PC which my dad claims is better than his. Play "Prey" without issue.

So today I download and run Witcher. Aside from having to download directX starting it wasn't a bother but now I'm suffering from framedrops during cutscenes? I know about the whole "core affinity" business which I set to use one core but doesn't seem to do much but on Dad's computer I did no such thing.

TL;DR I can run the game but I get framedrops on max settings, any solutions or ideas?

If the frame drops are only during cutscenes, then this is a well-known issue. Try toggling your "Depth of Field" setting (if it's off, turn it on; if it's on, turn it off) and see if that fixes it. This setting ONLY affects cutscenes, not playable scenes. I usually don't like Depth of Field effects but since it's only in the cutscenes it's not so bad (in my case, I had to turn it on to get rid of the framerate drop).

By the way, this is only one of many fixes mentioned in the sticky thread. Be sure to check there if you have any other problems.

Don't set affinity to just a single core, the game actually uses the second core to some extent.

It chugs a bit during non-cinematics too. Experimented with the extra adventures you get. Started the wedding and when I went to OTS and looked at all the guests there was slowdown.
My biggest performance boost actually came from just lowering my resolution from whatever was the highest to 1440x900. Other stuff did things too. Disabled DOF and lowered filtering/AA, Frames still drop when I get that closeup of that Frightener near the beginning of the main story.
I SUPPOSE its not too big, especially considering I'm pretty early game and according to CJ its prominent in these early scenes, this was just a weird discrepancy with what I was told and what I was experiencing. I'm planning on getting a better video card. Might improve, might not, I guess its servicable. Thanks for the effort guys :)