I have a problem with the cutscenes of the Witcher 3.
The Frames drop to constant 28 and it's is laggy as hell.
I tried several fixes like the one from reddit-threads.

user.setting file (movie limit = 60.0, ubersampling= false )
visual ini file -> change the movie FPS to 60

I play in fullscreen with 60 fps most of the time except, if geralt hair is very near to the camera.
But the opening scene, if you start a new game, runs only with 28 fps. I mean this is just a video.

Vsync is off, frame limit is unlimited. I just use the nvidia adaptive sync, but even without adaptive sync there is no
difference.

Has anybody the same issue and can confirm this or has somebody otheer solutions for the problem?

my rig:
i7 4770K@ 4.5 Ghz
Nvidia GeForce 980 GTX
16 GB DDR3 RAM

Many games do that for cutscenes, lock them at around 30 fps, I've read elsewhere that CDPR do the same, so it's hardcoded :(

Yeah it but if you play with 60 hz monitor and you watch a video with 28 fps, than there is always a stuttering.
If the video runs with 30fps than this is no problem, but it always run with 28fps. I mean the fps don't match the
Monitor refreshrate. This must be a a failure.

I just saw this looking to fiddle with the durability of items so haven't tried anything yet.

If you go to your game directory \bin\config\base there is a visuals.ini file with the following:

[Visuals]
Gamma=1
MovieFramerate=30.0
MovieUbersampling=true


I haven't played around with it myself but I would change the frame rate to 60 and disable ubersampling. That should hopefully make it better.

Let me know how it goes for you.

I've done this yesterday several times but with no luck. I chngned the user.config and the visuals.ini.

Oh well, that is a shame, hoped that would work. I'm also not a fan of 30 FPS cutscenes.

I also have problems with cutscenes, but they run at 18-20 FPS (almost constantly 18). Changing video quality/post processing settings changes nothing. The game outside custscenes runs fine with maximum settings at 48-60 FPS, but the cutscenes like the game opening cinematics (including the NVidia logo, etc.) and the cuscene when starting a new game have a framerate so low it makes my head hurt...

My main PC:
Intel Core i7 3930K @ 4.5GHz
32GB DDR3-1600 Quad Channel RAM (4x8GB Corsair Vengeance CMZ32GX3M4A1600C9 Quad Channel Kit)
2x EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 FTW+ 4GB w/Backplate PCI-Express 3.0 Video Card SLi (GeForce 352.86 WHQL Drivers)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi CA20k2 16MB X-RAM onboard
Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Speakers
1x 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 SATAII Solid State Disk
1x 512GB Samsung SSD 840 Pro 512GB SATAIII Solid State Disk (The Witcher 3 is installed on it)
1x 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT 7200.12 SATAIII HDD
1x 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black SATAIII HDD
LG BH10LS SATA BlueRay Writer
Logitech G19s Gaming Keyboard
Logitech G700s Rechargeable Wireless Laser Gaming Mouse
Playstation 4 DualShock 4 Controller via Bluetooth and DS4Windows 1.4.25 (used at times during the game, but I usually play with keyboard and mouse)
Microsoft Windows 7 64 bit (Service Pack 1, Windows Performance Index: 7.9)

Oddly enough, when I play on my other PC, the cutscenes run at 47-60 FPS even with Ultra settings, but the gameplay framerate hovers around 30FPS, which is expected, but I don't get why the cutscenes run so much better on the older PC than they do on the better one.

My other PC specifications:
Intel Core i7 920 @ 4.00 GHz
24GB DDR3-1600 Triple-Channel RAM (6x4GB Corsair Triple Channel Kit)
2x Gainward GeForce® GTX 580 3072MB Phantom³ SLi (GeForce 352.86 WHQL Drivers)
LG 32LB561V Full-HD LED TV @ 1920x1080 @ 60Hz
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi CA20k2 16MB X-RAM onboard
1x 1TB Western Digital 7200RPM SATA II HDD
1x 1TB Seagate Barracuda, 7200.11 SATA II HDD (The Witcher 3 is installed on this one)
Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard
Logitech Gaming Mouse G700
Microsoft Windows 7 64 bit (Service Pack 1, Windows Performance Index: 5.9)

Is there any way to improve the cutscene framerate on my better PC? I tried setting MovieFramerate=60 (it was 30 at default) and set MovieUbersampling=false but it didn't change anything. Also as stated earlier, changing the in-game image quality settings does nothing to change the cutscene framerate, although it improves the game framerate (expectedly).

Does anybody know what I could try to improve my custcenes to at least 30 FPS or, even better 60?

Having the same issue on mine too. I also have core I7 4790 with GTX980 and 16GB of RAM. The game runs fine otherwise but the cut scenes stutter and it is annoying. The FPS during cut scenes on my rig are also 28FPS.

I hope they fix this in the next patch.

I have this issue as well. None of the suggested fixes work. My machine is an I7 3930k @ 4.3, MSI gtx 980, 16 gb RAM.

GPU utilization drops to 1-2% during those pre-rendered cutscenes, fps drops to 22-23 at best.

1.03 didn't fix my problem. The video cutscene framerates are still around 18-20, although the rest of the game took a slight performance hit compared to 1.02.

I'm only using a GTX670 and having no problems with cut scenes. I've noticed however, that cut scenes do stutter if there is high CPU usage, isa CPU usage. Noticed it when my virus scanner started it's scheduled scan. So perhaps, looking at CPU usage or disk read/write you might find a solution.

Overall CPU usage is actually really low (and GPU usage is as well). Although I did notice that during cutscene videos the usage of a single core goes up to almost 100% while in the game it's spread evenly over many cores. There are no clockspeed fluctuatins, the CPU runs at the maximum turbo clockspeed during the game as well as videos. When the game is closed, CPU usage is at 0%-1%, thus there isn't anything else really taxing my six core Hyperthreading CPU.
I think it might have to do something with the video codec the game uses. Which codec does the game use and where do I find the correct version that runs best with the videos used in the game?

Update: The Witcher 3 Patch 1.05 fixed this somewhat for me. Intro videos now run at 60+ FPS and Dandelion's loading screen cutscenes run at around 30-40 FPS.