heya, im having trouble with my witcher 3 game. the startup is smooth, but as soon as i load a game, i have crazy fps drops and (idk how to describe it) graphic tears? view attachment

The last time I saw that sort of graphics my card died.
If it is the same in other games or even plays up,change it.

as i am new to pc, i dont know what that means. i have an nvidia graphics card, would it tell me that its broken? how do i troubleshoot that, and if that is the problem, how do i fix it? do i have to buy a new graphics processor? i have darksouls 2 and the portal series, along with heavily modded skyrim, and all of them run smoothly, its just my witcher game that seems to be affected
{update} i did a graphics card test and it still ran smoothly. the burn in test was perfect. idk whats wrong. i just want to get back to witcher 3:/

Have you checked your GPU's temperature when playing? You can to that with GPU-Z which can be downloaded here. It has a logging mode, so you don't have to alt-tab all the time.

Would be nice if you could list your PC specs.

But before going out and getting a new GPU try to install the latest drivers for your GPU.
Also if you are using GoG galaxy client. under the MANAGE tab, try to VERIFY/REPAIR your instalation.
If you dont use Galaxy then reinstalling Witcher3 is the best option before going out and spending money,
and still find out that the problem persists.

Card must be okay if other games run,it could just be the game needs to be updated or reinstalled.I will say that when the card is dying it will start to as your pics showed as an early warning sign.As you say the card is okay,then it has to be something in the game and I would just reinstall and see if it still does it.You could also post your specs as others have suggested.

sorry, i should have posted specs, huh? here goes:


Screen Size 13 inches
Max Screen Resolution 1920x1080 pixels
Processor 1.7 GHz Core i5-4210U
RAM 8 GB DDR3
Hard Drive 1000 GB SATA
Graphics Coprocessor NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M with 2GB GDDR5
Graphics Card Ram Size 2048 MB
Wireless Type Bluetooth

Other Technical Details
Brand Name Alienware
Series Alienware 13
Item model number ANW13-2273SLV
Operating System Windows 8
Item Weight 4.5 pounds
Product Dimensions 1.1 x 12.9 x 9.2 inches
Item Dimensions L x W x H 1.1 x 12.91 x 9.25 inches
Processor Brand Intel
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 5400 RPM
Batteries 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)


that should be everything. out of better judgement, i added EVERYTHING so it should all be there

This could be a problem:Processor 1.7 GHz Core i5-4210U as W3 uses a lot of resources and even my PC at 3.6 GHz is howling like a pig.

LOL so i fixed the problem. i went into my system files for the nvidia and my norton stuff, and found that there was an app blocking my nvidia updates from installing, but also from telling me it needed updated. as soon as i uninstalled that app and downloaded/installed the update, my whole computer ran better and now the witcher 3 runs smoothly on ultra, let alone everything else:) thanks for your help guys.