The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered arrived as a free upgrade on September 29, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Within hours of release, owners of AMD Radeon graphics cards began posting screenshots that showed solid‑black grass, glowing hair artifacts and large sections of terrain devoid of vegetation. By contrast, players using Nvidia GeForce GPUs reported a largely functional game out of the box.
Scope of the AMD visual failures
Multiple technology outlets documented a wide array of visual defects on AMD hardware. The Croatian site virus.hr listed missing trees, black texture artifacts spreading across terrain and character models, flickering and corrupted textures, incorrect level‑of‑detail rendering and environments that failed to load fully. IGN echoed the same pattern, noting that the missing‑vegetation and black‑artifact symptoms were reproducible across review units, suggesting a systemic issue rather than isolated configuration quirks.
Community reports added further detail. A discussion on GOG described the remaster as “completely broken” on Radeon RX 9000‑series cards before a driver update arrived. Tech creator NikTek posted video from an RX 9070 XT, pointing out water glitches, off‑color hair and skin textures, and black grass. Some users also highlighted a distinct glowing‑hair problem that, in a few cases, disappeared when an older AMD driver (version 26.3.1) was used, though the newer recommended driver (26.9.2) introduced the black‑texture issue.
Which cards are impacted
The remaster ships with AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) support, including Frame Generation and Anti‑Lag 2, for Radeon RX 7000‑series cards and newer. For older GPUs the game falls back to FSR 2. Because the newest and most expensive Radeon hardware—such as the RX 9000 series—targets native or near‑native resolution, the driver mismatch affected the segment most likely to run the game at its highest visual settings.
While reporting does not provide a complete card‑by‑card failure list, every source consistently identifies AMD Radeon GPUs as the class generating bug reports. Nvidia GeForce cards, by comparison, displayed only occasional path‑tracing glitches that were described as limited rather than systemic.
Driver timing mismatch identified as root cause
CD PROJEKT RED’s own pre‑launch guidance highlighted a driver gap. The studio’s support account advised players to update to driver versions NVIDIA 617.14, AMD 26.9.2 and Intel 32.0.101.8993, noting that the AMD driver “not released yet, coming later.” At launch, the latest publicly available AMD driver was Adrenalin 26.8.1, released on August 20, creating roughly a six‑week gap between the driver and the game’s release.
After launch, CD PROJEKT RED posted an update urging AMD users to install the newly released driver: “AMD users: the latest GPU drivers are now available! If you’ve been experiencing visual issues … please make sure to download and install the latest drivers.” The studio’s response therefore focused on driver updates rather than releasing an emergency game patch.
TechSpot’s benchmark testing confirmed the driver problem. Using the publicly available Adrenalin 26.9.1 driver, the outlet observed “numerous rendering glitches” and concluded that Radeon GPUs were encountering a performance limitation likely tied to driver compatibility, evident even on the Medium graphics preset.
When AMD finally released the WHQL‑certified 26.9.2 driver after launch, many users reported noticeable improvements. However, the interval between game release and driver availability left AMD owners with legitimate copies effectively locked out of a clean experience for several days.
Contrast with Nvidia experience and broader implications
Outlets such as virus.hr and IGN consistently reported that Nvidia GeForce owners could launch the remaster without the widespread corruption seen on Radeon cards. Some GOG forum posts mentioned occasional path‑tracing glitches on Nvidia hardware, but these were framed as isolated issues rather than the systemic failures affecting AMD users.
This asymmetry is notable given the earlier performance discussion surrounding the RTX 5090, where the flagship Nvidia card fell short of a locked 60 FPS target. While Nvidia owners still have a performance conversation, AMD owners faced a playability conversation during the launch window.
The episode underscores a recurring friction point in the PC gaming ecosystem: mismatches between major game launch dates and GPU vendor driver cycles. When a publisher’s schedule outpaces a driver team’s release cadence, the vendor whose driver lags can see its users experience severe compatibility problems, as demonstrated by this launch.
CD PROJEKT RED’s communication strategy
Beyond the driver‑update advisory, CD PROJEKT RED has not issued a dedicated emergency patch targeting the AMD rendering bugs. A GOG discussion thread cited the studio’s promise of forthcoming patches to address incorrect vegetation rendering, but no formal patch notes have been released that specifically enumerate AMD‑related fixes.
Given the studio’s reputation for aggressive post‑launch support after the troubled launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020, the reliance on a driver update rather than an immediate game patch marks a different approach. The company appears to be leveraging the expectation that GPU manufacturers will resolve driver‑level issues, while focusing internal resources on broader game stability and performance improvements.
In summary, the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launch highlighted a stark divide between AMD and Nvidia hardware experiences. AMD Radeon owners encountered black‑grass artifacts, missing vegetation, texture corruption and occasional crashes, all traced back to a missing driver release at launch. Nvidia GeForce users largely enjoyed a functional game with only minor rendering quirks. The incident reinforces the importance of synchronized driver rollouts for major releases and adds a new chapter to the ongoing dialogue between game publishers and GPU vendors.
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