The upgrade went live Tuesday, and the argument that ran all last week about how it looks has a new question attached to it: how does it run? Reviews say great. Handheld testing says it depends on the handheld.
## The critics Pure Xbox's roundup put the early scores side by side: Metro gave it 4.5 out of 5, and Noisy Pixel, GamingBolt and GameTyrant each landed on 9 out of 10. Polygon and Sportskeeda came in positive, PCGamesN mostly positive. The main knock, from Noisy Pixel: facial animations and some interactions look older next to the upgraded environments. Metro's read was that the remaster keeps the skeleton of the original intact instead of rebuilding it.
## Switch 2 is the surprise RPG Site's Switch 2 analysis called it the biggest upgrade the reviewer has seen for a Switch 2 version of a Switch 1 game, and the best Switch 2 port of 2026. The load-time gap is real: fast travel took about 42 to 43 seconds against 110 on the original Switch, and loading a save took 27 to 29 seconds against 51. The complaint is handheld image quality. It targets 40fps but looks notably softer than expected, and the reviewer is hoping for a 30fps quality mode in a patch.
## The Steam Deck part RPG Site's Steam Deck testing went the other way. On the same preset, the remaster ran roughly 5 to 10 fps lower than the original, which held 40-plus. In a demanding area like Novigrad it dipped to around 30. The reviewer also says motion blur is too strong by default and should be turned off. Two fair caveats: that testing was done before launch on Proton Experimental, and final AMD drivers weren't available yet, so numbers could improve. CD Projekt's own line was that the game runs just fine on Steam Deck and Switch 2. Playable and identical aren't the same word.
## What it means for the lane Single-player RPG people play on handhelds. A free upgrade that costs you frames on the Deck and wins big on Switch 2 is a real decision, not a footnote. Check the settings before you blame the game.
## The cultural read Eleven years after launch, people are still tuning frame rates for The Witcher 3. That's what a benchmark looks like. Every big-world RPG that's shipped since has been measured against it, and this week the measuring tape came out again.
## Sources - Pure Xbox review roundup, Sept. 28, 2026 - RPG Site: Switch 2 version - RPG Site: Steam Deck performance, Sept. 28, 2026 - GamingBolt on CD Projekt's statement
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