Some releases are designed to kick a gaming PC in the teeth, a stark reminder it's time to upgrade. A new Witcher game is definitely one of those moments. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was recently delayed until May, but in the meantime, the system requirements have been released. It might be time to start looking for change in the couch.
As you keep reading, you might notice a tear running down my face. That's because I'm going to have a long conversation with my wallet sometime later this year, in order to run The Witcher 3.
Here are the minimum and recommended specs, as released by CD Projekt RED today:
Minimum System Requirements
Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz
AMD CPU Phenom II X4 940
Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 660
AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870
RAM 6GB
OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
DirectX 11
HDD Space 40 GB
Recommended System Requirements
Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3.4 GHz
AMD CPU AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770
AMD GPU Radeon R9 290
RAM 8GB
OS 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
DirectX 11
HDD Space 40 GB
As for me, here's a look at my PC. Please don't laugh too hard. It's pretty good at running everything but high-end games, which I'm typically playing on Xbox One or PlayStation 4.
Intel CPU Core i7 950 3.1GHz
RAM 16GB
AMD Radeon HD 7800
Oh boy...
By comparison, here's what Assassin's Creed Unity demanded on PC. Remember, though, Assassin's Creed Unity wasn't great on PC, and Ubisoft has a track record of poor optimization. CD Projekt Red, on the other hand, is known for valuing the PC and taking it very seriously.
Minimum
Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz
RAM 6GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 (2 GB VRAM)
HDD Space 50GB
Recommended
Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or better
RAM 8GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon R9 290X (3 GB VRAM)
You can reach the author of this post at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @patrickklepek.