Assassins Creed Unity PC Requirements

Over the past few years PC requirements for new releases have been mostly an afterthought. In most cases, while some games require a high end rig to run at Ultra settings, others can get by with a moderately priced one. Soon, however, it seems we might be reaching a tipping point where the mid-range PC no longer cuts it.

This week, for example, Ubisoft unveiled their minimum and recommended PC requirements for Assassin's Creed Unity, and let's just say this game is no slouch. In fact, we'd reckon that gamers who haven't recently invested in a new video card will be wholly out of luck when it comes to playing this game.

At a glance, the Assassin's Creed Unity PC specs look fairly rudimentary – Intel i5 or better, 6GB RAM, 64-bit OS – but that's until you get to the video card section. It's there that many Assassin's Creed fans/PC players' dreams will be dashed, as they realize that their reliable GTX 400 or 500 series cards will no longer cut it. Check out the full specs below:

Required Specs:

  • OS: 64-bit Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8/8.1
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz
  • RAM: 6 GB
  • Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 (2 GB VRAM)
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers
  • Hard Drive Space: 50 GB available space
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or better
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon R9 290X (3 GB VRAM)

Obviously, when Ubisoft came forward to say that AC Unity would be a next-gen only game we expected it to be a bit more demanding. But we doubt any expected that the game would be THIS demanding. Granted, there are plenty of gamers out there who will still have no problem running the game at Max settings, but others (present company included) will either come in at the bare minimum or be left out in the cold.

As Gamespot points out, Assassin's Creed Unity is also well ahead of the curve in terms of competing next-gen experiences. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, for example, only requires a GTX 450/HD 5870 to run.

Assassins Creed Unity Coop Heist Mission

Although these PC specs are surprising they aren't entirely unexpected. When Ubisoft confirmed that AC Unity would run at 900p/30 they also revealed that there are several demanding components of the game and this is further evidence of that. Even the PS4 and Xbox One GPUs come in on the lower side of the spectrum when talking about hardware requirements.

Given that Ubisoft has been out there touting Assassin's Creed Unity every step of the way, we wouldn't be surprised to see them come out and explain the PC specs. An easy answer would be that this is a next-gen first game and it's going to be demanding, but perhaps the reason isn't as simple. We'll keep you posted.

Can your PC run Assassin's Creed Unity? Are you surprised to see higher than normal minimum specs so soon?

Assassin's Creed Unity releases November 11, 2014 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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Source: Gamespot