Mass Effect 2 PC System Requirements

Mass Effect 2 System Requirements

1up has posted both the minimum and recommended PC system requirements for Mass Effect 2.

All I can say is I am glad this game is coming to Xbox 360. I can’t deal with installations and constant upgrades, even if it does mean better graphics and more customization to the game (mods).

They are as follows:

PC MINIMUM System Requirements

OS = Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
Processor = 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
Memory = 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Hard Drive = 15 GB
DVD ROM = 1x Speed
Sound Card = DirectX 9.0c compatible
Direct X = DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)
Input = Keyboard / Mouse
Video Card = 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater.

Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

PC RECOMMENDED System Requirements

Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
2.6+ GHz Core 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended
100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
DirectX August 2008

NOTES: For the best results, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video and audio cards. Laptop or mobile versions of the above supported video cards have not had extensive testing and may have driver or other performance issues. As such, they are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

Will your PC be able to handle this game or will you need an upgrade? Or are you playing it safe like me and getting the Xbox 360 version?

Source: 1up

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Tags: Mass Effect 2, PC, Xbox 360

phantom_fighter

I think my rig would handle it okay...but I not sure about the video card.
The system requirements say "the ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements" but the Radeon HD 2900 XT is recommended, now I'm not one for math but I'm pretty Darn sure that 2900 is a lot lower then 3200 or 4350 so what's up with that?

I have a Radeon HD 4830 with 512 Mb of GDDR3 RAM so I would think I could play it just fine but I'm not sure.

The rest of my system I'm 99.95% sure will work great. My system is as follows:

AMD phenom 2 945 x4 3.0Ghz,
6Gb DDR2 800 Ram,
ECS A780GM-A Black Series,
Asus ATI Radeon HD4830 512Mb GDDR3

I don't know if this forum is still active or not, but if so please reply.

P.S. I have no problems playing Dragon Age: Origins at maxed settings with only a few minor (at least to me) hick ups in some of the videos, but then some other games like Fallout 3 are very jumpy and have a lot of lag between when you move the mouse and when you see it on the screen at full settings. Fallout 3 works okay for me on the high preset with all view distances maxed though.

Ken J

http://www.buy.com/prod/retro-duo-twin-video-ga...

They have other colors too... :-P

Jago

@m cat

The ones that i've seen do that i don't think they're actually licensed by nintendo but where i've seen them is usually in smaller stores. Like pawn shops, locally owned gaming stores ( not gamestop) , etc. The most recent one i saw was at the mall from this dude that had one of these small vending carts like in the middle of the hallway/walkway and he sold lots of nes/snes games aswell.

M-Cat

What consoles can u play the old NES and SNES games on? That would be awesome!

Jago

I was actually thinking the same thing not too long ago when i saw a system like that at the mall the friday before last just so i wouldn't have to switch consoles when changing to certain games. Consoles like the nes and snes are some of the perfect consoles (to me) where you can fully get into the game... Why? Because most of those games you have to beat the same day lol.

Jago

The controls to me isn't an excuse when you can easily buy controllers or adapters to use the playstation controller on the PC. I understand its covering up the full screen but at the end of the day its my PC and everytime i'm on it my mind is everywhere because i do alot on the computer. If you must know what it is ( not porn lol) i've been working heavily on a show that my friends and i are creating and thats just one of the things. I also use it communicate with them as much as i can during the process of editing, writing, brainstorming, etc. But again thats just me... I agree with you on most things pc ( even on the aiming thing with the mouse) but for now i get a better gaming experience on the console... "Me", not speaking for anyone else.

Ken J

@jago

I gave away my NES a long time ago, kind of regret it, lol. Was thinking about buying one of these new consoles that can play NES and SNES games... I still have my SNES though...

Ken J

I still don't understand how you can "not concentrate" on the game just because you know you can do other stuff??

That's the reason why I jokingly brought up not being able to concentrate on a PS3 game because I know it can also play movies... I don't know, when I play a PC game, it takes up the full screen, why wouldn't you be able to concentrate on it??

To me sounds like an excuse...

I mean, some people don't like the keyboard and mouse control scheme. Alright, I love those controls, but that's completely up to personal preference and is a real reason to not like PC gaming. Some people use a laptop or a netbook to do all of their computery stuff, so for them to buy a PC JUST for gaming, yes, that would be a little excessive. Or if someone just has no clue how to use computers and know that if they had one they'll just end up infecting it with every virus and trojan known to man, then maybe a console is better for that person too. But seriously, you can't concentrate on the game that's taking up the entire screen because you're thinking about how you can browse the internet, make spreadsheets, make word documents, download porn??? Come on... Oh, wait, bad choice of words, lol. :-D

Jago

One you say most games not all and second better graphics as opposed to not being able to fully concentrate on the game isn't much to convince me that pc gaming is better but just like you said thats only me... Your main argument about it is that its cheaper and has better graphics. I can agree with both those but if i can't fully enjoy said entertainment because of the platform why not try it another one till you like it and right now thats the ps3. Until some other platform comes out that can both fulfull the graphics and expenses used like the pc where i can only play games then right now its ps3 for me. Shoot i have a nes, snes, n64, sega genesis, sega cd, sega saturn, gamecube, dreamcast, ps1, turbo graffix 16,etc that i would happily dust off and play rather then play on my pc thinking if i should keep on working on my projects. Now for all those that prefer the pc: i'm not saying that that's how you should or do feel about pc gaming... Its just how i feel about it.

P.S... I don't watch movies on my ps3, i have a perfectly good system in my living room that i have built up during the years and added/upgraded heavily through several black fridays.

Ken J

@jago

Um, WOW, you do realize that most of the games you can get on the console you can get on the PC as well too right? So these are the SAME GAMES except in higher resolutions and better graphics. So how can it possibly be worse?? LOL!!

And I've never played a game on my PC thinking "man, I can be on Microsoft Excel right now making spreadsheets" and not be able to concentrate on the game, lol. Pretty ridiculous concept.

But if that's what's going through your mind while you're playing a PC game then... ok, lol.

I guess when I'm playing a game on Xbox I can't concentrate because I keep thinking about what I can do on Xbox Live Marketplace... And when I'm playing on a PS3, I can't concentrate because I keep thinking about all of the blu ray movies I can be watching on it... :-P

Just kidding with you jago, lol.

Jago

Oh bananas... It got moderated but i think i know what did it so i'll try to fix it.

Personally console gaming is waaaaaaaaay better because i can get into the game more. I can’t even fully concentrate on pc gaming when i could be doing sooo many other things. The PC being “Powerful” or having “better Graphics” have never made me think it can ever trump the console so thats not much of an argument. I literally know over 2 to 3 hundred titles with very poor graphics ( compared to todays games) that “I” would rather play then Crysis, Mass Effect 1 & 2, etc… So again its not graphics. Had i played Batman Arkham Asylum on the PC i would have never enjoyed it fully. Yes there are games that i love on the PC but personally consoles beat PC’s by alot simply because it feels good to just escape and play ( and to me thats what its all about).

Ken J

But that's another erroneous comparison. Who here doesn't already have a computer, please tell me. You're paying for MAYBE upgrading your computer... For me, I already had my PC that was more powerful than Xbox 360 or PS3. So technically, for me to be a PC gamer would cost me exactly... $0, while for me to be a Xbox360 or PS3 gamer would have cost me the cost of the console, and a decent tv to play it on since at the time I had a 15 year-old tv, while my computer had a nice monitor that have been so-called "hi def" for a while.

The only people I understand to benefit from consoles are those who don't know anything about computers and would actually have to buy a whole new computer just to be able to play games. But if you at all know how to upgrade your computer, or know how to ebay your current computer after buying a new one, it should be cheaper or about the same as buying a console.

Plus, if you have NEITHER a computer or a console and have to decide which to get, I also think it's more worth it to spend the extra money for the PC, not just for gaming, but who here doesn't need a PC to go online, type up reports, check email, and all of the stuff people use their computer for. So instead of buying a console now for gaming, then later buying a PC for everything else you need, why not just get a PC that does both??

Again, I'm not saying that all console gamers are wrong and all PC gamers are right, just saying, there are a lot of myths regarding the whole console vs. PC argument.

Rob Keyes

I'm a PC gamer too, but for the price of a console, you cannot get a PC that can play the big new titles.

Let alone the fact you can use your nice big TV instead of a monitor :)

Reaper

Thankfully my comp will play that without blinking :D So I should probably finish the first game

Ken J

Oh, but you have Vista... Overlooked that part. I am running XP Pro... Could be why...

Ken J

Crysis runs poorly on almost anything, but that's not a good comparison at all. There isn't a single Xbox game with graphics that even start to hint at competing with Crysis, and Crysis isn't even a new game.

HOWEVER, I don't see how with that setup you're getting such poor results, I tried the demo prior to upgrading my video card, I have a 2.0GHz single core AMD Athlon 2400+ processor San Diego core, that's over 3 years old BTW along with everything else on my PC except for my current video card. But at the time I tried the demo, I still had my old vid card which is a nVidia 8600 GT OC, only one too no SLi or anything, 2GB ram, Asus A8N motherboard, and two harddrives for a combined 520gb. My setup is considerably slower than yours, and I was able to play the Crysis demo. Albeit not with all the settings turned to max, but the graphics still far surpassed anything on Xbox or PS3 even today. Obviously if you try to play Crysis with all settings on high, it'll run pretty choppy...

M-Cat

Ken

my point is that I prefer pc gaming and wish it were easier and less expensive so I could enjoy it.

My custom pc:

pentium 4 2.6 ghz core 2 duo processor
above average motherboard for gaming
2 gb ram
250gb hard drive
dual 8800gt video cards w/1gb ram
windows vista premium

Even with this mid-level system Crysis has a very low FPS.

Ken J

@M-Cat

There will be settings that will match what will show on the Xbox. No way the minimum settings will be higher than the Xbox's maximum. So REGARDLESS the whole point about PC's being hard to keep up with is a myth because at the VERY LEAST you can play any game at an Xbox level, but most likely more. If the Xbox can run it, your PC can, period, and that's just a simple fact. Well, unless your PC is more than 5 years old, or you bought some hunk of junk e-machine or something, lol. Then what do you really expect? But spend an extra $200, less than the console back then, and you would have had a PC capable of playing the same games at better settings at higher resolutions without having to buy an HDTV to play it on, controllers, headsets, or more expensive games...

Hey, it's up to you, if you guys like gaming on consoles more, that's fine, it's your prerogative. But no need to use these obvious myths as an excuse...

Ken J

@M-Cat

Actually, a lot games now have minimum requirements much steeper than that already, and I can play those games with all settings on high with no problems with framerate... So...

M-Cat

Ken

just because your pc meets the minimum requirements doesn't mean you can run the game well with good fps. Even at low to mid settings there is major slowdown with the frame rate. The minimum requirements give people the ability to simply purchase and install the game. Playing at those settings is a joke.

Ken J

@M-Cat

You're not FORCED to run the game at max settings you know. If your PC really isn't up to snuff to play the game at max settings, just tweak the settings a little until you can play it. I'm willing to bet that even after tweaking the settings down, it'll still be graphically superior to those found on the console version...

The whole "you need to upgrade" thing is a myth. If it can run on the Xbox, it can run on your PC, just maybe at the Xbox level of graphics or a little higher. You only need to upgrade to get the max graphics.

Which strangely my 3 year-old PC can do with all of the new games I've tried, so I don't even see where all the whining is about that...

Ken J

Yep, my 3 year-old PC meets those requirements. Man, all of these constant upgrades are killing me! LMAO :-P

M-Cat

PC requirements change way too often. I know PC gaming is about 100 times better than console gaming but it's too expensive and changes too often. I only wish it was cheaper and I would deal with the rest of the hassles to enjoy pc gaming.