CD Projekt Red has updated the minimum PC requirements for The Witcher 3 ahead of the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion, bringing a major jump in hardware demands and officially ending support for Windows 10 and HDDs.
According to the updated specifications, the game will now require at least an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400 processor, alongside a GeForce GTX 1660 or Radeon RX 5500 XT 8 GB graphics card. Minimum memory has increased to 12 GB RAM, while storage now requires a 70 GB SSD. The game will also exclusively target DirectX 12 and officially support only 64-bit Windows 11 systems going forward.
This is a significant increase compared to the original requirements from back when the game was launched, as back then, it needed a quad-core CPU, GTX 660-class graphics cards, 6 GB of RAM, traditional HDD and either Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 OS.
While the hardware requirements have been officially raised, CD Projekt Red was keen to note that the game won’t run on Windows 10 or older systems, but that the studio “can’t no longer officially guarantee compatibility because Windows 10 is no longer supported internally and Microsoft has already ended official support for the operating system”.
The studio also notes that even Nvidia is expected to discontinue Windows 10 support for its graphics card drivers in the future. When it comes to SSD requirement, CD Projekt Red says it was introduced to improve loading times, asset streaming, and overall gameplay smoothness in future updates and expansions.
Those who cannot meet the new requirements will still have the option to revert to earlier versions of the game.
The updated requirements arrive ahead of Songs of the Past, a new expansion currently in development with co-developer Fool’s Theory and scheduled to launch next year.
