The Witcher - Final Systems Reqs

CD Projekt has posted the final system requirements for The Witcher:

Minimum requirements:
Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2, Vista (Operating System must be up to date with the latest fixes)
Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz or AMD Athlon 64 +2800
1 GB RAM for Microsoft® Windows® XP / 1536 MB for Microsoft® Windows® Vista
128 MB Video RAM or greater with DirectX9 Vertex Shader/ Pixel Shader 2.0 support (NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800 or better)
8.5 GB available hard drive space
DirectX 9.0c compliant soundcard, plus speakers or headphones
DVD-Rom

Recommended requirements:
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Vista (Operating System must be up to date with the latest fixes)
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz or AMD X2 5600+
2 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or ATI Radeon X1950 PRO
8.5 GB available hard drive space
DirectX 9.0c compliant soundcard, plus speakers or headphones
DVD-Rom

More information.

Unusual and pretty steep CPU requirements. I wonder if they're just pulling the numbers out of their hats, or if the game really is (a) CPU-bottlenecked and (b) multi-threaded? If not, the "recommended" CPU wouldn't be any faster than the "minimum" CPU. And since the game is built on a pretty old platform, they've done some pretty impressive work if it *is* effectively multi-threaded.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
Unusual and pretty steep CPU requirements. I wonder if they're just pulling the numbers out of their hats, or if the game really is (a) CPU-bottlenecked and (b) multi-threaded? If not, the "recommended" CPU wouldn't be any faster than the "minimum" CPU. And since the game is built on a pretty old platform, they've done some pretty impressive work if it *is* effectively multi-threaded.

I wonder if it is the case, like KotOR 2 and NWN2, of games built off of the existing Bioware engines being system pigs? Because for an Aurora engine based game, those specs look like modern 3D game specs.

Wow, pretty steep requirements. I should be fine, but I am surprised.

I want to be careful with what I say but I'm surprised to have seen a number of negative comments on the reqs around the 'net. Maybe I'm just out of touch on the reqs people expect. Anyway, my comment is that the game runs very well on what I consider modest hardware (by current standards), so the minimum should run the game quite well (with the right settings) and the recommended should easily run it with everything high.

@txa, in what respect is this not a modern 3D game? The renderer was completely replaced - Aurora really has nothing to do with it. Doesn't it look like it would compete with some of the best visuals on the market?

@Dhruin
you call 7900 GTX Card modest? ;-)

No, but I call my 6800GS modest in the scheme of current hardware and latest releases.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
@txa, in what respect is this not a modern 3D game? The renderer was completely replaced - Aurora really has nothing to do with it. Doesn't it look like it would compete with some of the best visuals on the market?

I am not saying that the game doesn't look very good, but IIRC it isn't trying to compete in the whole 'buzzword compliant' field of Crysis / Bioshock / etc … yet the requirements are pretty much the same.

I have a Core 2 Duo 1.87 ghz. Other than that I am over and above the recommended specs. I haven't always been able to say that, so it feels good to anticpate a new release without that fear of it not running well… provided they did a decent job with the engine that is.

And I agree with Dhruin in that those specs are modest. Probably more than the average Joe PC user would consider modest, but we're talking about gaming here.

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
And I agree with Dhruin in that those specs are modest. Probably more than the average Joe PC user would consider modest, but we're talking about gaming here.

haha … I completely misread the recommended as minimum … those aren't bad at all!

I wonder how well the game will run at those minimum specs. Those aren't steep at all, but lots of games are practically unplayable at the mins.

I bet PJ is right on the comment on Dual Core. I would be surprised if it could take advantage of mutliple core processors considering its lengthy development.

I would think a more accurate recommended specs might be the same without the Dual Core - in fact, if minimum is say 2.4ghz on a P4, that would probably be faster than the 2.13 Duo they are recommending for this game.

I have Geforce 6600GT 128MB DDR3 RAM card. And I can play Bioshock (or the demo at least) om medium graphics settings. The game, Bioshock, still looks amazing, though. The sys reqs. for The Witcher looks similar to the ones for Bioshock. I'm not that worried, though. It also seems that The Witcher can be played with shader model 2.0 card, unlike Bioshock who requires an SM 3.0 card…

I will buy mycopy for Xbox360 so I no need to worry about requirments of the too high. And graphixs better!

I've done a lot of hardware profiling lately. In my experience, a 2.1 GHz Core 2 is about the equivalent of a 3.0 GHz P4 -- with most variation depending upon the front-side memory bus speed. If you have a relatively recent P4 system (no more than 2-3 years), with hyperthreading enabled, you'll probably meet the CPU requirements without a problem.

Also keep in mind that these requirements cover Vista, which is a memory hog, and on CPU time as well. Don't know how much this has improved with the service pack.

Originally Posted by Unrestigered
I will buy mycopy for Xbox360 so I no need to worry about requirments of the too high. And graphixs better!

Good luck with trying to find an Xbox360 version of The Witcher…

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
in fact, if minimum is say 2.4ghz on a P4, that would probably be faster than the 2.13 Duo they are recommending for this game.

Wrong. The architecture of the Core 2 platform has completely changed compared to the Netburst (P4) architecture. A clock by clock comparison makes no sense at all since one platform is apples and the other is oranges. As Stanza pointed out correctly, a ~2GHz Core 2 is about the same speed as a ~3GHz P4 in single threaded apps.

CDP chief has said on the Polish boards that the game runs well on minimum specs - the framerate only drops in a few places. These (supposedly) aren't requirements to get the game running at all, but to get it running nicely.

Originally Posted by doctor_kaz
I wonder how well the game will run at those minimum specs. Those aren't steep at all, but lots of games are practically unplayable at the mins.

I thought my hint was pretty blatant. The game runs well on minimum specs.

Originally Posted by Ryuken
Good luck with trying to find an Xbox360 version of The Witcher…

You lie like a American!!! Why would Bioware recomdations a game that isn't for 360? What is this game is for little boys a mouth-woman bad? I know is good!