Dragon Age Inquisition's PC Requirements Are Solid, PS4 Runs at 1080p
Ready to pick up Bioware's Dragon Age Inquisition on PC? Here's what you'll need under the hood to run it.
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Two weeks ago, I was completely shocked by the high bar established by the recommended PC system requirements for Tango Gameworks' The Evil Within. The game requires a video card with 4 GB of VRAM, which is unheard of for most PC owners, especially when it comes to a mid-range build. Was this the new normal, with PC versions being direct ports of games intended for consoles with 8 GB of unified memory? Even when I was playing Dead Rising 3, which had lower specs than The Evil Within, it seemed to be drawing more PC power than its graphical output would merit.
Today, we're hearing about the recommended system specs of another major holiday 2014 release: Dragon Age Inquisition. After the heart attack that was The Evil Within's specs, DAI's requirements are far more sensible.
Recommended System Specs:
- OS: Windows 7 or 8.1 64-bit
- CPU: AMD six core CPU @ 3.2 GHz, Intel quad core CPU @ 3.0 GHz
- System RAM: 8 GB
- Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7870 or R9 270, Nvidia GeForce GTX 660
- Graphics Memory: 2 GB
- Hard Drive: 26 GB
- DirectX 11
Minimum System Specs:
- OS: Windows 7 or 8.1 64-bit
- CPU: AMD quad core CPU @ 2.5 GHz, Intel quad core CPU @ 2.0 GHz
- System RAM: 4 GB
- Graphics CARD: AMD Radeon HD 4870, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
- Graphics Memory: 512 MB
- Hard Drive: 26 GB
- DirectX 10
Those are completely understandable requirements. If your graphics card isn't up to snuff yet, your options for an upgrade aren't that expensive. The AMD Radeon HD 7870 is hard to find new, so I'd skip that option. The AMD Radeon R9 270 is a solid choice for a mid-range card that you can pick up for $170 to $180, but you'll get a bump in performance by picking up the R9 270X for $20 more. If you're an Nvidia fan, rock out with the recommended GTX 660 at a price range of $170 to $190, but note that it's outperformed by the 270 and 270X . The GTX 760 costs more at around $220, but you'll future-proof yourself a bit more.
According to EA Origin, those system specs are backed up by a PC-specific HUD and control scheme, a host of visual and interface options, and support for 4K resolution and AMD Mantle. Bioware is hammering on the return of the Tactical View from the first Dragon Age game, allowing players to get an overview of the battlefield and micro-manage their forces.
Bioware also announced the target resolutions for the console versions of Dragon Age Inquisition on Twitter. In fact, the announcement seems like a direct shot at Ubisoft, who recently announced that Assassin's Creed Unity would run in a resolution of 900p at 30 fps on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Fans have roasted Ubisoft for the perceived limiting of the PS4 version of Assassin's Creed Unity, despite Ubisoft's contention that that's not the case.
Inquisition looks to have the same PlayStation 4/Xbox One performance gap that players have come to expect: the game will run at 1080p on PlayStation 4 and 900p on Xbox One. The company didn't mention the framerate, so my guess is you can expect it to run at 30 fps; if they had hit 60 fps, I think they would've mentioned it. Either way, if resolution is your battlefront, you know which console version to pick up this holiday season. If you're running a decent PC build, Dragon Age Inquisition on PC seems to be a no-brainer otherwise.