Fallout 4 PC System Requirements Announced

[Steven Bogos]

Fallout 4 PC System Requirements Announced

You won't need a PC from the future to run Fallout 4.

Bethesda has just released the official minimum PC system requirements for Fallout 4, and I have to say, they are much more forgiving than I would have expected. The "recommended" specs are a bit beefier, but if you just want to play the game you should be able to on a fairly mid-range box.

For your reference:

Minimum:
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i5-2300 2.8 GHz/AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB or equivalent

Recommended:
Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i7 4790 3.6 GHz/AMD FX-9590 4.7 GHz or equivalent
8 GB RAM
30 GB free HDD space
NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB/AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB or equivalent

Additionally, Bethesda also revealed a bit of information about the game's PC launch. Digitally the game will become available on November 10, 2015, at 12:01 am (local time) in all territories (In North America, the unlock time will be 12:01 am EST), except Asia (available at 12 am on Wednesday, November 11th) and Japan (available at 12 am on Thursday, December 17th).

You'll also be able to plug in an Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller to your PC and play the game with it right from the get-go.

Source: Bethesda [http://bethesda.net/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=100315-PerkChart&hootPostID=c7add0be85df8b54e96e976dd089d7c4#en/events/game/prepare-for-the-future-fallout-4-important-release-info/2015/10/08/35]

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[Legion]

I have frequently been told that an i7 Processor is overkill for gaming so I am slightly surprised they put it as recommended.

I am still not sure about buying it, but at least I know that I have more than the recommended specifications, if I do decide to (except I will have an i5 6600K processor instead).

 

[dragongit]

hmmmm... I have enough ram but maybe I should get more. I hope they have SLI support from the get go. two 770s should be able to ultra this game I hope. The only thing I truely lack is an i7, instead I got the i5 at 3.4... but I usually turn down AA, so I should be mostly good to go.

Though... I don't expect the game to actually be playable for about a week... this is Bethesda we're talking about. I half expect every character's heads to spin while the game crashes after every step.

 

[Mad World]

Once more artificially bumped up requirements. Also the 7870 is much more powerful than the 550 TI...

Meh. Weaker PCs will max it out. Again.

And I am ROFLING at the i7 requirement...
An i5 will max it. Even second gen ones. I am 100% certain of it

Yeah... something isn't right. Either it is horribly optimized or the requirements aren't accurate. I'm sure that the game is, generally speaking, demanding; it is a very ambitious title. However, I'm not buying it (the requirements, that is; I may purchase the game).

 

[Lotet]

I've got barely any clue what this all means but I can surmise I'm only going to be able to play it at the minimum setting, if at all. Then my computer will crash every other hour when it's normal crashes combine with Bethesda crashes to destroy my PC.

Damn I wish I had an XBone or PS4. But I'm trapped on the most unreliable platform.

 

[Barbas]

Yeah, I sense bumhuckey with the i7 there. We shall see if it is madness and overexaggeration come release day.

 

[Mad World]

Not really. ALL GAMES WITHOUT EXCEPTION have artificially buffed requirements. Fallout 4 is just following the trend. It might even be very optimized...

Like I said, it's probably one or the other. If it's not poorly optimized, it's the requirements which are off. I'm sure that it will be well optimized; Bethesda seems to typically do well in that department.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Mmm recommended settings hit just below my PC. Good. More 60+fps at ultra if its anything like other games that my rig hits slightly above.

 

[ron1n]

It's the same engine as Skyrim only a little beefed up with a few bells and whistles. They really haven't pushed the boundaries or anything on this one.

It won't take much to run well. Skyrim with mods is going to be more demanding than a vanilla copy of fallout 4.

 

[lordofpowies]

Well my specs are way above the minimum, but way below the recommended.
Guess I'll find out...

 

[Dr. Crawver]

Once more artificially bumped up requirements. Also the 7870 is much more powerful than the 550 TI...

Meh. Weaker PCs will max it out. Again.

And I am ROFLING at the i7 requirement...
An i5 will max it. Even second gen ones. I am 100% certain of it

Yeah... something isn't right. Either it is horribly optimized or the requirements aren't accurate. I'm sure that the game is, generally speaking, demanding; it is a very ambitious title. However, I'm not buying it (the requirements, that is; I may purchase the game).

The reason they do this is to cover their backs. These are the minimums where they can guarantee there will be no issues at all, so they can never be done for false advertising or anything.

 

[MercurySteam]

hmmmm... I have enough ram but maybe I should get more. I hope they have SLI support from the get go. two 770s should be able to ultra this game I hope. The only thing I truely lack is an i7, instead I got the i5 at 3.4... but I usually turn down AA, so I should be mostly good to go.

The fact that both the minimum and recommended memory is 8GB leads me to believe that you could probably get by fine on a bit less. Also, AA is fully handled by your GPU so turning it off won't affect you CPU performance. Hopefully we'll see a new driver from Nvidia the week before implementing SLI.

 

[Creator002]

Damn. I meet all except the GFX card. AMD Radeon HD 6950. Should still be able to play though.

 

[Seadren]

Once more artificially bumped up requirements. Also the 7870 is much more powerful than the 550 TI...

Meh. Weaker PCs will max it out. Again.

And I am ROFLING at the i7 requirement...
An i5 will max it. Even second gen ones. I am 100% certain of it

Yeah... something isn't right. Either it is horribly optimized or the requirements aren't accurate. I'm sure that the game is, generally speaking, demanding; it is a very ambitious title. However, I'm not buying it (the requirements, that is; I may purchase the game).

I'd wager that it's poorly optimized, Bethesda have a bad habit of releasing games in states like that, hell it's still a massive pain in the arse to get Fallout 3 running.

And to think I just bought an i7 and GTX 970 so I could guarantee to play this, seems like a massive overkill now

 

[Strazdas]

Well, looks like my 760 is going to have a good workout to look forward to.

Though if screenshots are anything to go by looks like the game suffers from same problem as skyrim - butugly textures and no good tech supported by the engine.

 

[RedRockRun]

I have an i5-3570 but a GTX 970, so minimum requirements on the CPU but above recommended on the GPU. Do I have anything to worry about?

 

[Kahani]

I have an i5-3570 but a GTX 970, so minimum requirements on the CPU but above recommended on the GPU. Do I have anything to worry about?

No. The only thing that ever actually needs worrying about is RAM, both system and GPU (and drive space of course, but it's always possible to delete some stuff without needing to do anything with the hardware). Falling short anywhere else means the game might run a bit slower than ideal, which is generally easily solved by lowering various graphics settings. I was happily running things on a GTX460 long after that was below minimum spec for most games, you just have to accept that the game won't look as pretty as it could. As long as it's not so old that drivers, DirectX and so on aren't supported, there's really no such thing as a minimum requirement for processing power, it's simply a personal choice of how much you're willing to compromise on performance. On the other hand, if you're lacking in RAM, the game simply won't fit in in it and won't be able to run at all. Even then, you might be able to get away with just occasional crashes when the game tries to load larger textures.