Update: Watch Dogs Won't Run on 32-Bit Windows

[Arif_Sohaib]

Geez they really are trying to get people to DOWNgrade to that Vista/7/8 trilogy of crap!

Or wait... Would it work on 64-bit XP? Maybe I could get those.

Valve needs to hurry up with that gaming Linux of theirs. I'm tired of all these broken windows.

I would have to disagree with that (somewhat). While Vista was terrible and Windows 8 seems unnecessary, I think that Windows 7 is the best version of Windows that Microsoft has come out with so far (and I've used most of them, including a Windows 2.X release).

I agree. As someone has used all 3 of them, and XP, I have to say 7 fixed all the real issues vista had while keeping everything intact. Vista wasn't really all that bad, just bloated with unnecessary issues that got fixed in 7. Also, I hope you weren't planning on keeping XP for very long anyways as support for it ends next year. I don't even want to go in what's wrong with 8.

(btw, my main operating system is arch linux anyways)

OT: You know, i'm ok with this. I was worried it wasn't going to live up to expectations going into the end of the lifespan of this console generation, but maybe it'll turn out to be the powerhouse of a game we all hoped. 8gb of ram and a hexacore will be plenty.

Casual Linux or a bit of scripting and other stuff as well?
It happens to be the one thing I couldn't really master last semester, 1.0 in OS.

 

[8bitmaster]

Casual Linux or a bit of scripting and other stuff as well?
It happens to be the one thing I couldn't really master last semester, 1.0 in OS.

I've gotten into scripting for shortcuts. I've done it quite a bit to shorten commands as well as an intro message for starting up the terminal. There are a ton of resources if you want to learn more.

 

[Amaror]

People still use 32-bit systems? Come on, get with the program!

Can't, I only have 2 GB DDR2 Ram.

Considering how cheap ram is, that shouldn't be that much of a problem. You can get 8gb ddr3 for like 30 euros. Way better than it's the graphics card you need to upgrade.

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

People still use 32-bit systems? Come on, get with the program!

Can't, I only have 2 GB DDR2 Ram.

Considering how cheap ram is, that shouldn't be that much of a problem. You can get 8gb ddr3 for like 30 euros. Way better than it's the graphics card you need to upgrade.

Yes but then I would need a motherboard supporting DDR3, and if I get that I need a CPU to support that because my current one is a Core 2 Duo E7300 with ASUS P5KPL AM SE motherboard.
I am looking for an i3 + motherboard + RAM on Black Friday.

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

Casual Linux or a bit of scripting and other stuff as well?
It happens to be the one thing I couldn't really master last semester, 1.0 in OS.

I've gotten into scripting for shortcuts. I've done it quite a bit to shorten commands as well as an intro message for starting up the terminal. There are a ton of resources if you want to learn more.

Hopefully I won't need to.
Maintaining office networks and lab computers requires that knowledge and I am more into software development.

 

[SnowyGamester]

What about future-proofing? (buy Haswell low-end now and upgrade to Haswell i7 or i5 later)
If I had a motherboard for 1155, I would go for that one but I have 775 now.
And Core i3 is virtually a quad core.

True you could upgrade later though afaik the difference between 1155 and 1150 processors isn't huge even on the high end. I was just suggesting to go a little cheaper since you seem to be building on a tight budget. That being said dual core with hyperthreading does not a quad core make, though you may get away with it depending on how good an i3 you go for and how accurate the minimum specs are in this case.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I have a feeling that the "8 core processor" requirement is just AMD showing that they threw money at Ubisoft to make us buy AMD instead of an intel. Kinda the same that M$ did when they've put Windows 8 as a requirement as well.

With that said...I bet it will run on a i5/i7 Intel just fine.

 

[8bitmaster]

Casual Linux or a bit of scripting and other stuff as well?
It happens to be the one thing I couldn't really master last semester, 1.0 in OS.

I've gotten into scripting for shortcuts. I've done it quite a bit to shorten commands as well as an intro message for starting up the terminal. There are a ton of resources if you want to learn more.

Hopefully I won't need to.
Maintaining office networks and lab computers requires that knowledge and I am more into software development.

well I don't have to know it for my job or my major, I do it for fun and knowledge.

 

[Piorn]

I didn't plan to play it in a public library or at work anyways.
In fact I don't know if I'll play it at all. Strikes me as an idea with a lot of promises and "revolution", while just being some GTA and renaming their magic system.
We'll see I guess.

 

[sid]

Did they just crowd pressure themselves into worse specs? Does that work?

 

[Dr.Awkward]

Did they just crowd pressure themselves into worse specs? Does that work?

My guess is that they just realized that they gave out the specs of an unoptimized beta; having 8 cores and 2GB of VRAM is something that few PC gamers, even those with powerhouse rigs, can barely meet.

 

[thiosk]

death to 32 bit.

its time to move on: the 4gb ram limits imposed by 32bit software are a major limiting factor.

 

[Crazie_Guy]

Geez they really are trying to get people to DOWNgrade to that Vista/7/8 trilogy of crap!

Or wait... Would it work on 64-bit XP? Maybe I could get those.

Valve needs to hurry up with that gaming Linux of theirs. I'm tired of all these broken windows.

I would have to disagree with that (somewhat). While Vista was terrible and Windows 8 seems unnecessary, I think that Windows 7 is the best version of Windows that Microsoft has come out with so far (and I've used most of them, including a Windows 2.X release).

A reasonable case could be made for disliking Vista and especially 8. But XP is too old, and 7 is too good; if there are still people clinging on to the past at this point, it's for reasons beyond... well, reason. Time to kick that irrational fear of change and/or cripplingly overbearing nostalgia!


As for SteamOS, it's being made for living-room devices designed for Big Picture, not for PCs. You wouldn't want to use SteamOS for a fully functional computer any more than you would Android.

 

[Denamic]

Damn it, I knew when I bought that i5 2500k last year it would become obsolete fast.

Nah.
An i5 2500k will last you another 5 years of gaming at least. Even though it's a bit outdated, it'll perform just fine. Very, very few games to date will even tax it fully, if any. You'll see no significant performance increase if you upgrade at this point upgrade, even if it's to a high-end i7 haswell. Just crank up the FSB a little, should you need it. Even the stock cooler should handle up to a 20% increase in clockspeed. Well, depending on your case.

 

[Xman490]

Steven Bogos's avatar is like, "MY game will run fine on a 5-year-old PC. Why not yours? U mad, gentlemen?"

Doesn't Watch Dogs look as detailed as GTA IV with the Ice Mod for improved lighting or something? I heard that the game is going to run at no more than 32 FPS on next-gen consoles. Is that true? If so, doesn't that mean that it isn't even worth playing this game on current-gen consoles?

 

[an annoyed writer]

Well my old rig died anyway so I was already planning on upgrading. Good to know a decent target for what my minimum specs should be, even if the numbers aren't the exact ones.

 

[RicoADF]

Damn and I've only just upgraded to a Intel i5-3330.

I do have a dual boot system though. 32-bit Windows XP where I spend most of my time and a 64-bit Windows 7 for when I want to take advantage of the 8gb of RAM in my PC.

Dear god why would you dual boot a 32 bit os?

Helps to run older programs. I know windows 7 professional has an XP mode but the rest don't so it would help to have an actual copy of windows XP on the system.

Also on that note some places use older operating systems because the newer versions of the programs they use would be crazy expensive. Was fixing a computer at an embroidery place and they were using windows 95 (this being about 2 years ago).

I have Windows 7 64bit and it runs older games without issue, dual booting is a waste of space (and slows your system down if youve got your HDD partitioned, not so bad if its on seperate drives.

 

[themyrmidon]

i7 920 - check
6GB RAM - close 'nuff
GTX760 - check

My question is, at what resolution are these recommended? If 1920x1200 (my res) it seems rather steep, but if they consider "ULTRA" gamers to have dual, triple or 4K displays then the specs seem more reasonable. AA also matters.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Damn and I've only just upgraded to a Intel i5-3330.

I do have a dual boot system though. 32-bit Windows XP where I spend most of my time and a 64-bit Windows 7 for when I want to take advantage of the 8gb of RAM in my PC.

Dear god why would you dual boot a 32 bit os?

Helps to run older programs. I know windows 7 professional has an XP mode but the rest don't so it would help to have an actual copy of windows XP on the system.

Also on that note some places use older operating systems because the newer versions of the programs they use would be crazy expensive. Was fixing a computer at an embroidery place and they were using windows 95 (this being about 2 years ago).

I dunno, with that much memory, surely it would be more efficient for him to run a virtual machine on his Win7 OS rather than dual booting.

 

[Strazdas]

Well since the minimum RAM requirements are above 3 GB 32 bit system is out of a question either way. (i say 3 GB because while technically 32 bit supports almost 4 GB, you have to account for the fact that blaoted OS will take at least 1 GB away). Still these requirements seem pretty steep, this means good things or extremely poor optimization. well i guess we will have to wait and see.

I see tyhe processor debate is coming up again, so ome thing to keep in perspective is that Intel "i" processors due to different architecture are way more powerful than good old AMD processors, thats why AMD tries to overcompensate with more cores, because they need it to catch up.

People still use 32-bit systems? Come on, get with the program!

i saw plenty of prebuilt pcs with 8GB and 16GB of ram being bundled with 32 bit Win 7. i shit you not they do that and unknownign people buy them.

I have Windows 7 64bit and it runs older games without issue, dual booting is a waste of space (and slows your system down if youve got your HDD partitioned, not so bad if its on seperate drives.

I also have windows 7 64 bit and i can tell you you wont be able to run the likes of Dungeon Keeper, old total wars, return fire, and plenty of other games that werent "fixed" by GOG will have problems. trick is, they dont have these problems on 32 bit XP, so simulating that sometimes is a good way to deal with it. Personally i just created a virtual machine for that but i can see how dualbooting is nice (XP look better anyway!)

Doesn't Watch Dogs look as detailed as GTA IV with the Ice Mod for improved lighting or something? I heard that the game is going to run at no more than 32 FPS on next-gen consoles. Is that true? If so, doesn't that mean that it isn't even worth playing this game on current-gen consoles?

If graphics is what you want from games then its not worth playing any game on current gen console thats going to come out on PC or next gen console.

A reasonable case could be made for disliking Vista and especially 8. But XP is too old, and 7 is too good; if there are still people clinging on to the past at this point, it's for reasons beyond... well, reason. Time to kick that irrational fear of change and/or cripplingly overbearing nostalgia!


As for SteamOS, it's being made for living-room devices designed for Big Picture, not for PCs. You wouldn't want to use SteamOS for a fully functional computer any more than you would Android.

A reasonable case can be made for XP as well, as it did a lot of things right. but as you siad, its getting too old. plenty of things completely dropped support for it, including most drivers, so using one would work great unless you want to actually do modern things. hence why im kinda forced into updating to win 7, and so far its been treating me well (compared to VISTA, 7 is god reincarnate)
I do agree with you about steamOS. steam OS to PC would be like a phone OS (Cough, windows 8, cough) for a PC.

I have a feeling that the "8 core processor" requirement is just AMD showing that they threw money at Ubisoft to make us buy AMD instead of an intel. Kinda the same that M$ did when they've put Windows 8 as a requirement as well.

With that said...I bet it will run on a i5/i7 Intel just fine.

Funny thing is we see intels 4 cores outperform AMDs 8 cores in real situations, which gaming is.