Shadow Of The Tomb Raider PC System Requirements Aren't Steep Unless You Want Ray Tracing
We are fast approaching the launch of Lara Croft's next big adventure, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is set to be one of the first games to support real-time ray tracing. It's also a reboot of the popular Tomb Raider franchise (new players can jump right in without feeling lost in the story line). As the launch date approaches, Square Enix has published minimum and recommended system requirements for the PC version.
To get the game up and running on a PC, you will need an Intel Core i3-3320 or AMD equivalent processor, 8GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 1050 (or GeForce GTX 660) or AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card, 40GB of available storage space, and Windows 7 64-bit (or newer). Not too shabby.
The recommended specs are a little more burly, though still nothing crazy. Here's what is recommended:
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
- RAM: 16GB
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
- Storage: 40GB available space
Basically the recommended specs call for a more modern setup. There's no mention of what kind of settings this will enable, though we imagine Square Enix is targeting 1080p gameplay with the eye candy cranked up.
Interestingly, Square Enix did not reveal a third tier of specs for either playing at 4K or with NVIDIA RTX enabled. It feels like a missed opportunity, given that Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be one of the first games to support NVIDIA RTX.
"We had an excellent partnership with NVIDIA on Rise of the Tomb Raider. Now, thanks to NVIDIA RTX technology, we are pleased to announce that Shadow of the Tomb Raider will, quite fittingly, feature real-time shadows," said Rich Briggs, senior brand director, Crystal Dynamic.
That said, Square Enix previous indicated that real-time ray tracing and deep learning super sampling (DLSS) will arrive in a patch sometime after the game is released. It's not clear exactly when the patch will arrive, but we're crossing our fingers it comes sooner rather than later.
When it does arrive, a different set of specs will be required, at least as it pertains to the GPU. Users will need one of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX series cards. There's gameplay footage out there of a the game running on a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at 1080p, and getting between 30 and 50 frames per second. That is on an unfinished build, though, and also without the benefit of optimized GPU drivers.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider releases on September 14, 2018, six days before the new GeForce RTX cards are scheduled to ship. It's available to pre-order now for $59.99 for the regular version, $69.82 for the Deluxe Edition (3 percent discount), and $89.06 for the Croft Edition (19 percent discount).
