Players will soon be able to join Frey in the world of Athia once Forspoken releases on Jan. 24 on Steam and PlayStation 5. A magical land with creatures as beautiful as they are cruel can be demanding when it comes time for a PC to render the world, however. The more games focus on realistic visuals and seamless gameplay, the more a need for robust and higher-performing hardware grows, and Forspoken is no exception.
Square Enix has released cinematics highlighting why the requirements for the system are as high as they are for players wanting to play on Ultra. Given the gorgeous visuals depicted in the trailers and the fact that the game was also made for the PS5, it should not be surprising that the title is quite demanding on systems.
Forspoken's CPU Requirements
To enjoy Forspoken in all its glory, players want to have the AMD Ryzen 5 5800x (3.8 GHz or better) or the Intel Core i7-12700k. This allows players to enjoy the game at 2160p and 60fps, a strong preference for many regarding smooth gameplay. However, if the player's PC does not have one of these processors, the minimum requirements to play the game only call for an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or Intel Core i7-3770, both at 3.7 GHz or better. Again, this allows gamers to enjoy Forspoken, though they will be limited to a resolution of 720p and 30fps, and the game may not appear as smooth as it could with higher specs.
Anyone looking for a happy medium can enjoy the recommended CPU specs of an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i7-8700K running at 3.7 GHz or better. Recommended settings allow players to enjoy 1440p, though they will be limited to 30fps. At this mark, they can enjoy the game as intended without any significant limitations. Fortunately, the processors required for recommended and above have been out for a while, and many players may already be running with the necessary hardware.
Forspoken's GPU Requirements
The real challenge of playing Forspoken lies with the video cards. Players will need some of the newest GPUs available to play the game at Ultra, requiring either an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB or an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB VRAM. While this will give players access to the best visual experience, given availability and price, not all players may have access to the hardware.
The recommended GPUs call for the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB or the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB VRAM, both of which have been available for a while and were required for games like A Plague Tale: Requiem. While this won't allow the highest available visuals, it still allows fantastic graphics. Square Enix is more forgiving, with the minimum requirements only being the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB VRAM. Again, this will likely require the lowest graphic options, but the game will be playable.
Forspoken's RAM and Storage Requirements
It should be no surprise that a game that requires impressive CPU and GPU hardware will also need decent memory. Regardless if a player uses minimum, recommended, or Ultra settings, they will need 150GB or more storage space, an almost ridiculous amount when games like Hogwarts Legacy only require about 85GB. Where players save the game files will depend on the level they want the game to run. Ultra requires a NvMe, recommended requires an SSD, and at the bare minimum, the game needs to be saved to an HDD.
While the RAM requirements will also vary depending on what level players want to use, they are much more reasonable. For example, Ultra requires 32GB of RAM, the game recommends at least 24GB, and at the bare minimum, a player needs to have 16GB of RAM for the title to function. As many systems use dual-channel RAM, as long as they have at least 8GB sticks or the increasingly common 16GB, they will be fine.
As long as gamers can run current titles, they should be able to play Forspoken using the recommended hardware. Due to the visuals, Ultra may not be available for everyone, but this shouldn't stop anyone from enjoying the game and exploring the world of Athia.