Assassin's Creed System Specifications

Sometimes owning a PC can be very frustrating. I've been looking forward to the release of Assassin's Creed on the PC for a while, now we're into February and its only a few more weeks to go.

However, having just discovered the recommended PC specs I'm not so sure its worth buying anymore. These are the minimum specs floating around the internet at the moment:

Assassin's Creed Specifications:
* Supported OS: Windows XP / Vista (only)
* Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
* RAM: 2 GB (3 GB recommended)
* Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0-compliant video card or DirectX 9.0-compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB video card recommended) (see supported list)*
* Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
* DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
* DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
* Hard Drive Space: 12 GB
* Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI RADEON X1300-1950 / HD 2000 / 3000 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6600-6800 / 7 / 8 / 9 series

So, I'm going to be struggling. My processor just makes it (Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, running at 1.87GHz), I've got the minimum amount of memory at 2GB and my graphics card is going to struggle, being a lowly GeForce 7600GT.

In much the same way as it was for Crysis, I'm just getting in on the minimum requirements. Crysis runs on my machine at lowest detail at a reasonable rate of FPS, but as soon as you start to turn any settings up it starts to crawl. OK, so its playable, but I missed out on all of the eye candy, and I suspect Assassin's Creed will be the same.

I think I'll cancel the pre-order and wait for a demo before committing to this.

Why can't developers make their games more scalable? To expect such high levels of hardware as a starting point is crazy, the potential market for the game is drastically reduced from the start. Next thing they'll be blaming piracy for poor sales!

If developers concentrated on making the game playable on the average specs of machine they'd have a juch wider audience, and consequently more sales. You only need to take a look at the Valve hardware survey results to see that they're really pushing the boundaries for most gamers' rigs.

Update - 11th March 2008
Ubisoft have at last released the official hardware requirements for Assassin's Creed: The Director's Cut on PC. They're not much different to the hardware specs quoted above:

* Supported OS: Windows® XP/Windows Vista®
* Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® D or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
* RAM: 1 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista
* Video Card: 256 MB DirectX® 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher
* Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
* DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or10.0 libraries (included on disc)
* DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
* Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
* Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended)

Checking the two lists of specs, the only difference is the amount of RAM required, which is now specific to the version of Windows you're running, and the hard drive space (down from 12GB to 8GB). The high processor and graphics card requirements remain.

As always its worth taking these requirements with a pinch of salt. While Ubisoft will be attempting to give gamers some warning as to what sort of machine they'll need, they will also be wary of scaring off potential buyers at the minimum-specs end of the market. For this reason I'd be a bit wary about the minimum RAM and would err on the side of caution - 2GB for XP and 3GB for Vista. Also, if you're running the minimum processor and graphics card I'd definitely try before you buy.