In a move that should surprise absolutely no one that has managed to lay eyes on the recent Dark Souls 3 footage, From Software has increased the recommended PC system requirements.
The minimum system specs which once required an i3 CPU & GTX 465 GPU combo have now been upscaled to an i5 & GTX 750 TI, while the recommended settings only did a "little hop" from an i7 & GTX 750 combo to an i7 & GTX 970 setup. Here's how the system requirements stand right now:
"The Hollow" specs (minimum requirements):
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500 3.3GHz / AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 6870
Memory: 8 GB RAMGraphics: NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 465 / ATI Radeon TM HD 6870
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 11 sound device
"The Chosen Undead" specs (recommended requiremenets)
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600 3.4 GHz / AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 20 GB available space
Sound Card:DirectX 11 sound device
While its unfortunate for those on lower end machines, the reality of the situation was that Dark Souls 3 could never really run on the previously detailed minimum specs without sacrificing both graphical fidelity and the sweet, sweet embrace of high FPS.
Dark Souls 3 will be releasing in the West on April 12th, and until then I'll make sure the Sun gets plenty of praise since I won't be seeing it for the majority of April.