Rise of the Tomb Raider system requirements revealed

Rise of the Tomb Raider came to PC on January 28, as you may have heard, and 86 aggregate scores on Metacritic don't lie: It sure seems like a pretty good game. But while Xbox One owners only need a single piece of information to determine whether or not they can run it—where is my Xbox One?—those of us on the PC side of the coin have a few more questions to answer. Fortunately, we're here to help.

It's interesting that Square Enix has released a minimum spec needed to play Rise of the Tomb Raider, but nothing in the way of recommended hardware. It's not really an issue, recommended specifications are always a bit squishy and subjective anyway, but omitting one is definitely out of the ordinary. It's possible that a recommendation will be forthcoming at some point in the future and if so, we'll update. For now, here's the bottom-line hardware you'll need to raid that tomb.

OS: Windows 7 64bit
Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 or AMD equivalent
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 650 2GB or AMD HD7770 2GB
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 25 GB available space

I seem to say this a lot these days but it's fairly moderate as PC gaming hardware goes. 25GB of hard drive space isn't inconsequential, but a Core i3 and GTX 650 aren't much; I can see the 6GB RAM requirement being potentially sticky, but come on, why are you still running with 4GB of RAM?

Square Enix was also kind enough to release a half-dozen 4K screens, which you can witness in all their gigantic-nosed glory below.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.