The full Alan Wake Remastered system requirements are here

(Image credit: Remedy Entertainment)

A 4K overhaul of Remedy's cult flashlight game Alan Wake was announced earlier this month, promising to bring a whole new level of visual fidelity to the strange world of Bright Falls. Now, courtesy of the Alan Wake Remastered FAQ, we know what we'll need to run it.

Straight to it, then!

CPU: Intel i5-3340 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 or AMD RX470, 4GB VRAM
RAM: 8GB or higher
OS: Win 10 64-bit

Recommended:

CPU: Inte i7-3770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD 5600XT, 6GB VRAM
RAM: 16GB
OS: Win 10 64-bit

The PC version of Alan Wake Remastered requires x64 architecture and DirectX 12, and will support Nvidia DLSS but not ray tracing or HDR, which I think is interesting given that just a few days ago we declared that DLSS, and not ray tracing, is the "true legacy" of Nvidia's RTX cards. But also noteworthy is the fact that the GTX 1060 in the recommended spec does not support DLSS: If you want all the bells and whistles you'll need to up that to an Nvidia RTX GPU.

Alan Wake Remastered will support ultra-wide displays (although pre-rendered cut scenes will still be rendered at 16:9 rather than 21:9), and framerates will be unlocked. And here are all the various settings and options you'll be able to play with:

Graphical Settings:

Ambient occlusion – Yes – (HBAO+ Nvidia Ambient occlusion tech)
Resolution – Enumerated resolutions
V-Sync – On/Off
Console v-sync set to on and with no option to turn off
HUD – Enabled/Disabled
Brightness
Motion Blur – Enabled/Disabled
Film Grain – Enabled/Disabled
FOV – Slider

Advanced Options:

Graphics Quality – Low/Medium/High/Custom
Render Scale – Slider – default to 100%
Anisotropic Filtering – Off, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x
Shadow Quality – Low, Medium, High
Volumetric Light Quality – Low, Medium, High
Terrain Quality – Low, High
Draw Distance – Slider

The FAQ also addresses Remedy's reasons for remastering rather than remaking Alan Wake, which aside from the big visual upgrade will be left completely untouched.

"The plan has always been more about introducing Alan Wake to new audiences rather than remaking the game," it states. "We are still quite happy with the game a decade later."

"From the outset, we decided that this is a remaster and not a remake. While there were some frustrations with the original game’s gameplay (things like Alan often being out of breath when running), we feel these are part of the original Alan Wake experience and haven’t changed them."

It's still possible that Alan Wake fans longing for a sequel will get some good news down the road at some point: Remedy is also working on an unannounced project in partnership with Epic Games that some people believe is Alan Wake 2.

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.