Mass Effect 3 PC Requirements Revealed

Tweet

It’s a good day to be a Mass Effect fan. First, we got a trailer previewing Mass Effect 3′s Kinect functionality and learned that a demo is landing on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on February 14th. Now, BioWare has revealed the equipment you’re going to need in order to run Mass Effect 3 on your PC and has shared more information about the demo. Head past the break for all of the details.

Thankfully, Mass Effect 3 doesn’t look like its going to require a ridiculously powerful rig in order to run, so most of you can probably get away with not updating your hardware prior to release. Take a look at the minimum specifications, followed by the recommended ones:

Minimum Requirements

• OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
• CPU – 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
• RAM – 1GB for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
• Disc Drive – 1x speed
• Hard Drive – 15 GB of free space
• Video – 256 MB* (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)
• Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible
• DirectX – DirectX 9.0c August 2009 (included)

Recommended Requirements

• OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
• CPU – 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)
• RAM – 2GB for XP / 4GB RAM for Vista/Win 7
• Disc Drive – 1x speed
• Hard Drive – 15 GB of free space
• Video – AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB or greater, NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB or greater
• Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible

Concerning the demo that’s due out on February 14th, BioWare says that the multiplayer portion won’t unlock for everyone until February 17th. Everyone will have access to the single player portion once it releases, but in order to gain access to the multiplayer portion early, you’ll need to have redeemed an online pass for Battlefield 3 (a stipulation that may be problematic for some Battlefield 3 owners).

Furthermore, you’ll be able to choose whether you want the demo to focus on action, story, or role-playing just like you’ll be able to in the main game, and BioWare says that all six Mass Effect classes will be playable in the single player campaign portion as well. In keeping with the announcement from earlier this week, the PC version of the demo will require Origin in order to play, something that probably isn’t going to sit well with a lot of players.

Finally, if you’re planning to check out Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer offerings through the demo, be warned that the multiplayer part will become unavailable on March 5th, so you’ll have a limited amount of time to take advantage of it. The single player campaign demo, however, will remain available for a number of months past the game’s launch.

So, who’s going to give this demo a spin when it launches on February 14th? I know I am!