StarCraft 2's PC and Mac system requirements announced

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jul 16th 2010 4:00PM

Big Download has received the final retail system requirements from Blizzard for Starcraft 2, which will begin its real-time strategic war in stores July 27. Can you -- and your PC -- handle them?

Minimum System Requirements*:

PC: Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 (Latest Service Packs) with DirectX 9.0c
2.6 GHz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
128 MB PCIe NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT or ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card or better

Mac: Mac OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.2 or newer
Intel Processor
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT or ATI Radeon X1600 or better

PC/Mac: 12 GB available HD space
1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista/Windows 7 users, 2 GB for Mac users)
DVD-ROM drive
Broadband Internet connection
1024X720 minimum display resolution

*Note: Due to potential programming changes, the Minimum System Requirements for this game may change over time.

Recommended Specifications:

PC: Windows Vista/Windows 7
Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
2 GB RAM
512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon HD 3870 or better

Mac: Intel Core 2 Duo processor
4 GB system RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT or ATI Radeon HD 4670 or better

Source: Big Download

Tags: mac, pc, specs, Starcraft-2

Reader Comments (84)

looks like no SC2 for me.

@ghostwolves
Really ? The minimum spec are like a 5 years old PC...

@Edawan i think mine is even older than 5 years. ;)

@ghostwolves Updates about SC2 about specs and it's even better! http://2su.de/aK9

12GB HDD space? Jesus.

@superklye 12GBs not all that uncommon. Last couple games I got off Steam were like 10GB each.

@superklye

That's actually not to surprising considering around that range is a normal size for PC games. If we were to go back to 2000 that would be outlandish but considering you can by a hard drive that's 1TB for 70 dollars its really nothing in size.

@superklye

12GB of hard drive space is not THAT much. I suppose that just means there is a lot more to the single player than we think.

@superklye yea 12GBs is nothing in todays PC market...

I mean I know I built my gaming PC, but my System drive is 500GBs....my media drives combined for 6TBs giving me 6.5TB of space...

@superklye

I've got just under 3TB...plenty of space, I'm just saying...for an RTS game, this seems ridiculous.

@superklye Isn't this just the part of the full Starcraft game? Will each part for the different races/species be 12GB each? If so WOW.

@Jamesexmachina

What? Where did you pull something like that from...

@superklye

Napoleon Total War and its 20gb says hi.

@This Little Man Says His Name Is

He does actually have a point they have said that there are different parts to this game I'm like 90% certain.

@den69
50gbs of Final Fantasy XIII says hi too!

@superklye

Don't play Star Wars Force Unleashed then. It takes up 25GB.

12GB is nothing. I remember when Unreal Tournament 2003 came out and it was 1.5GB and it was like "HOLY SHIT". What pisses me off tho is when developers don't try to compress any assets, and think we just have unlimited hard drive space. Sure, we have big hard drives, but you don't need to put 5GB of videos uncompressed on the game, you know?

@Jamesexmachina I think the other 2 will come out as expansions, so definately NOT that big a piece.

Well, I wasn't expecting Minimum Requirements for this to be Triple-SLI GTX440's. Theses are supremely reasonable for the game.

@Fromps Not surprising from blizzard. The lower the specs the larger the installed base of PC's available to sell your product to. A game can still be gorgeous if it doesnt look like Crysis.

@Dirty

Kinda dumb though when a game like Sims 3 has the exact same specs as Sims 2 just so that it will sell more...

So why are the requirements higher for the Mac?

@Ordeith
OpenGL isn't as well optimized as DirectX?

@Ordeith
In reality they are not any higher.

the 8600M is not all that much faster than a desktop 6600GT, the X1600 is not much faster than a 9800 pro

on the flip side for recommended the 8800GTX is about equal or more powerful than the 9600M and a 3870 is either equal or more powerful than a 4670

@Ordeith
Cuz mac sucks lol

@deftonesmx17

I dunno exactly what the OP was referring to, but I was curious as to why the Mac RAM requirement is double (2GB/4GB for min/rec).

Does this mean I'll be able to play it on my MacBook Pro 13"?

@romevi

^this. I have the new 13" with the Nvidia 320m. Will this work?

@Migitoneo I sure hope so. The game comes out on my berfday, which, coincidentally, is the day I get the new MacBook Pro 13" (2.66GHz).
Hopefully I can get in some game time before grad school commences.

@romevi

As I understand it (not being a graphics card guru), the NVidia 8600M and 9600M are from a previous generation when compared to the 320M. I have the new Mac mini (which has a 320M, I think), and I expect Starcraft 2 to play quite well on it.

@adeese Okay, grood. I guess I won't find out until Amazon.com delivers the Collector's Edition to me, but I just wanted to make sure as soon as possible.
I'm no graphics card guru either, so I was seeking advice via these comments.

I have the new model 13" Macbook Pro and have been playing the beta for months (on my gaming PC as well as my MBP). It runs great in both bootcamp and OSX.

@Noodles In Soup HUZZAH!

Direct X 10 at all?

kekekekekekekekekekekeke

@Deschain

Geez you being lame today guys. Can't take a joke.

good to go then....I wont have to upgrade my video card for at least another year or so...spending a bit "extra" on it last year really has its advantages....

I love having an Asus G73! I don't even bother looking at the requirements anymore...

@DeeZeee
You have a Asus g73 i have a Asus G60JX bomb laptop right

@Special Agent Bob Yup! :) The g60 is also pretty nice!

zergrush!!!! oh man havent played starcraft for awhile :) lets all play, will try and use my old name 'zerghunter' :) have my gaming rig ready(recently fixed it) and getting a new hp envy to play this awesome game on it, hey ludwig if you read this! i swear i saw you on the bbc channel at a soccer game in africa, lol

Good fellows from Joystiq does anyone could point me out if my lappy will handled this game without problems?

- Sony FW290
- 4 GB DDR RAM
- Ati Radeon Mobility HD 3650 512 MB RAM

Cheers!

@Night Elve

With those specs I assume you probably have a 2.0GHz+ per core dualcore at the least, so you should be able to run it just fine. Maybe not on ultra graphical settings, but still run it fine.

@Night Elve

Ah yeah I forgot that I have Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz

@Night Elve

Yes, you can run it, probably on high detail too.
Laptops aren't good for gaming though as they generally have underpowered graphics cards and are a pain to upgrade.

Let's see what I've got to work with here..... 6 cores @ 3.2ghz, each... 8 gigs of DDR3... 2x ATI 4870's....1.5 TB left on the HD....

Yeah, I think I'm good to go! ;-)

Sucks this game isn't (immediately) supporting DX11. Otherwise, I'd upgrade my GFX cards in a heartbeat.

@Walter White Every time min specs are posted, someone has to show off their e-peen . . .

@Walter White

Well I have a 512mb DDR3 9600gt, 2gbs of DDR2667, an e4400 running at 2.4ghz and a 320gb HDD all in a 945 motherboard.

It cost 1/3 of the price of yours and still runs the game in high detail.
Have fun bragging about pieces of silicon on a blog, I'll be busy spending that extra $1000 on actually useful things.

@Walter White

What is the point of having video cards like that with a 6core cpu?

You can't say you need it. And you can't even say you are going for benchmarks.

@DyslexicAlucard - and yet I'm sure I could slap you in the face with mine, either way.

@Esposch - Where the hell are you shopping? My entire PC cost a total of $800.

Try building them. It's far cheaper than buying off the shelf.

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StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty

StarCraft 2's PC and Mac system requirements announced

Reader Comments (84)

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 9:41PM ghostwolves said

Posted: Jul 18th 2010 3:22PM Edawan said

Posted: Jul 19th 2010 12:38AM ghostwolves said

Posted: Jul 23rd 2010 9:47AM peirantliling said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:12PM superklye said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:22PM theCHENRY said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:24PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:42PM Deschain said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 5:05PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 5:09PM superklye said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 5:11PM Jamesexmachina said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 8:58PM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 9:09PM den69 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 9:47PM den69 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 10:23PM Esposch said

Posted: Jul 17th 2010 10:14AM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Jul 17th 2010 7:09PM trigga1 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:14PM Fromps said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:30PM Dirty said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 9:51PM den69 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:15PM Ordeith said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:19PM zerokku said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:38PM deftonesmx17 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 7:00PM Irvine032188 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 8:48PM superklye said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:19PM romevi said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:40PM Migitoneo said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:50PM romevi said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:58PM adeese said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 5:03PM romevi said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 6:16PM Noodles In Soup said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 6:18PM romevi said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:36PM Quayle said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 4:36PM Deschain said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 6:39PM Deschain said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 5:11PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 5:28PM DeeZeee said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 5:42PM Special Agent Bob said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 8:47PM DeeZeee said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 5:44PM gatorduck said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 6:04PM Night Elve said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 6:11PM zerokku said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 6:34PM Night Elve said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 10:38PM Esposch said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 6:49PM Walter White said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 7:46PM DyslexicAlucard said

Posted: Jul 16th 2010 10:36PM Esposch said

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StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty Info

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