Batman: Arkham City PC system requirements detected

by Jordan Mallory on Oct 22nd 2011 2:30PM

We may have to wait until the eighteenth of November to get our WASD-lovin' keyboard claws on the PC version of Batman: Arkham City, but the extra weeks have given us ample time to make sure our beefy rigs are up to snuff.

Not that we're that worried, mind you: Nvidia has released the minimum and recommended system requirements for the caped crusader's latest romp (after the break), and all told the spec aren't totally outrageous. Maybe we didn't need to spend forty thousand dollars on a replica of Batman: The Animated Series' Batcave supercomputer after all.

Minimum System Requirements

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista or 7
CPU: Dual-Core CPU 2.4 Ghz
RAM: 2GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA 8800 or ATI 3800 with 512MB of VRAM
Sound: Microsoft Windows XP/Vista or 7 compatible sound card (100% DirectX 9.0c-compatible)
DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
Hard Drive: 17.5GB free disk space
Input Devices: 100% Windows XP/Vista or 7 compatible mouse and keyboard

Recommended System Requirements

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7
CPU: Dual-Core CPU 2.5 GHz
RAM: 4GB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or ATI Radeon HD 6850 with 768MB+ of VRAM (DirectX 11 compatible)
Sound: Microsoft Windows XP/Vista or 7 compatible sound card (100% DirectX 9.0c-compatible)
DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
Hard Drive: 17.5 GB free disk space
Input Devices: 100% Windows XP/Vista or 7 compatible mouse and keyboard or Xbox 360 Controller for Windows

Via: Eurogamer
Source: Nvidia

Tags: arkham, batman, Batman-Arkham-Asylum-2, Batman-Arkham-City, catwoman, nvidia, pc, Rocksteady-Studios, system-requirements

Reader Comments (46)

How much better does this bad boy look on PC? I'd totally play it and buy it again if it's a huge improvement.

@PlagueDoctor357

Assuming you have a nVidia card in the 560 range with PhysX...

See for yourself: http://www.geforce.com/News/articles/exclusive-physx-in-batman-arkham-city-a-first-look

@Apakal
Wow, the PhysX makes a huge difference! I got this game for free with my GTX 560 Ti, can't wait for PC release.

@Warlock234

I'm eyeballing that same deal, but I need to upgrade my PSU as well if I do pull the trigger, so I'm waiting a little bit. I'm very poor.

@PlagueDoctor357

The first one was AWESOME i think its one of the best games visually speaking on the p.c. really amazing, specially if you have an nvidia card, but even if you don´t it´s still fantastic, no doubt the best version of all available was the p.c. one and i´m sure this one is no exception.

@Warlock234
Hey I got the same deal too, I was just looking for a new card when my current one kept overheating.

I had no idea I was getting icing on top of the free cake! Or... hmm, what's a better metaphor?

@Warlock234

Just bought a bunch of parts for my new gaming rig, and got the GTX560TI with the AC code too. I can't wait after seeing the vid posted above!

@Warlock234

Count me in on the 560 + Free Batman club. I knew I wanted to upgrade before Batman was released, and decided on a Superclocked EVGA 560. Then I saw it came with Batman for free, sealing the already sealed deal.

Double sealing. Mmmmmmmmmm.

this game is in DX11? cool tessellation and DOF included?

@Tradio Yes. :)

Minium and Recommended CPU hardly differ. :/

Dead Rising 2 OTR also recommends 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo. I tried it on my 2Ghz and it ran fine, any performance problems were to do with my card, not CPU (I know this, I did tests.)

So it's all a bit weird.

@Dick Socrates
CPU doesn't material as much as GPU. All you need is a dual to quad core to run most games.

@Dick Socrates

CPU pans out to more importance in multiplayer games and MMO group play, where a lot more simultaneous calculations are going on per second.

@Apakal Yeah, and advanced/lots of AI and physics etc. Which is what puzzles me about AC, because the CPU needed for Arkham Asylum was much lower and AC doesn't appear to do much that AA didn't, apart from the streaming.

AA Minimum: CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Recommended: Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz.

Playing AA with my 2Ghz Core 2 Duo I don't think I ever ran into a single CPU related issue. If fighting 10 guys simulataneously doesn't do it, I don't know what will! I guess even if there was slow down, I wouldn't see it because my card is already making the game run at about 30.

I'd like to know what they mean by minimum. The minimum to run it at 60fps?

@Apakal

"CPU pans out to more importance in multiplayer games and MMO group play, where a lot more simultaneous calculations are going on per second."

It's a bit more complicated than that since most modern engines and APIs (specifically DX11) are designed to take advantage of as many cores or threads as they possibly can. MT Framework titles, for example, are heavily threaded and you'll see a tangible performance increase when moving from a dual core to a quad core CPU with all other things being equal (same architecture, clock speed, etc.). Deus Ex: HR and Crysis 2 are both nigh unplayable on a dual core system, as are current generation Rockstar PC titles. DICE's games also benefit heavily from multiple cores, and newer UE3 titles don't run well unless they have at least 4 threads to work with. The days of dual core CPUs being viable for PC gaming are coming to an end.

@jackal

This man speaks the truth. I noticed a huge FPS increase in Crysis 1, Deus Ex: HR and Metro 2033 when going from my E8200@3.6 to a Q6600@3.0.

In most games a dual core is more than enough, though.

@jackal
I call bullshit on DX:HR not being playable on a dual core. Using a 3.1Ghz dual, with only a 9800GT graphics card. Run almost settings in DX at high, with AA at 4x and AF at 8x, never dips below 60fps.

Hell yea. Maxed out here I come!

detecting cat-cleavage as well

I hope the PC version gets all the DLC the console version is getting. At least it looks like its getting the Catwoman DLC.

The GeForce GTX shows how good it can look, with all the PhysX and Tesselation
http://youtu.be/9_UNRp7Wrog

is it just me or is that one of the highest "Recommended" gpu's around

@milliniar

Battlefield 3 is the only thing I can think of that recommends slightly higher. Most everything else is still recommending 5000 series ATI cards and equivalent nVidia cards.

Physx! Yay. Also, Steam says the 15th of november.. ?

I've had the same pc since 2008 and it still runs all modern games fine...should be good for another few years it looks like...

@Timjoy

My PC has a 4850 and I can run most anything on medium settings at the least, but I'm upgrading this year for sure.

@Timjoy
Unless you want to play Battlefield 3. Most everything is still built with mid to lower end computers in mind, even Rage runs fine on a 9800GT card. Battlefield 3, however, wouldn't even run reasonably well at lowest settings.

Im sorry...but 17.5 GB??????
I hope it actually works in a 64 bit unlike Arkham Asylum

@CaptainEternity99

64bit works without any issue. I have played Arkham Asylum 2 times through on Windows 7 x64.

@CaptainEternity99 Get a PC That doesn't suck. I didn't have any trouble running AA on mine.

@Faceless Troll

I CAN run it I meet the specs but somehow it never worked on me, downloaded from Steam

When i scrolled past the picture quickly i swear i saw nipple. Turns out it was just some sweet lighting my laptop cant handle. /sigh

Hey this is just a heads up! If you recently bought a GTX 500 series card (excluding the 550 ti) from Tiger Direct (Before the FREE Batman game promo) You can email TigerDirect, and they will send you a game code for the FULL game. I just did this last week, and they promptly helped me out. :D

PS. this game looks great!! It will be even better with Physx and 3D Vision

after looking at the system specs.. i realized how much memory games take nowadays.. I remember when i would freak out if a game was half a GB!.. but now.. almost 20GB? lol I guess this is the norm.. but still. that's a lot

Damn. My 6850 already is just a ''recommended''?
That worries me.

@rullers
Same for my GTX 460... I am slightly comforted by the fact that it is an MSI overclocked one but hope I can play this on at least medium or console it is...

@dude3991

I have a GTX 460 as well and I can't imagine we won't be able to max this game out. I have maxed out every game I have played with it sans Witcher 2 (and that's just the 3D elements I can't do).

@rullers

Since Rocksteady's promised some very liberal use of displacement mapping and tessellation in environmental geometry (tessellated character meshes are a given), that's probably why the "recommended" requirements are so high; anything slower than an HD 5830, HD 6850, or GTX 460 simply doesn't have the grunt necessary to render the massive increase of vertices found in a scene when going from DX9 to DX11.

Seriously? Excited for Arkham Asylum but the physx portion not so much. It's a good idea to have dedicated hardware for this sort of stuff...but where has it gone in all this time. Apparently it can push generic rectangles on you. Sparks in the one scene are obviously 2d rectangular sprites manipulated by the physx engine. The sheets of paper blowing around in the wind...rectangular sprites manipulated by physx engine. The shattering glass scene is the worst offender as glass DOES NOT LOOK LIKE a bunch of 2d sprites. I don't really think Physx is accomplishing what Ageia or NVIDIA intended, and I don't think some 3d transform on the most basic of 2d sprites is that impressive nor the effect that great looking.

"to get our WASD-lovin' keyboard claws on the PC version "

Speak for yourself. I use a wireless 360 gamepad with all my games on the PC.

Phenom II X4 965 / Radeon HD 5870 will cut through this like hot knife through butter.

ST

I have two GTX 460s, I don't think I'll have a problem.

@Enosoma
& 8 gigs of ram

@Enosoma

I'm sure you get all the girls.

@Esposch

You couldn't imagine

@Enosoma Two 460s here too, man!

Let's max out some Batman!

I wish they'd use a physics engine which actually supports more then 1 brand.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City PC system requirements detected

Reader Comments (46)

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 2:32PM PlagueDoctor357 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:19PM Apakal said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:24PM Warlock234 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:27PM Apakal said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:49PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 5:00PM Misguided Terran said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 5:31PM jchan said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 11:49PM Nicknamer said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 2:36PM Tradio said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 2:56PM TheUnnamable said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 2:38PM Dick Socrates said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 2:52PM Special Agent Steve said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:29PM Apakal said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:49PM Dick Socrates said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 4:57PM jackal said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 8:21PM Esposch said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 8:58PM Jennacide said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 2:53PM Deividas said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 2:56PM damnreds said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:03PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:10PM renhoelder said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:10PM milliniar said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:25PM Apakal said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:12PM Motoko21 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:14PM Timjoy said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:20PM Apakal said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 9:00PM Jennacide said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:33PM CaptainEternity99 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:49PM HellFiend said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 4:05PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2011 6:56PM CaptainEternity99 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:41PM OmgUmad said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 3:56PM grumpyzrp said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 4:07PM grumpyzrp said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 4:20PM rullers said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 4:27PM dude3991 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 6:24PM Startbuttonnews said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 7:25PM jackal said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 6:27PM nrkist2424 said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 6:45PM Steel Toad said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 7:08PM Enosoma said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 7:09PM Enosoma said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 8:25PM Esposch said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 8:27PM Enosoma said

Posted: Oct 23rd 2011 10:44AM TheKbob said

Posted: Oct 22nd 2011 7:49PM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Batman: Arkham City Info

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