A Plague Tale: Requiem is shaping up to be one of the best looking games of the year.
As a sequel to the indie smash success, A Plague Tale: Innocence, Requiem picks up where the last game left off. The two protagonists once again have to sneak and kill their way through hordes of rats and dangerous human enemies, all while coming to terms with the setting’s unique use of supernatural abilities.
Developed for consoles and PC, it’s no surprise that A Plague Tale: Requiem is easy enough to get working on older systems, but it’s no slouch even on minimum settings. You won’t need the most cutting-edge graphics cards, but you’ll still need a decent amount of memory and a relatively capable CPU.
This game won’t run on your old homework machine that you crowbarred an old GPU into. It needs a proper gaming PC.
That’s especially true if you want to play at higher settings, too, with the developers suggesting an RTX 3070 to even get 1080p 60 FPS working at ultra settings. You don’t see that in even the most high-end AAA games. If your rig is ready for a challenge, A Plague Tale: Requiem is it, but if you’re looking to build a new PC to play this beautiful game, you’re going to have to open your wallet.
Here’s everything you need to know about how to get A Plague Tale: Requiem working, and what you’ll need to make it look its best.
A Plague Tale: Requiem Minimum System Requirements
- CPU: Intel Core i5 4690K or AMD FX-8300
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 590, 4GB
- Storage: 55GB
- DirectX: Version 12
- OS: Windows 10 (20H1, 64 bit)
The minimum specifications for this game aren’t super demanding, only asking for a CPU that was mid-range a decade ago, and a graphics card that was mid-range half a decade ago. But you will need 16GB of RAM, which most games usually only demand once you hit their higher settings levels.
Still, this is what you need to just get A Plague Tale: Requiem running capably. Even then, developer Asobo Entertainment claims that this will only get you 30 FPS at 1080p, with all the settings on low.
The game will still look pretty at those settings, as the artists have done an amazing job of recreating medieval France in exquisite detail, and you don’t lose all of that because you aren’t playing at 4K or with the settings at their maximum.
One area well worth going above these specifications, however, is mandating an SSD for its storage. While the game doesn’t demand it at these settings, you will have a much better time with vastly reduced loading screen times if you use an SSD.
Chillblast exclusively uses SSDs for boot drives and game drives for this reason, and with prices the way they are, even if you’re looking to game on an older system, install an SSD for this game. You won’t regret it.
Building a PC To Meet The Minimum Specs
As much as the minimum specifications for A Plague Tale: Requiem might not be too demanding, that does make it a bit tricky to find any of those “recommended” components in new condition.
Even if you already have a CPU that’s as good, or better than that suggested, getting a GTX 970 or RX 590 brand new in 2022 is a tall order. You’ll likely be paying over the odds, or end up having to go to the second-hand market, where age and probable cryptocurrency mining make it questionable what condition you’ll actually find your new GPU.
You’re much better off building a new PC that can exceed these specifications, as you’ll have a capable PC for Plague Tale: Requiem, and any other modern games, plus a future-proof PC which will continue to work well for years to come. If it doesn’t, you’ll have your warranty to fall back on.
To hit the CPU mark with your new PC, you’ll want something affordable but contemporary, and despite newer-generation options, the Intel Core i3-12100F is still the killer gaming CPU at the budget end of the spectrum.
Previous generation alternatives like the Core i5-11400F, and the AMD Ryzen 5500, are also decent options, but while cost and performance are comparable, there is much less of an upgrade path for those CPUs. They also don’t have the same feature support.
For graphics, the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT is a comparable modern card to those recommended by Asobo. Alternatively, the Nvidia GTX 1650 Super can deliver the same kind of performance, though it’s not always as cost-effective and can be harder to find. If you can afford it, the AMD RX 6600 or Nvidia RTX 3060 are much more powerful graphics cards without being too much more expensive.
A Plague Tale: Requiem Recommended System Requirements
- CPU: Intel Core i7 8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, 8GB
- Storage: 55GB SSD
- DirectX: Version 12
- OS: Windows 10 (20H1, 64 bit)
The recommended specifications for A Plague Tale: Requiem look more like other games’ 4K specifications. But, even then, this high-end configuration with top-tier GPUs will only get you 60 FPS at 1080p resolution, if you turn everything up to ultra settings.
While that might say something about the game’s optimization, there’s no denying that A Plague Tale: Requiem is a very pretty game and arguably represents one of the first games of this console generation that truly feels next-generation.
That means that on top of having a relatively powerful CPU from a recent generation, you’ll also need one of the most powerful graphics cards available. According to the latest Steam Hardware Survey, less than eight percent of gamers have a graphics card that’s capable enough to handle these detail settings, so this is going to be a game that isn’t appreciated in all its glory by a mass audience for several years.
Still, if you want to be one of the first to do so, you better bring a powerful PC to the gaming table.
Building a PC to Meet The Recommended Specs
There are a lot of gaming PCs out there that could hit the CPU specifications for this game and just need a simple graphics card upgrade to meet the recommended system requirements. But those CPUs won’t be able to make the most of these kinds of high-end graphics cards with only PCIExpress 3 slots to rely on.
If you’re looking to build a new PC for this game, there’s no point in trying to target those older-generation platforms, either. Not only will you be constrained in much the same way, but you’ll end up paying the kind of prices that will get you much faster components from a modern generation of hardware, with much more upgradeability, better feature support, and likely longer warranties too.
In a rousing endorsement of Intel’s Core i3-12100, it’s still a competitive CPU with these newer, faster-recommended chips, so if you want to keep your budget as low as possible, it’s still the best CPU for the job at this scale. However, this kind of CPU will definitely hold back the performance of your graphics card.
If you can afford the slight increase in expense, the Core i5-12400F is a much-more capable CPU, with additional cores, threads, and a higher boost clock. It’s a more modern gaming CPU that is also far more well-rounded. The AMD equivalent would be the Ryzen 5 5600X, but that has a weaker upgrade path.
As for graphics, going for what’s recommended here would be your best bet. While the newer AMD Radeon RDNA 3 cards are just around the corner, and Nvidia’s RTX 4000-series are starting to debut, they’re all going to be super expensive. The RTX 3000 and RX 6000 range remain the best for affordable, high-end gaming for now.
Playing A Plague Tale: Requiem at 1440p
There are no official specifications or recommended hardware configurations for A Plague Tale: Requiem at anything above 1080p, and considering the hardware needed, that’s perhaps no surprise. But there is room to improve performance on even that capable level of gaming machine. So, let’s take an educated guess at what you might need to enjoy this game at the crisper 1440p resolution.
For starters, you could opt for a comparable PC to the one Asobo recommends for 1080p, ultra, at 60 FPS. You can just tweak the in-game settings that aren’t as important to you and raise the resolution, then monitor frame rates and make any further fine-tuning required to maintain a steady 60 FPS throughout play.
However, if you want to build a PC that enjoys all of the Ultra game settings and 1440p resolution, you’re going to need to up your ante.
The latest generation CPUs have shown themselves very capable of improving overall gaming performance, so we’ll start there. A great pick would be one of the new mid-range options from AMD and Intel, namely the Ryzen 7600X/7700X, or the Intel Core i5-13600K. These are awesome new gaming processors that will run rings around the older options recommended for lower-resolution A Plague Tale: Requiem gaming.
You could also consider the AMD Ryzen 5800X3D, which is comparable in many games to those newer options, but its upgrade path is almost non-existent.
For the GPU, an RTX 3080 or RX 6900XT would do a decent job, though you might get more stable frame rates with an RTX 3080 Ti or RTX 3090. You should consider 32GB of fast RAM too, just to make sure no background tasks inhibit your in-game performance.
Playing A Plague Tale Requiem at 4K
If playing A Plague Tale: Requiem at 1440p was tough, just imagine what 4K will need. The processor isn’t as important at this level, where the GPU will almost certainly be the limiting factor. But if you’re going to spend over £1,000 on a graphics card, you should make sure that your CPU isn’t going to hold it back.
For a A Plague Tale: Requiem 4K PC, you’ll want one of the latest and greatest CPUs, like the Intel Core i7-13700K or Core i9-13900K, or alternatively the AMD Ryzen 7900X. You’ll get slightly better gaming performance out of the Intel CPUs, so if gaming is your main focus, opt for that instead. Although your upgrade potential is far greater with the AMD CPU, so consider your future upgrade plans before proceeding.
As for the GPU, if an RTX 3080 is only just about good enough for 60 FPS at 1440p, you’re going to need to push the boat out and grab one of the new RTX 4000 cards from Nvidia, or alternatively, hold out for AMD’s RDNA3 to see how that measures up. At the time of writing, though, the only real GPU to play A Plague Tale: Requiem at 4K, is the RTX 4090.
Conclusion
A Plague Tale: Requiem is one of the best-looking games ever made – arguably the best, depending on who you talk to. But those looks come with heavy demands, and these specifications show that we finally have games that are starting to push these top cards at 4K again; it’s no surprise that the current consoles can only manage 30 FPS at 1440p.
But it’s a good time to get into such a game, as the graphics cards to really make it look its best are nearly here. The RTX 4090 is readily available for flagship gaming PCs, and for those on slightly more modest budgets, the upcoming RTX 4080 is no slouch, and AMD’s RDNA 3 range of cards is bound to be competitive.
But this is just the beginning of how demanding this game can be. It doesn’t yet have ray tracing, and when that arrives, it might even make the top new cards struggle.
