CD Projekt Red has announced a significant update to the minimum system requirements for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC, dropping support for HDDs and Windows 10 in favor of SSDs and Windows 11. This change is being made in preparation for the upcoming third expansion, "Songs of the Past," which is scheduled for release next year.
"These minimum requirements reflect how hardware capabilities and software usage have evolved since we last changed the system requirements."
— CD Projekt Red
New Minimum System Requirements
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
- VRAM: 6 GB
- RAM: 12 GB
- Storage: 70 GB SSD
- OS: 64-bit Windows 11
Previous Minimum System Requirements (for comparison)
- CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz or AMD A10-5800K APU (3.8GHz)
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7870
- RAM: 6 GB
- Storage: 50 GB available space
- OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
Why the Changes?
The switch to Windows 11 is a direct result of Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 in 2024. CD Projekt Red explained, "Without ongoing security updates, official platform support, and continued GPU driver support, we will no longer test our games on Windows 10." Consequently, the game will now run exclusively on DirectX 12 and will only support processors and graphics cards that are supported on Windows 11.
The removal of HDD support is driven by performance needs. SSDs offer better performance, faster loading times, and improved asset streaming. The next game update will implement these new requirements, though a specific release date has not yet been announced.
What This Means for Players
- Affected players can revert to earlier versions of The Witcher 3; CD Projekt Red provides a guide for this process.
- The third expansion, "Songs of the Past," is being co-developed with Fool's Theory.
These new requirements reflect a major shift in the minimum PC spec for a game originally released in 2015, ensuring it remains compatible with modern hardware and operating systems.