We finally got a detailed look at Assassin's Creed Shadows ahead of its March 20 launch. Alongside that, Ubisoft has also revealed the game's PC system requirements. It also confirmed PC-specific features such as uncapped FPS, support for AI upscalers such as DLSS, FSR and XeSS, raytraced illumination/reflections, ultra-wide monitor support, dynamic resolution and an in-built benchmark. As expected, this doesn't include new Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards, but Assassin's Creed Shadows should have no trouble running on any of the four GPUs shown off.
For an unparalleled experience at 4K with raytracing turned up, you'll need an Intel Core i7-13700K/AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D combined with at least an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
. 1440p players can get by with a GeForce RTX 4080. AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XTX is nowhere to be found on the list, which is puzzling.
Next up, with “standard” raytracing, things get a lot more confusing.1080p demands a modest Core i7-8700K/Ryzen 5 3600X plus GeForce RTX 2070/Radeon RX 6800 XT. But at 1440p, the requirements jump up to a Core i5-11600K/Ryzen 5 5600X plus GeForce 4070 Super/Radeon RX 7800 XT/Intel Arc B580. A pattern beings to emerge here: AMD/Intel GPUs will need more VRAM than Nvidia to run Assassin's Creed Shadows, and one can't help but wonder why.
Exactly what Ubisoft means by 'selective' ray tracing is a mystery. At the bare minimum, you'll need an AMD Ryzen 6 3600/Intel Core i7-8700K and a three-gen-old GeForce GTX 1070/Radeon RX 5700 or the newer Intel Arc A580. Those looking for a 60 FPS experience will need slightly newer hardware such as the Core i5-11600K/AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti/Radeon RX 6700 XT/Intel Arc B580.
For 1440p, you'll need an Intel Core i5-11600K/AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU and a GeForce RTX 3080/Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card. Lastly, for 4K, Assassin's Creed Shadows PC system requirements shoot up to a Core i7-12700K/Ryzen 7 5800X3D and GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super/Radeon RX 7900 XT. All configurations will need at least 16 GB of RAM and Windows 10/11. Interestingly, AMD hasn't revealed how much hard drive space the game needs, but one can reasonably assume it will be north of 100 GB.
Overall, it looks like Assassin's Creed Shadows should run on a wide range of hardware, especially at lower resolutions. This is good news for handheld consoles such as the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. However, its biggest hurdle on the Steam Deck will be Ubisoft's mandatory app integration.