# FarCry 3 PC System Requirements Released, Always-Online DRM Scrapped for Campaign



## btarunr (Sep 26, 2012)

The incredible tropical-paradise visuals we were treated to in trailers of FarCry 3 called for some serious hardware muscle. The studio released minimum, recommended, and high-performance system requirements lists for the upcoming AAA title. The lists are quite accommodating of today's mid-range hardware, but can be quite demanding of PCs more than 2 years old. It was also announced that the game will implement a revised Uplay DRM scheme that needs a one-time activation, and doesn't require you to stay logged-in when playing the single-player campaign. 





The system requirements lists follow.


*Minimum System Requirements* 
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 or AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+ dual-core
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon HD 2900 512 MB with DirectX 9.0c
Memory: 4 GB
*Recommended System Requirements* 
Processor: Intel Core i3-530 or AMD Phenom II X2 565 or equivalent quad-core
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 or AMD Radeon HD 5770 or equivalent 1 GB DirectX 11 graphics
Memory: 4 GB
*High-Performance System Requirements* 
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K or AMD FX-4150 or equivalent quad-core
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 or equivalent DirectX 11 graphics
Memory: 8 GB

*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## btarunr (Sep 26, 2012)

If SysReq Labs follows these lists to the letter, a lot of potential buyers will be tossed out by the "Can My PC Play It?" thingie.


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## EpicShweetness (Sep 26, 2012)

Wow the system I built a LONG time ago (and is somehow still alive) has a Q6600 and a 8800GTX that min spec's, back then you'd rock every game. That some high requirements for a game, must look beautiful!


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## vega22 (Sep 26, 2012)

btarunr said:


> If SysReq Labs follows these lists to the letter, a lot of potential buyers will be tossed out by the "Can My PC Play It?" thingie.



you think?

if you dont have a dual core cpu and dx10 gpu in your gaming system you want talking about.

glad to see they dropped their shitty drm from the sp


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## xenocide (Sep 26, 2012)

btarunr said:


> If SysReq Labs follows these lists to the letter, a lot of potential buyers will be tossed out by the "Can My PC Play It?" thingie.



Why on earth is the High Performance a 2600K or FX-4150???  The CPU comparisons across the board are kind of wonky.  If I recall wasn't the E6700 substantially better than the Athlon X2 they listed?  That 2600k is a really poor "equivalent" since the FX4xxx series is deceptively weak for a quad-core.  I think saying something to the tune of i5-2xxx series or AMD FX Series would probably have been more accurate, or even listing a Phenom II X4 or better.


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## INSTG8R (Sep 26, 2012)

Well I have to give Ubi credit for dropping that junk DRM. This game is now back on my radar!


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## kiddagoat (Sep 26, 2012)

xenocide said:


> Why on earth is the High Performance a 2600K or FX-4150???  The CPU comparisons across the board are kind of wonky.  If I recall wasn't the E6700 substantially better than the Athlon X2 they listed?  That 2600k is a really poor "equivalent" since the FX4xxx series is deceptively weak for a quad-core.  I think saying something to the tune of i5-2xxx series or AMD FX Series would probably have been more accurate, or even listing a Phenom II X4 or better.



Not necessarily, if that system requirement is any indication, the engine for it must be optimized for parallel processing.  If it is indeed threaded all to hell, the FX cpus will shine quite nicely on it.  That is the one thing Bulldozer does accelerate at.


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## scope54 (Sep 26, 2012)

kiddagoat said:


> Not necessarily, if that system requirement is any indication, the engine for it must be optimized for parallel processing.  If it is indeed threaded all to hell, the FX cpus will shine quite nicely on it.  That is the one thing Bulldozer does accelerate at.



I believe it only has good multi-threading with Integer workloads, where as games are mostly floating point.


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## damric (Sep 26, 2012)

Sweet. Anyone got the campaign mode downloaded yet?


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## xenocide (Sep 26, 2012)

kiddagoat said:


> Not necessarily, if that system requirement is any indication, the engine for it must be optimized for parallel processing.  If it is indeed threaded all to hell, the FX cpus will shine quite nicely on it.  That is the one thing Bulldozer does accelerate at.



There are almost 0 gaming oriented benchmarks where an i5-2500k (or even an i5-2300) is not better than an FX-4xxx CPU.  Far Cry 2 was very well threaded, and only the FX-8150 was able to remain at the level of the Sandy Bridge i5's.  I'm not saying the FX-4150 isn't a capable CPU, just that it's a little wonky to say the i7-2600k is equivalent to the FX-4150.


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## punani (Sep 26, 2012)

btarunr said:


> *Recommended System Requirements*
> Processor: Intel Core i3-530 or AMD Phenom II X2 565 or equivalent quad-core
> Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 or AMD Radeon HD 5770 or equivalent 1 GB DirectX 11 graphics
> Memory: 4 GB



Why they have 5770 and GTX 480 on the recommended system .. wasn't GTX 480 almost twice as fast as the 5770 ? 

Anyways, hope my i7 920 can cope with max settings


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## The Von Matrices (Sep 26, 2012)

xenocide said:


> Why on earth is the High Performance a 2600K or FX-4150???  The CPU comparisons across the board are kind of wonky.  If I recall wasn't the E6700 substantially better than the Athlon X2 they listed?  That 2600k is a really poor "equivalent" since the FX4xxx series is deceptively weak for a quad-core.  I think saying something to the tune of i5-2xxx series or AMD FX Series would probably have been more accurate, or even listing a Phenom II X4 or better.



Not to mention that the graphical power of a GTX 480 is is no way comparable to HD 5770.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 26, 2012)

TBH im pretty excited for this game.



damric said:


> Sweet. Anyone got the campaign mode downloaded yet?



Its not even out yet LOL. Doesn't come out till December 4th.

And its not like the campaign mode and if theres a multiplayer will be seperate. Its all one game. LMAO


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## Ghost (Sep 26, 2012)

If these requirements are real, I expect to see this during game intro:


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## Camm (Sep 26, 2012)

I'd have to agree in regards with CPU; either FC3 is heavily parallel (which would be awesome to see to be honest as no one's really taking advantage of threads yet) - or its a load of marketing bollocks for AMD evolved.

On another note - whilst a 5770 is in no league close to a 480, if it has been optimised for AMD, it might (just maybe) be enough to jump it (look at BF3 performance under nvidia vs amd for example, or Shogun 2 AMD vs Nvdia, or Dirt 3 AMD vs Nvidia)


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## xenocide (Sep 26, 2012)

Camm said:


> I'd have to agree in regards with CPU; either FC3 is heavily parallel (which would be awesome to see to be honest as no one's really taking advantage of threads yet) - or its a load of marketing bollocks for AMD evolved.



Even if it can support an infinite number of threads, even a Quad-Core Nahalam-based i7 would outperform an FX-4150, what logical reason do they have for throwing an i7-2600k (something that crushed the FX-4150) on there as an "equivalent?"


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## cdawall (Sep 26, 2012)

Here is my thing FX whatever notwithstanding that it is a slower CPU than the 2600K. Games are Games and you will gain more FPS having a GTX 480 vs a 5770 than 2600K vs FX 4150. How on gods green earth is the GTX 480 in the same sentence as the 5770? People upgrade from the 5770 to a GTX 480 that's like a night and day difference in games.


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## LDNL (Sep 26, 2012)

Minimum System Requirements

    Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 or AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+ dual-core
    Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 *GT* or ATI Radeon HD 2900 512 MB with DirectX 9.0c
    Memory: 4 GB

Recommended System Requirements

    Processor: Intel Core i3-530 or AMD Phenom II X2 565 or equivalent quad-core
    Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT*S* 4*5*0 or AMD Radeon HD 5770 or equivalent 1 GB DirectX 11 graphics
    Memory: 4 GB

High-Performance System Requirements

    Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K or AMD FX-*8*150 or equivalent quad-core
    Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 or equivalent DirectX 11 graphics
    Memory: 8 GB

Fixed all the typos


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## cdawall (Sep 26, 2012)

LDNL said:


> Minimum System Requirements
> 
> Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 or AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+ dual-core
> Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 *GT* or ATI Radeon HD 2900 512 MB with DirectX 9.0c
> ...



See that sounds a lot more sane.


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## dickobrazzz (Sep 26, 2012)

> Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 or AMD Radeon HD 5770 or equivalent 1 GB DirectX 11 graphics


LOL



cdawall said:


> Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K or AMD FX-8150 or equivalent quad-core
> Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 or equivalent DirectX 11 graphics
> Memory: 8 GB



i think i5 2320 or fx6100/ ph ii 1075/965 and nv 560ti or amd 6870/6930 will be enough


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## NeoXF (Sep 26, 2012)

Uhm... it's a AMD endorsed (and vice-versa) game... what do you guys expect? Just how Enter The Matrix (only game I can remember for sure) endorsed Intel's shit Netburst Pentium 4s, or Doom 3 for nVidia's shitty GeForce FX series (earlier on, not at the time of the actual launch)... That's not to say the AMD FX-x1xx CPUs are complete shit, I'm actually hoping for Far Cry 3 to be the first game to actually utilize AMD new "take" on multicore x86 CPUs with Bulldozer to it's "fullest" potential... especially since (at least on Windows) there isn't that much (general) software that does it to begin with... and using Intel's compiler is just part of the problem.

As for the GPU side, apart from the recommended/medium requirements, I don't see anything sketchy about it... tho I do hope they didn't "optimize" AMD GPUs for it by gimping nVidia ones... (like nVidia does sometimes when it's the MANY other times around).

But at any rate, I hope it's at least 60 frames per second average playable on max settings with 4x non-post-process AA, on the R7970s and GF680s... I really hate games that MIGHT look good, but aren't worth shit when you can't play them "as intended" on launch day, or without paying insane amounts of money (for many, even that didn't help for another 1 or 2 GPU generations), when either they're not optimized (GTA IV) OR the hardware isn't there yet (can't think of one at the moment, sadly... maybe Doom 3, especially with the immense VRAM requirements, but great performance overall otherwise) OR BOTH (Crysis is probably the best example here, but FEAR or TES IV: Oblivion can also apply).


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## Lionheart (Sep 26, 2012)

Unbalanced system requirements but whatever, looking forward to this game.....DX11 pls


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## arnoo1 (Sep 26, 2012)

wow this is not good news, i am a poor student, and i have a crappy old gtx275
still looking forward to the game
system req is damn high like metro


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## NeoXF (Sep 26, 2012)

To Hell with D3D11... wish it was OGL 4.2+ LOL


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## joyman (Sep 26, 2012)

Perhaps the game engine uses instruction set that is present on Bulldozer architecture and not on Sandy Bridge, like XOP and FMA4, because no matter how well threaded it is 4150 is 2 modules(4 cores if we take them as cores) and this is nowhere more threads as 2600k. We'll see... On the graphics front it would be refreshing to see something different than TWMTBP.


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## renz496 (Sep 26, 2012)

Ghost said:


> If these requirements are real, I expect to see this during game intro:
> 
> http://pcper.com/images/news/amdgamingevolved.jpg



heard some news about the game will indeed be on AMD Gaming Evolved banner quite sometime ago. when the spec like 480 and 5770 are listed on the same tag on recommended card needed it kind of confirm the news lol. 

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/games-news/amds-gaming-evolved-program-snags-far-cry-3/

i like the idea about the gpu maker working closely with game dev to optimize the performance on their hardware but honestly i don't like the story when the dev already sponsored by company A it will shut it doors to work with company B. (like the one happen with that holy Batman game lol).


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## mediasorcerer (Sep 26, 2012)

Oh hooray you can play offline, thats a winner in my book, about time too, maybe they are listening after all, i loved the first far cry, i still laugh when i think of the scene where you could sneak up and release the tridents out of there cages on your enemies haha, cant wait for this !!!

thanx for update ~g1,


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## tacosRcool (Sep 26, 2012)

This game looks amazing! Good thing my computer is high end! Another great thing is that Ubisoft is a little less evil to its PAYING customers.


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## HossHuge (Sep 26, 2012)

Is there a particular resolution standard for each requirement?

for example;

1440*900 Minimum

1920*1080 Recommended

2560x1440 High-Performance


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## Recus (Sep 26, 2012)

renz496 said:


> i like the idea about the gpu maker working closely with game dev to optimize the performance on their hardware but honestly i don't like the story when the dev already sponsored by company A it will shut it doors to work with company B. (like the one happen with that holy Batman game lol).









When high end GPU/CPU running like mainstream is good thing... Not.


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## renz496 (Sep 26, 2012)

to be honest i don't believe it that 480 will only perform on par with 5770 in this game. i'm looking forward to official bench on this game when it comes out this december


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## 3870x2 (Sep 26, 2012)

There is a lot of buzz about system requirements.  

I stopped looking at specs since 2004, since then they were mostly irrelevant.

A 680 is required, but if you turn AA off, or lower shadows, you can run pretty close to max settings with an 8800GTX.

Some things are very resource intensive compared to others, if you can learn to tweak your settings you won't be missing much with lower end hardware.


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## Durvelle27 (Sep 26, 2012)

So i can almost max this game XD


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## raptori (Sep 26, 2012)

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K , LOL @ the "K" .


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## johnnyfiive (Sep 26, 2012)

Cool. Now lets focus on the important factor in this title. If its anything like FarCry 2, I'm going to blow a fuse.

IT BETTER NOT SUCK LIKE FC2. <---


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## 3870x2 (Sep 26, 2012)

johnnyfiive said:


> Cool. Now lets focus on the important factor in this title. If its anything like FarCry 2, I'm going to blow a fuse.
> 
> IT BETTER NOT SUCK LIKE FC2. <---



Never played, but from what I hear, the problem with FC2 is that it had very annoying tendencies like respawning enemies and such.

Other than that, it could have been an alright game.


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## johnnyfiive (Sep 26, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> Never played, but from what I hear, the problem with FC2 is that it had very annoying tendencies like respawning enemies and such.
> 
> Other than that, it could have been an alright game.



That, and a lot of other annoyances. One of them being, having to randomly give yourself medicine because you have malaria...


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## RejZoR (Sep 26, 2012)

The fact that they are pushing their Uplay junk is a good enough reason not to buy this game... we don't need hundreds of idiotic clients. Get it Ubi? Steam was the first and i won't complain. But everyone else are just "me too" in a hope to lock users to their crap. Thanks but no thanks.


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## D007 (Sep 26, 2012)

Lmao the 680 on high end requirements list.. That's what I call futureprofing a game for graphics.. Be able to play it in years and think "Dam this game still looks great"..

UBI's Drm is horrendous though.
Anyone who has experienced ubi's drm issues knows how bad it gets..
Ever played any of the silent hunter games? 
You have no idea.. Ubi will just give up and offer absolutely NO support if they just plain don't feel like it..
I have no respect for that business model..


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## yapchagi (Sep 26, 2012)

they didn't say how much VRAM needed for high settings requirement. Only recommended settings needs 1 GB VRAM there.


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## Ikaruga (Sep 26, 2012)

2600K would not even feel the load where the FX-4150 maxes out, what kind of gibberish is this (perhaps they meant 8150?) 
With the native resolution of today's monitors, most of the games are tend to be GPU bond anyway, and there is no way on earth that a "proper" code would run equal or faster on a HD-5770 than how it would run on a GTX-480.
Either there are some serious slowdowns on Nvidia cards, or the person who wrote this had absolutely no idea about GPUs whatsoever.


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## xorbe (Sep 26, 2012)

johnnyfiive said:


> That, and a lot of other annoyances. One of them being, having to randomly give yourself medicine because you have malaria...



They were trying to have some "realistic" aspects (and advertised that too) but yah they overlooked the part where people generally like fun more than realism when it comes to gaming.  Supposedly the team actually spent some time on the savannah, but goodness knows how stretched that "fact" is.  Of course, entire camps of enemies respawning if you step 0.1mm too far is not exactly realistic ... and don't forget "Far Cry 2: Vehicle Repair for Dummies!"

Oh, and people are going way too crazy here about some probably highly arbitrary suggested specs that got slapped on the box.


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## xenocide (Sep 27, 2012)

joyman said:


> Perhaps the game engine uses instruction set that is present on Bulldozer architecture and not on Sandy Bridge, like XOP and FMA4, because no matter how well threaded it is 4150 is 2 modules(4 cores if we take them as cores) and this is nowhere more threads as 2600k.



It would be absolutely suicidal to code a game for Instruction Sets that are present only on the minority companies CPU's.  It's one thing to optimize a game for AMD or Nvidia GPU's because the split is rather even, but optimizing for AMD CPU's by using Instruction Sets exclusive to them when Intel represents a much larger portion of the market is insane.  Hell, I'd be amazed if anyone could find a single benchmark where the FX-4150 is on par for the i7-2600K...


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## KissSh0t (Sep 27, 2012)

I might consider buying Ubisoft games again since they have scrapped the always on DRM, I haven't bought any of their games for years now because of how they chose to treat PC gamers.


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## Prima.Vera (Sep 27, 2012)

KissSh0t said:


> I might consider buying Ubisoft games again since they have scrapped the always on DRM, I haven't bought any of their games for years now because of how they chose to treat PC gamers.




To much fuss about this DRM. Just look at Diablo 3...


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## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Sep 27, 2012)

Prima.Vera said:


> To much fuss about this DRM. Just look at Diablo 3...


Diablo 3 gets content updates, mp coop, and secure spot on a centralized server for your character data. Its an always on in the first place, because the mechanics requires you to be always on. Just like why mmorpgs are always on. Having an always on drm for singleplayer FPS that would stay the same forever is nonsensical and annoying


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## Completely Bonkers (Sep 27, 2012)

```
{if cpu=amd goto moar
do loop wait}
:moar
{if gpu=amd goto evenmoar
do loop wait}
:evenmore
...gamecode
```


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## Prima.Vera (Sep 27, 2012)

Bjorn_Of_Iceland said:


> Diablo 3 gets content updates, mp coop, and secure spot on a centralized server for your character data. Its an always on in the first place, because the mechanics requires you to be always on. Just like why mmorpgs are always on. Having an always on drm for singleplayer FPS that would stay the same forever is nonsensical and annoying



No, is not like any other MMO. MMO are only online. In D3 even if I choose solo gaming, I still have to log online. No net, no D3... Ring a bell?


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## xenocide (Sep 27, 2012)

Prima.Vera said:


> No, is not like any other MMO. MMO are only online. In D3 even if I choose solo gaming, I still have to log online. No net, no D3... Ring a bell?



He's referring to the fact that it has always-on DRM by design.  They store character data on servers so it cannot be compromised (by legitimate players or hackers) and constantly stream updates to the game which add bug fixes, balance changes, and content.  Far Cry 3 has no reason to be always on because it needs exactly none of those things.


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## LiveOrDie (Sep 27, 2012)

Cool i should be able to smash High-Performance


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## joyman (Sep 28, 2012)

xenocide said:


> It would be absolutely suicidal to code a game for Instruction Sets that are present only on the minority companies CPU's.  It's one thing to optimize a game for AMD or Nvidia GPU's because the split is rather even, but optimizing for AMD CPU's by using Instruction Sets exclusive to them when Intel represents a much larger portion of the market is insane.  Hell, I'd be amazed if anyone could find a single benchmark where the FX-4150 is on par for the i7-2600K...



I cannot agree with you on this. With the fact that AMD will dominate in the next console generation - almost in all brands it is not suicidal, but in fact very smart move. Porting to PC will become very easy and straightforward.


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## NeoXF (Sep 28, 2012)

mediasorcerer said:


> Oh hooray you can play offline, thats a winner in my book, about time too, maybe they are listening after all, i loved the first far cry, i still laugh when i think of the scene where you could sneak up and release the tridents out of there cages on your enemies haha, cant wait for this !!!
> 
> thanx for update ~g1,



CryTek made that one... they have no business between each other (the games). They are both fun, in some way or another tho. Hopefully FC3 is too.


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## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Sep 28, 2012)

xenocide said:


> He's referring to the fact that it has always-on DRM by design.  They store character data on servers so it cannot be compromised (by legitimate players or hackers) and constantly stream updates to the game which add bug fixes, balance changes, and content.  Far Cry 3 has no reason to be always on because it needs exactly none of those things.



Nailed it. Man I wish I had a streamline process to convert thoughts to literal words XD


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## xenocide (Sep 28, 2012)

joyman said:


> I cannot agree with you on this. With the fact that AMD will dominate in the next console generation - almost in all brands it is not suicidal, but in fact very smart move. Porting to PC will become very easy and straightforward.



What do you mean AMD will dominate the next console generation?  It has been well known that at least the Wii U and Durango will use IBM PowerPC-based CPU's, Sony is more than likely going to follow.  I think all consoles will use IBM CPU's with AMD GPU's, and if you're referring to GPU's that's a completely different ball game.


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## 3870x2 (Sep 28, 2012)

Live OR Die said:


> Cool i should be able to smash High-Performance



Turn AA off and you could smash High-Performance with much, much less.

It seems alot of people don't realize how much of a detriment AA has, with very little return (unless your obsessive compulsiveness hates jaggies )

Maybe I just mess around with graphics settings more than most.

You would be surprised what your hardware can run with the right amount of tweaking.

There are games that double FPS by turning off particle effects, or lowering lighting or shadows.


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## AphexDreamer (Sep 28, 2012)

For them to list the FX-4150 next to the 2600 has me thinking maybe the figured out how to make the most out of an FX chip? 

Also that screenshot does not impress me...


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## NeoXF (Sep 29, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> Turn AA off and you could smash High-Performance with much, much less.
> 
> It seems alot of people don't realize how much of a detriment AA has, with very little return (unless your obsessive compulsiveness hates jaggies )
> 
> ...



Yeah, AA in Battlefield 3 is probably the best example, drops FPS by like 25-50% yet give virtually no improvement (Hell, FXAA Very High does waaay more than it, and costs what? 1-2% FPS drop?).

Then again, I always tests my games to Hell and back (even if I can run them maxed 60/120fps+)... so that's not a "issue" for me.

Also, there's framerate killers bigger than SGSS-AA out there... that don't justify the high performance cost drop either... like "Uber-sampling" in The Witcher 2 (shitty engine to begin with) or Advanced Depth Of Field in Metro 2033 (meh engine)... or the classic... soft shadows in FEAR.


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## Super XP (Sep 29, 2012)

AphexDreamer said:


> For them to list the FX-4150 next to the 2600 has me thinking maybe the figured out how to make the most out of an FX chip?
> 
> Also that screenshot does not impress me...


The 2600 is Intel users requirements and the FX is for AMD users. The FX 4170 may not be the fastest, but it WILL play any game you throw at it.


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## Miguel2013 (Oct 8, 2012)

is there a far cry 3 demo I can't find it on gamer's hell.


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## xenocide (Oct 9, 2012)

Super XP said:


> The 2600 is Intel users requirements and the FX is for AMD users. The FX 4170 may not be the fastest, but it WILL play any game you throw at it.



That's not the argument, the argument is that the i7-2600k is leaps and bounds ahead of the FX-4xxx line in terms of performance.  An FX-4170 will technically play any game you throw at it, but saying an i7-2600k is its performance equivalent is a flat out falsehood.  In most situations the i3-2120 outperforms the FX-4xxx CPU's, and in every instance an i5-2(3/4/5)xx will crush it.


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