Thursday, January 23rd 2025

DOOM: The Dark Ages Requires RT. Release Date, PC System Requirements, and New Gameplay Trailer Revealed

The time draws near to Reign in Hell when DOOM: The Dark Ages releases May 15, 2025, on Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC. Preorder your copy today! For PC players, check that your setup is battle-ready by consulting our PC Requirements below, including listings for Minimum, Recommended and even Ultra 4K settings.

A NEW GENERATION OF IDTECH
id Software's most ambitious title yet, DOOM: The Dark Ages pushes new standards in visual fidelity and performance with the power of idTech8. Taking full advantage of modern hardware on all platforms, idTech8 ushers in a new era of gameplay performance and visual fidelity featuring all-new dynamic interactive ray-traced lighting and shadows, higher-fidelity image quality, increased gore and destruction and so much more. With the largest environments ever in a DOOM game, DOOM: The Dark Ages delivers an epic experience full of worlds to explore, hordes of demons to destroy and an action story worthy of the Slayer's legend. Whether soaring through the air with his dragon or smashing giant Titan-sized demons using his Atlan mech, the Slayer is taking on his biggest battles yet - all beautifully rendered and running at a buttery-smooth 60 frames per second on all platforms.
System Requirements
MINIMUM (1080p/60 FPS/Low Video Settings)
  • OS: Win 10 64Bit / Win 11 64Bit
  • CPU: AMD Zen 2 or Intel 10th Generation @3.2Ghz with 8 cores / 16 threads or better (examples: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or better, Intel Core i7 10700K or better)
  • GPU: NVIDIA or AMD hardware ray tracing-capable GPU with 8 GB dedicated VRAM or better (examples: NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super or better, AMD RX 6600 or better)
  • System RAM: 16 GB
  • Storage Capacity: 512 GB or higher NVMe SSD (100 GB Available)
RECOMMENDED (1440p/60 FPS/High Video Settings)
  • OS: Win 10 64Bit / Win 11 64Bit
  • CPU: AMD Zen 3 or Intel 12th Generation @3.2Ghz with 8 cores / 16 threads or better (examples: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or better, Intel Core i7 12700K or better)
  • GPU: NVIDIA or AMD hardware ray tracing-capable GPU with 10 GB dedicated VRAM or better (examples: NVIDIA RTX 3080 or better, AMD RX 6800 or better)
  • System RAM: 32 GB
  • Storage Capacity: 512 GB or higher NVMe SSD (100 GB Available)
ULTRA 4K (2160p/60 FPS/Ultra Video Settings)
  • OS: Win 10 64Bit / Win 11 64Bit
  • CPU: AMD Zen 3 or Intel 12th Generation @3.2Ghz with 8 cores / 16 threads or better (examples: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or better, Intel Core i7 12700K or better)
  • GPU: NVIDIA or AMD hardware ray tracing-capable GPU with 16 GB dedicated VRAM or better (examples: NVIDIA RTX 4080 or better, AMD RX 7900XT or better)
  • System RAM: 32 GB
  • Storage Capacity: 512 GB or higher NVMe SSD (100 GB Available)
Note: DOOM: The Dark Ages requires a hardware ray tracing-compatible GPU to play on PC, including Minimum Specifications. Details on Path Tracing specifications will be revealed at a later date.

DOOM: The Dark Ages launches May 15, 2025, on Game Pass, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC. Play up to two days early with Early Access by preordering DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Edition.

Source: Bethesda
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77 Comments on DOOM: The Dark Ages Requires RT. Release Date, PC System Requirements, and New Gameplay Trailer Revealed

#26
playerwhoplayyes
Hope this has official mod support like Doom Eternal, and my Intel ARC A750 can run it.
Posted on Reply
#27
theouto
After looking at the longer developer preview, this will be slower than 2016. That's not bad, and I actually welcome something more akin to the original doom games speed-wise, but I am worried about the multitude of difficulty sliders, as the game may not have a design as tight as what DOOM Eternal had, which felt gloriously designed.
Posted on Reply
#28
Apocalypsee
theoutoAfter looking at the longer developer preview, this will be slower than 2016. That's not bad, and I actually welcome something more akin to the original doom games speed-wise, but I am worried about the multitude of difficulty sliders, as the game may not have a design as tight as what DOOM Eternal had, which felt gloriously designed.
After Eternal I stopped caring because it's way too fast to be a Doom game, only played it once and I haven't played The Ancient Gods only watch them on YouTube. And my GPU is now on minimum requirement :oops:
Posted on Reply
#29
Onasi
@Apocalypsee
Yeah, TAG is genuinely just a first person character action game at this point. I also kinda was “meh” on Eternal - I fundamentally disagree with what Hugo Martin chose as a design direction for the series. I sorta tolerated it in 2016, but in Eternal it became straight up obnoxious. I consider Doom to be more of a dungeon crawler than whatever they decided to make it, but it’s a taste thing. At least we got a PC version of 64 and Legacy of Rust, so… eh. Sigil I and II too and Hellion is coming. Not like we Classic Doom enjoyers are eating poorly, community WADs notwithstanding.
Posted on Reply
#30
skizzo
the only game I've been really excited for this year. and might be the first time I ever consider building a new system to specifically play a new game lol

though i9-9900k is prior gen than they recommend, it's better than the min CPU they list

seriously was looking at RX 7900 XTX's today and water blocks too, would be about $1k just for that. I was already kinda hating myself for thinking I could end up pulling the trigger on that, now I gotta consider new system too, doh!

Though I do have a HTPC with an i5-13400 which my RX 6900 XT will go to if I got a new GPU....maybe I play this game there instead if i9-9900k ends up doing any bottlenecking. But not sure if that could bottleneck the gpu either. decisions, decisions....
theoutoAfter looking at the longer developer preview, this will be slower than 2016. That's not bad, and I actually welcome something more akin to the original doom games speed-wise, but I am worried about the multitude of difficulty sliders, as the game may not have a design as tight as what DOOM Eternal had, which felt gloriously designed.
Hopefully that speed thing is not a surprise for you. They have been saying this since any teaser release material came out say maybe a year ago. Hugo Martin described the recent releases as such

Doom (2016) = Ferrari
Doom Eternal = Fighter jet
Doom: The Dark Ages = Tank

Doom's movement was quick. Eternal took that quick movement into the air. But now it's going to have some different mechanics which was described as some slower movement, or at least, not such an emphasis on flying around arenas for like up to 10 mins straight lol. Sounded like there may even be some defense mechanics with that shield. I forgot about the....err....dragons or whatever the hell creatures they are that we can allegedly pilot until this video reminded me about that. So they are obviously trying not to do a cookie cutter repeat. They want to innovate on the franchise and I doubt they will disappoint!
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#31
dirtyferret
TheDeeGeePeople want better graphics
I want better games, graphics can be reasonable
Posted on Reply
#32
SOAREVERSOR
Onasi@Apocalypsee
Yeah, TAG is genuinely just a first person character action game at this point. I also kinda was “meh” on Eternal - I fundamentally disagree with what Hugo Martin chose as a design direction for the series. I sorta tolerated it in 2016, but in Eternal it became straight up obnoxious. I consider Doom to be more of a dungeon crawler than whatever they decided to make it, but it’s a taste thing. At least we got a PC version of 64 and Legacy of Rust, so… eh. Sigil I and II too and Hellion is coming. Not like we Classic Doom enjoyers are eating poorly, community WADs notwithstanding.
I grew up with the original Doom and Doom 2 coming out in my teens. I still play them. They are actually faster than Eternal if you are good at them. Sure you can't monkey around the levels but the raw foot speed means you're speed skating around the levels as fast as possible, encounters are over quick, there is no exploration and it's a sprint from start to finish. Look at speed runs and high level OG Doom gameplay and it all happens way faster than Eternal ever approaches.

Eternal has much more complex combat but the levels are somewhat paced. In that it's set encounters and then slows down till the next. You can't just blaze through it the way you can the originals.

All the games are a matter of taste and there is OG Doom, Doom 3, and now New Doom styles but outside of Doom 3 they have all ben very fast action games with a minimal amount of exploration that you often could just speed past. Doom 3 was also hotly debated at the time for being too slow, too dark, too much lore, too much exploring and not enough killing, and "zombie in a locker" syndrome. Also reloading! Who asked for that? Yet years later people came around to it a bit more for what it was trying to do.

For better or worse id shakes things up. Quake is a hot mess as well. I prefer Quake 1 and it's Lovecraftin sense of horror and style and I like it's 1v1 more than the others. Quake 2 was huge chain and Quake 3 ditched SP completely. Only Quake 4 to come around and focus on SP be viewed as a complete disaster (slow pace, reloading, exploring, lore, in Quake, oh no no no no). Then we had Quake Champions which was Quake Overwatch and also bombed.

I'm glad to see more Doom and I'll pick it up.

As for the requirements on it, meh. Doom 2016 and Eternal run great on just about any modern PC and even the Switch of all things. They are very well optimized.
Posted on Reply
#33
[crs]
I loved doom 2016 and hated eternal, hopefully Dark Ages plays more like 2016 doom than eternal.
Posted on Reply
#34
windwhirl
TomgangDam. This is the first game i have seen ask for minimum 8 cores/16 threads as minimum system requirements.

The beginning of the end where 6 cores/12 Threads was enough. Well guess Hexa core will be faced out just quad-core did it before that. But still feel it quite steep demand for minimum.
The PS5 and the Xbox Series S/X are both 8-core machines, from 4 years ago.

In fact, you could go back to the PS4 and the Xbox One, they're both using dual quad-core Jaguar modules from AMD. All the way to 2013. 11 years ago.

I'd say I'm kinda surprised it took this long, tbh.
TheDeeGeePeople want better graphics, and then complain about system requirements.

Funny isn't it?
I just hope this new DOOM entry is as optimized as previous titles, if not more.
ApocalypseeAnd my GPU is now on minimum requirement
I'll have to replace my RX 580, lol, so I guess new DOOM game is just another incentive to do it.

Admittedly, tho, I don't care for raytracing so the fact that it seems mandatory is kinda a negative point IMO, but it'd probably be a minor issue if you still need a "powerful" GPU to play the game anyway, RT or not.
Posted on Reply
#35
SOAREVERSOR
windwhirlThe PS5 and the Xbox Series S/X are both 8-core machines, from 4 years ago.

In fact, you could go back to the PS4 and the Xbox One, they're both using dual quad-core Jaguar modules from AMD. All the way to 2013. 11 years ago.

I'd say I'm kinda surprised it took this long, tbh.

I just hope this new DOOM entry is as optimized as previous titles, if not more.

I'll have to replace my RX 580, lol, so I guess new DOOM game is just another incentive to do it.
Ugh what gets glossed over about PC gaming requirements is that it reflects what the state of hardware is at release. Not what hardware was or will be. PC gaming is an utter shit show for multiple reasons but one of the biggesdt is there is just too much hardware and hardware combinations in the wild to say what will work and what will not.

The way PC releases work generally is the console is what things are optimized for and given a shit about. Beyond that modern PC hardware is tested, optimized for nvidia, "does it start" for AMD, and "who cares" for intel graphics. And then you get a guestimate of what will be required based of current hardware out with no gaurantee at all it even will but also often can run off far older hardware. On the PC the best you can get is with intel + nvidia it should work if you have the given requirements anything beyond that is an utter crapshoot as "LOL mUh G4m1ng PCC1!!!~!!!!!" with no assurance or responability it will at all but also there's a good chance it runs off a potato in a Chinese gaming cafe and is pirated and cheats are turned on. There is not much effort put into this. As actually doing such would be a gigantic waste of time given the unlimited hardware configurations out there.

Then there is the fact that PC gaming is utterly dishonest to the core about these things at times. Quiet often companies will understand requirements to juice sales. Just as much companies will overstate requirements to help sell hardware. This completely legal. It also has no bearing on the actual reality of it. It only happens on mUh G4m1ng PC!!! because this is not tolerated on consoles and the owner of the console would put a stop to it. Nintendo is so protective of their IP because out of all the console companies they care the most about this sort of quality control. Nobody gives a shit on the PC. There's also no gatekeeper.

Here's Eternal on a 750 ti
well under the minimum and yet off it goes. If a company does give a shit it's going to work... probably... and well under the specs asked. Look at asking specs for OG Doom 2 on Steam. You can get away with way less. Those specs were just the ask for when it was rereleased because they make sense now. It states 1070 and more and I can run it off a LattePanda that's well under it and I never worried about it. It's a non issue.

Quit paying attention to specs. They are always bullshit because you are on the PC and you signed up for this. They can also be driven by marketing for the game or the hardware. Even if you have a trusted reviewer like TPU you can't expect they to go through all configurations in the end it's PC gaming so it's all a roll of the dice at best!
Posted on Reply
#36
skizzo
just watched the full/long version of the youtube video! confirmed the previous statements and suspicions they have touched on. even more pumped now!
Posted on Reply
#37
theouto
skizzoHopefully that speed thing is not a surprise for you. They have been saying this since any teaser release material came out say maybe a year ago. Hugo Martin described the recent releases as such

Doom (2016) = Ferrari
Doom Eternal = Fighter jet
Doom: The Dark Ages = Tank
It is a surprise for me, someone that doesn't follow news as I don't use traditional social media really (highly recommended btw), but I see it as a good thing, it's nice to have variety.

I loved Eternal, but a change of pace is greatly welcomed, otherwise having both the doom eternal speed and the new shield would feel like they are simply throwing whatever they can at the wall. Thankfully that's not what is going on here, and they are taking their time to balance things better for the new, slower pace, which is probably why the shield exists in the first place.
Posted on Reply
#38
Upgrayedd
EasoSpeed looked closer to Eternal. But I really hope it won't have the rainbow confetti drops, those were awful as far as I was concerned.
I just mean the multi-player modes. Eternal mp was terrible, 2016 had great classic multi-player modes.
The story mode is nice and all but after that there needs to be good mp.
Posted on Reply
#39
Visible Noise
So people with AMD 5xxx series cards are left out in the cold while Nvidia 2xxx cards are supported.

Interesting.
Posted on Reply
#40
skizzo
theoutoIt is a surprise for me, someone that doesn't follow news as I don't use traditional social media really (highly recommended btw), but I see it as a good thing, it's nice to have variety.

I loved Eternal, but a change of pace is greatly welcomed, otherwise having both the doom eternal speed and the new shield would feel like they are simply throwing whatever they can at the wall. Thankfully that's not what is going on here, and they are taking their time to balance things better for the new, slower pace, which is probably why the shield exists in the first place.
I don't do social media either so AMEN to that brotha lol! I don't really like FPS games, but boy I do like a couple select few of the classic franchises, Doom being one of them. Eternal I got into the most so I've been salivating waiting for whatever sequel (ended up be prequel story wise) that is going to come next!
UpgrayeddI just mean the multi-player modes. Eternal mp was terrible, 2016 had great classic multi-player modes.
The story mode is nice and all but after that there needs to be good mp.
I tried playing some of the online matches, and though not really my cup of tea in a general sense of what it was about.....I am simply not good enough to play against the people who really buy into these competitive multiplayer modes. And I play Doom games on nightmare, cannot do ultra nightmare. I don't suck at the game but sure did at the multiplayer mode lol. I didn't even catch multiplayer stuff....did they mention that in one of these reveals or just a personal hope of yours?
Posted on Reply
#41
Upgrayedd
skizzoI tried playing some of the online matches, and though not really my cup of tea in a general sense of what it was about.....I am simply not good enough to play against the people who really buy into these competitive multiplayer modes. And I play Doom games on nightmare, cannot do ultra nightmare. I don't suck at the game but sure did at the multiplayer mode lol. I didn't even catch multiplayer stuff....did they mention that in one of these reveals or just a personal hope of yours?
hope.
eternal mp was trying to be a competitive esport at first. With some weird non traditional modes.

2016 mp has traditional modes like tdm, ctf and what not. 2016 is just fun classic mp.
Posted on Reply
#42
evernessince
TheDeeGeePeople want better graphics, and then complain about system requirements.

Funny isn't it?
A large portion of that is down to the exploding cost to run AAA games at decent settings. If value isn't improving but requirements are going up, you have to shell out more to maintain the same level of performance in games that are increasingly demanding.
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#43
chrcoluk
16 gig VRAM required for the best visuals. :)
Posted on Reply
#44
phints
Dear id Software,

Please make a Quake 1 sequel.

Thanks,
Just another fanboy
lexluthermiesterYes. Come on, we all knew that was coming.
Well yea, even current gen consoles have been 8c/16t for 4 years. This is mid range gaming now and for such a highly optimized multithreaded engine that uses Vulkan it must absolutely fly with that many threads loaded up. 6c has been dying a while now it's time to say goodbye from a modern gaming standpoint.
Posted on Reply
#45
windwhirl
Visible NoiseSo people with AMD 5xxx series cards are left out in the cold while Nvidia 2xxx cards are supported.

Interesting.
Alan Wake 2 also presented a similar issue because of RX 5000 series not supporting mesh shaders.
Posted on Reply
#46
80-watt Hamster
TheDeeGeePeople want better graphics, and then complain about system requirements.

Funny isn't it?
Can't speak for others, but I want games that run well on modest hardware. Looking good/better is a secondary concern. Consider that one of the reasons DOOM 2016 is so well regarded is because it managed both.
Posted on Reply
#47
Clawedge
Just to confirm, RT is required?
Posted on Reply
#48
Pumper
TheDeeGeePeople want better graphics, and then complain about system requirements.

Funny isn't it?
Who are these people that wanted Doom Eternal to look better than it already did? I bet that way more people want their games to run as good as the previous Doom games.
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#49
Capitan Harlock
Forcing Banana Tracing even with their own engine is crazy . Vulkan API is great for all gpus after most people played their most recent DOOM games using Vulkan. They need to stop pushing for forced Raytracing . People need to upgrade but for how much cost? Will 2000 Series be enough?
Posted on Reply
#50
Zazigalka
FrickEight cores minimum?
my 10700 barely makes it.
dirtyferretwatch the AMD 7600x run way past 60 FPS at either 1404p or 4k
probably true
TheDeeGeePeople want better graphics, and then complain about system requirements.

Funny isn't it?
yeah, can't get path traced GI/AO/reflections/shadows without path tracing.
ApocalypseeAfter Eternal I stopped caring because it's way too fast to be a Doom game, only played it once and I haven't played The Ancient Gods only watch them on YouTube. And my GPU is now on minimum requirement :oops:
yeah, Eternal will have your head spin. Completed it, though, but I needed get back in shape and remember my teenage QIII Arena training days :) Dark Ages will come to GamePass in May, so I'll be sure to check it out.
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