HomeHardwareFeaturesAssassin’s Creed: Valhalla
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s PC requirements are way more demanding than AC Odyssey4K’s the new 1080p
4K’s the new 1080p
UPDATE: My recommendations forthe best PC settings for AC Valhallaare now live
Assassin’s Creed Odysseyremains one of the most demanding games you can play on PC right now, but having taken a closer look at Ubisoft’s recently releasedPC requirementsforAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, it looks like Eivor and the rest of their Viking pals will be sticking a much heavier boot into our PC’s performance than even Kassandra’s mighty Spartan kick. In short, they’re proper demanding these Valhalla specs, as what once passed for Ubisoft’s recommended 4K spec in Odyssey is now only suitable for High at 1080p in ye olde England.
Fortunately, Ubisoft have confirmed that, like Odyssey, Valhalla will have its own built-in benchmark for PC so you can see exactly what kind of performance your machine can manage once it comes out. I’ll also be doing lots of in-depth graphics performance testing on the game myself closer to release, but this jump in specs does have me a little worried. Indeed, while some advancement in PC requirements is to be expected given the fact that Odyssey came out two years ago, this is a much bigger jump than what we saw between Origins and Odyssey. In fact, I found that Odyssey was actuallyeasierto run than its predecessor in my biggraphics performance test, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to say the same about Valhalla after looking at those PC specs.
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Thankfully, the recommended PC specs for Valhalla (which aim to deliver 30fps speeds on High at 1920x1080, just like Odyssey’s did), should be fairly manageable for most people. Like several big games of 2020 includingDeath Stranding,Horizon Zero DawnandBaldur’s Gate 3, Ubisoft have listed an Nvidia GTX 1060 and AMD RX 570 as the recommended GPU for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and its CPU requirements aren’t that much of a leap from what we saw on Odyssey, either.
Then again, a GTX 1060 was enough to hit 60fps at 1920x1080 inDeath StrandingandHorizon Zero Dawnon their respective High quality settings, andmy own benchmarksshowed it was possible to hit an average of 63fps on High with a GTX 1060 inAssassin’s Creed Odysseyas well. That Ubisoft are only predicting 30fps speeds for Valhalla with this GPU shows it’s clearly going to be a bit of a brute when it comes to getting it running at a similar speed.
Indeed, Ubisoft’s ‘High’ spec for Valhalla is intended for exactly that: 1080p, High at 60fps. As you can see below, though, it’s quite the leap from its Recommended spec. It’s also worryingly similar to Odyssey’s recommended 4K spec, particularly in the old GPU department.
Is there a word in old Norse for “Big yikes?”
We’ll find out in due course if Ubisoft have been rather conservative in their Valhalla PC requirements, but if they do turn out to be accurate then that’s quite the come down if you’ve been merrily playing Odyssey at 4K for the last two years. To be suddenly told you’ll now only able to manage playing the game at 1080p on High with the same setup is enough to give anyone a nasty case of the upgrade sweats.
Either way, I’ll be testing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in full to see what’s possible onthisgeneration of PC hardware as soon as I can, so watch this space for a full breakdown of what those recommended PC requirements will really get you when the game comes out on November 10th.
