Recommended System Requirements for the PC version of "Star Wars Outlaws" have been released Ubisoft's new open-world adventure, scheduled for release on August 30, has us all excited despite some obvious shortcomings. But what kind of PC will we need to run this?

As we now know, the details don't sound so terrifying. It's not that a multi-million dollar rig is absolutely necessary. There is one obvious caveat, however. Ubisoft assumes that upscaling will be performed at all performance tiers.

Ubisoft has multiple target tiers for gamers, starting with "Minimum," then moving up to "Recommended," "High," and "Ultra. For each, Ubisoft offers a target resolution and quality, such as "Minimum" at 30 fps with a low graphics preset of 1080p, and "High" at 60 fps with a high graphics preset of 1440p.

Interestingly, to achieve these frame rates, the upscaler is set to "Quality" in all tiers. If you are looking for proof that upscaling is the new standard, this is definitely it.

The absolute minimum requirements are fairly modest, with Nvidia GTX 1660 graphics being sufficient. However, this is at a low 1080p setting, with a target frame rate of only 30 fps. According to the official specs, DLSS, FSR, or similar upscaling is required to achieve this frame rate.

This means that the game will actually run at 720p and will be upscaled to 1080p. In fact, as already explained, the recommended settings assume upscaling at all levels; there is no such thing as native rendering in the Star Wars Outlaws world. According to Ubisoft's system recommendations, yes, there is.

Ubisoft includes Intel GPUs in the smallest category, but the fact that Arc's graphics do not fit into any of the higher tiers probably says something. Also, to run at 1440p, i.e., to upscale from roughly 1080p, the GPU requirement is quite high: RTX 3080, RTX 4070, or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, all of which have at least 10GB of VRAM.

In other words, 8GB of VRAM may not be enough to render native 1080p. In any case, while it definitely makes sense for Ubisoft to make upscaling the default setting, one can't help but feel a bit uneasy about the premise. Surely, it was simpler in the days when everything was concentrated in old-fashioned raster performance.

Various upscaling techniques, frame generation, and optional goodies like ray tracing make it more difficult than ever before to compare performance and draw broad conclusions about the hardware needed for a good experience and the image quality that can be expected.