Dark Souls fans comprise two distinct sets of people. There's the masochists and then there's the sadists. The masochists repeatedly hop in to the Dark Souls world and receive a thorough mauling from whichever beasty the magnificently difficult title throws at them. The sadists meanwhile, have mastered what Dark Souls offers them, and spend their time invading the masochist's worlds and delivering justice via their pointy blades.

So, we know how truly punishing Dark Souls II will be for gamers, but now the real question is how punishing will Dark Souls 2 be on your gaming PC. Join us then, as we check out the official Dark Souls 2 system requirements...

Dark Souls 2 Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows XP SP3

CPU: 3.17 GHz Dual Core Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 or 3.2 GHz AMD Phenom II X2 555

RAM: 2GB System Memory

GPU: Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT 512MB or AMD Radeon HD 5870 

DX: DirectX 9.0c

HDD: 8 GB Free Hard Drive Space

Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

Network: Internet connection required for Dark Souls II activation

Dark Souls 2 Recommended System Requirements

OS: Windows 7 with Service Pack 1

CPU: 3.1 GHz Intel Core i3 2100 or 3.0 GHz AMD A8 3870K

RAM: 4 GB System Memory

GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 465 or AMD Radeon HD 6870

Seem familiar? Though not. These Dark Souls II system requirements are a pretty massive step up from the original Dark Souls. While Dark Souls was happy chugging along with a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, gamers wanting to scrape the bare minimum requirements for Dark Souls 2 will be needing a 3.2 GHz dual-core processor. The Core 2 Duo E8500 and Phenom II X2 555 flavours seem to do the trick. 

Memory requirements remain mercifully low across the board, needing just 4GB to hit the sweet of recommended Dark Souls 2 requirements. 

The minimum requirements for Dark Souls 2 almost exceed the recommended requirements for the original Dark Souls, with a GeForce 9600 GT needed to get From Software's latest up and running. Those of you hoping to get Dark Souls 2 running as Bandai Namco intended will be needing a not-inconsiderable GTX 465 or Radeon HD 6870. Strangely though, there's really very little difference in performance between the recommended HD 6870 and the minimum HD 5870, with the HD 5870 actually edging it on performance in comparisons. This looks to be an error on Namco Bandai's part, as the Radeon HD 5870 is clearly far more powerful than the GeForce 9600 GT.

These requirements may be a big step up from the original Dark Souls but they aren't huge by any means. Unfortunately, if you only just managed to get Dark Souls 1 running you may find you're going to struggle here without an upgrade or two, but anyone who's bought a gaming PC within the last three years or so should be able to run Dark Souls 2 fine. 

Remember, you can always check out how well your PC can run the Dark Souls 2 System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users.

Compare your graphics card to the Dark Souls II GPU benchmark chart.

Okay then, what do you think of these system requirements?

Do you think they're a big step up from Dark Souls?

Let us know!