It's that time of year again. A new football season means new football games, with Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 arriving in September alongside FIFA 17. The system requirements for PES 2017 are out, and this gives us a great opportunity to see Konami is treating the PC port this time around. For the last few years we've been lumped with the old engine and Xbox 360 graphics, is PES 2017 finally the year we get equal treatment to PS4 and Xbox One? Don't hold your breath. 

Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista 32-bit SP2 
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8 GHz or Athlon II X2 240 2.8 GHz
• RAM: 1GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 512MB Graphics Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS or AMD Radeon X1600 XT
• DX: DirectX 9.0c
• HDD: 8 GB Free Hard Drive Space

Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 32-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i5-530 2.9 GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 925 2.8 GHz
• RAM: 2 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 1024MB Graphics Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or AMD Radeon HD 4850

The sad thing about these system requirements were templated from the PES 2015 system requirements, with a few minor tweaks, and those were in fact templated from PES 2014. To say Konami's PC ports of Pro Evolution Soccer have taken a backseat is an understatement. PC gamers are being treated like second-class citizens. We've got the most capable hardware and yet we're once again being delivered a port on par with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, consoles running on tech over a decade old. Meanwhile PS4 and Xbox One players get a next-gen version on the Fox Engine.

The bonus is that pretty much everyone will be able to meet PES 2017's recommended specs. It just won't look all that good, even if you throw a GTX 1080 at it. The only specs to change between PES 2015 and PES 2017 are the graphics cards, which have taken a single generational jump. You'll now need a GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 4850 to max out Pro Evolution Soccer 2017, which I suspect most people will be able to do.

Aside from this everything remains as you were. If you could run previous PES games, you can run this one. Just 1GB RAM is needed, along with 8GB hard drive space and a low-end 1.8 GHz dual-core processor.

My best advice though is to head here and check out the FIFA 17 system requirements. If you can run FIFA 17, make that your priority. Whatever you think of EA, at least EA Sports has continued to deliver up to date PC version of FIFA actually worth your money.

Remember, you can always check out how well your PC can run the PES 2017 System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 GPU benchmark chart. What do you think of these worryingly low requirements for PES 2017? Do you think PC gamers are being treated as an afterthought for this release? Let us know!