In a bit of a surprise announcement, Larian Studios has announced we'll be able to get our hands on Divinity: Original Sin II a little earlier than we'd anticipated. It's dropping on Steam Early Access on September 15th ahead of its full launch in December, giving players the opportunity to jump into a slightly rough around the edges pre-release version of the game. Visually it's no slouch for a top-down RPG, and there's a significant level of detail upgrade over the original. That means a bump in hardware demands, so, without further ado, here are Divinity: Original Sin 2's official system requirements.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit 
• CPU: Intel Core i5-650 3.2 GHz or AMD APU A10-6700T 2.5 GHz
• RAM: 4GB System Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti or AMD Radeon HD 6770
• DX: DirectX 11
• HDD: 25 GB Free Hard Drive Space

Divinity: Original Sin 2 Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-860S 2.53 GHz or AMD FX-8100 2.8 GHz
• RAM: 8 GB System Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 or AMD Radeon R9 280

Without a doubt we are seeing quite the bump in hardware requirements for D:OS2 in comparison to its predecessor. A low-end Core 2 Duo did the job back in 2014, now you'll need an Intel Core i5-650 as a minimum, or an AMD equivalent. Remember you can see how your CPU stacks up against the minimum specs over on Divinity: Original Sin II's game page.

Likewise, recommended CPU shifts from an i5 up to an i7, or the beastly AMD FX-8100 for Team Red. Both of these processors are on the high end, but are likely to come in handy during some of the larger battles with a great number of events happening at any one time.

As for graphics cards, Larian said a GeForce GTX 550 is good enough for minimum. That doesn't exist, so we'll presume they mean the 550 Ti, which is matched in performance by AMD's Radeon HD 6770. While for a top-down RPG this is a demanding minimum, there's no getting over the fact that both of these graphics cards are pretty ancient these days, over 5-years-old in the case of the 550 Ti.

I should hazard a guess that anything from the minimum upwards should play Divinity: OS2 pretty decently, and all that extra firepower is only really necessary if you want to go all out on level of detail and particle effects. Fortunately the turn-based nature means you can definitely get away with a lower frame rate should you wish to crank the graphics up.

Remember, you can always check out how well your PC can run the Divinity: Original Sin 2 System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Divinity: Original Sin 2 GPU benchmark chart.