Middle-earth: Shadow of War System Requirements Are Here Already

Written by Jon Sutton on Mon, Feb 27, 2017 4:38 PM
System Requirements Optimum 1080p PC Build Low vs Ultra Screenshots GPU Performance Chart CPU List That Meet System Requirements GPU List That Meet System Requirements

In quite a strange turn of events we've already got the official Middle-Earth: Shadow of War system requirements. This time yesterday we didn't even know it existed, then Warner Bros announced it at lunch, and here we are now with the PC specs you'll need to play the Mordor sequel. Considering Shadow of War is being announced less than six months before its launch, I can only presume development is almost finished and they're holding out for a quiet period to launch. So no more rambling, here's the (fairly demanding) system requirements you're going to need to play Middle-Earth: Shadow of War on PC.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Minimum System Requirements

  • OS: Windows 7 64-bit 
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-2550K 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-8320 3.5 GHz
  • RAM: 8 GB System Memory
  • GPU RAM: 2GB Video Memory
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 or AMD Radeon HD 7950
  • DX: DirectX 11
  • HDD: 60 GB available space

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Recommended System Requirements

  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.40 GHz or AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
  • RAM: 16 GB System Memory
  • GPU RAM: 4GB Video Memory
  • GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB
  • DX: DirectX 11
  • HDD: 60 GB available space 

I think the main thing to point out is there CPU demands for Shadow of War. Ouch. You're going to need some top-tier hardware in order to see it looking its finest. An AMD FX-8350 or Intel Core i7-3770 are recommended which, while old, are both powerful processors. A lot of this is probably down to the much larger battles which are promised to feature in Shadow of War, featuring dozens of troops and systemically generated fortresses based on your gameplay actions.

The minimum specs for Shadow of War aren't a system killer, but ultimately this is a game which is slightly more demanding than Mass Effect Andromeda, and way beyond the original Shadow of Mordor, which had a GTX 660 as the recommended graphics card.

As such we can expect a major visual overhaul. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will no longer be holding it back, so odds are Shadow of War is going to look incredible. Because the LithTech engine is proprietary we haven't actually seen any other games take advantage of the latest version, so the jury's out on what's in store.

Looking at the recommended specs I think we can safely assume that's going to get decent frame rates at high settings on both 1080p and 1440p, however if Shadow of War is anything like Shadow of Mordor, expect it be a serious VRAM hog. While an RX 480 4GB and a GTX 970 are recommended, expect much stronger performance from the RX 480 8GB and the GTX 1060.

As ever, remember you can always check out how well your PC can run the Middle-Earth: Shadow of War System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Middle-Earth: Shadow of War GPU benchmark chart and we also have a Middle-Earth: Shadow of War Frames Per Second system performance chart for you to check.

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11:19 Mar-05-2017

So no dx 12 for this game?

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18
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20:54 Mar-04-2017

The engine of this game is the same engine of Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor or not ?

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12:03 Mar-01-2017

So if sli is supported how good will my pc run this game at 1080p?

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51
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07:09 Mar-01-2017

Either it's gonna look incredible, or it's gonna look the same and require incredible hardware to run it.
We trusted Rocksteady, and Arkane, and look where it got us. No PC reports, no buy.

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16:47 Feb-28-2017

the System requirements might yet change seeing as the game isn't out for another 6 months :)

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95
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18:16 Feb-28-2017

Exactly what i was thinking. They probably will not change it officially since I think the 480/1060 will still run it fine. Its going to be a less extreme version of how the 770 was recommended for witcher3.

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19:26 Feb-28-2017

hmm 770 i had a 760 once til packed up on me, I've long since upgraded to a 970 .. minimum requirements are not bad thought, maybe just maybe low settings will be look like ultra in witcher 3

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16:26 Feb-28-2017

Annoying how the console pre-order is available but not the PC version...

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16:29 Feb-28-2017

You can pre-order off Steam :)

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5
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11:01 Mar-01-2017

I want a physical copy :) .. not some stupid digital version so the developer can save money.

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55
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02:12 Mar-10-2017

Old School :D , I like that

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19
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09:26 Feb-28-2017

Yup, time to buy more RAM for me.

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95
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11:12 Feb-28-2017

I'm speculating that theyre upping the RAM reqt hopefully because they are optimizing the game to be able to utilize system RAM to help VRAM in holding textures. Hence they recommend "just" 4gb of vram -- even though this is the sequel to the game that set the bar for vram reqts.

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51
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11:47 Feb-28-2017

You could always download more RAM!!!

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07:08 Feb-28-2017

Hope to get my Ryzen 5 1600x+1060 build completed before August. :D

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95
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11:07 Feb-28-2017

There might be a better GPU to buy before then bud :)

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-1
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13:49 Feb-28-2017

You mean Vega, right? :)

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95
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17:57 Feb-28-2017

I guess we'll find out in a few minutes....

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06:19 Feb-28-2017

Thank god for the upgrade.

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55
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02:14 Mar-10-2017

I think God has little to do with the amount of $$ you spent :D

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44
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05:51 Feb-28-2017

As long as i get high/ultra setup at 1080p and easily maintain 60fps as I should with my current build, then we have no problems.

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15:29 Feb-28-2017

I think you should be fine

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03:29 Feb-28-2017

Who cares !! i'll play it on PS4

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06:33 Feb-28-2017

GD is mainly a PC community, we like this sort of information, just because something doesn't interest you doesn't necessarily apply to everyone else.

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53
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02:41 Feb-28-2017

GTX 670 for minimum. Wow. Welcome to 2017.

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51
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11:38 Feb-28-2017

Basically my GTX 960 is gonna be obsolete by the end of the year if this keeps up. Time to seriously consider the GTX 1080Ti.

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95
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18:11 Feb-28-2017

I get what you are saying bud. But I love my 960, it has served me well... I got it for a good price with a free game and by the end of this year the 960 wld have been out for 3yrs. And people were saying it was obsolete when it was released.

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22:41 Feb-27-2017

wow no dx12 im shocked

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21:43 Feb-27-2017

Damn time to upgrade my RAM to 16gb.

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11:24 Feb-28-2017

u can alse play in 8gb ram

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20:38 Feb-27-2017

I want to thank the person that leaked this game to the public. I hope he (or she) still has a job :)

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01:58 Feb-28-2017

It was Target, not a person.

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03:32 Feb-28-2017

but still theres's a person in target that leaked it... duhh..

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09:07 Feb-28-2017

Yeah it was probably a simple admin error. I doubt anyone would lose their job, WB Games doesn't hold that much sway over a huge retailer like Target

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95
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19:01 Feb-27-2017

Two things.
I wonder whether AMD will again have a decided advantage over NVidia for the sequel.
And I'm predicting higher recommended gpu reqts by the time the game is actually released.

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04:50 Feb-28-2017

If the game is also releasing on PS4/X1 unlikely unless its poorly optimized. Recommended makes sense for 1080p/60fps on HIGH settings.

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11:05 Feb-28-2017

I kind of agree. I was thinking ultra.
And even on high I think youd need to tweak. On ROT Tomb Raider, for example, Ive seen the 480 drop a few frames below 60 on HIGH. And this is a game that wld be almost 2 yrs old by the time this is released.

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17:25 Feb-27-2017

Still no directx 12 or vulkan. It would be nice if they would adapt the new apis more often.

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16:47 Feb-27-2017

Damn now I gotta go finish the dlc for the first game. Don't know why I never did.

2

Can They Run... |

| 60FPS, Low, 1080p
Ryzen 5 5500U 6-Core 2.1GHz GeForce GTX 1650 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 1080p
Ryzen R5 1600 Radeon RX 580 Sapphire Nitro+ 8GB 16GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 1440p
Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core 3.8GHz GeForce RTX 3090 Zotac Gaming Trinity 24GB 32GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
| 30FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 5 2600 GeForce GTX 1660 Gigabyte OC 6GB 16GB
0% No [2 votes]
| 60FPS, Low, 1080p
Ryzen 5 5500U 6-Core 2.1GHz GeForce GTX 1650 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1440p
Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core 3.8GHz Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB 32GB
| 60FPS, Medium, 720p
Core i5-10300H 4-Core 2.50GHz GeForce GTX 1650 8GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Core i9-9900K 8-Core 3.6GHz GeForce GTX 1060 Gigabyte Mini ITX OC 6GB 32GB
66.6667% Yes [3 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core 3.6GHz Radeon RX 5700 PowerColor Red Dragon 8GB 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 4k
Core i9-9900K 8-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Asus ROG Strix OC 11GB 32GB
| 30FPS, Ultra, 1440p
Ryzen 5 2600X 6-Core 3.6GHz GeForce GTX 1080 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
100% Yes [1 votes]
| 60FPS, High, 1080p
Ryzen 3 3100 4-Core 3.6GHz GeForce RTX 3050 16GB
0% No [1 votes]
| 60FPS, Ultra, 1080p
Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core 3.7GHz Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB 32GB