Elden Ring’s PC specs aren’t as demanding as you expect

By Otto Kratky February 15, 2022

We’re 10 days out from Elden Ring launching, and developer From Software has finally shared the game’s system requirements. Anyone who wants to play the game on PC instead of consoles will have to have a somewhat decent rig, although that may change in the future.

Minimum requirements

Operating System: Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core I5-8400/AMD Ryzen 3 3300X
Memory: 12GB RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, 3GB/AMD Radeon RX 580 4GB
Storage: 60GB
DirectX: Version 12

Recommended requirements

Operating System: Windows 10/11
Processor: Intel Core I7-8700K/AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
Memory: 16GB RAM
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 1070, 8GB/AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, 8GB
Storage: 60GB
DirectX: Version 12

Elden Ring‘s PC specs aren’t too far from the norm of modern AAA releases. In fact, compared to some other recent games it’s not all that demanding. Halo Infinite, for instance, recommends that players have a Radeon RX 5700 XT or Nvidia RTX 2070 to run the game above minimum settings.

Where Elden Ring‘s specs surprise is in its minimum memory requirement. Players are recommended to have 16GB of RAM, which is fairly standard. However, 12GB to run the game at its minimum settings is somewhat surprising, though shouldn’t be a problem for Steam users based on the latest Steam hardware survey. According to Steam, just under half of its users have 16GB of RAM.

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While Elden Ring‘s PC specs aren’t too demanding, that could change in the future. From Software is leaving room for the game’s requirements to change, saying that the “Current specs are valid for launch day and may be updated in the future.” It’s not clear what could cause the game’s specs to change, although the most likely case is that it’ll simply take up more space due to patches and updates.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

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Elden Ring’s first DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, is in development

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's key art.

Yes, Elden Ring is finally getting DLC. After over a year of speculation since the critically acclaimed game's launch, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is confirmed to be in development.
FromSoftware broke the news via its social media accounts for the game, simply affirming that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree "is currently in development." No additional release window or story details were shared, but its Japanese website confirms the expansion will come to all of the same platforms as the base game, and the tweet does include one piece of concept art. In it, we see a darkened Erdtree in the distance as a mysterious girl on a horse rides toward it and some ruins. We don't know what any of this means just yet, but the key art appears to tease a darker tone and new character and reaffirm that Shadow of the Erdtree will take place in a massive open world.
https://twitter.com/ELDENRING/status/1630478058103734274
Elden Ring was released on February 25, 2022, and it was met with critical acclaim and lots of Game of the Year awards (including Digital Trends' own) because of how FromSoftware adapted its classics Souls series formula into a game with a massive open world that rivaled The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. As many previous FromSoftware games got DLC, fans were hoping that Elden Ring would get the same treatment.
Before now, we've mostly gotten small patches, with a Colosseum-adding update in December being the most notable. Although Shadow of the Erdtree doesn't have a release date, it's a relief for Elden Ring fans to now have some brand-new content to look forward to.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Shadow of the Erdtree does not have a release window yet.

Gaming

10 best Elden Ring mods

Multiple players look out over a landscape with the Elden Ring co-op mod.

It was thanks to modders that the original PC port of Dark Souls reached a stable and respectable state. Once the technical wrinkles were ironed out, modders turned to expanding and improving the game in numerous ways to keep the game feeling fresh. Years later, those same talented modders have moved on to the latest and largest FromSoftware title, Elden Ring. With plenty of time to learn the game, there are tons of mods out there that can not only fix nagging issues in the game but add entirely new ways to play. Here are some of the best mods out there for Elden Ring.
How to mod Elden Ring
Since Elden Ring is available on PC, that's where modding scene is most popular. However, if this is your first time modding a game, it might sound a little confusing. Thankfully, the process is very simple, and even this tutorial video can show you the basics of modding your game in under three minutes.
Seamless Co-op

Elden Ring uses a more advanced form of the summoning systems from the Dark Souls series, but still has limitations, most notably being partners being forced out of your game after every boss or death. The Seamless Co-op mod aims to make the entire game playable with a partner without any interruptions when players die, bosses are beaten, and no fog walls. It is still being worked on, but already works very well.
Elden Ring Ultimate Cheat Engine Table
Once you've beaten Elden Ring for your second, third, or eighth time, you may just want to see what you can do to break the game. The Elden Ring Ultimate Cheat Engine Table gives you the keys to the castle and lets you basically mod the game yourself to do things like create your own spells, spawn bosses, edit stats, use freecam, and tons more.
Elden Ring Item and Enemy Randomizer

Gaming

2022’s biggest games need to learn a valuable lesson from Elden Ring

Elden Ring knight sitting with maiden at a site of grace.

As 2022's biggest releases, Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok have been pitted against each other in just about every way this year. However, they couldn't be more different in one key way. While Elden Ring wants its players to get lost in The Lands Between, God of War: Ragnarok (and many more of 2022's biggest budget games) seem terrified of players missing a single piece of content.

Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and most other blockbuster game this year tended to hold players hands tighter than ever. That attitude stood in stark contrast with Elden Ring, which isn't just OK with letting players miss out on massive amounts of content, but almost seems to want them to. This isn't purely a critique on how Forbidden West has checklists and waypoints while Elden Ring doesn't; those are just the symptoms of the bigger problem with modern game design.