Ashes Of The Singularity DirectX 12 System Requirements

Ashes of the Singularity, the first ever DirectX 12-capable title, has arrived in Steam Early Access. Oxide Games real-time strategy title is all about large scale warfare, boasting more independently controlled units than just about any other game out there, all with top of the line visuals and impressive unit detail. If total carnage is your thing, this could be the RTS for you.

One of the stand-out points of Ashes of the Singularity is that DirectX 12 support. It's the first opportunity yet to test out the capabilities of Microsoft's new graphics API, and see for ourselves just what our graphics cards are capable of heading into the next generation of gaming. 

Ashes of the Singularity Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit 
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6400 2.13GHz or AMD Phenom 9650 Quad-Core 2.3GHz
• RAM: 8GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 2GB Video Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 or AMD Radeon R9  270X
• DX: DirectX 11
• HDD: 5GB Free Hard Drive Space

Ashes of the Singularity Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7-920 Quad 2.67 GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 975 3.6 GHz
• RAM: 16GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 4GB Graphics Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon R9 390
• DX: DirectX 12

For all the talk of DirectX 12 optimising systems and squeezing out additional percentage points of performance, these recommended specs for Ashes of the Singularity showcase a giant leap in hardware demands over just about any other strategy game out there, even the mighty Total War series. As it's in Early Access things could change over time, but this gives us a general ballpark as to where we're at. When we think of real-time strategy games, it's normally the CPU we think of struggling. Coping with vast numbers of units and simultaneous events is a CPU's job essentially, but what we see here are comparatively low processor demands. In all likelihood, this is a result of offloading CPU work to the GPU, now capable far more efficiently in DirectX 12. As such, Ashes of the Singularity ends up being graphics card heavy rather than CPU.  To take advantage of the benefits DirectX 12 offers, you're going to need a DX11-capable graphics card and Windows 10 64-bit operating system. If you haven't got both of these, then DX12 isn't possible.