The cost of doing business
Whereas the minimum specs once asked for ancient CPUs andgraphics cards, like the AMD Phenom II X6 1100T, GeForce GTX 650 Ti, or Radeon HD 7850, The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition will want at least a 6GB GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 590. And that’s apparently just for 30fps from the lowest quality settings at 720p, not even a resolution you’d get on any self-respectinggaming monitor.
The new recommended spec, for High settings, 1080p and 60fps, goes on to list the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, GeForce RTX 2070 and Radeon RX 6700 XT as suggested GPUs. A far cry from the (now relegated) GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 470 that the original recommended. RAM requirements are up as well: 12GB minimum and 16GB recommended, up from 4GB and 8GB respectively.
It sounds like there are loads of graphical improvements to have in exchange, too. Word from co-developers Obsidian and Virtuos is that they’ve reworked visual effects for explosions, weapons, environments and particles, added dynamic wind, cloud, and sandstorm effects, improved how foliage reacts to wind, touched up water effects, added more dynamic lights, improved character models and animations, and added all-new NPC animations.
Sadly, the Spacer’s Choice Edition won’t be a free upgrade if you already own The Outer Worlds and its DLCs (Murder on Eridanos and Peril on Gorgon are both included). Though it will be sold at a “reduced purchase price” to owners of the original, should you want to check out that polishing work for yourself.
Here are the full system specs, for posterity:
