Overwatch’s hardware requirements: should run on just about any system

Excited about Blizzard’s latest team-based, MOBA-like shooter? We certainly are.

And given the launch of its closed beta, you’re that much closer to giving it a go. For those who do have keys, you’re going to need some fairly mild hardware to run the title, joy.

According to an Overwatch blog post over on Battle.net, this is what you’ll need:

Minimum (30fps)

Operating system: Windows® Vista/7/ 8/10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i3 or AMD Phenom™ X3 865
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460, ATI Radeon™ HD 4850, or Intel® HD Graphics 4400
Memory: 768 MB VRAM, 4 GB System RAM
Storage: 7200 RPM with 5 GB available HD space

Recommended (60fps on Medium settings)

Operating system: Windows® Vista/7/ 8/10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 or AMD Phenom™ II X3, 2.8 GHz
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 or ATI Radeon™ HD 7950
Memory: 2 GB VRAM, 6 GB System RAM

Blizzard’s mandate has always been to allow as many enjoy their games as possible, which is why very few of their titles have ever been hardware hogs.

Perhaps their prettiest title of the bunch, Diablo 3, though a few of you might argue for StarCraft II, demands very little to be playable.

It’s probably the reason that Blizzard is very nearly the only game developer we know who doesn’t target the absolute high-end when recommending hardware specifications. Whereas it seems that every other studio focusses on the highest echelon of hardware required to get the best possible results out of their titles.

For those who want to crank up the settings, we’re guesstimating something along the lines of a 3.2 GHz i5, or better, 8GB of RAM and a GTX 970 or R9 390, though we wouldn’t be surprised if you could get away with a GTX 960 or R9 380.