Mass Effect 2 System Requirements

With a Mass Effect 2 release date of Jan 31, 2010 approaching rapidly, it's time to ask yourself that timeless question.. What are the system requirements.. and do I need a new computer to handle it? The video requirements seem a little steep, but given we are in the year 2010, that is to be expected.

Minimum System Requirements

Operating System: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
Processor: 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
Memory: 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Hard Drive Space: 15 GB
DVD ROM: 1x Speed
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)
Input: Keyboard / Mouse
Video Card: 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets - NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater.

Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

Recommended System Requirements

Operating System: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
Processor: 2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Sound Card: 100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
DirectX: DirectX August 2008
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended

For the best results, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video and audio cards. Laptop or mobile versions of the above supported video cards have not had extensive testing and may have driver or other performance issues. As such, they are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system.

After all is said and done, the system requirements in Mass effect 2 don't seem too bad, but you'll want to play the game in 'recommended specs' at the very least as typically running games at 'minimal settings' ruins the experience.