Watch Dogs PC Game to Require 64-bit OS
Ubisoft leaked the system requirements for the PC version of Watch Dogs.
Although the information appears to have been pulled, the Uplay download page for the PC version of Watch Dogs supposedly provided the system requirements. Luckily the specs were snatched up and posted over on NeoGAF before they disappeared, revealing that Watch Dogs on PC only supports 64-bit operating systems: Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1) or Windows 8.
According to the post, Ubisoft provided four sets of system specs: Base, Minimum, Recommended and Ultra. The first "Base" list stated that the game will only support 64-bit platforms, and will require 20 GB of space on the hard drive, a DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with the latest drivers, and a broadband Internet connection for multiplayer mode.
For the "Minimum" requirements, PC gamers will need a DirectX 11 graphics card with 1 GB of video RAM, a quad-core processor, and 4 GB of RAM. Prime examples are Nvidia's GeForce GTX 460 and AMD's Radeon HD 5770 on the GPU front, and Intel's Core2 Quad Q6600 or AMD's Phenom X4 9750 on the CPU front.
The "Recommended" specs for PC gamers is a bit more meaty, requiring a DirectX 11 graphics card with 2 GB of video RAM, an eight-core processor and 8 GB of RAM. Qualified hardware includes Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 Ti and AMD's Radeon HD 7850 in the GPU department, and Intel's Core i7-3770 and AMD's FX-8350 for CPUs.
Finally, we have the "Ultra" group. To meet this requirement, gamers will need a DirectX 11 graphics card with 2 GB of video RAM or more, the latest eight-core CPU or more, and 8 GB or more RAM. This includes Nvidia's GeForce GTX 670 and AMD's Radeon HD 7970 for GPUs, and Intel's Core i7-3930K and AMD's FX-9370 for CPUs.
Watch Dogs is slated to arrive on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U on November 19. Release dates for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions are currently unknown. The PC version will also support exclusive Nvidia features as part of Ubisoft's alliance with the GPU company, and will likely play a major role in Nvidia's Battlebox initiative this holiday season.

The 'ultra' requirements are insane. Do the CPUs even exist as retail parts yet?
edit : linked article states i7-3930k, oops Toms.
Side note: the main character can carry automatic rifles in his pants pocket! lol
The 'ultra' requirements are insane. Do the CPUs even exist as retail parts yet?
edit : linked article states i7-3930k, oops Toms.
It will be interesting to see if there will really be no 32bit version but considering they list 4GB of RAM in "minimum" requirements it wouldn't be all that surprising.
Those requirements seem a bit high but it might be a good sign... Many games have high requirements for "Ultra" graphics but quite low "minimum" requirements as graphics can be easily scaled and in most new games developers put everything they have into graphics, forgetting about AI and background scripts. Here even basic requirements are quite high and a good CPU is required, not only GPU, so I hope there is a lot of stuff going on in background. Just imagine how much more awesome games like Skyrim would be if there was better AI and real simulated economy, factions, etc. and not pre-scripted/randomised crap that runs only when you're around. I might be overly optimistic as always, but I do hope they are going in a good direction and that there will really be some more stuff going on in background than in most games.
I hope it can take advantage of hypethreading, that would be really cool.
That being said, Watch_Dogs looks like it has some pretty awesome tech running it, so I guess it could be worth it to run it on Ultra.
This must me a REALLY CPU intensive game to need an 8 core CPU for just the recommended. I hope Toms does a review on what is actually required. I'm still using a 2500k and was planning on keeping it for at least another year
Right. The new consoles have 8-core CPUs, but each core is very much weaker than a desktop or even a laptop CPU's. Hard to imagine that next-gen-console CPU optimizations will become truly PC-relevant any time soon.
If it's actually capable of taking advantage of 8 cores, I'd say not really. The vast majority of games are not coded well enough to take advantage of so many cores.
But I'm not convinced it will really benefit from that number of cores just because they put it in the official requirements. They tend to be inaccurate.
Requirements spiraling out of control? What the... requirements have been bogged down for years because of the long console cycle. To PC gamers, higher requirements is a blessing.