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Frontier Developments Releases Specs For 'Elite Dangerous: Horizons' Expansion

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Two weeks ago, Frontier Developments CEO David Braben announced that the beta version for Elite Dangerous: Horizons is coming on November 24, with its biggest feature being the ability to land on planets. Obviously this will put more strain on your system compared to just flying around in space, so the team decided to put out an updated list of minimum and recommended specifications for the upcoming expansion.

The newsletter noted that with all of the team's work on optimization and art with the new content, the PC specs for Horizons are slightly higher than the base game requirements.

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Elite Dangerous (Base Game)MinimumRecommended
CPUQuad-Core CPU (4x2 GHz)Intel Core i7-3770K (3.5 GHz) or AMD FX 4350 (4.2 GHz)
GPUNvidia GeForce GTX 260 or AMD Radeon HD 4870 (DirectX 11 functionality required)Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 or AMD Radeon R9 280X (DirectX 11 functionality required)
RAM4 GB8 GB
Storage7 GB7 GB
ConnectivityBroadband Internet ConnectionBroadband Internet Connection
OSWindows 7/8Windows 7/8
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Elite Dangerous: HorizonsMinimumRecommended
CPUQuad-Core CPU (4x2 GHz)Intel Core i7-3770K (3.5 GHz) or AMD FX 4350 (4.2 GHz)
GPUNvidia GeForce GTX 470 or AMD Radeon R7 240 (DirectX 11 functionality required)Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 or AMD Radeon R9 280X (DirectX 11 functionality required)
RAM6 GB8 GB
Storage8 GB8 GB
ConnectivityBroadband Internet ConnectionBroadband Internet Connection
OSWindows 7/8/10 64-bitWindows 7/8/10 64-bit

The most notable changes are in the minimum graphics requirements. Elite Dangerous' minimum requirements were an Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or an AMD Radeon HD 4870. For Horizons, it's slightly upgraded to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 or the AMD Radeon R7 240. Minimum memory requirements were also increased from 4 GB to 6 GB, and you'll need at least 8 GB of storage (previously, it was 7 GB).

Frontier Developments said it will also release recommended specifications for both 4K and VR gameplay, but an exact date wasn't mentioned.

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Rexly Peñaflorida II is a Contributor at Tom’s Hardware. He writes news on tech and hardware, but mostly focuses on gaming news. As a Chicagoan, he believes that deep dish pizza is real pizza and ketchup should never be on hot dogs. Ever. Also, Portillo’s is amazing.

Follow Rexly Peñaflorida II @Heirdeux. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • spectrewind
    Rex... Have you actually played this game?
    Reply
  • Achoo22
    Wow... I know the GTX470 is an old card by now, but I'm shocked that it's in the same very-low-performance tier as the r7 240. Tom's own GPU Heirarchy Chart has the GTX470 matched up with the r7 260X and the r7240 matched up against the ancient 8800gs. The whole thing is as confusing as the games that suggest a r9 290 for the same performance tier as a gtx460.
    Reply
  • SCREAM2NIGHT
    Wow... I know the GTX470 is an old card by now, but I'm shocked that it's in the same very-low-performance tier as the r7 240. Tom's own GPU Heirarchy Chart has the GTX470 matched up with the r7 260X and the r7240 matched up against the ancient 8800gs. The whole thing is as confusing as the games that suggest a r9 290 for the same performance tier as a gtx460.

    Drivers can make a big difference, and also if its a Nvidia WIMTBP or AMD Gaming Evolved game
    Reply
  • IndignantSkeptic
    Wow... I know the GTX470 is an old card by now, but I'm shocked that it's in the same very-low-performance tier as the r7 240. Tom's own GPU Heirarchy Chart has the GTX470 matched up with the r7 260X and the r7240 matched up against the ancient 8800gs. The whole thing is as confusing as the games that suggest a r9 290 for the same performance tier as a gtx460.

    The way something is programmed can bias it to work better with either AMDATI or Nvidia.
    Reply
  • Sakkura
    So DX11 is required, but they list a pair of pre-DX11 GPUs as the minimum? Good job!
    Reply
  • Christopher1
    Wow... I know the GTX470 is an old card by now, but I'm shocked that it's in the same very-low-performance tier as the r7 240. Tom's own GPU Heirarchy Chart has the GTX470 matched up with the r7 260X and the r7240 matched up against the ancient 8800gs. The whole thing is as confusing as the games that suggest a r9 290 for the same performance tier as a gtx460.

    The way something is programmed can bias it to work better with either AMDATI or Nvidia.
    Which is something that I believe regulators should hammer down on. You should get the same performance on equally spec'd and powerful graphics cards from either major discrete graphics company.
    Reply
  • therealduckofdeath
    So DX11 is required, but they list a pair of pre-DX11 GPUs as the minimum? Good job!
    That's mostly because the table above lacks information. The official minimum recommended hardware list says DX11, but the game will run on DX10 hardware like the ones listed.
    Reply
  • IndignantSkeptic
    Wow... I know the GTX470 is an old card by now, but I'm shocked that it's in the same very-low-performance tier as the r7 240. Tom's own GPU Heirarchy Chart has the GTX470 matched up with the r7 260X and the r7240 matched up against the ancient 8800gs. The whole thing is as confusing as the games that suggest a r9 290 for the same performance tier as a gtx460.

    The way something is programmed can bias it to work better with either AMDATI or Nvidia.
    Which is something that I believe regulators should hammer down on. You should get the same performance on equally spec'd and powerful graphics cards from either major discrete graphics company.

    Sometimes the performance bias is not artificial; it is simply due to the different strengths and weaknesses of the hardware.
    Reply
  • cats_Paw
    I sometimes wonder if the people who come up with those minimum req specs are just monkey throwing darts :D.

    Or perhaps its people in marketing who dont know anything about hardware and they just pick the card that seems to be the most sold ... 2 years ago?

    Interesting indeed.
    Reply
  • heirdeux
    Rex... Have you actually played this game?

    Hi spectrewind,

    This is Rexly Penaflorida. To answer your question: Yes, I have played the game. When I built my PC earlier this year, it was one of the first games I played on the new build.
    Reply