After multiple leaks let the cat out of the bag, Sony finally confirmed at last week’s Game Awards that the excellent PlayStation roguelike shooter Returnal is finally coming to PC (opens in new tab). Nice. Now, courtesy of Steam, we’ve got the PC system requirements, and I’m sorry to say this, but the recommended RAM requirement will probably make your eyes water.
The minimum system requirement is not a problem:
- Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
- processor: Intel Core i5-6400 (4 cores 2.7 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X (4 cores 3.5 GHz)
- Memory: 16GB working memory
- Pictures: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8GB)
- Storage: 60GB available space
But the recommended spec is where it gets a little hairy:
- Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
- processor: Intel i7-8700 (6 cores 3.7 GHz) or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (8 cores 3.7 GHz)
- Memory: 🚨 🚨 32 GB RAM 🚨 🚨
- Pictures: Nvidia RTX 2070 SUPER (8GB) or AMD RX 6700 XT (12GB)
- Storage: 60GB available space
32 GB is a lot of RAM for a recommended spec. Right now this much DDR4 can cost you $105-$150 (opens in new tab). The vast majority of gaming PCs still rock with 16GB or less: the semi-scientific Steam hardware and software study (opens in new tab), for example, reveals that three-quarters of the systems surveyed run with 8 GB or 16 GB installed. (5.72% of people are still running with 4 GB of RAM, and I’m sorry but come on people. That’s not enough. Right now you probably need a brand new PC, but whatever you do, it’s time to do something.) Only 13.38% of respondents have 32 GB installed, while 1.42% have 64 GB or more.
So why is Returnal such a RAM hog? Sony hasn’t nailed it down to anything specific, but said in the announcement (opens in new tab) that PC gamers “can rest assured that you’re in for an advanced Housemarque challenge, and the bells and whistles are there to support the gameplay experience.” Based on a September leak, those bells and whistles include DLSS and FSR, and probably ray tracing. That’s all pretty hardware-intensive stuff, and 32GB of RAM could be useful to keep things running smoothly.
Of course, it’s also possible that Sony will roll back the RAM requirement to 16GB to avoid widespread panic or PC envy, as EA did. Returnal isn’t expected to hit PC until sometime in early 2023, so there’s still time to change things on that front.
Returnal isn’t the first PC game to recommend 32GB of RAM, but it’s still a rarity. Spider-Man remastered (opens in new tab), for example, also recommends 32 GB of RAM, but only for the Ultimate Ray Tracing (4K, 60 fps) graphics preset; everything else recommends 16 GB. EA initially recommended 32 GB for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (opens in new tab), but it eventually went down to 16GB. The sci-fi survival game Icarus from Rocketwerkz (opens in new tab) still recommends 32GB, but not out of real necessity: Rocketwerkz founder Dean Hall said in November 2021 that “additional RAM helps, but the game is optimized to run without it.” Icarus also recommends an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti.
I’ve reached out to Sony for more information on that front and will update if I get a response. In the meantime, if you’re tempted to make the jump to 32GB, you’ll be happy to know that now’s a good time to get it done (opens in new tab).
