{"id":1957718,"date":"2026-05-27T10:56:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1957718"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:56:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:56:56","slug":"the-witcher-3-minimum-pc-requirements-rise-significantly-ahead-of-new-expansion-forcing-you-to-use-windows-11-and-an-ssd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1957718","title":{"rendered":"The Witcher 3 minimum PC requirements rise significantly ahead of new expansion, forcing you to use Windows 11 and an SSD"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">The Witcher 3 minimum PC requirements rise significantly ahead of new expansion, forcing you to use Windows 11 and an SSD<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">An 11 year-old game renews its demands.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/witcher-3-geralt-songs-of-past-expansion.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"A close-up of a grizzled, ring-mail and leather armoured warrior with white hair and swords on his back, who&apos;s being approached by a gnarled tree of an enemy behind. It&apos;s Geralt from The Witcher. I wouldn&apos;t mess with him if I was that tree.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"witcher-3-geralt-songs-of-past-expansion.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>CD Projekt Red<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-05-27T10:56:56+00:00\">May 27, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"5602a568-15bf-416c-8edc-63042b171df5\" data-name=\"The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt\" data-follow-text=\"Follow The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt\" title=\"Follow The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt\"><br \/>\n  Follow The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>CD Projekt Red has updated the minimum system requirements for The Witcher: Wild Hunt on PC, most notably ending support for hard-disk drives and Windows 10. Only solid-state drives and Windows 11 will be supported going forward.<\/p>\n<p>The move has been made in preparation for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/rumoured-witcher-3-third-expansion-announced\">a third Witcher 3 expansion &#8211; Songs of the Past<\/a> &#8211; arriving next year. <a href=\"https:\/\/support.cdprojektred.com\/en\/witcher-3\/pc\/sp-technical\/issue\/2973\/upcoming-changes-to-minimum-requirements-for-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt\">CD Projekt Red said<\/a>: &#8220;With new content coming to the game, we need to update our system requirements to ensure smooth performance and compatibility going forward for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt\">The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt<\/a> and Songs of the Past.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Starting from the next update, which is as yet undated, the minimum system requirements of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, an 11 year-old game, will rise to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400<\/li>\n<li>GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB<\/li>\n<li>VRAM: 6 GB<\/li>\n<li>RAM: 12 GB<\/li>\n<li>Storage: 70 GB SSD<\/li>\n<li>OS: 64-bit Windows 11<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Official Complete Edition Next Gen Update Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TUWkTaJK32I?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/TUWkTaJK32I\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt &#8211; Official Complete Edition Next Gen Update Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>The Witcher 3 has already been updated to make use of next-gen components and their capabilities, but it was a more optional upgrade then.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TUWkTaJK32I\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For comparison, the current minimum system requirements for The Witcher 3, <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/292030\/The_Witcher_3_Wild_Hunt\/\">as listed on Steam<\/a>, are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CPU: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz \/ AMD A10-5800K APU (3.8GHz)<\/li>\n<li>GPU: NVIDIA GPU GeForce GTX 660 \/ AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870<\/li>\n<li>RAM: 6 GB<\/li>\n<li>Storage: 50 GB available space<\/li>\n<li>OS *: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s a considerable change. &#8220;These minimum requirements reflect how hardware capabilities and software usage have evolved since we last changed the system requirements,&#8221; CD Projekt Red explained.<\/p>\n<p>The switch to Windows 11 reflects Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 last year. &#8220;Without ongoing security updates, official platform support, and continued GPU driver support, we will no longer test our games on Windows 10,&#8221; CD Projekt Red stated.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Windows 11 requirement also affects other PC components in that The Witcher 3 will &#8220;exclusively&#8221; run on DirectX 12, and &#8220;only processors supported on Windows 11 will be supported by us&#8221;, and &#8220;only graphics cards with ongoing active driver support for gaming on Windows 11 will be supported&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Hard-disk drives are no longer being supported because solid-state drives offer better overall performance and faster loading times and asset streaming, CD Projekt Red added.<\/p>\n<p>Note, however, that you can revert to earlier versions of The Witcher 3 should you be potentially affected by this. <a href=\"https:\/\/support.cdprojektred.com\/en\/witcher-3\/pc\/sp-technical\/issue\/2339\/i-want-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-the-game\">CD Projekt Red has a guide on how to do this.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a curious change to make. On the one hand, it suggests there&#8217;s an exciting level of technical ambition being employed on the third Witcher 3 expansion, and that CD Projekt Red and Fool&#8217;s Theory &#8211; the co-developer &#8211; intend to make something that looks impressive by today&#8217;s standards.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, an 11 year-old game can&#8217;t help but have a foot in the past, and there&#8217;s a danger of alienation if people&#8217;s PC hardware isn&#8217;t powerful enough, or if people have made deliberate decisions not to move to Windows 10. It&#8217;s not a forgiving market to upgrade your PC in, currently, either, with component pricing pushed sky-high by rampant big-tech demand for AI data-centers.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, it is impressive to see CD Projekt Red continue to expand The Witcher 3 so late in the game&#8217;s life, even if there&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/witcher-3-expansion-rumours-analyst-100-percent-certain-cd-projekt-red-will-release-significant-new-content-this-year\">a slight financial pressure here to hit revenue targets in order to meet company bonus targets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>CD Projekt Red has updated the minimum system requirements for The Witcher: Wild Hunt on PC, most notably ending support for hard-disk drives and Windows 10. Only solid-state drives and Windows 11 will be supported going forward.<\/p>\n<p>The move has been made in preparation for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/rumoured-witcher-3-third-expansion-announced\">a third Witcher 3 expansion &#8211; Songs of the Past<\/a> &#8211; arriving next year. <a href=\"https:\/\/support.cdprojektred.com\/en\/witcher-3\/pc\/sp-technical\/issue\/2973\/upcoming-changes-to-minimum-requirements-for-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt\">CD Projekt Red said<\/a>: &#8220;With new content coming to the game, we need to update our system requirements to ensure smooth performance and compatibility going forward for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt\">The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt<\/a> and Songs of the Past.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Starting from the next update, which is as yet undated, the minimum system requirements of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, an 11 year-old game, will rise to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400<\/li>\n<li>GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB<\/li>\n<li>VRAM: 6 GB<\/li>\n<li>RAM: 12 GB<\/li>\n<li>Storage: 70 GB SSD<\/li>\n<li>OS: 64-bit Windows 11<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Official Complete Edition Next Gen Update Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TUWkTaJK32I?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/TUWkTaJK32I\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt &#8211; Official Complete Edition Next Gen Update Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>The Witcher 3 has already been updated to make use of next-gen components and their capabilities, but it was a more optional upgrade then.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TUWkTaJK32I\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For comparison, the current minimum system requirements for The Witcher 3, <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/292030\/The_Witcher_3_Wild_Hunt\/\">as listed on Steam<\/a>, are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>CPU: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz \/ AMD A10-5800K APU (3.8GHz)<\/li>\n<li>GPU: NVIDIA GPU GeForce GTX 660 \/ AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870<\/li>\n<li>RAM: 6 GB<\/li>\n<li>Storage: 50 GB available space<\/li>\n<li>OS *: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s a considerable change. &#8220;These minimum requirements reflect how hardware capabilities and software usage have evolved since we last changed the system requirements,&#8221; CD Projekt Red explained.<\/p>\n<p>The switch to Windows 11 reflects Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 last year. &#8220;Without ongoing security updates, official platform support, and continued GPU driver support, we will no longer test our games on Windows 10,&#8221; CD Projekt Red stated.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Windows 11 requirement also affects other PC components in that The Witcher 3 will &#8220;exclusively&#8221; run on DirectX 12, and &#8220;only processors supported on Windows 11 will be supported by us&#8221;, and &#8220;only graphics cards with ongoing active driver support for gaming on Windows 11 will be supported&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Hard-disk drives are no longer being supported because solid-state drives offer better overall performance and faster loading times and asset streaming, CD Projekt Red added.<\/p>\n<p>Note, however, that you can revert to earlier versions of The Witcher 3 should you be potentially affected by this. <a href=\"https:\/\/support.cdprojektred.com\/en\/witcher-3\/pc\/sp-technical\/issue\/2339\/i-want-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-the-game\">CD Projekt Red has a guide on how to do this.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a curious change to make. On the one hand, it suggests there&#8217;s an exciting level of technical ambition being employed on the third Witcher 3 expansion, and that CD Projekt Red and Fool&#8217;s Theory &#8211; the co-developer &#8211; intend to make something that looks impressive by today&#8217;s standards.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, an 11 year-old game can&#8217;t help but have a foot in the past, and there&#8217;s a danger of alienation if people&#8217;s PC hardware isn&#8217;t powerful enough, or if people have made deliberate decisions not to move to Windows 10. It&#8217;s not a forgiving market to upgrade your PC in, currently, either, with component pricing pushed sky-high by rampant big-tech demand for AI data-centers.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, it is impressive to see CD Projekt Red continue to expand The Witcher 3 so late in the game&#8217;s life, even if there&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/witcher-3-expansion-rumours-analyst-100-percent-certain-cd-projekt-red-will-release-significant-new-content-this-year\">a slight financial pressure here to hit revenue targets in order to meet company bonus targets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News The Witcher 3 minimum PC requirements rise significantly ahead of new expansion, forcing you to use Windows 11 and an SSD An 11 year-old game renews its demands. Image credit: CD Projekt Red News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on May 27, 2026 Follow The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt CD Projekt Red [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1957718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1957718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1957718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1957718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1957718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}