Warhammer 40,000: Dark Tides (opens in new tab) will be released on November 30th, but you can pre-order the game and play it from November 17th. With just one day left before Early Access’s starting guns ring, developer Fatshark has released its full system requirements, as well as a very detailed blog. Post an article analyzing how different settings (there are many) affect overall performance.
First of all, hardware. Luckily Darktide isn’t too demanding on the low end. Any basic gaming PC should be able to handle it. PCs with heavy iron can take advantage of all the latest and greatest eye-pleasing technology.
Warhammer 40K: Dark Tides System Requirements
Recommended system requirements (1080p, medium settings, 60 fps)
- CPU: Intel i7-9700K (3.7GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (4.2GHz)
- GPUs: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
- sheep: 16 GB
- depository: 50GB SSD
Minimum (1080p, Low setting, 30-45 fps)
- CPU: Intel i5-6600 (3.3GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 (3.4GHz)
- GPUs: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 570
- sheep: 8GB
- depository: 50GB HDD
Ray Tracing Low (1080p, medium settings, 40-50 fps)
- CPU: Intel i7-11700K (3.7GHz) or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (4.2GHz)
- GPUs: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
- sheep: 16 GB
- depository: 50GB SSD
- Ray tracing settings: global illumination off, less reflection
Ray Tracing Medium (1080p/1440p, High setting, 60-70 fps)
- CPU: Intel i7-11700K (3.7GHz) or AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (3.8GHz)
- GPUs: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
- sheep: 16 GB
- depository: 50GB SSD
- Ray tracing settings: high global illumination and low reflection
Ray Tracing High (4K, High setting, 100 fps)
- CPU: Intel i7-12700K (3.6GHz) or AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (3.8GHz)
- GPUs: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080
- sheep: 16 GB
- depository: 50GB SSD
- Ray tracing settings: high global illumination and high reflection
Tips for maximizing performance in Darktide
The specs above give everyone a very quick breakdown of what they can expect from their system, but for those who want to know more, namely: deep— what that means, Fatshark co-founder and chief technology officer Rikard Blomberg says just that blog post (opens in new tab) On how players can maximize Darktide performance.
It explains (very basically, obviously) the role of the CPU and GPU, lighting techniques, “parallelization”, and what the game needs to do in order to render a frame in 16.7 ms or less. Time required to achieve a frame rate of 60 fps. But at the end of the day, there’s information about what individual graphics settings do, and how they affect Darktide’s CPU and GPU usage.
Some outstanding tips:
- Lower Max Ragdolls and Scatter Density if CPU constrained
- Lower Max Weapon Impact Decals and Max Blood Decals if your GPU is constrained.
- DLSS/FSR option is the easiest way to improve GPU performance
- Reduce latency with Nvidia Reflex
The Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Beta begins November 17th at 10am PT / 1pm ET — see the full Darktide Pre-Order Beta for start times in other regions. See release time (opens in new tab) Position. Note that with only a few weeks left until the full release, Fatshark seems to be treating this as a proper final best-of test, and some aspects of the game may be incomplete or absent. .
