As a huge fan of the God of War series on Sony PlayStation, the release of the game on PC was music to my ears when the announcement was made in October last year by Grace Orlady, Sony Santa Monica Studio's senior community manager. Like most people, I immediately Googled the system requirements for God of War (2018) for PC to no avail. It would be a few months before I would find out, and i figure I'd either be crying on to my keyboard or fist-bumping my Kratos collectible bobblehead on my desk with joy.
If you don't know what's in store for you with God of War, here's the quick version to get you in the loop: Kratos - son of Zeus - was Athena's chief head remover and general killy guy until he was betrayed by the Gods. At this point, Kratos got a smidge vengeful and set off to kill them all, including his dear old Dad.
God of War (2018) PC
This version of the game joins Kratos' story a little later down the line and he has found himself in Midgard - in Norse mythology, "the Middle Earth, the abode of mankind". Here he decided to settle down with a wife - and son named Atreus who also appears alongside Kratos in this story. Sadly, the game starts with tragedy for our man, Kratos, and doesn't get much better for him , as he sets out on a personal mission with his boy, and encounters trouble at every turn. It's going to be a hack & slash romp and no mistake, so if this is your first time playing GoW, you're in for a treat.
Here's a pre-release review from an up & coming YouTube channel, The Empire:
God of War PC System Requirements
Minimum (720p, 30FPS)
Graphics settings: Low GPU: Nvidia GTX 960 4GB or AMD R9 290X 4GB CPU: Intel Core i5 2500k or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 RAM: 8GB Storage: 70GB HDD
Recommended (1080p, 30FPS)
Graphics settings: Original GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB or AMD RX 570 4GB CPU: Intel Core i5 6600k or AMD Ryzen 5 2400G RAM: 8GB Storage: 70GB SSD
God of War Graphics Settings
Of course, if you are more interested in how many frames per second your hardware can get you, these are the settings and their requirements:
High - 1080p, 60FPS
Graphics settings: Original GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070 8GB or AMD RX 5600XT 6GB CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k or AMD Ryzen 7 2700 RAM: 8GB Storage: 70GB SSD
Graphics settings: High GPU: Nvidia RTX 2070 8GB or AMD RX 5700XT 8GB CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X RAM: 16GB Storage: 70GB SSD
Ultra - 4K, 60FPS
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080 10GB or AMD RX 6800XT 16GB CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3950X RAM: 16GB Storage: 70GB SSD
The screenshot below shows Sony's official system requirements; small wonder why there are so many gamers looking forward to the January 14th release date.
God of War Official System Requirements
The minimum requirements for 720p 30FPS only requires 4 core 3.1Ghz/3.3Ghz and the twelve year old Nvidia GTX 960 to run, or if you have an AMD GPU, you'll need the AMD R9 290X or better, which is itself fourteen years old this year. This is good news for anyone who missed the boat to Ray Tracing for now, but means to get the best out of God of War - and to see the glorious action and gore in all its murdery elegance - you will need an Nvidia RTX 3080 10GB or the AMD RX 6800XT 16GB.
Interestingly enough, the PC version of God of War also includes the latest support for Nvidia Reflex, and enhanced graphics: "higher-resolution shadows, improved screen space reflections, enhanced Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion (GTAO) and Screen Space Directional Occlusion (SSDO)."
Nvidia Reflex is a technology that helps to reduce system latency - the time between your PC registering your input and performing an action. In a frantic game like God of War, this will translate to faster rendering of axe or sword wielding once you hit the button to perform it.
Finally, if you are looking to upgrade to a new PC for God of War and the slew of awesome AAA titles coming this year, here are our recommendations:
Best Gaming PCs For God of War
High - 1080p, 60FPS:
God of War: 1080p 60FPS Gaming PC
Outdoing the recommended Nvidia GTX 1070 8GB and Intel Core i7 4770k in terms of performance and processing power, the Horizon 3 Intel GTX 1660 Gaming PC is perfect for wielding those death-dealing weapons at 60FPS.
Ultra - 4K, 60FPS:
God of War: Ultra 4K, 60FPS Gaming PC
With just as much power as Kratos himself, the Nazare 5124 is a beastly battlestation that will enable 4K gaming at 60FPS in God of War. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X brings out the best in the GeForce RTX 3080 10GB, and in benchmarks can achieved 1440p on a 144Hz monitor with around around 150-160 FPS on COD: Warzone (high settings). When you ramp up to 4K, you are going to see over 60FPS, as some of the early RTX and Ryzen 5 benchmarks have shown, but as a baseline, 60FPS is the sweet spot for most gamers.
