Electronic Arts outlined its system requirements for BioWare’s upcoming action-RPG Mass Effect: Andromeda, revealing that players will need an Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB or AMD RX 480 video card to achieve maximum in-game performance.
Players eager to jump back into the galaxy of Mass Effect don’t necessarily need an expensive gaming rig to run the game at an acceptable framerate, however, as the game’s minimum system requirements demand a fraction of the hardware horsepower required for peak performance.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is the latest entry in developer BioWare’s galaxy-trekking sci-fi series, following up on a trilogy of releases for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms over the past decade. The upcoming sequel features an entirely new cast and its open-world framework will allow players to explore multiple planets and star systems.
PC players will need a 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 setup in order to run Mass Effect: Andromeda, along with 55 GB of free hard drive space. The game requires an Intel Core i5 3570 or AMD FX-6350 processor and 8GB of system RAM to run at minimum settings, along with an Nvidia GTX 660 2GB or AMD Radeon 7850 2GB graphics card or equivalent.
EA’s recommended settings bump processor requirements up to an Intel Core i7-4790 or AMD FX-8350 at a minimum. Players with high-end rigs will also need at least 16 GB of system RAM and an NVIDIA GTX 1060 3GB or AMD RX 480 4GB video card or better to achieve smooth framerates at high resolutions.
Veteran players at gaming forum NeoGAF specifically recommend a multi-core CPU such as those featured in AMD’s Ryzen lineup, as the game’s underlying Frostbite engine typically sees improved performance when running on a multi-core processor.
Mass Effect: Andromeda drops for the Buy Now , Buy Now , and Buy Now on March 21.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.