Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition gets system requirements

The developers of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition have finally shared the project's system requirements. This updated version of the iconic 2005 Age of Empires III launches on PC via Steam on October 15. To dive into the nostalgic strategy game, you'll need one of the following PC configurations:

Minimum:

• OS: 64-bit Windows 10;

• Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 or AMD Phenom II X4 970;

• RAM: 8 GB;

• Graphics Card: GeForce GT 430, Radeon HD 5570, or Intel HD 4400 (2 GB VRAM minimum);

• Storage: 42 GB available;

Recommended:

• OS: 64-bit Windows 10;

• Processor: Intel Core i5-3300 or AMD FX-8350;

• RAM: 16 GB;

• Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 980 or Radeon R9 Fury (4 GB VRAM minimum);

• Storage: 42 GB available;

While the minimum requirements seem quite reasonable — perhaps even too lenient — the recommended specs raise some questions. For instance, how does a game jump from ultra-low-end cards like the GeForce GT 430 and Radeon HD 5570 to a GeForce GTX 980 and Radeon R9 Fury? It's completely unclear. But we'll leave that to the developers.

On the other hand, owners of older CPUs like the AMD Phenom II X4, which lack SSE4.1 and SSE4.2 extensions, can breathe easy: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition should run on these processors without any issues (though the real question is how well it will run — specifically, the framerate).