Elden Ring's upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is, I think it's fair to say, one of the most hotly anticipated expansions of 2024, what with the immense success of the base game back in 2022. For those of you preparing to have the durability of your controllers tested when the DLC unlocks on June 20, at the very least it looks like it won't stress out your system any more than the original.
The Steam store page minimum requirements are identical to Elden Ring, and while it was regarded as somewhat demanding back at release, many moons have passed since then.
As something of a refresher course, that means the minimum CPU is given as an Intel Core i5 8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X, with a minimum GPU requirement of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB or AMD Radeon RX 580.
Those are some pretty aged components now, although I do have some frustrating memories of trying to get Elden Ring to run well on a GTX 1060 6 GB system when it first launched. Still, plenty of updates have been released since then, and some of the later patches do appear to have improved some of the performance issues for lower end systems, although enabling ray tracing does seem to be a demanding option for many to this day.
Recommended requirements are still an Intel Core i7 8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, along with 16 GB of RAM and a GTX 1070 or AMD RX Vega 56. That's still some pretty low-end hardware by modern standards, so those of you with more recent rigs should be in good shape to go exploring in the Land of Shadow, you poor mortal fools.
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Minimum | Recommended |
| OS | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |
| CPU | Intel Core i5 8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X | Intel Core i7 8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X |
| Memory | 12 GB | 16 GB |
| GPU | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 4 GB | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8 GB |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 60 GB available space | 60 GB available space |
Shadow of the Erdtree also has an expected download size of around 16.5 GB. That's a pretty light touch on your SSD space, too, and shouldn't take up too much extra room on most systems. And if that's a bit too much for you, may I boldly suggest that now might be the time to take a look at finding a good deal on a cheap SSD?
Still, it's refreshing to see a DLC that hasn't upped the ante when it comes to minimum specs, and suggests that Shadow of the Erdtree should run very well on systems that could already blast through the original.
I bid you good luck and good fortune in your adventures to come. Me, I never had much time to put into the original (damn you, life), so it looks like I have my work cut out for me if I ever want to see what all the fuss is about here.
