The Witcher 3 PC requirements have jumped significantly for the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion, marking a hard break from the 11-year-old game’s legacy hardware support. CD Projekt Red is dropping Windows 10, Xbox One, and hard-disk drives entirely, forcing players on older systems to either upgrade or stick with previous game versions.
Key Takeaways
- The Witcher 3 PC requirements now mandate Windows 11, AMD Ryzen 5 2600 / Intel Core i5-8400 CPUs, and NVIDIA GTX 1660 / AMD RX 5500 XT 8GB GPUs
- SSD storage is now mandatory; hard-disk drives are no longer supported due to performance and asset streaming improvements
- Windows 10 support ends because Microsoft ceased security patches and driver updates for the platform
- The game will run exclusively on DirectX 12 after the update
- Players can revert to a previous game version if they cannot meet the new requirements
- Songs of the Past expansion launches in 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
Why The Witcher 3 PC requirements are changing now
CD Projekt Red justified the shift by stating that hardware capabilities have evolved since the game’s 2015 launch. The studio explained: these minimum specifications reflect the advancements in hardware capabilities and software utilization since our last update. The expansion represents an opportunity to modernize the technical baseline rather than maintain backward compatibility with a decade-old operating system and storage standard.
The move mirrors a broader industry trend where new game releases increasingly target current-generation hardware. Unlike incremental updates, The Witcher 3 PC requirements now align with what modern development considers viable, not what legacy systems can technically run. This is not a surprise for a major expansion arriving in 2027, but it does mark a definitive end to Windows 10 support for CD Projekt Red’s flagship franchise.
The specifics of The Witcher 3 PC requirements update
The new minimum specs demand an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400 processor, paired with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT with 8GB VRAM. RAM jumps to 12GB, and storage must be on an SSD with at least 70GB capacity. All of this runs on 64-bit Windows 11 exclusively.
Compare this to the current Steam minimum specs, which allow Intel Core i5-2500K processors, 6GB RAM, and either an HDD or SSD with 50GB space, running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. The gap between old and new is substantial. CD Projekt Red’s rationale for dropping HDDs is particularly telling: solid-state drives provide superior performance, quicker loading times, and enhanced asset streaming. This is not arbitrary gatekeeping—it reflects real technical benefits that DirectX 12 and modern engine optimization can exploit.
Windows 10 and Xbox One support officially ends
CD Projekt Red will cease testing its games on Windows 10 because Microsoft has ended support and there will be no ongoing security patches, platform support, or GPU driver support. This is a security and maintenance decision, not a purely technical one. A platform without active driver updates becomes a liability for developers shipping new content.
The decision also signals that only processors compatible with Windows 11 will be supported, and only graphics cards that maintain active driver support for gaming on Windows 11. This means older GPU architectures that stopped receiving driver updates years ago are out. Xbox One, meanwhile, is simply not part of the Songs of the Past roadmap—only PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC will receive the expansion.
What this means for players on older hardware
If you cannot meet The Witcher 3 PC requirements, you have options. Players affected by the requirement change can revert to a previous version of the game, allowing them to continue playing the base game and existing DLC without upgrading. This is a courtesy—many developers would simply force the update and leave legacy players behind.
However, reverting means missing out on the new expansion entirely. For players on Windows 10 or with older hardware, the choice is upgrade or stay behind. The cost of entry is not trivial: a Ryzen 5 2600 and GTX 1660 combo represents a mid-range build from 2019-2020, and pairing it with Windows 11 and an SSD adds further expense. This creates a clear divide between players who can afford to keep pace and those locked out.
Does reverting to an older game version work?
Yes. CD Projekt Red allows players to roll back to a previous version of The Witcher 3 if the new requirements are incompatible with their hardware. You will lose access to the expansion and any updates bundled with it, but the base game remains playable.
Why is SSD storage now mandatory for The Witcher 3 PC requirements?
SSDs deliver faster loading, better asset streaming, and overall performance improvements that hard-disk drives cannot match. Modern game engines, especially those using DirectX 12, are designed around SSD-speed assumptions. Requiring an SSD is not about excluding players—it is about delivering the experience the expansion was built for.
Will The Witcher 3 expansion come to Xbox One?
No. Songs of the Past launches only on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2027. Xbox One is being dropped entirely, aligning with the broader shift toward current-generation platforms. This is consistent with how major studios are phasing out last-gen support as development costs and technical complexity increase.
The Witcher 3 PC requirements update is less about exclusion and more about honest engineering. CD Projekt Red could have spent extra resources supporting Windows 10, HDDs, and older GPUs, but instead chose to build the expansion for the hardware that exists now. For players with modern systems, this means better performance and faster streaming. For those on legacy hardware, it means a clear upgrade path or the option to stay on an older version. Neither choice is ideal, but both are transparent.
Edited by the All Things Geek team.
Source: Windows Central
