Doom The Dark Ages Release Date, Min PC Specs And A New Trailer Emerge

by · HotHardware

If you just want to know the date, well, here it is: DOOM: The Dark Ages hits on May 15th. The game's coming to Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PCs via both Steam and Game Pass. That's probably all that DOOM hardcore fans really need to know, but if you're playing on PC and concerned about your specs, read on for more information.

Naturally, DOOM: The Dark Ages is built on Id Software's latest engine technology. We saw an offshoot of that engine employed in the recent Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but that version is different enough from the master branch that developer Machinegames gave it its own name: Motor. However, the two have one thing in common, at least: hardware ray-tracing support is absolutely required.

So is at least 8GB of video RAM, too. That's the bare minimum for 1080p at 60 FPS, and it seems like Intel Arc cards might be out as well, because the GPU requirement specifically says "NVIDIA or AMD hardware raytracing-capable GPU with 8GB dedicated VRAM or better." We found Doom Eternal to run very well indeed on Intel's GPUs, including the older Alchemist parts, but it's true that there is a major tech issue with Battlemage and the Motor engine. It's possible that same problem persists in DOOM.

Battlemage GPUs see unusually high CPU utilization in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Refreshingly, these minimum settings make absolutely no mention of upscaling or frame generation, which is very nice to see. However, that means that if you're looking to play in native 4K at 60 FPS, you're going to want a Radeon RX 7900 XT or GeForce RTX 4080 as a minimum. These seem like high requirements, but remember, native 4K is extremely demanding. Given that this game requires ray-tracing support, it seems like it must be incredibly optimized to hit that performance level at native 4K on these GPUs.

Mowing down literal hordes of literal demons is par for the course in DOOM.

The other requirements are no less stringent. For the CPU, DOOM: The Dark Ages apparently requires a minimum of eight CPU cores—and they mean physical cores, because it specifically specifies "8 cores / 16 threads." We're positive that the game will launch on six-core systems, but it's quite possible that the play experience may not be super great. You'll also need at least 16GB of RAM and an NVMe SSD with 100GB of space to install the game on.

Flight gameplay is an unusual twist for a DOOM game.

As for the game itself, there's a new trailer showing off the title in native 4K UHD. It appears to primarily be the same gameplay footage that we saw before, just in higher quality. Notable features besides the familiar on-foot demon slaying include a segment where you apparently pilot some kind of organic aerial creature, and another segment where the Doomslayer climbs into a giant mecha to fight similarly super-sized demons.

The addition of a giant mecha for the Doomslayer to pilot is another curious choice.

The inability to pilot the mechs that you could find strewn around Earth in Doom Eternal was a significant complaint for some folks, so it's great to see that coming around in The Dark Ages. Hopefully Id Software took some of the other complaints about Eternal to heart, too. Your author was put off by the tonal dissonance between the arcadey gameplay and the story that seemed to take itself too seriously for how schlocky the writing was. Dark Ages seems to lean into the schlock angle, for better or for worse, so we'll see it goes.

As we said up top, DOOM: The Dark Ages is coming on May 15th, and of course, you can pre-order it whereever you buy your games. We'll likely be doing some performance testing with it when it hits, so keep an eye out for that.