The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Changes Minimum Requirements Ahead of New Expansion

Whoever had The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt comes back as part of their bingo board for 2026, they may have been insane, but they were absolutely right. Against all odds, the return of the most beloved title in the franchise has been announced, as the game will be receiving an additional expansion before closing the curtains.

It's surprising, as the newly announced The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past has been shown off... or, at least as much as getting to see one key art is "showing off". Still, set to launch in 2027, it's a big surprise for players all around the world, and a welcome one as we'll have more reason to return to the beloved world.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was supposed to have ended its development cycle back in 2016, when The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine launched, which was meant to be the conclusion to the story. However, with the announcement of The Witcher 4, and how it'll be following Cirilla instead of Geralt, it's likely that Songs of the Pastis meant to bridge the gap between the two stories and help explain the transition.

We don't know much about Songs of the Past beyond the aforementioned art, but we will get to learn more late this summer. Beyond that, however, there is a brand-new set of system requirements for players looking to pick up The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the Songs of the Past.

Interestingly, however, the changes aren't because of the graphical fidelity present in Songs of the Past. Instead, these are updated minimum requirements based on some changes that have happened in the decade since the previous ones were announced.

Here are the new minimum requirements:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
• VRAM: 6 GB
• RAM: 12 GB
• Storage: 70 GB SSD
• OS: 64-bit Windows 11

There are a few reasons for the change to the minimum requirements, which gives us some insight into the changes. Here's a quick look at the new affected requirements and why they occurred:

• Windows 10 support was dropped due to the end of support from Windows because of the 2025 change on the 14th of October. Due to the limited security updates, the team is dropping the Windows 10 support.
• HDDs are no longer being supported in favour of SSDs, which will offer faster loading times, smoother asset streaming, and improved overall performance.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will now run exclusively on DirectX 23 so that it can support ongoing technical improvements for modern-day hardware more efficiently.
• Only processors that support Windows 11 will be supported (due to Windows 10 no longer being supported)
• Only graphics cards with ongoing driver support for gaming on Windows 11 will be supported.

This is all of the information regarding the current requirements update that we have about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We'll learn more about Songs of the Past sometime in late summer 2026, with an expected release window of 2027.