Serious Sam 4 system requirements are quite serious

Serious Sam 4 is at last upon us. Well, nearly upon us, but the wait has felt like forever. Considering that September 24 is less than two weeks away, we can say we’re in the home stretch. With that, Croteam has finally shared some info about what is needed to run its new game. Let’s just say that the system requirements for Serious Sam 4 are no joke.

It’s hard to say why Croteam posted such daunting specifications for a game that is seemingly reasonable in terms of graphics. Serious Sam 4 isn’t exactly Crysis Remastered-level visuals, though the overall style is nice. We’d like to say that it ain’t easy being that badass, but nothing’s certain until we see the game for ourselves.

Minimum system requirements:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: 4-core CPU @ 2.5 GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 780/970/1050 or AMD Radeon 7950/280/470 (3 GB VRAM)
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 40 GB of available space
Additional Notes: Requirements are based on 720p rendering resolution at 30 fps.

Recommended system requirements:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64-bit (1909)
Processor: 8-core CPU @ 3.3 GHz
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 1080/2060 or AMD Radeon Vega64/5700 (8 GB VRAM)
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 40 GB of available space
Additional Notes: Recommended APIs include DX12 and Vulkan.

Holy cores

For now, we can focus on what we do know. The minimum specifications aren’t much to bat an eye at for enthusiast-level gamers with modern systems, but budget-oriented users may encounter trouble. It looks like Serious Sam 4 could put up a bit of a fight against anyone with an older CPU, especially in the laptop sector. Four-core minimums are relatively common on the low end of system specs, but the eight-core recommendation for higher level performance is a bit to gawk at.

AMD and Intel have really stepped it up in the last few years as far as core counts, and it seems Croteam is ready for everyone to welcome in the modern era. Fortunately, the overall frequencies are still reasonable, so anyone with even a decent AMD Ryzen 2000 series may be fine. If you’re like me though, and have a four-core 7700K, you might have cause for worry. Our recommendation is to always wait for benchmarks and reviews though when it comes to performance concerns.

Well, the lighting is pretty nice.

More to ponder

Fortunately, the RAM recommendations shouldn’t be a problem for most. According to a recent Steam Hardware Survey, most players have 16 GBs of system memory today, while 8 GBs is pretty standard as well. On the video card side of things, some may see some trouble as well, but anyone that’s upgraded to the Nvidia 20 Series should be just fine. I suspect my 1080 will perform admirably, as it meets the recommended requirements, but the truth is that more power will be needed for most new games like this. If you’re playing on an older card, it might be worth looking at the upcoming Nvidia RTX 30 Series if you want a smooth, pretty experience in Serious Sam 4.

Last but not least, it’s worth pointing out that Croteam recommends DirectX 12 or Vulcan, though DirectX 11 is still supported. This shift in API preference has been a long time coming. It seems like more games will finally embrace DirectX 12 Ultimate, if not only for the ray tracing. We can at least end on a positive note for Serious Sam 4‘s system requirements. You will only need 40 GB of hard drive space.