Lord of the Rings: Gollum will put the squeeze on your PC hardware

[Shawn Knight]

A bad omen: German developer Daedalic Entertainment recently started accepting pre-orders for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the highly anticipated action-adventure game based on the popular J. R. R. Tolkien franchise. Steep minimum and recommended system requirements outlined on Steam, however, have some prospective gamers worried that we might be looking at a poorly optimized PC port.

Gollum's minimum requirements call for at least an Intel Core i7-4770 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU, 16GB of RAM, an Nvidia RTX 3060 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8GB) GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 45GB of available storage just to play at 1080p resolution with medium presets and ray tracing disabled.

PC gamers targeting at least 1440p resolution with high graphics settings and ray tracing enabled will need at least an Intel Core i3-6100 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor, an Nvidia RTX 4070 (with DLSS enabled) / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (16GB) graphics card, 32GB of RAM, and 45GB of free space.

All versions require Windows 10 or Windows 11 and at least DirectX 11.

Daedalic announced The Lord of the Rings: Gollum way back in early 2019 with a target launch window of 2021. Early screenshots from the game were shared in 2020 but in January 2021, it was quietly revealed that Gollum's release had slipped to 2022.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is now due out on May 25 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series. A version for the Nintendo Switch is also in the cards although it is not expected until sometime later this year. That is unfortunate as a simultaneous launch on PC and the Switch would have provided a solid apples to oranges comparison given the latter's dated hardware.

Interested parties can pre-purchase the standard edition on Steam for $49.99 or splurge on the Precious Edition which includes six emotes for $10 more. If nothing else, we know interest in the game is high as the title has already gone gold.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98358-lord-rings-gollum-put-squeeze-pc-hardware.html

 

[yRaz]

however, have some prospective gamers worried that we might be looking at a poorly optimized PC port.

Console hardware and PC hardware are so close these days that it seems difficult to make a poorly optimized PC port. On both a hardware and software level, the new xbox is VERY PC like. The xbox operating system could be called a windows reskin because of how much windows code is actually used in it. It's not like when we had specialized console hardware with the PS3 Cell processor. If it can run on an xbox then it should run fairly well on a PC without any optimization.

Being able to run on an i7-4770k makes me think this is just going to have loads of graphical assets. If it had optimization problems you'd need a much better CPU to make up for it. You also can't just plunk Ray Tracing into anything and call it a day. RT already gives systems such a large performance hit that it would pointless to put it in a game that wasn't optimized. DLSS is some really cool tech but it's not a miracle worker

 

[Ohnooze]

A 6800xt for 1440p...from the little I have seen that's a bit hard to justify.

 

[EdmondRC]

Interestingly it states a 6800 XT is good enough for RT, it does not mention FSR, but that the 4070 requires DLSS for RT, so the 12GB of VRAM is not enough even for 1440p with RT on? What happened? Why do games suddenly require 16GB of VRAM for 1440p?

 

[EdmondRC]

A 6800xt for 1440p...from the little I have seen that's a bit hard to justify.

That is with RT on and high settings. It also seems to be a VRAM issue requiring the 4070 as it requires DLSS for RT, High settings, and 1440p. The 3070 should be able to keep up with the 6800 XT with RT on in most scenarios, but I guess not now that 8GB of VRAM is suddenly too little for even 1440p games. I guess developers have decided that its time for you to move on.

 

[m4a4]

Is anyone here actually excited for this game? I have yet to hear from anyone that they are looking forward to a game like this.

Besides it being LotR, I have 0 interest...

 

[Eldritch]

All said and done, the game really looks worth the specs.
Unlike Plague Tale and Forspoken.

 

[hahahanoobs]

I7-4770 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU
Intel Core i3-6100 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
LMAO

 

[yRaz]

That is with RT on and high settings. It also seems to be a VRAM issue requiring the 4070 as it requires DLSS for RT, High settings, and 1440p. The 3070 should be able to keep up with the 6800 XT with RT on in most scenarios, but I guess not now that 8GB of VRAM is suddenly too little for even 1440p games. I guess developers have decided that its time for you to move on.

8 gigs has been a soft limit for awhile. With the GPU shortage during covid people literally could not buy graphics cards so developers were forced to work with in the limits of the hardware people had. Even if you don't like the prices you can 100% go out and buy a graphics card today. With mid ranged cards like the 6700xt having 12gigs for $300 it isn't unreasonable for people looking for a modern gaming experience to have more than 8 gigs of vram.

I also think that nVidia is only putting enough vram on their cards as a type of planned obsolescence. There is just too much shenanigans going on at nVidia right now. The 4070 could be a good product but at $600 it is not. If they wanted to charge $600 for it then they could have atleast put 16 gigs on it. Aside from the 4090, none of the vram numbers they have on their cards at the price points they have make any sense. AMD can put 24gigs of vram on a 7900xtx for $1000, still make money and have products listed at their MSRP. 8gigs has been basically the standard for 6 years now since nVidia released the 10 series. If it wasn't for the GPU shortage I think we'd already be well into 16GB being the standard

 

[EdmondRC]

Besides it being LotR, I have 0 interest...

I love LotR, in fact, I'm reading the books right now to my kids. As far as this Gollum game, well... Tolkien was the only one that could write a true LotR story because so much of it was central to his view of those who have power and how they use that power. You see Tolkien actually had two main themes in LotR that gets lost in almost all LotR adaptations. One theme is that of divine providence, while not seeing it, there was always another good power at work shaping the unfolding of events. Gollum himself and his attacking Frodo and falling into the volcano with the ring was all guided by this unseen benevolence. The other theme is that of power and corruption. Tom Bombadil was a character with tremendous power, but evil and the power of the ring had no power over him. Though Bombadil was the "master" of the Old Forest, he did not rule over it or have ownership of it. Bombadil represented restrained power in the right hands. This was contrasted with Sauron, who sought the ring in order to bring everyone under his dominion, representing unrestrained and undeserved power. Gandolph's refusal of the ring showed that Gandolph understood that the power would corrupt him.

TLDR - It's hard for me to get into Tolkien adaptations because they seldom reflect Tolkien's ideas.

 

[Srksi]

Console hardware and PC hardware are so close these days that it seems difficult to make a poorly optimized PC port.

True, but still devs are trying hard and succeed way more often than it should be possible...

 

[Lionvibez]

Looking forward to trying this out on pc.

And I'm surprised its sub 50 GB's for a change.

 

[RudyBob]

Never in a million Ring years

 

[DukeJukem]

Kind of funny how these games' minimum CPU requirements are fairly easy to achieve. The GPU requirements though, not so much.

 

[Lionvibez]

Kind of funny how these games' minimum CPU requirements are fairly easy to achieve. The GPU requirements though, not so much.

GPU always matters more for gaming than CPU unless its like super old.

 

[takaozo]

I would really like to see the system with i3 6100/R5 2600 and a Rtx 4070/6800XT. My old PC had a i7 4790 (more or less a i7 6700) and a Rtx 2060 and the CPU was slow AF feeding data to GPU.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I suppose there is ray tracing and then there is ray tracing - so yes a RTX4070 is a powerful card - maybe they want a real sweet looking Ray traced game - as opposed to a few RT effects .
Given that a 3060 for RT turned off and settings turn down will probably cope just fine

 

[toooooot]

I dont like how they made gollum. It just feels like something is missing. Please redo like Sonic.

 

[lensaholic]

I dont like how they made gollum. It just feels like something is missing. Please redo like Sonic.

Yup, they wanted to do something different from the movie but it even looks too different from the books illustrations. This one doesn't look as evil and smart as he should. Also his nose and mouth make him look like a monkey.

From the gameplay videos I've seen, the game is way too dated in its graphics and mechanics to have success.

 

[KofeViR]

A 6800xt for 1440p...from the little I have seen that's a bit hard to justify.

Why? 6800XT is considered mid-end these days

However it's probably just another bad console port and PC requirement is high because of bad optimization

 

[Threadcount]

Really glad I went for the 6800XT, with 16GB of VRAM it has become my PRECIOUSsss...

 

[KofeViR]

Really glad I went for the 6800XT, with 16GB of VRAM it has become my PRECIOUSsss...

4070 Ti 12GB will beat it with ease, without DLSS
4070 probably stomps on 6800XT with DLSS Quality enabled and performs on par without, using half the watts

Sounds like DLSS only game as well - Nvidia sponsored?

 

[neeyik]

Sounds like DLSS only game as well - Nvidia sponsored?

Probably, yes -- Nvidia has certainly 'RTX promoted' it.

 

[Ohnooze]

Why? 6800XT is considered mid-end these days

However it's probably just another bad console port and PC requirement is high because of bad optimization

Because most games on the 6800xt run at 4k 60 and this game is nothing impressive to look at. I watched a couple gameplay videos and was not the least bit impressed.
If Assassins Creed Valhalla (just for example) can run at 4k and 65+ fps this turd should probably double it. Now add in RTX and that's different but if this game needs a 6800xt for 1440p...big middle finger to the devs.
And just because faster cards came out 6 or so months ago, that doesn't mean that all the sudden these games should drop to 1440p. That makes no sense at all. There is no way this game should be demanding especially considering it's running on console.

 

[KofeViR]

Because most games on the 6800xt run at 4k 60 and this game is nothing impressive to look at. I watched a couple gameplay videos and was not the least bit impressed.
If Assassins Creed Valhalla (just for example) can run at 4k and 65+ fps this turd should probably double it. Now add in RTX and that's different but if this game needs a 6800xt for 1440p...big middle finger to the devs.
And just because faster cards came out 6 or so months ago, that doesn't mean that all the sudden these games should drop to 1440p. That makes no sense at all. There is no way this game should be demanding especially considering it's running on console.

6800XT does not run demanding and new games at 4K using high settings and gets 60+ fps, it might hit 60 fps average which means dips to 40-50 at reduced settings.

Games get more demanding. Running 4K means you need to CONSTANT UPDATE your GPU. Even 3090 Ti and 6950XT are mediocre for 4K gaming today. You can enable FSR or DLSS to get proper framerate tho. And DLSS beats FSR easily.

ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 TUF Review

The ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 TUF is a factory-overclocked premium custom-design variant, which features an all-metal cooler shroud. Noise levels are the lowest we've measured in all our RTX 4070 reviews, and the dual BIOS feature lets you enable a second BIOS that achieves lower temperature.

www.techpowerup.com

Radeon 6800 gets 48 fps average in ACV at 4K high settings, 3070 gets 47 fps, easily beating 6700XT at 38.5 fps and you think VRAM matter? 3070 beats 6700XT by 25% and price difference was 20 dollar at launch. 6800 beats 3070 by 2% and was 80 dollars more expensive, if you could actually find one.

Enable DLSS 2 on Quality Mode, and you probably hit 100 fps on the 3070.

DLSS easily beats FSR, according to Hardware Unboxed recent test.