Ubisoft announces the PC requirements for Assassin's Creed Shadows, and as expected, your RTX 4000 series GPU is sufficient.

Ubisoft has shared the hardware requirements needed to run Assassin's Creed Shadows on PC. For those looking to enable the extreme ray tracing preset at 4K and achieve 60 fps, it is recommended to have an RTX 4090 GPU. On the other hand, the RTX 3080 is capable of supporting "selective" ray tracing at a resolution of 1440p, also achieving 60 fps.

The recent release of Nvidia's RTX 5090 GPU shows significant advancements over the previous model, highlighting features like Multi Frame Generation, which enhances performance with ray tracing at 4K. However, the hardware requirements for Assassin's Creed Shadows indicate that a GPU from the RTX 4000 series or even from previous generations will adequately support gameplay.

With the game available for pre-order and its release scheduled for March 20, Ubisoft has made these technical details public. As anticipated, the RTX 4090 is the best choice for the extreme preset at 4K with 60 fps, utilizing DLSS 3.7, given that there is no confirmation of DLSS 4 for this title. If this GPU fails to maintain these parameters, concerns about game performance could arise. However, reports suggest that the RTX 4070 Ti Super will be sufficient for standard ray tracing at 60 fps in 4K, and that the RTX 3080 will also meet these conditions, albeit at 1440p.

It remains to be seen how the game performs on PC, as hardware requirements are rarely indicative of optimization quality. Nonetheless, thanks to technologies like Frame Generation, as well as Intel's XeSS and AMD’s FSR 3.1 scaling methods, it is reasonable to think that GPUs from the RTX 4000 series, and possibly the 3000 series, will be more than enough for gamers.

Features like frame generation are changing the dynamics of gaming on PC. The use of super-resolution—that is, increasing resolution from images rendered at a lower quality—is a technique that has been present in PC ports but has faced criticism recently due to the advent of frame generation, which some consider "fake frames."

By employing interpolated frames, there is a risk of increased input latency, although technologies like Nvidia's Reflex 2 seek to mitigate this effect. However, issues such as visual artifacts and ghosting, while improved, can still be a nuisance in certain video games, as demonstrated by the evaluation of Multi Frame Generation in Cyberpunk 2077.

The future of optimization in PC gaming raises concerns. While there is no doubt about Nvidia’s ongoing efforts to refine its DLSS and frame generation features, not all GPU owners currently have access to these capabilities. It is expected that game developers will maintain a focus on creating products that function properly without solely relying on frame generation.