Dragon Age: The Veilguard won't have Denuvo, but that means it also won't have a preload period on PC

Electronic Arts has revealed the full PC system requirements for the upcoming RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard, as well as the global preload times—which those of us on PC can safely ignore because, sorry to say, we're not getting a preload.

That sucks, but the justification for it might help balance out that disappointment. "Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t include any 3rd party DRM (such as Denuvo) on any platform," EA explained. "The lack of DRM means that there will be no preload period for PC players."

For those not familiar, Denuvo is a form of anti-piracy software that's very popular with game publishers, and extremely unpopular with an awful lot of gamers who believe its presence can tank a game's performance and stability. It's not uncommon for publishers to remove Denuvo once a game is no longer doing big sales numbers and concerns about piracy are less pressing (EA finally removed Denuvo from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in September, for instance) but forgoing it outright is a little more unusual. EA didn't say why it opted to take a pass on DRM like Denuvo, but I've asked and will update if anyone explains.

In the meantime, we also have the hardware requirements, and the good news on that front is that Veilguard will be playable on a relatively low-tier rig as long as you're not expecting the highest possible graphical fidelity.

"Players with high-end rigs will be able to take advantage of our suite of Ray Tracing features and uncapped frame rates," EA said. "For the minimum PC specs, we focused on making the game as accessible to as many people as possible." That seems like a reasonable approach.

So, to the numbers!

Ray Tracing Off

Minimum (1080p/30 fps, graphics preset low)

• CPU: Intel Core i5-8400 (6 cores/6 threads) or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X (4 cores/8 threads)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia GTX 970/GTX 1650 or AMD Radeon R9 290X
• VRAM: 4GB
• Storage: 100GB, SSD recommended

Recommended (1440p/30 fps or 1080p/60 fps, graphics preset high)

• CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 cores/16 threads)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 2070 or AMD Radeon RX 5700XT
• VRAM: 8GB
• Storage: 100GB, SSD required

Ultra (2160p/60 fps, graphics preset ultra)

• CPU: Intel Core i9 12900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 cores/24 threads)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 4080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
• VRAM: 12GB
• Storage: 100GB, SSD required

Ray Tracing On

RT Selective (2160p/30 fps or 1440p/60 fps, graphics preset ultra)

• CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 cores/16 threads)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800XT
• VRAM: 10GB
• Storage: 100GB, SSD required

RT On (1440p/30 fps, graphics preset ultra)

• CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 cores/16 threads)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800XT
• VRAM: 10GB
• Storage: 100GB, SSD required

RT On + Ultra RT (2160p/30 fps, graphics preset ultra)

• CPU: Intel Core i9 12900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (16 cores/24 threads)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 4080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
• VRAM: 12GB
• Storage: 100GB, SSD required

If you happen to be playing on console, you will get a preload period—here's where you can get rolling on all platforms:

• Xbox Series X/S: October 14th 9AM PDT
• Playstation 5: October 29th 9AM PDT

If you're playing on PC, as mentioned, you can start downloading Dragon Age: The Veilguard when the game goes live—that's set to happen at 9 am PT/12 pm ET on October 31.