In context: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle might be 2024's most demanding PC game. It is one of a handful of titles that requires a GPU capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and the game's listed specs for path tracing exceed prior titles that use the bleeding-edge technology.
The PC system requirements for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle reveal that the game requires hardware-accelerated ray tracing at all visual presets. The decision likely makes it unplayable on any GPU older than Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2000 series and AMD's Radeon RX 6000 series.
Machine Games' first-person action-adventure title based on Lucasfilm's iconic franchise joins an exclusive club of games featuring intimidating PC specs due to extensive use of ray tracing. Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition went RT-exclusive in 2019 but runs smoothly on most modern graphics cards. However, Alan Wake II sparked controversy last year when its RT, path tracing, and mesh shader implementation locked off GPUs and made upscaling a requirement. Although Star Wars Outlaws employs RT at all presets, Ubisoft claims the game is playable on an RX 5600 XT or a GTX 1660.
Indiana Jones demands more than those games and Cyberpunk 2077's path-tracing mode. Unsurprisingly, Machine Games lists the RTX 2060, RX 6600, and Intel Arc A580 as the minimum required GPUs for 60fps gameplay at native 1080p on low settings with path tracing disabled, as the game still uses more modest ray tracing at its lowest settings. However, our recent look back at the 2060 shows that Nvidia's oldest mainstream RTX card can't handle RT in modern titles, even at 1080p.
The game's system memory specs are also alarming. Prior high-end titles have recommended 32GB of RAM for 4K native gameplay, but Indiana Jones also requires it at 1440p.
However, things become truly daunting on the right half of the game's spec sheet, which lists the demands for path tracing, a more comprehensive and taxing form of ray tracing. All path-tracing presets assume players will use upscaling and frame generation to reach 60 frames per second, and AMD GPUs disappear at this point.
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For example, Machine Games recommends an RTX 4070 to hit 60fps at 1080p using DLSS3 quality mode on low settings with path tracing. This implies a 720p 30fps performance profile with AI making up the difference.
Meanwhile, the spec sheet's ultra path tracing column contains a rare appearance from the RTX 4090. Recent high-end games typically stop at the 4080 for 4K native gameplay, but Indiana Jones requires Nvidia's flagship to reach 4K 60fps, upscaled from 1080p.
An SSD with 120GB of free space is also needed. Interestingly, Machine Games omits the requirements for playing the game with upscaling enabled and path tracing disabled, which could be substantially less demanding.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches on Xbox Series consoles, Game Pass, and Steam on December 9. Customers can begin playing on December 6 by pre-ordering the premium edition. Alternatively, Nvidia is bundling copies with most RTX 4000 series GPUs. The game will also launch on PlayStation 5 next spring.
