bioshock infinite

Irrational Games wants to assure PC gamers that BioShock Infinite will treat them right.

The developer’s technical director, Chris Kline, posted a blog that details the many ways that the studio optimized BioShock Infinite for Windows before its March 26 release date. At the top of the list is the claim that the first-person shooter will still run at a respectable frame rate on laptops with integrated graphics cards.

Here are the required specs:

Minimum

  • Operating system: Windows Vista Service Pack 2 32-bit
  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz
  • Memory: 2GB
  • Storage: 20GB free
  • Video card: DirectX 10 compatible ATI Radeon HD 3870, Nvidia 8800 GT, or Intel HD 3000 Integrated Graphics
  • Video card memory: 512MB

Recommended

  • OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit
  • Processor: Quad-core processor
  • Memory: 4GB
  • Storage: 30GB free
  • Video card: DirectX 11 compatible AMD Radeon HD 6950 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 560
  • Video card memory: 1024MB

BioShock Infinite isn’t the only big name PC release to support the meager Intel HD 3000 Integrated Graphics chip. Titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Resident Evil 5, and FIFA 13 all support it as well. Still, it’s good to know that Irrational worked hard to optimize its first major release in years.

Kline also listed the developers support of the varying control schemes for the PC platform. Players can map the buttons on the mouse and keyboard however they choose. The studio also won’t apply artificial mouse smoothing, which frustrates many hardcore PC users.

BioShock Infinite also supports console controllers and even allows left-handed players to reverse the controller layout.