As if the release of Far Cry 3 wasn't enough for many gamers to reconsider upgrading their PC hardware, Crytek has released their PC requirements for the next big benchmarker -- Crysis 3. Where the original Crysis was used as a benchmarking tool for years after its release, Crysis 2 fell short of its predecessor. The time is right, however, for a new game to push PC specification expectations. Hopefully for years to come, that one jerk friend can check out your PC and say, "Hey bro, this run Crysis 3?"

Fun and games aside, Crytek has done a solid job of creating a game with scalability. In other words, if your PC is some odd years old you can still expect Crysis 3 to run in a playable state. Seriously, 2GB memory and an Intel Core 2 Duo? What is this, 2008? Amiright? Check out the minimum, recommended, and high-performance requirements and see where you stand:

MINIMUM SYSTEM OPERATING REQUIREMENTS FOR PC:

• Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
• DirectX 11 graphics card with 1Gb Video RAM
• Dual core CPU
• 2GB Memory (3GB on Vista)
• Example 1 (Nvidia/Intel):
  
  • Nvidia GTS 450
  • Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 Ghz (E6600)
• Example 2 (AMD):
  
  • AMD Radeon HD5770
  • AMD Athlon64 X2 2.7 Ghz (5200+)

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM OPERATING REQUIREMENTS FOR PC:

• Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
• DirectX 11 graphics card with 1GB Video RAM
• Quad core GPU
• 4GB Memory
• Example 1 (Nvidia/Intel):
  
  • Nvidia GTX 560
  • Intel Core i3-530
• Example 2 (AMD):
  
  • AMD Radeon HD5870
  • AMD Phenom II X2 565

HI-PERFORMANCE PC SPECIFICATIONS:

• Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8
• Latest DirectX 11 graphics card
• Latest quad core CPU
• 8GB Memory
• Example 1 (Nvidia/Intel):
  
  • NVidia GTX 680
  • Intel Core i7-2600k
• Example 2 (AMD):
  
  • AMD Radeon HD7970
  • AMD Bulldozer FX4150

Lo, who else recalls the days of installing Crysis only to ultimately be disappointed with the graphics, jumping into settings, raising everything to max and watching a slideshow of incredibly broken beauty. Follow that up with hundreds of dollars in new equipment, only to find the game still ran poorly at extremely high settings. I'm pretty sure it was designed to run poorly, to scam guys like me into purchasing new video cards.

Crysis 3 releases in February for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but keep in mind the PC version is Origin exclusive. Pick up the standard version for $59.99 or the "Digital Deluxe" version with an assortment of downloadable delicacies for $79.99. Really, it's a small price to pay compared too the $500 dropped on a GeForce GTX 680 that will stuff your PC full of ambient occlusion and physics.