Ace Combat 8 System Requirements
The minimum PC is a Core i7-10700K or Ryzen 5 3600X, 16 GB of RAM and an RTX 2060 or RX 6600 XT, on Windows 11, installed to an SSD. Three items are hard gates rather than advice: a card with hardware ray tracing, Shader Model 6.6, and the SSD.
| Part | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | Windows 11 (64-bit) | Windows 11 (64-bit) |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-10700K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600X | Intel Core i7-12700K / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X |
| Memory | 16 GB | 32 GB |
| Graphics (NVIDIA) | GeForce RTX 2060, 6 GB | GeForce RTX 3070, 8 GB |
| Graphics (AMD) | Radeon RX 6600 XT, 8 GB | Radeon RX 6800, 16 GB |
| DirectX | DirectX 12, Shader Model 6.6 or higher | DirectX 12, Shader Model 6.6 or higher |
| Storage | 150 GB on an SSD | 150 GB on an SSD |
| Target | 1920×1080 (upscaled), 30 fps, Low | 1920×1080 (upscaled), 60 fps, Medium |
Both tiers target 1920×1080 with upscaling; the frame rate may drop in the heaviest scenes.
Why a ray-tracing card is required
The game lists a hardware ray-tracing card and DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6.6 or higher as requirements at the minimum tier, not only for higher settings. There is no fallback path for older cards, which is why a GTX 1080 Ti with plenty of video memory falls short of the minimum while an RTX 2060 meets it. NVIDIA RTX cards, AMD Radeon RX 6000 series and newer, and Intel Arc all have the hardware.
How much space it takes
Steam asks for 150 GB at both tiers; the publisher's own spec table says 125 GB. Installs are landing around 135 GB, so plan on the larger number. Keep another 16 GB free on top: the publisher's crash notice asks for that much headroom on the install drive.
Windows 10, DRM and anti-cheat
Only Windows 11 is listed. Players do report it running on Windows 10, but a problem there has no official support. The PC version uses Denuvo Anti-Tamper, which limits activations to 5 different PCs within a day, and Easy Anti-Cheat, a kernel-level anti-cheat you agree to when you first launch. Easy Anti-Cheat is also why online play does not work on Linux and the Steam Deck; that is covered on the Steam Deck page.