Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 7 have received next-gen upgrades on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S last week, boosting game performance and increasing graphical quality (which includes the addition of ray-tracing, 3D audio and support for the PS5’s DualSense controller haptic feedback) when playing on the three survival horror games on the new consoles.
Players who owned the PS4 and Xbox One versions can get the PS5 and Xbox Series upgrade free via digital download.
Fascinatingly, Capcom has also made this upgrade available for PC players as a patch, a game update.
However, the caveat of this next-gen upgrade on PC is that it has bumped up the minimum specs for the three games by a big margin.
Here’s a comparison of Resident Evil 7’s minimum spec requirements before and after the upgrade patch:
- OS
- Before: Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 (64-BIT Required)
- After: Windows 10 (64-BIT Required)
- DirectX
- Before: Version 11
- After: Version 12
- Graphics
- Before: NVIDIA GeForce GeForce GTX 760 or AMD Radeon R7 260x
- After: NVIDIA GeForce GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 460
Since it’s a game patch, it’s a mandatory update, and has left some PC players unable to run the games they have purchased.
Thankfully, Capcom has listened to feedback and provided access to the previous build (without the next-gen upgrade features) via Steam’s beta build feature. This how to access Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 7’s previous, non-next-gen upgrade build:
1. Click LIBRARY in Steam client.
2. Right-click the game and select “”Properties…””
3. In the pop-up menu, select “”BETAS””
4. From the pull-down menu, select “”dx11_non-rt”” (Note: password not required)
5. Close the pop-up menu and let the Steam client auto-update the game
6. You should be able to launch the game normally once the update completes
7. Please note some of the in-game option settings will be reset as a result of the rollback process
It’s rare to see PC games receive a next-gen upgrade, and now we know why. It’s something for more publishers, and PC games platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store, should figure out how such an upgrade can be delivered in a better way in the future.
