Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™: PC requirements and the PC you need

About Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an open-world action game from Monolith Productions, set in Tolkien's Middle-earth. You play Talion, a ranger bound to the spirit of an elf lord, seeking revenge on the forces of Sauron. Its famous Nemesis System gives orc captains their own names and memories, so enemies who beat you grow stronger and come back. Combat is fast and flowing, mixed with stealth. It is single player and rated PEGI 18. The makers recommend a GTX 660 or HD 7950 and 8 GB of memory, so any of our gaming PCs handles it easily.

What Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™ needs

In plain words: to play at all it needs almost any graphics, even the graphics built into the processor, and to play it well the makers suggest basic graphics: built-in graphics on a modern processor, or an old entry-level card, with 8GB of memory.

A low-spec PC or a high-spec PC?

This is a light game: almost any of our gaming PCs will run it comfortably at high settings.

On a PC that only just meets the minimum, the game will start and play, but on low settings: simpler shadows and textures, shorter view distances and fewer frames each second, so fast moments can feel less smooth. A 1080p screen is the sensible match.

On a PC that meets or beats the recommended spec, you can turn the settings up: sharper textures, proper shadows and lighting, more detail in the distance, and a smoother picture. A stronger PC also lets you use a sharper 1440p or high-refresh screen.

Questions about Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™ on PC

How we match: we compare the graphics card and the memory in each PC with the makers' spec, because those decide most of how a game runs. For very new or demanding games, ask us and we will check the processor too. More help: graphics cards explained, how much RAM, which screen.