what would be a performance difference between minimum and recommended requirements?

~5 % for and ~20% at [url=http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GeForce_GTX_980_G1_Gaming/27.html]recommended, both at 1080p. At higher resolution, the differences are even higher.

/edit: changed results to reflect newer benchmarks

I see what you did there, you silly little bugger you! XD

It looks like I'm not the only one watching this thread actively, looking for some sort of blue post in respect to any number of just-outside-the-margins possibilities with the system reqs. I'd like to think that CDPR are discussing this internally because, focused as they are on making a kickass title and bug quashing, they probably having looking at the niggling little details like these just yet and, now, faced with them they need to see what's what.

I've thought about potentially seeking a refund for my pre-order since there was no way to really know that I would (perhaps?) just make/miss the minimum reqs. Then I thought about the fact that I'll be getting new gaming laptops for my girlfriend and I in one to two years time and will be able to enjoy the hell out of the game then. Added to that, I've a fuckstory of a backlog to play through so I'm kind of set.

...and yet I can't help but thinking whether or not I will be able to play it on release. WIll it be like playing Oblivion on a grossly inferior, non-gaming laptop years ago? I could play through the opening dungeon just fine but when I went outside the computer froze: even on the absolute minimum settings that laptop just couldn't handle it. Or will it be like playing Guild Wars on the same system? I could play the game just fine, with the exception of Elementalists in my party (henchmen/heroes) because the game would just bog down, and learned to play without them in my party.* I can't help but wonder what the situation will be, though, whatever the case, I'd like to think that on those new gaming laptops I'll be just fine.

And here's to hoping that CDPR/GOG makes quick work of Windows 10 functionality with their games!

_____
*Oddly enough, this wasn't an issue for enemy Elementalists and other particle-heavy enemies with the same low-medium settings.

I bet absolute :)

I know games that look basically the same on high and medium, but Witcher 1 and 2 were not this case...

Thanks for the replies about min vs recommended guys :)

Wonder how many people will upgrade their machine vs cancel order due to the high reqs? (im still sitting on the fence)

I can't stress this enough, but THOSE REQUIREMENTS ARE PROBABLY FOR 1080p. It is no indication that it won't run on resolutions lower than that. Here's what I think are some more reasonable estimates for minimum requirements to play on low at around 720-900p:

Quad core CPU. 2nd gen Intel i5 or 1st gen i7 or AMD FX4/6/8 series
4GB DDR3 RAM
650Ti equivalent card with no less than 1GB GDDR5 VRAM

Seems pretty modest considering I have a rig around similar power.

There are no benchmarks available.

Am I the only who thinks that a game series (trilogy) should be playable on pretty much the same PC i.e. all 3 games should mostly have the same req. specs?

I posted what would be the average game performance difference between Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 vs. AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870 and Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770 vs. AMD GPU Radeon R9 290. Benchmarks of several released games have been made on these cards, click the link. These benchmarks and the posted requirements suggest that the Witcher 3 will run much worse on AMD hardware, period.

Definitely on hold for me. Don't even meet the minimum.
Still don't meet it.
Edit: Okay, I meet the RAM, but that's all.

The more I think about it the less I think I will be able to run it. Like i said the OS limitation not a big deal, that sorts the ram, but my cpu is an old dual core.

I really am thinking of cancelling my pre-order.

I already have. It was the only game for ages that I had pre-ordered for the PC - I did so to support the fact that CDPR was releasing the disc version DRM-free - but my system is literally scraping the min reqs, and there's very little other reason to upgrade my PC. When this system eventually dies, I'll be going console-only anyway. I buy very little for the PC as it is.

I'll wait and see if it's possible to at least get PS4-comparable performance out of the PC version with my system. If not, I'll pick up the PS4 version.

It's a shame, because I really wanted to support the PC version in this case, but there's little point in me spending several hundred euros to upgrade my PC for ONE game.

Now; I'm sure this is asking a lot, but it would be of great benefit to loads of people if CDPR released a version with compressed data and smaller download size but more pull on multi-thread horsepower AND a version with un-compressed data but larger download size for people with slightly weaker CPUs. But then again, 2 cores can only get one so far if no other dev abides by that tradition and just increases the max core load with every release. That's said, anyone with the latest Pentiums would probably fare no worse than the lower end AMD 4-core CPUs.

Wow, just wow.

These specs are huge.

I would be most grateful to hear if those in the know think that older core2quads, in my case Q9650 would run this game at all on an old ati 5870?

I suspect the answer will be no, but I ask all the same.