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Black Ops 2 minimum spec revealed; Windows XP not supported

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Activision have let loose the minimum specs for their latest shoot-fest, Black Ops 2, and whilst using the same engine as the previous iterations it will be making use of more recent tech (with a jump to DX11) whilst also lopping off its base by losing support for Windows XP.

The main shift is the adoption of the DX11 architecture, because “the DX11 API is leaner than DX9 and requires less CPU time to do the same amount of work.” It is also due to this shift that, according to Treyarch,”since we upgraded the engine to use DirectX11, Windows XP is no longer supported. It requires Windows Vista or later.”

That’s a bit of a kick to XP users, in many gamers’ eyes it’s the last good Windows release. Certainly it was more stable, and less system intensive than Vista, and it’s a darn site better than Windows 8, but, if you’re on XP, it’s well worth checking out Windows 7, as it looks that this will be the only viable gaming OS for the next few years. Unless Valve get the stuff together with Linux.

The specs themselves are this:
OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz or AMD Phenom X3 8750 2.4 GHz
Memory: 2GB for 32-bit OS or 4GB for 64-bit OS
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB or ATI Radeon HD 3870 512 MB