Ark Survival Ascended Expansion: Everything You Need to Know

Ark Ascended is a sequel to the popularly released Ark Survival Evolved in 2015. Its explosion in popularity comes from all the coverage received on YouTube from popular creators like Syntac. This has led to Ark Ascended becoming a giant test bed for the anticipated release of Ark 2 in 2024.

Among an increase in graphical capacity on Unreal Engine 5, Ark Ascended is now cross-play compatible and hosts a software environment where both console and PC players can play with servers that have mods. This is a big deal for the Ark community, bridging their overall 4 million PC pool with the 1.5 million console pool of players.

Here is everything you need to know for the upcoming console release of Ark Ascended and a great way to experience it on PC. 

The Types of PCs That Can Run Ark

Unreal Engine 5 is the latest engine that has debuted to developers worldwide. Ark Ascended is one of roughly 65 games in development over the past four years. With this new engine, the requirements to run Ark Ascended are now for hardware from 2018 or later. 

To get a comprehensive experience at a higher frame rate, going with a PC designed to handle Ark at an entry-level goes a long way. 

Requirements for Running Ark Ascended

Here is a breakdown of the minimum and recommended requirements to run Ark Ascended. 

Minimum Requirements

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
• RAM: 16 GB
• VIDEO CARD: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 1080
• DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 6GB
• PIXEL SHADER: 5.0
• VERTEX SHADER: 5.0
• OS: Latest version of Windows 10/11
• FREE DISK SPACE: 70 GB (SSD Required)

Recommended Requirements

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X / Intel Core i5-10600K
• RAM: 32 GB
• VIDEO CARD: AMD Radeon RX 6800, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
• DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 10GB
• PIXEL SHADER: 5.0
• VERTEX SHADER: 5.0
• OS: Latest version of Windows 10/11
• FREE DISK SPACE: 70 GB (SSD Required)

Breaking down these requirements, here are a few essential notes if you need to upgrade your prebuild or custom PC.

Important Hardware Considerations

-When you're installing Ark Ascended, it is essential to prioritize what storage medium you decide to use. Depending on how often you play, the quick loading times that SSDs provide will be beneficial over the long run for system latency and overall game responsiveness. If installed on a hard drive, the game may refuse to load. 

-You can expect a significant reduction in FPS compared to Ark Survival Evolve due to the overhaul in the graphics and added features for creators. Older budget cards like the 1060 cannot run Ark Ascended; the GTX 1660 Super 6GB variants would be one of the cheapest entries. These cards run decent at 1080p settings, are not a significant investment, and should just hit the minimum specs for a GPU.

-If your system has trouble maintaining a decent frame rate on Ark Ascended, try AMD’s FedilityFX drivers that recently updated a beta driver to support the newly released Ark game. FidelityFX is a recently released technology that works primarily on AMD cards, rivaling the technology of DLSS(Deep Learning Super Sampling). 

Conclusion

With the release of Ark Ascended on console and the anticipated release date of Ark 2 next year, it's a great time to get into Ark on a brand-new gaming PC.

At Apex Gaming PCs, we pride ourselves on creating a game-ready system that can run Ark at playable frame rates while multitasking.

Written By Will Wilson