ACE COMBAT 8 is out on PC: Bandai Namco is looking into crashes, and which GPUs run it

ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE has been on sale on PC since October 1, at $69.99 on Steam, and it started strong: it is among the store’s top sellers and, as we write, has 37,717 concurrent players. The launch is not clean for everyone, though. On October 2 Bandai Namco opened an official thread because some PC players are hitting game crashes, and there is no published fix yet. On October 1 we told you it asks for hardware ray tracing, an SSD and 32 GB of RAM for the recommended spec. The new part is that crash thread.

PC crashes: what Bandai Namco said

In its crash report thread, the team says it is actively working to resolve the crashes some players are experiencing. It gives no cause and no setting to avoid them, so for now there is no official fix. What it does ask is that, if it happens to you, you leave a detailed report in the thread’s comments with:

• Your PC: GPU, CPU, RAM and other components.
• Your system: Windows version and system software version.
• The issue: the error message or code, if any, and the steps to reproduce it.
• What runs in the background: if possible, a list of other applications running alongside the game.

Two notices from before launch

They are not new, but they are worth keeping in mind if you are just installing it:

• Flight sticks (September 30): some configuration options ACE COMBAT 7 offered for certain devices are not available in ACE COMBAT 8. The team is working on improvements to bring the HOTAS and flight stick experience closer to ACE COMBAT 7, but warns it may take time.
• ACE COMBAT ZERO (October 1): the pre-order bonus currently cannot be released on Steam as a standalone application because of licensing restrictions and platform-related considerations, so it is available through ACE COMBAT 8. Bandai Namco apologized for not communicating this in advance and says it is evaluating options with its platform partners, without guaranteeing any changes.

ACE COMBAT 8 PC requirements

It requires a hardware ray tracing graphics card and DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6.6 or higher. The minimum targets 1920×1080 upscaled at 30fps on Low settings; the recommended targets 1920x1080 upscaled at 60fps on Medium. It is Windows only.

Which graphics cards run it

The RTX 4070, RTX 5070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT clear the recommended with a B, and the RTX 5080 reaches an A. The RTX 3070 clears it too, but with no headroom: it grades C. Further down, the RTX 3060, RTX 2060, RX 6600 XT and RX 7600 clear the minimum with a D, so they launch it but will struggle. All of these grades are measured against the recommended requirement and assume 16 GB of RAM, while the recommended spec asks for 32 GB.

By our data, the GTX 1650, GTX 1060 6GB, GTX 1660 Super, RTX 3050, Arc B580 and RX 580 do not reach the minimum.

On Steam Deck, Valve has not verified it yet. Our spec-based estimate gives it an F and has it short of the minimum, but it is only an estimate: check its Steam Deck page.

Can your PC run ACE COMBAT 8?

Here is how your PC grades against ACE COMBAT 8 and against ACE COMBAT 7, which asked for a lot less:

Game	Rec. GPU score	Rec. RAM	Min. RAM	Your PC
ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE	21,750	32 GB	16 GB	?
ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN	9,500	8 GB	4 GB	?

If you fall short, the game page shows the grade for your detected GPU and RAM.

Sources: ACE COMBAT 8 on Steam, PC Crash Report Thread, Launch announcement, About ACE COMBAT ZERO, Flight Stick Support Update