UbiSoft have graced us (cutting it a little fine aren't they?) with the required minimum system specs for the upcoming Assassin's Creed 3 through Kotaku.

Supported OS: Windows Vista (SP2) / Windows 7 (SP1) / Windows 8
Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core2 Duo E6700 or 3.00 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ or better recommended
RAM: 2 GB (4 GB recommended)
Video Card: 512 MB DirectX 9.0c-compliant with Shader Model 4.0 or higher (see supported list)*
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c-compliant (5.1 surround sound recommended)
DVD-ROM: Dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space: 17 GB
Peripherals Supported: Windows-compatible keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
Multiplayer: 256 kbps or faster broadband connection
Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
AMD Radeon HD 3870 / 4000 / 5000 / 6000 / 7000 series or better
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT / 9 / 100 / 200 / 300 / 400 / 500 / 600 series or better
Laptop versions of these cards may work, but are not supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.

They're boasting some pretty hefty requirements considering these are only the minimums.  I can hear my rig groaning at the idea of hitting that elusive 1080/60FPS threshold.  I just hope this won't be a repeat of the first game, which had some issues with system draw due to questionable optimisation.  Then again, considering we're getting DX11 support this time, and the footage released so far is for the console build, it might well be fully justified.

Time to go raiding my piggybank...