“Can I run it?” With so many impressive PC games being released this year, you may be wondering if your gaming PC is up to the task. System requirements are definitely worth looking into in advance.
Today’s biggest PC games contain richly detailed assets and complex physics calculated by your gaming hardware. They also utilize advanced graphical effects that enhance the realism and level of immersion of 3D environments. As games become more advanced, naturally the hardware requirements go up as well.
It’s important that your gaming PC is up to the task.
Below, you’ll find the recommended system requirements for some of the year’s hottest PC games. This should give you some insight into the state of your gaming hardware, and if you should begin thinking about upgrading your PC to experience the latest gaming advancements.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-9700K or better
- RAM: 16GB of system memory
- Graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super, or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
- Storage: At least 150GB of available space; SSD required
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 shuttles you back to the Zone, a dense, damp, nuclear exclusion area inhabited by radioactive beasts and rival human factions. Gritting it out in this harsh and unforgiving environment requires fast reflexes and frugal resource management. The series is known for inducing a palpable aura of dread, and this installment is no different, making full use of advanced shading techniques and high-polygon models to bring its oppressive world to life.
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Overwatch 2
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 or better
- RAM: 8GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, or AMD Radeon R9 380
- Storage: At least 50GB of available space
With 5v5 play, major hero reworks, and a new PvP mode called Push, Overwatch 2 brings substantial changes to the established meta while still maintaining the core gameplay that made the original such a blast to play. On the technical side, Blizzard has beefed up the feature set, with improved assets, better lighting, and dynamic weather effects in PvE missions. The system requirements have also taken a leap forward, with specs for the PvP beta recommending an Intel Core i7 processor.
Elden Ring
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8700K or better
- RAM: 16GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
- Storage: At least 60GB of available space
FromSoftware’s largest and most ambitious title to date, Elden Ring lets you explore a bucolic open world that has the studio’s distinctive brand of dark fantasy stamped all over it. The size of the game world carries a high performance cost, as players on PC know all too well. Better hardware will give you a smoother visual experience as you roam the Lands Between leveling up your character stats.
BONELAB
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-9700K or better
- RAM: 16GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super, or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
- Storage: At least 20GB of available space; SSD required
One of the year’s most anticipated VR releases, BONELAB drops you into a mysterious computer simulation and challenges you to escape each puzzling test chamber. The whole setup is an elaborate excuse to engage with the game’s fascinating destructible environments. The realistic physics system allows you to pick up and interact with just about anything. You can bash potted plants, fling office furniture across the room, and waylay creepy adversaries with a frying pan.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-8600K or better
- RAM: 16GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super, or AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
- Storage: At least 60GB of available space
More than a post-apocalyptic zombie game, Dying Light 2 just begs you to perform death-defying parkour stunts. The game’s open-world environment contains a dramatic sense of scale, with glimpses of complex architecture and dense foliage streaking past as you traverse the metropolis. Powerful hardware improves the experience, letting you increase the draw distance to see objects in the distance without sacrificing performance.
Cyberpunk 2077
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-4790 or better
- RAM: 12GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super, or AMD Radeon RX 590
- Storage: At least 70GB of available space; SSD recommended
The sprawling, open-world RPG Cyberpunk 2077 has made steady improvement since launch. Recent updates have overhauled the AI behavior for city traffic, NPCs, and combatants who roam the graffitied, dystopian streets. Other patches have brought ear studs and apartment customization to the table. To help stabilize performance, the game also now enables Variable Rate Shading (VRS), a rendering technique that can boost your FPS on supported hardware.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8700K or better
- RAM: 16GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, or AMD Radeon RX Vega 64
- Storage: At least 20GB of available space; SSD recommended
The free-to-play battle royale Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt boasts an ambitious and highly detailed map mimicking Prague’s Staré Mesto, a labyrinthine, nocturnal city district replete with historical Gothic architecture — in effect, the perfect vampire hideaway. The complexity of the world requires plenty of performance to play at a competitive FPS, as does streaming your gameplay.
Teardown
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 or better
- RAM: 4GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
- Storage: At least 4GB of available space
Whereas voxel-based games like Minecraft are all about building, Teardown feeds your appetite for destruction. This fully-destructible sandbox platform encourages you to rip apart the walls and foundations of anything from large structures to small planets. Massive constructions implode believably, splintering into tiny blocks governed by the game’s destruction physics. An active modding scene ensures there’s plenty to demolish.
Ghostwire: Tokyo
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-6700 or better
- RAM: 16GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
- Storage: At least 20GB of available space; SSD required
Ghostwire: Tokyo captures the colorful shopping district of Shibuya, Japan in vivid detail. The game’s spectacular lighting system adds a realistic sheen to the rain-slicked streets. As you travel across the map, exorcizing spirits from the Shinto underworld, the city’s famous neon signs shimmer in wet asphalt, puddles of water, and dull metal exteriors. Each type of surface reflects light differently.
VALORANT
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-9400F or better
- RAM: 4GB of system memory
- Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, or AMD Radeon R7 370
- Storage: At least 10GB of available space
Riot’s team-based FPS brings together tactical shooting and twitch-based gameplay, melding a white-knuckled experience that is as exciting to watch as it is to engage in. While the in-game settings scale to run on a wide variety of hardware configurations, making it easy for anyone to jump in, the high-end requirements are pretty stiff. More powerful hardware is called for if you’re looking to stream or nail a steady 144+ FPS.
Keep Your Gaming Hardware Up-to-Date
As the system requirements for PC games climb higher, you may find that your current hardware doesn’t let you play games how you want to play them. Meeting, or exceeding, a game’s hardware requirements helps to ensure that you can run the game optimally. Failing to heed the system requirements, opposingly, can result in subpar performance.
If recent games aren’t running as well as you’d like, and troubleshooting fails to remedy the issue (such as with these Minecraft and Fortnite guides), a higher-specced system can benefit your gameplay. Upgrading to a system with the latest Intel® Core™ processor and an Intel® Arc™ GPU can elevate your game.