Can I Run Black Desert Online on My PC / Laptop?

The minimum is an Intel Core i3 (4th generation) CPU, a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and 8GB of RAM, running Standard graphics mode at 1080p on low settings.

For smoother play, Black Desert Online recommends an Intel Core i5 (8th generation) or AMD Ryzen 5 2000-series CPU, a GeForce GTX 1660 Super, and 16GB of RAM, which handles 1080p on high settings in Remastered mode.

The engine leans on a single CPU core to process skill effects and nearby players, so GPU strength stops mattering once an area gets crowded. Frame rate can fall from over 100fps to the 20s or 30s in a busy Node War or Siege, on any card, because the bottleneck is architectural rather than raw power.

Only a little. Testing with an Intel Core i9-13900K and an RTX 4090, close to the strongest consumer hardware sold, still showed less than a 20 percent frame rate gain over older setups during Node Wars. Expect crowd stutter to persist even on top-end hardware.

Standard is the original, lightest rendering path for older hardware. Remastered is the modern default with improved lighting and textures for mid-range PCs. High-End, often called Ultra, layers extra detail on top of Remastered and is meant only for strong, current GPUs; it can cost more than triple the frame rate for a visual difference that is easy to miss.

Windowed Fullscreen mode caps the game at 60fps by design. Switching the display mode to true Fullscreen in the graphics settings, then restarting the client, removes the cap and lets frame rate run as high as your GPU and monitor allow.

It supports AMD FSR 1.0 as an in-game upscaling option in Remastered mode. It does not support NVIDIA DLSS or Intel XeSS.

16GB covers Remastered mode without issue, and that's exactly what Pearl Abyss lists as the recommended amount. There's no official tier above it, and jumping to 32GB won't buy you a meaningfully higher frame rate here.

It is usually enough. Community testing shows actual VRAM use around 3 to 6GB even with Remastered mode on, so this game is not the VRAM-hungry outlier some newer releases are. The frame rate cost of higher presets comes from shader and lighting work, not graphics memory.

Steam lists 80GB for both the minimum and recommended tiers. An SSD is not an official requirement, but a hard drive noticeably worsens zone loading and the stutter that comes with entering new areas.

No. It runs on DirectX 11, and there is no DirectX 12 mode.

It runs on Pearl Abyss's own in-house engine, built in the mid-2010s before modern multi-core scaling was standard. That is the direct cause of the single-core bottleneck behind Node War and Siege lag, and it is a structural limit of the engine rather than a setting you can fix.

Yes. It is an always-online MMO with no offline or single-player mode. A stable connection matters even more during Node Wars and Sieges, when heavy server load can cause disconnects on its own, separate from your PC's frame rate.

It matters more than in most games because combat timing and skill inputs are sensitive to ping, especially in PvP. A wired connection is worth using if Wi-Fi gives you inconsistent latency, particularly during Node Wars and Sieges when the server is under the most load.

It will launch and run on 8GB, but expect stutter and long hitches in cities and large-scale content once memory fills up. Treat 16GB as the real floor if you want the game to feel good rather than merely playable.

That is more than enough. The RTX 3050 clears Black Desert Online's recommended requirement, so aim for high at 1080p or step up to 1440p. Above the recommended GTX 1660 Super, so 1080p in Remastered mode at solid frame rates is realistic in open-world content.

Below spec. The GTX 1650 does not clear Black Desert Online's minimum, so plan for low settings, low fps, or a game that will not boot. Below the recommended tier, so stick to Standard or Remastered mode at 1080p on lower settings; expect somewhere in the 40s for fps in open areas.

Playable, yes. The GTX 1060 6GB passes Black Desert Online's minimum bar, so aim for low to medium at 1080p and drop settings if the frame rate dips. Comfortable in open areas at 1080p with Remastered mode on and High-End off, roughly 55 to 65 fps, though it drops well below that in Node Wars and crowded towns like every card does.

Yes. Black Desert Online runs on the RX 580 at 1080p low to medium; shave a setting or two and the frame rate settles. Sits close to the official minimum RX 480, so expect around 35 to 45 fps at 1080p on Standard or Remastered with low settings.

Easily. With the RTX 4060 you are past Black Desert Online's recommended tier, which means high settings at 1080p and a genuine shot at 1440p. Similar territory to an RTX 3060 Ti, around 85 to 90 fps at 1080p and roughly 60 fps at 1440p, with GPU headroom to spare outside of crowds.

That is more than enough. The RTX 3060 clears Black Desert Online's recommended requirement, so aim for high at 1080p or step up to 1440p. Solid for Remastered mode, roughly 75 to 80 fps at 1080p and 55 to 60 fps at 1440p, based on community FPS estimates rather than one lab benchmark.

You are well set. The RTX 2060 exceeds Black Desert Online's recommended card, so 1080p high is easy and 1440p is realistic. Handles Remastered mode at 1080p around 90 fps and holds close to 60 fps at 1440p in open-world play.

No trouble at all. The GTX 1660 meets or beats what Black Desert Online recommends, so 1080p high runs well and 1440p is realistic.

Yes, comfortably. The GTX 1660 Super sits at or above Black Desert Online's recommended card, so 1080p on high is smooth and 1440p is well within reach. This is the official recommended card, so it holds 1080p on high settings in Remastered mode at a steady frame rate in open-world play.

Plenty of power here. The RX 6600 is above Black Desert Online's recommended tier, so high 1080p is smooth and 1440p is a fair target. Performs in similar territory to an RTX 3060 in most games, so expect comparable 1080p Remastered mode results, comfortably fluid outside of crowds.

No trouble at all. The GTX 1660 Ti meets or beats what Black Desert Online recommends, so 1080p high runs well and 1440p is realistic.

Yes. The RTX 3060 Ti has headroom over Black Desert Online's recommended card, so you can push 1080p high and move to 1440p when you want. Well above 90 fps at 1080p in Remastered mode, and it can run High-End (Ultra) at 1440p in open areas without much trouble.

That is more than enough. The RTX 4050 clears Black Desert Online's recommended requirement, so aim for high at 1080p or step up to 1440p.

Below spec. The GTX 1050 Ti does not clear Black Desert Online's minimum, so plan for low settings, low fps, or a game that will not boot. Below the recommended GTX 1660 Super and close to entry-level, so keep expectations modest: Standard mode at 1080p low, likely in the 30s to 40s fps.

You are well set. The RTX 4070 exceeds Black Desert Online's recommended card, so 1080p high is easy and 1440p is realistic. Well past 100 fps at 1080p and 1440p in open-world play, with enough power for High-End (Ultra) mode at 4K around 60 fps. Node Wars stay the limiting factor, not this card.

GeForce Now is your best bet here: Black Desert has been officially supported on the service since October 2022, so an M1 through M4 MacBook can stream it without trouble. Running Windows on the Mac through Boot Camp or Parallels is the other route, but that is unofficial and Pearl Abyss makes no promises about matching native performance. What does not exist is a Mac build you can just install and launch, on any chip.

Some can, at reduced settings. Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics has been reported running around 60fps at 1080p with settings lowered. Older or weaker integrated chips, including most Intel UHD graphics below Iris Xe, will fall short and struggle to hit the GTX 970 minimum in practice.

Cloud streaming is the only way in. A Chromebook can run Black Desert Online through GeForce Now, which does the actual rendering on remote hardware and sends the video to your screen, but there is no native path.

Not properly on stock SteamOS. Black Desert Online is rated Unsupported on ProtonDB, and the game's Easy Anti-Cheat has not been enabled for Linux by Pearl Abyss, so it fails to launch through Proton by default. The only workaround is installing Windows on the Deck via dual boot, which is unofficial; in that configuration, players report roughly 45 to 55fps at low to medium settings and 1280x800 resolution. Streaming through GeForce Now to the Deck's own browser or app is a simpler alternative that avoids the workaround entirely.

Yes, more easily than a Steam Deck, because both ship with Windows 11 by default rather than SteamOS, so there is no anti-cheat or Proton workaround needed. Expect to run Standard or Remastered mode at low to medium settings for a stable frame rate on the handheld APU, and the same Node War slowdown as any other PC.

For open-world play, an RTX 3080 or better handles 4K in High-End (Ultra) mode around 60fps. Below that tier, 4K is achievable in the lighter Remastered mode on cards like an RTX 3060 Ti or 4060, just not with High-End settings turned on.

An RTX 2060 or RTX 3060 holds roughly 55 to 60fps at 1440p in Remastered mode during normal, uncrowded play. An RTX 3060 Ti or 4060 pushes that closer to 65 to 70fps and can handle High-End mode at that resolution.

Almost any card from a GTX 1060 up holds 60fps in open areas at 1080p Remastered mode. The harder question is a stable 60fps in Node Wars and Sieges, which no consumer hardware currently achieves consistently, since that slowdown is CPU and engine-bound rather than GPU-bound.

You need roughly an RTX 3080 or better for High-End mode to run well, especially at 1440p or 4K. On mid-range cards like a 1060, 1660, or 2060, High-End mode can cut frame rate by half or more compared to Remastered for a visual difference many players describe as minor, so it is worth testing before committing to it.

It supports ultrawide resolutions through the in-game Screen Resolution Scaling option, matched to your desktop resolution. There is no dedicated multi-monitor spanning mode built for competitive or simultaneous multi-screen play.

No. It is an older engine without a ray tracing mode, so ray tracing hardware on your GPU has no effect on this game.

No, not through Steam Play. Black Desert Online is rated Unsupported on ProtonDB because Pearl Abyss has not enabled its Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux, so the game fails to launch through Proton even on a Steam Deck. The only workaround is installing Windows over SteamOS or another Linux distro, which is unofficial and not something Pearl Abyss supports. Until Easy Anti-Cheat gets Linux support here, both native Linux and Proton are dead ends.

PS5 only, as of June 26, 2025, when a native PS5 version replaced the older PS4 client, which was discontinued the same day. None of that changes anything on PC, which is what the requirements above are actually for.

Xbox Series X/S only, since June 26, 2025, when the Xbox One client was retired in favor of a native Xbox Series build launched the same day. The PC requirements above are unaffected by any of that.

No, Black Desert Online has never had a Switch release. Everything on this page is about the PC version specifically.

No. Black Desert Mobile is a separate, simplified game built for phones, with its own progression and no cross-play or cross-progression with the PC or console version. The system requirements on this page are for the PC version only.

Yes. Black Desert Online has been supported on GeForce Now since October 2022, so you can stream it on a Mac, Chromebook, low-end PC, or other device that cannot run it natively, as long as you own the game.

Within limits, yes. At the minimum of a GTX 970 or RX 480, an i3 (4th generation), and 8GB of RAM, you can play Standard mode at 1080p on low settings in open-world content. Crowded towns and events will still be rough regardless of how you tune your settings.

A 4th-generation Core i3 is the official minimum and will run open-world content on Standard or Remastered mode at reduced settings. It will struggle more than a faster CPU in Node Wars and Sieges, since those scenes are especially demanding on a single core.

Before assuming your PC just can't handle it, check four things: a graphics card weaker than the GTX 970 minimum, an out-of-date driver, High-End (Ultra) mode left on by accident for hardware that can't handle it, or a hard drive install, which causes loading stutter severe enough to look like a crash.