Can I Run Horizon Forbidden West on My PC / Laptop?
Guerrilla's PS5 open-world sequel, ported to PC by Nixxes. What actually limits you is graphics memory and processor load, not raw GPU horsepower.
Check if your PC can run Horizon Forbidden West
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Can I run Horizon Forbidden West on my PC?
Use the checker above to find out in seconds. Pick your graphics card and processor and it compares them against Horizon Forbidden West's official requirements. As a quick guide, you need at least a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 5500XT 4GB graphics card, a Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X processor, and 16 GB RAM of RAM to play at 1080p.
Can I run Horizon Forbidden West on my laptop?
Yes, if your laptop has a dedicated graphics card around a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 5500XT 4GB or better and 16 GB RAM of RAM. Laptops with only integrated graphics usually fall short. Enter your laptop's GPU in the tool above to check. Keep in mind that the laptop version of a card runs a little slower than the desktop card of the same name, and heat can lower sustained frame rates.
Horizon Forbidden West runs on fairly ordinary hardware on paper. The official minimum is a GTX 1650 4GB or RX 5500 XT 4GB, an i3-8100 or Ryzen 3 1300X, and 16GB of RAM. What trips people up is that this floor only buys 720p on the lowest preset at 30fps. Push toward the 1080p 60fps most players actually want and the real ask jumps to an RTX 3060-class card and a six-core CPU, a bigger gap between tiers than most Nixxes ports carry.
Punch your specs into the checker above and it will tell you exactly where you land against Guerrilla's numbers. Past that, this page digs into the CPU load and VRAM ceiling unique to this port, benchmarked frame rates spanning a GTX 1060 up through an RTX 4090, and fixes for stutter that shows up even when your PC technically clears the listed specs.
Horizon Forbidden West system requirements
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X | Intel Core i5-8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 |
| Graphics card (GPU) | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 5500XT 4GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 |
| Memory (RAM) | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Operating system | Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher) | Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher) |
| DirectX | 11 | 11 |
| Storage | 150 GB available space | 150 GB available space |
Storage: 150 GB, and every listed tier calls for that space on an SSD rather than a hard drive.
Full performance tiers
| Tier | Target | CPU | GPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 720p, Very Low, 30 fps | Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 5500XT 4GB | 16 GB |
| Recommended | 1080p, Medium, 60 fps | Intel Core i5-8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 | 16 GB |
| High | 1440p High 60 fps, or 4K High 30 fps | Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 | 16 GB |
| Very High 4K | 4K, Very High, 60 fps | Intel Core i7-11700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | 16 GB |
Horizon Forbidden West FPS by graphics card
| Graphics card | 1080p | 1440p | 4K | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTX 1060 6GB | ~35-45 | , | , | Low to medium settings with FSR on. The 3GB version struggles to stay playable. |
| RX 6600 | ~55-60 (medium-high) | , | , | Holds up well below the top preset, then drops toward the mid-20s if you max every slider. |
| RTX 2060 | ~50-55 (medium-high) | , | , | Similar curve to the RX 6600: comfortable until you push the highest preset. |
| RTX 3060 12GB | ~80-85 (high) | ~55-56 (high) | , | Its 12GB of VRAM gives it headroom the 8GB RTX 4060 does not have at these settings. |
| RTX 4060 | ~70-75 (high, DLSS Quality) | ~55-60 (DLSS Performance) | , | 8GB of VRAM becomes the limiting factor once texture quality goes past High at 1440p. |
| RTX 3070 | ~90+ (high) | ~65-70 (high) | , | About what Nixxes' own 1440p/60 recommendation targets. |
| RTX 4090 | well over 100 | , | ~100 (max settings, native) | One of the few cards that holds native 4K at the game's top preset without any upscaling. |
These numbers come from outlet benchmarks and community testing done around launch and after later patches. Treat them as approximate: your own results will shift with the area you are in, your exact settings mix, and your driver version.
Can these graphics cards run Horizon Forbidden West?
| Graphics card | Verdict | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GTX 1050 Ti | Below minimum | Under the requirement. Lowest settings, low frame rate. |
| GTX 1650 | Playable | Passes minimum. Aim low to medium 1080p, upscaling helps. |
| RX 570 | Playable | Passes minimum. Aim low to medium 1080p, upscaling helps. |
| RX 580 | Playable | Meets the bar. Low to medium settings at 1080p. |
| GTX 1060 6GB | Playable | Just clears it. 1080p low to medium, smoother after tuning. |
| GTX 1650 Super | Playable | Passes minimum. Aim low to medium 1080p, upscaling helps. |
| GTX 1660 | Playable | Meets the bar. Low to medium settings at 1080p. |
| GTX 1660 Super | Playable | Minimum covered. 1080p low to medium is the target. |
| RTX 3050 | Playable | Meets minimum. Low to medium at 1080p, tune for a steady rate. |
| GTX 1660 Ti | Playable | Passes minimum. Aim low to medium 1080p, upscaling helps. |
| RX 6600 | Playable | Clears the minimum. 1080p low to medium, better with upscaling. |
| RTX 2060 | Playable | Passes minimum. Aim low to medium 1080p, upscaling helps. |
| RTX 4050 | Playable | Meets minimum. Low to medium at 1080p, tune for a steady rate. |
| Arc A750 | Playable | Minimum covered. 1080p low to medium is the target. |
| RTX 3060 | Runs well | Strong fit. High settings at 1080p, 1440p within reach. |
| RX 6600 XT | Runs well | Beats the recommended spec. Comfortable high 1080p, playable 1440p. |
| RX 7600 | Runs well | Over the recommended bar. Smooth high 1080p, 1440p realistic. |
| RX 6700 XT | Runs well | Strong fit. High settings at 1080p, 1440p within reach. |
| RTX 4060 | Runs well | Over the recommended bar. Smooth high 1080p, 1440p realistic. |
| RTX 3060 Ti | Runs well | Exceeds recommended. 1080p high is comfortable, 1440p fine. |
| RTX 3070 | Runs well | Past the recommended tier. High settings at 1080p, 1440p on the table. |
| RTX 4070 | Runs well | Recommended tier or better. High 1080p, with room for 1440p. |
A modest minimum spec that hides the real cost
The official minimum asks for very little: a GTX 1650, an i3-8100, and 16GB of RAM. That number is honest, but it buys you 720p on the Very Low preset at 30fps, not the 1080p 60fps most PC players expect. To get there you need an RTX 3060 or RX 5700 and a Ryzen 5 3600 or i5-8600, which is a much bigger step up than the minimum-to-recommended jump in most other Nixxes ports of PlayStation games.
Testers have also flagged scenes where changing resolution or turning DLSS on barely moved the frame rate, a sign the game is leaning on the CPU rather than the GPU in those moments. Dense settlements and machine-heavy fights are the areas most likely to hit that ceiling, so a faster GPU alone will not always fix a low frame rate there. A six-core CPU from the last few years clears this without much trouble.
VRAM is the real ceiling on 8GB cards
Independent testing found this port can push past 8GB of VRAM use at higher texture settings, especially once you move to 1440p or 4K. That matters for the current crop of 8GB cards like the RTX 4060 and RTX 3070, which have to watch their texture setting to avoid stutter, while 12GB cards like the RTX 3060 have room to spare at the same settings.
If you own an 8GB card and see sudden hitching or long stalls, drop Texture Quality one notch below the top setting first. That single change clears most of the VRAM-related stutter reported by players, and it costs you very little in visible detail.
No ray tracing, but three upscalers and frame generation
Unlike most big PC ports releasing around the same time, Forbidden West shipped without ray tracing. Nixxes has said the game's scale, its long cinematics, and the sheer amount of alpha-tested foliage made a proper ray-traced lighting pass impractical to add without reworking large parts of the engine. What you get instead is a full set of upscalers: DLSS 3 with Frame Generation, AMD FSR 3, Intel XeSS, and Nvidia Reflex, all available from launch.
On a mid-range card, turn on DLSS, FSR, or XeSS at Quality mode first. It buys back frame rate with very little visible loss and it also eases the VRAM pressure a bit, since the game renders at a lower internal resolution. Save Frame Generation for cards that already sit at a comfortable base frame rate, since it works best as a smoothness boost rather than a fix for a genuinely low starting point.
Fixing stutter and getting a stable frame rate
Most of the stutter reports on this port trace back to VRAM overflow or a slow drive rather than a CPU-bound engine problem, which was the bigger complaint on some earlier Decima ports. Sony lists SSD space for every requirement tier, including the minimum, so installing on a hard drive is asking for trouble: expect longer load times and streaming hitches while you move through the open world.
If you are still getting stutter after moving to an SSD and trimming textures to fit your VRAM, try disabling fullscreen optimizations for the game's executable, update your GPU driver, and cap your frame rate a few frames below your average rather than leaving it uncapped. That last step smooths out frame timing more than it costs you in perceived speed.
Can I run Horizon Forbidden West? Your questions answered
More than the modest minimum CPU suggests. GPU load carries most of the game, but dense settlements and large machine fights can hit a CPU wall where a stronger graphics card stops making a difference. An i5-8600, Ryzen 5 3600, or newer keeps that from becoming a problem.
Nixxes left it out of this port. The reasoning given was the world's scale and the sheer amount of foliage that would be hard to ray trace against without reworking the lighting system. In its place you get DLSS 3 with Frame Generation, AMD FSR 3, Intel XeSS, and Nvidia Reflex.
All three major ones were present at launch: Nvidia DLSS 3 with Frame Generation and DLAA, AMD FSR 3, and Intel XeSS. Quality mode on any of them is worth trying on a mid-range card before touching other graphics settings.
It is. Every official tier, from the minimum through the unofficial 4K guidance, lists 16GB as the target, and unlike some recent releases, there is no separate 32GB tier called out anywhere.
For practical purposes, yes. Sony's requirement sheet names SSD storage at every tier, minimum included, and the world streams aggressively as you move through it. A hard drive technically works, but expect longer loads and more streaming stutter.
Every listed tier asks for 150 GB, which covers both the base campaign and the Burning Shores expansion bundled into the Complete Edition.
The map and underlying systems grew from the original Horizon Zero Dawn, and that growth shows up mainly as extra VRAM and streaming demand rather than raw CPU or GPU horsepower. The minimum GPU barely changed between the two games, but the graphics memory you want at higher settings did.
Launch reception leaned positive overall. It scales across a wide hardware range, offers a deep settings menu, and shipped with all three upscalers on day one. Where it falls short is VRAM-related stutter on 8GB cards at high texture settings and occasional CPU-bound scenes, both addressed above.
DirectX 11 handles rendering here, so there is no need for DirectX 12 hardware or drivers.
It is. One Steam listing bundles the base game with the Burning Shores expansion, and the system requirements carry over unchanged from the original release.
The GPU, in most cases. The CPU floor is low enough that a mid-range processor from recent years clears it without effort, and frame rate at 1080p and 1440p tracks your graphics card and its VRAM far more closely than your CPU, outside a handful of dense-crowd scenes.
Start by confirming Windows 10 version 1909 or later, a current GPU driver, and a genuine 150 GB of free space, since installation fails partway through without it. Crashes after launch usually call for a Steam file verification and a driver update before anything more drastic.
VRAM overflow on 8GB cards at high texture settings and a hard drive install instead of an SSD account for most of it. Pull Texture Quality down one notch, make sure the game sits on an SSD, and turn off fullscreen optimizations if cutscene hitching persists.
A post-launch update added an Uncapped option along with 120Hz and VRR display support. Reaching a stable 120 fps needs a strong RTX 40 series or RX 7000 series card combined with DLSS or FSR at Performance mode, and even then some players report frame time spikes during cutscenes and dialogue.
Not to play. Steam needs a connection just for activation, after which the campaign runs entirely offline. Linking a PlayStation Network account is optional and only unlocks a handful of cosmetic extras.
Yes. Horizon Forbidden West runs on the RTX 3050 at 1080p low to medium; shave a setting or two and the frame rate settles.
Playable, yes. The GTX 1650 passes Horizon Forbidden West's minimum bar, so aim for low to medium at 1080p and drop settings if the frame rate dips.
Yes, though keep expectations modest. The GTX 1060 6GB clears Horizon Forbidden West's minimum, so plan on 1080p at low to medium and trim a setting or two for a steady frame rate. Around 35 to 45 fps at 1080p on low to medium settings, better with FSR turned on.
Yes. Horizon Forbidden West runs on the RX 580 at 1080p low to medium; shave a setting or two and the frame rate settles.
The RTX 4060 is a strong fit for Horizon Forbidden West. It lands at or above the recommended spec, so high 1080p is comfortable and 1440p works. Around 70 to 75 fps at 1080p high with DLSS Quality, and 55 to 60 fps at 1440p with DLSS Performance.
For sure. The RTX 3060 outpaces Horizon Forbidden West's recommended card, leaving you high 1080p now and 1440p whenever you like. About 80 to 85 fps at 1080p and 55 to 56 fps at 1440p on high settings, helped by its 12GB of VRAM.
Yes, on modest settings. The RTX 2060 meets what Horizon Forbidden West needs at minimum, so 1080p low to medium is the sweet spot. Roughly 50 to 55 fps at 1080p medium to high, similar to the RX 6600.
Yes, on modest settings. The GTX 1660 meets what Horizon Forbidden West needs at minimum, so 1080p low to medium is the sweet spot.
You can play it. The GTX 1660 Super is at Horizon Forbidden West's minimum, so keep to 1080p low to medium and lower a setting if it stutters.
Good enough to play. The RX 6600 sits at Horizon Forbidden West's minimum, so expect 1080p low to medium and a bit of tuning for smoothness. About 55 to 60 fps at 1080p medium to high, dropping toward the mid-20s only at the game's maxed-out preset.
Yes. Horizon Forbidden West runs on the GTX 1660 Ti at 1080p low to medium; shave a setting or two and the frame rate settles.
For sure. The RTX 3060 Ti outpaces Horizon Forbidden West's recommended card, leaving you high 1080p now and 1440p whenever you like. Comfortably over 80 fps at 1080p high and close to 60 fps at 1440p high.
Yes, though keep expectations modest. The RTX 4050 clears Horizon Forbidden West's minimum, so plan on 1080p at low to medium and trim a setting or two for a steady frame rate.
Not recommended. Running Horizon Forbidden West on the GTX 1050 Ti means very low settings and low frame rates, and it may refuse to launch.
For sure. The RTX 4070 outpaces Horizon Forbidden West's recommended card, leaving you high 1080p now and 1440p whenever you like. Well past 100 fps at 1080p and a steady 60 plus at 1440p with high settings.
No native Mac client exists for this one. Cloud streaming or a Windows compatibility layer are what let a MacBook reach it, and given how much VRAM this game wants, a real Windows PC with a dedicated GPU is the more practical way to play.
It cannot. Integrated graphics fall below the GTX 1650 floor, so a dedicated card, even a modest one, is required just to get the game to launch.
Not on its own hardware. A Chromebook simply is not built for a game at this level, leaving cloud streaming as the only realistic option.
It runs, though the developers acknowledge handheld support is still a work in progress. Steam marks it Playable rather than Verified, and ProtonDB gives it Gold: playable around 30fps at Low or Very Low with the GPU pinned near 100 percent. Expect the same low-settings, GPU-bound story on ROG Ally and Legion Go.
Native 4K on the top preset really wants an RTX 4090 or RX 7900 XTX class card. Nixxes' own target for 4K at 60fps on Very High points to an RTX 4080 or RX 7900 XT, and turning on DLSS or FSR lowers that bar considerably.
An RTX 3070 or RX 6800 lands 1440p High around 60fps, matching Nixxes' own stated target. An RTX 3060 can also handle 1440p, just with a lower average frame rate and an eye kept on texture settings for VRAM.
An RX 5700 XT, RTX 4060, or RX 6600 XT class card gets close to 60fps at 1080p on the highest preset, and Medium settings makes that trivial for almost anything at or above recommended. Step up to an RTX 3070 or RX 6800 to hold the same target at 1440p.
The jump to the top preset is steep, worth knowing going in. Cards that breeze through High, like the RX 6600 or RTX 2060, can fall to the mid-20s once every slider is maxed. Save the highest preset for RTX 3070-and-up cards, and lean on High instead for a stable frame rate below that.
At 1080p, generally, provided Texture Quality stays a notch below maximum. Push to 1440p or 4K and 8GB cards like the RTX 4060 or RTX 3070 start feeling the pinch, while a 12GB card such as the RTX 3060 or RX 6700 XT has noticeably more room at the same settings.
At 1080p on low to medium settings, yes, which is the practical zone for cards like the GTX 1060 6GB or RTX 2060. Push past medium textures or move to 1440p and six gigabytes starts running short, so watch for stutter and drop Texture Quality first if it appears.
More than enough. Twelve gigabytes, what you get on an RTX 3060 12GB or RX 6700 XT, covers every settings combination here, 4K on the top texture preset included. Raw GPU horsepower runs out at high resolutions well before VRAM does.
Not currently. Steam lists it as Playable rather than Verified, since the graphics settings need manual tuning to hold a stable frame rate on the handheld. ProtonDB scores it Gold, meaning it works well with some adjustment.
No native Linux port exists, so Steam Play (Proton) carries the load for Linux players. Valve's own Steam Deck rating sits at Playable rather than Verified, and ProtonDB scores it Gold, meaning it functions but benefits from manual tuning, mostly dropping to Low or Very Low for a steady frame rate. A Linux desktop should expect the same GPU-bound pattern Deck owners see.
Both, yes. It launched as a PS4 and PS5 exclusive in 2022, with the PC Complete Edition following almost two years later in March 2024. Of the three platforms, the PC version covered on this page gets the highest settings and frame rates.
There is no Xbox release. This one stays a PlayStation and PC exclusive.
No Switch version exists. The scale of the game and its VRAM demands would make a straightforward Switch port a serious challenge.
Cloud library availability shifts over time, so it is worth checking whichever service you use directly for the current lineup. Streaming is also the go-to option for Mac and Chromebook owners who cannot run it natively.
At the true floor of a GTX 1650 4GB, i3-8100, and 16GB of RAM, expect 720p on the Very Low preset around 30fps. It is playable rather than smooth, and turning on FSR or DLSS does more for you here than any single graphics setting.
Yes, since the official minimum is literally an i3-8100 or Ryzen 3 1300X. Just know that busier moments, crowded settlements especially, are among the few spots where the CPU rather than the GPU becomes the limiter, so a newer i3 or a six-core chip buys extra headroom there.
Outdated GPU drivers and a drive that is full or nearly full cause most crashes reported for this game. Update the driver, confirm the full 150 GB is actually free, and verify game files through Steam before treating it as a hardware limitation.
Mostly a function of your internet speed and drive type, given the roughly 150 GB download. An SSD paired with a fast connection lands somewhere between 30 minutes and a couple of hours; a hard drive stretches both install time and later loading noticeably.
The PC release added ultrawide and multi-monitor resolution support alongside an uncapped frame rate option, neither of which existed in the original console version.
It cannot, realistically. Iris Xe sits well under the GTX 1650 floor, so a laptop or mini PC relying on it alone will not reach a playable frame rate in this game.
It lands right around the minimum. The Radeon 780M found in devices like the ROG Ally X and Legion Go performs close to a GTX 1650, clearing Guerrilla's GPU floor on paper, though shared system memory and handheld thermal limits mean Low settings and a capped 30 fps are the realistic outcome rather than anything higher.
No. AMD's Vega 8 graphics, built into Ryzen 4000 and 5000 series laptop chips, sit well below the GTX 1650 minimum. It may boot, but frame rates will be unplayable even with every setting at its lowest.