Can I Run Horizon Zero Dawn on My PC / Laptop?
Guerrilla's open-world PS4 exclusive turned infamous PC port in 2020. The real story is the launch-week stutter, and how much of it is actually fixed five years later.
Check if your PC can run Horizon Zero Dawn
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Can I run Horizon Zero Dawn on my PC?
Use the checker above to find out in seconds. Pick your graphics card and processor and it compares them against Horizon Zero Dawn's official requirements. As a quick guide, you need at least a Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB) or AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB) graphics card, a Intel Core i5-2500K@3.3GHz or AMD FX 6300@3.5GHz processor, and 8 GB RAM of RAM to play at 1080p.
Can I run Horizon Zero Dawn on my laptop?
Yes, if your laptop has a dedicated graphics card around a Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB) or AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB) or better and 8 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.
You need at least a GTX 780 3GB or R9 290 4GB, a Core i5-2500K or FX-6300, and 8 GB of RAM to install and launch Horizon Zero Dawn on PC. What most people actually want to know is whether the game still runs the way it did at launch in 2020, when it shipped with brutal shader-compilation stutter and crashes. It mostly doesn't. Guerrilla rewrote the shader system in late 2020, and the game has been stable and reasonably well-optimized since.
Run your CPU and GPU through the checker above to see exactly where you land against these requirements. The sections below dig into what Guerrilla actually fixed since 2020, why VRAM matters more than raw GPU horsepower in this particular port, and how this Steam release, the original Complete Edition, differs from Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, a separate 2024 release with its own, steeper spec sheet.
Horizon Zero Dawn system requirements
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Core i5-2500K@3.3GHz or AMD FX 6300@3.5GHz | Intel Core i7-4770K@3.5GHz or Ryzen 5 1500X@3.5GHz |
| Graphics card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB) or AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8GB) |
| Memory (RAM) | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Operating system | Windows 10 64-bits | Windows 10 64-bits |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 100 GB available space | 100 GB available space |
Storage: 100 GB free space to install, about 72 GB once it's on disk. An SSD isn't required, but it clears up the texture pop-in you get when Aloy sprints or fast-travels.
Full performance tiers
| Tier | Target | CPU | GPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 1080p, low settings, 30 fps | Core i5-2500K / FX-6300 | GTX 780 3GB / R9 290 4GB | 8 GB |
| Recommended | 1080p, high settings, 60 fps | Core i7-4770K / Ryzen 5 1500X | GTX 1060 6GB / RX 580 8GB | 16 GB |
| 1440p, high settings | 1440p, high settings, 60 fps | Core i7-8700 / Ryzen 5 3600 | RTX 2060 / RX 5700 | 16 GB |
| 4K | 4K, high settings, 60 fps | Core i7-9700K / Ryzen 7 3700X | RTX 3070 / RX 6800 | 16 GB |
Horizon Zero Dawn FPS by graphics card
| Graphics card | 1080p | 1440p | 4K | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GTX 1060 6GB | ~55-65 | , | , | High settings with clouds and screen-space reflections turned down. Matches Guerrilla's own recommended tier. |
| GTX 1650 | ~40-45 | , | , | Medium settings. Its 4GB of VRAM means textures and reflections need to come down first. |
| RX 580 8GB | ~55-60 | , | , | The AMD half of the recommended spec, and it holds that 60 fps target reasonably well on high. |
| RTX 2060 | ~75-85 | ~55-60 | , | The card most 2020-era benchmarks pointed to for a steady 60 fps at ultra. |
| RTX 3060 | ~95-110 | ~65-75 | , | Well past what this game needs at 1080p, with room for a 1440p high setup. |
| RX 6600 | ~95-105 | ~65-70 | , | Sits close to the RTX 3060 here. |
| RTX 4060 | ~110-130 | ~80-90 | , | More headroom than a 1080p setup needs, so a 1440p monitor is a better match. |
| RTX 4070 | , | ~100-115 | ~60-70 | Comfortable locked 60 fps at 4K on high settings. |
These numbers are pieced together from post-patch community benchmarks and player reports, not an official Guerrilla benchmark suite, since several of these cards came out well after the 2020 PC release. Actual fps shifts with your CPU, your driver version, and how much of the open world is streamed in around you.
Can these graphics cards run Horizon Zero Dawn?
| Graphics card | Verdict | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GTX 1050 Ti | Below minimum | Under minimum. Expect the lowest settings and weak fps. |
| GTX 1650 | Below minimum | Short of minimum. Low settings, a choppy frame rate. |
| RX 570 | Below minimum | Below the minimum. Very low settings, low frame rates. |
| RX 580 | Playable | Just clears it. 1080p low to medium, smoother after tuning. |
| GTX 1060 6GB | Runs well | Exceeds recommended. 1080p high is comfortable, 1440p fine. |
| GTX 1650 Super | Runs well | Over the recommended bar. Smooth high 1080p, 1440p realistic. |
| GTX 1660 | Runs well | Strong fit. High settings at 1080p, 1440p within reach. |
| GTX 1660 Super | Runs well | Over the recommended bar. Smooth high 1080p, 1440p realistic. |
| RTX 3050 | Runs well | Over the recommended bar. Smooth high 1080p, 1440p realistic. |
| GTX 1660 Ti | Runs well | Over the recommended bar. Smooth high 1080p, 1440p realistic. |
| RX 6600 | Runs well | Above recommended. 1080p high is easy, and 1440p works too. |
| RTX 2060 | Runs well | Past the recommended tier. High settings at 1080p, 1440p on the table. |
| RTX 4050 | Runs well | Exceeds recommended. 1080p high is comfortable, 1440p fine. |
| Arc A750 | Runs well | Beats the recommended spec. Comfortable high 1080p, playable 1440p. |
| RTX 3060 | Runs well | Strong fit. High settings at 1080p, 1440p within reach. |
| RX 6600 XT | Runs well | Exceeds recommended. 1080p high is comfortable, 1440p fine. |
| RX 7600 | Runs well | Over the recommended bar. Smooth high 1080p, 1440p realistic. |
| RX 6700 XT | Runs well | Past the recommended tier. High settings at 1080p, 1440p on the table. |
| RTX 4060 | Runs well | Beats the recommended spec. Comfortable high 1080p, playable 1440p. |
| RTX 3060 Ti | Runs well | Above recommended. 1080p high is easy, and 1440p works too. |
| RTX 3070 | Runs well | Beats the recommended spec. Comfortable high 1080p, playable 1440p. |
| RTX 4070 | Runs well | Recommended tier or better. High 1080p, with room for 1440p. |
The 2020 launch stutter, and what's actually fixed
Horizon Zero Dawn's PC debut in August 2020 was rough. The game compiled shaders while you played, which caused hard stutter every time you hit a new area, a new enemy, or a new weather effect, and that same process also caused CPU spikes and outright crashes for a lot of players in the first weeks.
Guerrilla's patch 1.07, released that November, rewrote how the game handles this. Shader work now happens in the background or while you're sitting at the main menu instead of blocking the frame you're trying to play, and Guerrilla made the whole process skippable. The game runs far more smoothly today. You can still catch the occasional hitch right after a fresh driver update or early in a first playthrough, when new assets keep loading in for the first time.
If you do hit stutter today, the first thing to try is letting the game sit on the main menu for a minute or two after any patch or driver update. That gives it a chance to finish its background shader work before you start moving through the world.
VRAM decides more than your GPU's raw power
This is a game built around a PS4-era texture budget, which sounds like it should be easy on modern cards, but the PC version pushes texture resolution and draw distance well past the console original, and that eats video memory fast. A 3GB card is not viable at any real settings. A 4GB card like the GTX 1650 needs textures and reflections turned down even at 1080p. Six gigabytes is a reasonable floor for high settings at 1080p, and once you push into 1440p or ultra textures, 8GB starts to matter.
The game shows a VRAM usage meter in its graphics menu. If it's flashing red, that's your cue to drop Texture Quality or Reflection Quality before touching anything else, since running out of video memory shows up as blurry, low-resolution textures rather than a crash.
DLSS, FSR, and getting the frame rate you want
The game launched with only TAA and a dynamic resolution option for anti-aliasing and scaling. NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR were both added in later updates, and turning on DLSS on an RTX card is a straightforward way to claw back a chunk of frame rate at 1440p or 4K without a big visible hit to sharpness. FSR works on any card, Nvidia or AMD, though it's a lower-quality upscaler than DLSS and it forces TAA on underneath it, so don't expect it to look as clean.
Beyond upscaling, the settings worth touching first on a mid-range PC are Reflection Quality and Clouds, both of which cost more than they visibly add, and Motion Blur, which is a pure preference toggle with a small performance cost. Ambient occlusion and shadow quality are the next things to drop if you're still short of 60.
This page covers the original PC port, not Remastered
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a separate release from October 2024, sold on its own Steam listing, and it rebuilds the game's lighting, textures, and character models to a PS5-era target. That means a noticeably higher spec floor: Guerrilla's own recommended tier for Remastered asks for an RTX 3060 or RX 5700 and 16GB of RAM just for a solid 1080p, well above what the original recommends here. Remastered also requires linking a PlayStation Network account to play on PC, which this original release does not.
If you already own Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition through Steam, this page and its requirements are for that version. If you're deciding which to buy, Remastered looks and runs better but demands a stronger PC and that PSN account link, while the original is the more accessible and far cheaper way onto a lower-end machine.
Can I run Horizon Zero Dawn? Your questions answered
A Core i5-2500K or FX-6300 processor, a GTX 780 3GB or R9 290 4GB graphics card, and 8 GB of RAM. That gets you 1080p on low settings, not much more.
A Core i7-4770K or Ryzen 5 1500X processor, a GTX 1060 6GB or RX 580 8GB graphics card, and 16 GB of RAM, aimed at 1080p on high settings around 60 fps.
Much less than it did at launch. The August 2020 release had severe shader-compilation stutter and crashes, and Guerrilla's November 2020 patch moved that work to the background and the main menu instead of the middle of gameplay. You can still see the occasional hitch right after a driver update, but it's nowhere near the launch-week experience.
The game spreads its workload across a lot of threads, which is good for multi-core CPUs but means older dual-core or low-thread-count chips show spikes and slowdowns that a modern quad-core or six-core CPU doesn't.
Yes, both were added after launch. DLSS is limited to RTX cards and gives a solid performance boost with little visible cost. FSR works on any GPU but is a lower-quality upscaler and forces TAA underneath it.
No, the official PC port has no ray tracing option. Any ray-traced footage you see online is from unofficial mods and ReShade effects, not a real-time hardware ray tracing implementation.
Six gigabytes is a reasonable minimum for high settings at 1080p. A 3GB card isn't playable, a 4GB card needs textures and reflections turned down, and pushing to 1440p or ultra textures benefits from 8GB or more.
It clears Guerrilla's official minimum and the game will start up fine, but their own recommended tier calls for 16GB, and that extra headroom is what keeps background stutter away during longer sessions.
It is. Sixteen gigabytes matches Guerrilla's recommended spec and covers this game comfortably no matter which resolution on this page you're targeting.
It isn't required, but it helps. An SSD cuts down on the texture pop-in you notice when sprinting or fast-traveling, and it shortens load times noticeably compared to a hard drive.
Steam asks for 100GB of free space to install, though the actual footprint on disk once it's installed is closer to 72GB.
DirectX 12, on Windows 10 64-bit or newer.
An outdated GPU driver is behind most present-day crashes, with a corrupted shader cache or VRAM-overflowing settings close behind. Updating the driver and running Steam's file verification clears up the bulk of it, and if you're on a 4 to 6GB card, dropping Texture Quality first heads off the rest.
Yes. The PC port supports 21:9 ultrawide resolutions like 3440x1440, and some players have gotten 32:9 super ultrawide working as well, though a handful of cutscenes and menus don't fully adapt to the wider aspect ratio.
It's the version sold on Steam, bundling the base game with The Frozen Wilds expansion. It's the version this page's requirements and checker are built around.
No. The PC port only supports DirectX 12 and needs Windows 10 64-bit or newer to launch at all. There is no DirectX 11 fallback mode.
Not on Windows. The native build runs on DirectX 12 only. On Steam Deck and other Linux setups, Proton translates that DirectX 12 code to Vulkan behind the scenes, which is part of why Deck performance can shift between Proton updates.
No. The official minimum is 8GB. Below that you likely won't get a stable launch, let alone playable performance. 4GB isn't a supported configuration for this game.
No. Even the minimum-spec GTX 780 needs 3GB of video memory, and the PC port's texture budget is built around that or more. A 2GB card runs out of VRAM almost immediately, which shows up as blurry textures or crashes rather than just lower frame rates.
Yes, with room to spare. Horizon Zero Dawn recommends less than the RTX 3050 offers, so expect smooth 1080p high and a playable 1440p.
Below spec. The GTX 1650 does not clear Horizon Zero Dawn's minimum, so plan for low settings, low fps, or a game that will not boot. Around 40 to 45 fps at 1080p on medium settings, limited mostly by its 4GB of VRAM.
Yes, comfortably. The GTX 1060 6GB sits at or above Horizon Zero Dawn's recommended card, so 1080p on high is smooth and 1440p is well within reach. About 55 to 65 fps at 1080p on high settings, matching Guerrilla's own recommended tier.
Playable, yes. The RX 580 passes Horizon Zero Dawn's minimum bar, so aim for low to medium at 1080p and drop settings if the frame rate dips. Roughly 55 to 60 fps at 1080p on high settings, close to the GTX 1060 6GB.
That is more than enough. The RTX 4060 clears Horizon Zero Dawn's recommended requirement, so aim for high at 1080p or step up to 1440p. Comfortably over 100 fps at 1080p, and 80 to 90 fps at 1440p on high.
The RTX 3060 is a strong fit for Horizon Zero Dawn. It lands at or above the recommended spec, so high 1080p is comfortable and 1440p works. About 95 to 110 fps at 1080p, with 65 to 75 fps at 1440p on high.
For sure. The RTX 2060 outpaces Horizon Zero Dawn's recommended card, leaving you high 1080p now and 1440p whenever you like. Around 75 to 85 fps at 1080p on ultra, and about 55 to 60 fps at 1440p.
You are well set. The GTX 1660 exceeds Horizon Zero Dawn's recommended card, so 1080p high is easy and 1440p is realistic.
Yes. On the GTX 1660 Super, Horizon Zero Dawn runs at high settings in 1080p and scales up to 1440p without much fuss.
Yes. On the RX 6600, Horizon Zero Dawn runs at high settings in 1080p and scales up to 1440p without much fuss. Similar to the RTX 3060 here, roughly 95 to 105 fps at 1080p.
For sure. The GTX 1660 Ti outpaces Horizon Zero Dawn's recommended card, leaving you high 1080p now and 1440p whenever you like.
Yes. On the RTX 3060 Ti, Horizon Zero Dawn runs at high settings in 1080p and scales up to 1440p without much fuss. Solidly over 100 fps at 1080p and around 75 to 85 fps at 1440p on high.
Yes, with room to spare. Horizon Zero Dawn recommends less than the RTX 4050 offers, so expect smooth 1080p high and a playable 1440p.
No, not comfortably. The GTX 1050 Ti misses Horizon Zero Dawn's minimum bar, so any session would be very low settings and low fps.
Yes. On the RTX 4070, Horizon Zero Dawn runs at high settings in 1080p and scales up to 1440p without much fuss. About 100 to 115 fps at 1440p, with a locked 60 fps or better at 4K on high settings.
Guerrilla never brought this one to macOS, so a MacBook has no local install to run. Cloud streaming through a service like Boosteroid gets you playing without a Windows PC, and a compatibility layer is the other route, though Guerrilla supports neither option officially.
The Steam Deck carries Valve's Verified badge, and it does run, but real-world reports are mixed: some players get a stable experience on medium settings, others see drops into the 20s during busy scenes even at low settings. Lowering Texture Quality and Reflection Quality first tends to help the most on a handheld's limited VRAM. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is a separate Steam listing with its own Deck Verified badge, earned after Guerrilla patched an early round of FSR ghosting and Remote Play issues.
Yes, with a card in the RTX 3070 or RX 6800 class you can hold roughly 60 fps at 4K on high settings. Weaker cards can still run 4K, just at lower settings or with DLSS or FSR doing some of the resolution work.
Yes. An RTX 2060 or RX 5700 class card holds around 55 to 60 fps at 1440p on high, and anything from an RTX 3060 up gives you comfortable headroom above that.
At 1080p, a GTX 1060 6GB or RX 580 8GB, Guerrilla's own recommended spec, gets you close to 60 on high settings. For 1440p at 60, aim for an RTX 2060 or better.
Yes, but ultra leans hard on VRAM and GPU power. An RTX 2060 class card can hold close to 60 fps at 1080p ultra, and you'll want 8GB or more of VRAM once you add high-resolution textures on top.
It isn't available on GeForce Now. It does show up on some other cloud platforms, like Boosteroid, if you want to play without a dedicated gaming PC.
Yes to both. It's a native PS4 game that also runs on PS5, either through backward compatibility or the separately sold Remastered version. This page covers the PC release.
Guerrilla built this for Windows only, but Proton, the same compatibility layer powering the Steam Deck version, handles it well on a Linux desktop too. Flip Proton on manually for this title and you'll see roughly the performance Deck owners get.
No. Once installed and activated through Steam, the base game plays fully offline with no persistent online requirement. Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is different: it needs a PlayStation Network account linked, which requires an internet connection at least once to set up.
No. There's no way around needing a dedicated GPU here. Even recent integrated graphics like Intel Iris Xe or AMD's Radeon 780M sit well below the GTX 780 minimum, so a discrete card is required even at the lowest settings.
No. Guerrilla is a PlayStation studio and Horizon Zero Dawn has never released on Xbox. It's available on PS4, PS5, and PC only.
No, there's no Switch version, and none has been announced for Switch 2 either. Horizon Zero Dawn is on PS4, PS5, and PC.
It isn't on Xbox Game Pass, since Guerrilla is a PlayStation studio and the game has never come to Xbox. PlayStation Plus has carried it in its catalog before, but PS Plus lineups rotate over time, so check the current library rather than assuming it's there.
On a base PS4 it targets 30 fps. A 2021 update unlocked 60 fps on PS5, whether you're running the PS4 version through backward compatibility or Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, which was built for PS5 from the start.
No, they're two different products. Complete Edition is the original 2020 game bundled with The Frozen Wilds expansion, sold on the Steam listing this page covers. Remastered is a separate 2024 release with rebuilt visuals, its own Steam listing, higher system requirements, and a mandatory PlayStation Network account link.
PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC through Steam. It has never released on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or as a native Mac application.
At the minimum of a GTX 780 3GB or R9 290 4GB, a Core i5-2500K, and 8GB of RAM, you're looking at 1080p on low settings and an experience that's playable but not smooth. A budget modern card like the GTX 1650 does noticeably better once you drop texture and reflection quality.
A recent i3 or Ryzen 3 with four or more threads can run it, since the game is more GPU-bound than CPU-bound once you're past the minimum spec. An old dual-core i3 without hyperthreading will struggle regardless of GPU.
Yes. Remastered released in October 2024 for PS5 and PC at the same time, on its own separate Steam listing from the original Complete Edition covered on this page. Guerrilla's recommended spec for Remastered is an RTX 3060 or RX 5700 with 16GB of RAM, noticeably higher than what the original asks for, and it requires linking a PlayStation Network account to play.
Check your GPU drivers first; an old one is behind more launch failures than anything else here. From there, run Steam's file verification to rule out a corrupted install, and double check your system actually meets the 8GB RAM and DirectX 12 floor, since falling short of either keeps the game from launching reliably.
Steam lists 100GB of free space needed to install it, though the finished install is closer to 72GB. Budget for the full 100GB during the download and install process.
Yes, comfortably. It sits well above the RX 580 recommended tier, so expect somewhere around 90 to 100 fps at 1080p on high settings, with enough headroom to try 1440p if you drop a few settings.
Yes. It outperforms the recommended GTX 1060 6GB by a wide margin, holding roughly 100 to 115 fps at 1080p on high and a comfortable 70 to 80 fps at 1440p.
Yes, easily past the recommended spec. Expect around 100 fps at 1080p on high settings and close to 75 fps at 1440p.
Yes, well past what this game needs. It sits in the same territory as the RTX 4070 here, comfortably clearing 60 fps at 4K on high settings.
Yes, well beyond what the game needs. Expect north of 120 fps at 1080p, comfortably over 90 at 1440p, and a locked 60 fps or better at 4K with room to spare.
Yes, this card is far more than Horizon Zero Dawn needs. At 4K on high settings you're looking at well over 100 fps, and the game becomes CPU-bound at 1080p and 1440p long before the RTX 4090 becomes the limit.
Yes. It lands close to the RTX 3070 here, roughly 100 to 115 fps at 1080p and around 75 to 85 fps at 1440p on high settings.
Yes, comfortably. Expect around 110 fps at 1440p on high settings and a steady 60 fps or better at 4K, similar to what the RTX 3070 delivers here.
No, not at a playable frame rate. Intel Iris Xe is well under the GTX 780 minimum, so even at the lowest settings and a reduced resolution you're looking at well under 30 fps. It launches and technically runs, it just isn't playable.
No. Radeon Vega 8, the integrated graphics in older AMD laptop and desktop APUs, falls well short of the minimum GTX 780 or R9 290. It may reach the menu, but real gameplay isn't playable on it.