Can I Run The Elder Scrolls Online on My PC / Laptop?

Officially, a DirectX 11 card with 1GB of memory such as a GTX 560, a Core i5-2300 or FX-4350 processor, and 4GB of RAM. Those figures date to 2013 and understate what a smooth experience actually needs, so treat a GTX 750 Ti and 8GB of RAM as the realistic floor instead.

Officially a GTX 970 or RX 570 with 4GB of video memory and 8GB of system RAM. A GTX 1060 6GB with 16GB of RAM makes a far more useful modern target and will hold the game's 100 fps cap in most areas.

ESO shipped back in 2014, and ZeniMax has never republished its requirements for modern hardware since. The GTX 560 and Core i5-2300 listed at minimum are both well over a decade old, which is exactly why this checker maps the game to newer, realistic cards rather than scoring against those numbers directly.

For the base experience it is, matching the official recommended spec exactly. 16GB serves you better if addons are part of your setup, since UI mods and their saved data add to the game's memory footprint over a long session.

Roughly 150GB, covering the base game, every zone and chapter shipped since 2014, and fully voiced quest content, a large figure for a game with otherwise light system requirements.

Over a decade of expansions, zones, and fully voiced quests have accumulated with little ever trimmed from the base install. Unlike a lot of newer games, this size comes from sheer content volume rather than 4K textures or uncompressed audio.

It doesn't; the game runs fine from a hard drive without issue. Where an SSD earns its keep is zone loading screens and megaserver transfers between areas, which matter more in a busy MMO than in most single-player games.

That's the game's default frame rate cap with vsync disabled, not a hardware ceiling. Editing the MinFrameTime line in your UserSettings.txt file raises it up to a 240 fps limit. This ranks among the most searched ESO performance questions, and most people who hit it own a PC well beyond what the cap even requires.

There's no offline or single-player mode; a live internet connection is required at all times, even for quiet solo questing. A dropped connection ends your session immediately.

Well-built addons cost almost nothing. It's the data-heavy ones, live combat meters, floating map markers, and busy minimaps that redraw every frame, that actually hurt fps. If frame rate drops after adding something new, disabling it comes before blaming your PC.

It isn't. PC and Mac players share one megaserver, but Xbox and PlayStation each operate on their own separate servers with no crossplay between platforms. This page is about the PC version.

No, DirectX 11 is all it requires, a version supported by any card released in the last fifteen years.

Shadow quality, water reflection, and view distance return the most frame rate for the least visible change. Heavy addons are worth disabling next, and if you're near the mapped minimum, resolution scale is worth trimming before texture quality.

For this game specifically, yes. 16GB keeps it well fed. Going to 32GB only makes sense if you're also streaming, recording, or running a heavy addon suite alongside it, since none of that extra memory speeds up ESO on its own.

Yes. The RTX 3050 has headroom over The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended card, so you can push 1080p high and move to 1440p when you want. Around 80 to 95 fps at 1080p High, just under the default cap most of the time.

It clears the bar. The GTX 1650 matches The Elder Scrolls Online's minimum, so 1080p on low to medium is realistic once you tune a few settings. About 65 to 75 fps at 1080p High, close to the 100 fps cap outside of busy zones.

Yes, comfortably. The GTX 1060 6GB sits at or above The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended card, so 1080p on high is smooth and 1440p is well within reach. Around 90 to 100 fps at 1080p High, effectively hitting the game's default cap outside of crowds.

You can play it. The RX 580 is at The Elder Scrolls Online's minimum, so keep to 1080p low to medium and lower a setting if it stutters.

Yes. The RTX 4060 has headroom over The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended card, so you can push 1080p high and move to 1440p when you want. At the 100 fps cap for both 1080p and 1440p High without much effort.

Yes, comfortably. The RTX 3060 sits at or above The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended card, so 1080p on high is smooth and 1440p is well within reach. Hits the 100 fps cap at 1080p and stays close to it at 1440p High.

For sure. The RTX 2060 outpaces The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended card, leaving you high 1080p now and 1440p whenever you like. Holds the 100 fps cap at 1080p and gets close to it at 1440p High.

You are well set. The GTX 1660 exceeds The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended card, so 1080p high is easy and 1440p is realistic. Sits at the 100 fps cap for most of 1080p High play.

Yes. The GTX 1660 Super has headroom over The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended card, so you can push 1080p high and move to 1440p when you want.

You are well set. The RX 6600 exceeds The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended card, so 1080p high is easy and 1440p is realistic. Comfortably at the 100 fps cap at 1080p High.

Plenty of power here. The GTX 1660 Ti is above The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended tier, so high 1080p is smooth and 1440p is a fair target.

Yes. On the RTX 3060 Ti, The Elder Scrolls Online runs at high settings in 1080p and scales up to 1440p without much fuss. At the cap for 1080p and 1440p, with room to spare at 4K High.

No trouble at all. The RTX 4050 meets or beats what The Elder Scrolls Online recommends, so 1080p high runs well and 1440p is realistic.

Yes. The Elder Scrolls Online runs on the GTX 1050 Ti at 1080p low to medium; shave a setting or two and the frame rate settles. Roughly 55 to 65 fps at 1080p Medium to High, a comfortable step above the mapped minimum.

Comfortably, yes. The RTX 4070 clears The Elder Scrolls Online's recommended bar, which puts high 1080p and 1440p both in reach. At the cap through 1440p and close to it at 4K High. Raising the cap manually is the only way to see its real headroom.

It runs, thanks to an official Mac client, one of the few MMOs that still ships one. Intel-based Macs run it natively, while Apple Silicon Macs go through Rosetta 2 translation rather than a native ARM build, so expect some fps instability and stutter in crowded zones compared to a similarly priced Windows laptop. It remains officially supported and playable throughout.

In most cases, yes. Recent Intel Iris Xe and AMD Radeon integrated graphics such as the 780M manage 1080p Low to Medium at 35 to 50 fps outside of crowds. Older Intel UHD chips will show more strain, especially in cities and PvP zones.

Not natively, since Chrome OS can't run either the Windows or Mac client directly. Cloud streaming through something like GeForce Now is the path in, running the game on remote hardware and streaming video back to the Chromebook.

Very well, in fact. ESO reached full Steam Deck Verified status in mid-2026 once ZeniMax resolved long-standing launcher and controller issues, so it now installs and runs out of the box with a gamepad. ROG Ally and Legion Go, being more powerful, handle it at least as comfortably.

Yes, it's available there, and this is the easiest way to play on a Chromebook, an underpowered laptop, or a Mac without dealing with the Rosetta translation layer.

Comfortably. Since this game leans on CPU and network sync in crowds rather than raw GPU power, even an RTX 4060 class card holds a strong frame rate at 4K High outside large PvP fights. No upscaling ships built in, so expect native resolution rendering throughout.

Easily. A GTX 1060 6GB or better sits at or near the game's 100 fps cap at 1440p High during normal play, well within reach of most modern GPUs.

Almost anything built in the last eight years. A GTX 1050 Ti or better clears 60 fps at 1080p High during normal play. The one place 60 fps gets hard to hold is a full-scale Cyrodiil battle, and that's a CPU and server sync limit, not a GPU one.

It is, and it's a safer target than the official 8GB recommended figure, particularly for anyone running several addons through long sessions.

Both platforms carry it. PS4 runs at a lower and less stable frame rate than PS5, which aims for a smoother experience at a higher resolution. This page focuses on the PC version and its particular performance quirks.

Three culprits cover nearly every case: a heavy addon running in the background, a crowded zone or PvP battle syncing dozens of players over the network, or an outdated GPU driver. Weak hardware is rarely the actual explanation.

There's no true ultra tier here the way newer titles define it. Its highest settings, mainly shadow quality, water reflection, and view distance, run comfortably on anything at or above the mapped recommended GTX 1060 6GB.

No official Linux client exists, but Proton, the same compatibility layer behind Steam Deck, runs it well, and that's exactly how the game reached full Steam Deck Verified status in 2026. A desktop Linux install through Steam Play should perform about as smoothly as it does on the Deck.

Yes, alongside a still-supported Xbox One version, all sharing their own Xbox-only megaserver separate from PC. This page focuses on the PC version and its 100 fps cap, something the console builds don't have.

More comfortably than most modern games, yes. At the mapped minimum, a GTX 750 Ti, an older i5 CPU, and 8GB of RAM, expect 1080p Low to Medium around 40 to 50 fps outside crowded areas, with cities and PvP zones as the rough spots.

There's never been a Switch version, and none has been announced. This page covers PC, where the hardware demands sit well below what most current Switch ports need anyway.

Yes, well above the recommended tier. Expect it to sit at the game's 100 fps cap at 1080p and 1440p High without difficulty.

Yes, easily. It holds the 100 fps cap through 1440p High and only slows down in the largest Cyrodiil fights, which is a CPU limit rather than a GPU one.

Yes, comfortably above what this game needs. It sits at the fps cap at 1080p and 1440p High with room to spare.

Yes, far beyond what the game requires. It hits the 100 fps cap at 4K High in most areas, and only large scale PvP battles will bring the frame rate down, regardless of the card.

Yes, massive overkill for this engine. It holds the cap at 4K High everywhere except the biggest Cyrodiil sieges, where the limit is CPU and network sync, not the GPU.

Yes, but it gets almost nothing extra from the game itself since ESO caps at 100 fps by default. Raise the cap in UserSettings.txt to see frame rates well past 200 in normal play, though even this card drops to 40 to 60 fps in a full keep siege.

Yes, well above the recommended tier. It holds the fps cap at 1440p and 4K High outside of crowded PvP fights.

Yes, in a limited way. Expect 1080p Low around 35 to 45 fps in quiet zones, dropping further in cities or PvP. It clears the mapped minimum but is the weakest realistic option.

Yes, comfortably above the recommended tier. It sits at the 100 fps cap through 1440p High with no trouble outside of large PvP fights.