Can I Run The Forest on My PC / Laptop?

An Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz CPU, a NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT GPU, and 4 GB of RAM, running Windows. It is one of the oldest official spec sheets you will find on a current Steam page.

A quad-core CPU, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560, and 4 GB of RAM. Like the minimum, this dates from the game's original release and is easily beaten by any current budget card.

No. The Forest is Endnight's original 2018 game and the one this page covers. Sons of the Forest is the 2023 sequel, a separate Steam listing with its own, considerably heavier hardware requirements.

Endnight's number is 4GB, though 8GB is what actually feels comfortable on a modern system, particularly if you've got a browser or Discord open alongside it, or you're hosting co-op.

No. It is not required and there is no meaningful load-time or stutter penalty for running it from a regular hard drive, unlike newer, larger open-world games.

5 GB according to Steam's listing. It is a small install by modern standards and fits comfortably on any drive.

DirectX 9, which reflects how old the engine setup is under the hood. This is part of why the game runs so lightly on modern hardware.

No. It predates both technologies in its base engine and has never added them, so there is no upscaling toggle to lean on if your hardware struggles; you adjust foliage and fog settings instead.

Dense areas with foliage and volumetric fog cranked to ultra are one culprit, and a large, heavily built base loading down the CPU and physics engine is the other. Foliage density and fog are the first settings worth turning down, since they fix the majority of cases.

It depends where you are. Open, sparsely built areas lean GPU bound from foliage rendering, while a big base you have spent hours on shifts the bottleneck toward CPU and physics from tracking every object you placed.

Given how low the requirements are, struggling usually points to something other than raw GPU power, like an old dual-core CPU or a nearly full hard drive. A budget quad-core CPU and a card in the GTX 1050 Ti class or better clears ultra settings without trouble.

Endnight moved on to Sons of the Forest years ago, so The Forest itself gets infrequent patches now rather than active new content. It remains fully playable and stable on current Windows versions.

It includes standard anti-aliasing and resolution scale settings from its era, but no DLSS, FSR, or XeSS upscaling. You will not find frame generation here either, which matters less given how light the game already is.

For sure. The RTX 3050 outpaces The Forest's recommended card, leaving you high 1080p now and 1440p whenever you like.

Yes. The Forest runs on the GTX 1650 at 1080p low to medium; shave a setting or two and the frame rate settles. Averages around the mid-80s fps at 1080p on max settings in community benchmarks.

Plenty of power here. The GTX 1060 6GB is above The Forest's recommended tier, so high 1080p is smooth and 1440p is a fair target. Comfortable at 1080p ultra, typically landing in the 80s to mid-90s fps.

Yes. The Forest runs on the RX 580 at 1080p low to medium; shave a setting or two and the frame rate settles. Close to a GTX 1060 6GB here, around 75 to 90 fps at 1080p ultra.

Yes. On the RTX 4060, The Forest runs at high settings in 1080p and scales up to 1440p without much fuss. Around 155 to 170 fps at 1080p ultra and close to 60 fps at 4K ultra.

For sure. The RTX 3060 outpaces The Forest's recommended card, leaving you high 1080p now and 1440p whenever you like. Roughly 135 to 150 fps at 1080p ultra, and 4K ultra is playable at around 55 to 65 fps.

The RTX 2060 is a strong fit for The Forest. It lands at or above the recommended spec, so high 1080p is comfortable and 1440p works. Around 115 to 130 fps at 1080p ultra, with 1440p ultra still comfortably above 60.

That is more than enough. The GTX 1660 clears The Forest's recommended requirement, so aim for high at 1080p or step up to 1440p.

That is more than enough. The GTX 1660 Super clears The Forest's recommended requirement, so aim for high at 1080p or step up to 1440p. Well above recommended, holding well over 100 fps at 1080p ultra.

Easily. With the RX 6600 you are past The Forest's recommended tier, which means high settings at 1080p and a genuine shot at 1440p. Similar territory to an RTX 2060 to RTX 3060, well past 100 fps at 1080p ultra.

The GTX 1660 Ti is a strong fit for The Forest. It lands at or above the recommended spec, so high 1080p is comfortable and 1440p works.

Yes. On the RTX 3060 Ti, The Forest runs at high settings in 1080p and scales up to 1440p without much fuss.

Yes, comfortably. The RTX 4050 sits at or above The Forest's recommended card, so 1080p on high is smooth and 1440p is well within reach.

Playable, yes. The GTX 1050 Ti passes The Forest's minimum bar, so aim for low to medium at 1080p and drop settings if the frame rate dips. Runs ultra settings at roughly 45 to 55 fps at 1080p; a solid, playable card for this game.

You are well set. The RTX 4070 exceeds The Forest's recommended card, so 1080p high is easy and 1440p is realistic. Comfortably over 170 fps at 1080p ultra, with 1440p ultra well past 100.

There's no Mac release of The Forest at all, native or otherwise. A MacBook is left with cloud streaming or a Windows layer such as Parallels or Boot Camp on an Intel Mac, though given how light this game is, a plain Windows PC or laptop is honestly the simpler route.

Yes, a recent chip like Intel Iris Xe or AMD's Radeon 780M runs it at low to medium settings at 1080p at a playable frame rate. Older integrated graphics like Intel UHD 620 or Vega 8 need low settings and possibly a reduced resolution.

Cloud streaming only. Chromebooks have no way to run Windows games natively, so a service like GeForce Now, assuming it currently lists the title, is your practical option.

No. The Forest was never released on Xbox in any form, so this page's checker and requirements are for the PC version only.

Yes on PS4, where it has a native release, and it carries over to PS5 through backward compatibility rather than a dedicated PS5 version. PS5 tends to run smoother than base PS4 thanks to that console's general boost mode, though there is no officially confirmed locked 60 fps patch.

No, The Forest has never been released for Switch. If you are looking for it there, you may be thinking of Sons of the Forest, which also has no Switch release.

All three run this comfortably. Steam Deck's rating stops at Playable rather than Verified for a small reason: a couple of menus require you to pull up the on-screen keyboard manually instead of it appearing on its own. ROG Ally and Legion Go, being stronger hardware, don't run into that or anything else.

Availability on cloud services changes over time, so check the current library of whichever service you use. Given how low the local requirements are, cloud streaming is more of a convenience here than a necessity.

Yes, a card from the RTX 3060 to RTX 4060 class handles 4K ultra at somewhere around 55 to 75 fps, and anything stronger clears it with room to spare.

Easily. Even an RTX 2060 holds a comfortable 60-plus fps at 1440p on ultra settings.

A card around the GTX 1060 6GB or RX 580 level clears 60 fps at 1080p ultra with margin, and that bar has been easy to clear for years now.

Generally yes, since the game runs light enough that most modern cards handle ultra without a real tradeoff. The one exception is a struggling base area, where dropping foliage and fog helps more than the visual difference costs you.

Yes, comfortably. The game rarely uses more than 2 to 3GB even at ultra settings, so VRAM amount is not something you need to plan around here.

Yes, hosting adds simulation work for the world and every connected player on top of your own rendering. For groups of three or more, Endnight's free dedicated server tool moves that load off your gaming PC entirely.

Yes. Match the official minimum, an 8800GT paired with a dual-core 2.4GHz CPU, and you're describing a budget PC from around 2008. Almost any low-end machine bought in the last several years clears that easily on low to medium settings.

Yes, comfortably. A modern i3 or Ryzen 3 is far past the quad-core recommended spec and handles this game without being a bottleneck, except potentially in a very large, long-played base.

No native Linux build here, but Proton handles it well both on Steam Deck and other Linux systems, since this isn't a technically demanding game to begin with.

Yes, SteamVR and Oculus PC headsets are supported, but treat it as a secondary mode. It has not received a major update in years and can show frame drops during combat.

Yes, well above recommended. Expect ultra settings at 1080p to sit comfortably over 100 fps.

Yes, with plenty of headroom above recommended. It handles 1080p ultra easily and 1440p ultra without trouble.

Yes, far above recommended. It holds well over 100 fps at 1080p ultra and comfortably clears 1440p ultra too.

Yes, easily. At this level the game is closer to CPU or engine limited than GPU limited, so expect very high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p.

Yes, massively above what this game needs. At 1080p and 1440p the engine and your CPU become the limit well before the GPU does, and even 4K ultra runs well past 100 fps.

Yes, at low to medium settings at 1080p, it holds a playable frame rate. It clears the recommended spec but you will want to keep foliage density down in dense areas.

Yes, and comfortably. This APU graphics chip is notably stronger than older integrated graphics and handles medium to high settings at 1080p at a playable rate.

Yes, though it is well beyond what this game asks for. Expect very high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, similar to an RTX 4070 or better in a game this light.