CPU-Heavy PC Games: Where the Processor Matters Most
Strategy, simulation and crowded open worlds, where frame rate is capped by the processor long before the graphics card runs out.
Drawn from the 36 games whose graphics features we have checked by hand. A game missing here may still have the feature; we just have not confirmed it.
- 01 Palworld asks for Intel Core i5-12400 / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
- Lowest graphics card
- GeForce GTX 1660
- Memory
- 16 GB
- Disk
- 40 GB
- 02 Satisfactory asks for Ryzen 5 5600X or i5-12400 or equivalent performance, 6 physical cores minimum
- Lowest graphics card
- Nvidia GTX 1650/GTX 1050-ti, or AMD RX 470/RX 570, or equivalent performance & VRAM
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 20 GB
- 03 Baldur's Gate 3 asks for Intel i7 8700K / AMD r5 3600
- Lowest graphics card
- Nvidia GTX 970 / RX 480 / Intel Arc A380 / Qualcomm Adreno X1 (4GB+ of VRAM)
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 150 GB
- 04 HELLDIVERS™ 2 asks for Intel Core i7-9700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- Lowest graphics card
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 470
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 135 GB
- 05 Path of Exile 2 asks for Intel® Core™ i5-10500 or AMD™ Ryzen 5 3700X
- Lowest graphics card
- NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960 (3GB), Intel® Arc™ A380, or ATI Radeon™ RX 470
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 100 GB
- 06 Monster Hunter Wilds asks for Intel® Core™ i5-10400 or Intel® Core™ i3-12100 or AMD Ryzen™ 5 3600
- Lowest graphics card
- NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660(VRAM 6GB) or AMD Radeon™ RX 5500 XT(VRAM 8GB)
- Memory
- 16 GB
- Disk
- 75 GB
- 07 Rust asks for AMD Ryzen 7 3700X or Intel® Core i7-6700K
- Lowest graphics card
- AMD Radeon RX 470, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, Intel® Arc™ A580
- Memory
- 12 GB
- Disk
- 45 GB
- 08 World of Warcraft: The War Within asks for Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600
- Lowest graphics card
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, AMD Radeon RX 470 (GCN 4th gen) or Intel Iris Xe
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 128 GB
- 09 PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS asks for Intel Core i5-6600K / AMD Ryzen 5 1600
- Lowest graphics card
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB / AMD Radeon R7 370 2GB
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 40 GB
- 10 VALORANT asks for Intel Core i3-4150 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200
- Lowest graphics card
- Intel HD 4000 or AMD Radeon R5 200
- Memory
- 4 GB
- Disk
- 35 GB
- 11 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition asks for Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320
- Lowest graphics card
- NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 12 GB
- 12 Counter-Strike 2 processor not stated
- Lowest graphics card
- Video card must be 1 GB or more and should be a DirectX 11-compatible with support for Shader Model 5.0
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 85 GB
- 13 League of Legends processor not stated
- Lowest graphics card
- NVIDIA GeForce 400 series, AMD Radeon HD 6570 or Intel HD 4600
- Memory
- 2 GB
- Disk
- 12 GB
- 14 Minecraft: Java Edition asks for Intel Core i5-4690 or AMD A10-7800
- Lowest graphics card
- Intel HD Graphics 4000 or AMD Radeon R5
- Memory
- 4 GB
- Disk
- 1 GB
- 15 Team Fortress 2 asks for Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better)
- Lowest graphics card
- not stated
- Memory
- 1 GB
- Disk
- 15 GB
- 16 Apex Legends™ asks for Ryzen 5 CPU or Equivalent
- Lowest graphics card
- AMD Radeon™ HD 7790 (2 GB), NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 950
- Memory
- 6 GB
- Disk
- 75 GB
- 17 No Man's Sky processor not stated
- Lowest graphics card
- Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB, AMD RX 470 4GB, Intel UHD graphics 630
- Memory
- 8 GB
- Disk
- 15 GB
- 18 Rocket League® asks for 3.0+ GHz Quad core
- Lowest graphics card
- NVIDIA GeForce 760, AMD Radeon R7 270X, or better
- Memory
- 4 GB
- Disk
- 20 GB