Returnal Pc System Requirements

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Cori Riska

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:18:46 PM8/3/24

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Returnal system requirements will help you run the roguelike on PC, but they're anything but lightweight. It's worth noting that Housemarque's third-person shooter is the first PS5 exclusive to make its way to Steam, so it's more demanding than other PlayStation PC ports.

For starters, if you want to meet Returnal minimum requirements, you'll need a graphics card on par with the Nvidia GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580, the latter of which wields 8GB VRAM. While most games set 8GB memory as a baseline, Housemarque says you'll need 16GB RAM to get up and running.

To match the developer's Returnal recommended specs, you'll need to trade the above GTX GPU with an Nvidia RTX 2070 Super or and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT. Additionally, quad-core processors don't cut it here, as you'll need something comparable to the six cores on the Intel Core i7 8700 or the eight on the Ryzen 7 2700X.

Lastly, you'll need 60GB of free storage space to download Returnal, and if you're aiming for recommended specs, you'll want to swap out your trusty old mechanical hard drive for a shiny new SSD. This is perhaps to be expected, as the PlayStation 5 features a sold-state drive by default.

Looking for an upgrade? Try our easy to use Returnal set up guides to find the best cards. Filter for Returnal graphics card comparison and CPU compare. We'll help you find the best deal for the right gear to run the game.

How many FPS will I get on Returnal? We reference thousands of reports from PCGameBenchmark users running our FPS tracking app to tell you exactly how Returnal performs across a range of different settings and resolutions on the most popular PC gaming setups.

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After multiple leaks let the cat out of the bag, Sony finally confirmed at last week's Game Awards that the excellent PlayStation roguelike shooter Returnal is finally coming to PC. Nice. Now, courtesy of Steam, we have the PC system requirements, and I'm sorry to say this but the recommended RAM requirement is probably going to make your eyes water.

32GB is a lot of RAM for a recommended spec. Right now that much DDR4 might run you $105-$150. The vast majority of gaming PCs are still rocking with 16GB or less: The semi-scientific Steam hardware and software survey, for instance, reveals that fully three-quarters of systems surveyed are running with either 8GB or 16GB installed. (5.72% of people are still rolling along with 4GB RAM, and I'm sorry but come on, people. That is not enough. At this point you probably need a whole new PC, but whatever you do, it's time to do something.) Only 13.38% of respondents have 32GB installed, while 1.42% have 64GB or more.

So why is Returnal such a RAM hog? Sony didn't nail it down to anything specific, but said in the announcement that PC gamers could "rest assured that you will be faced with a cutting edge Housemarque challenge, and the bells and whistles are there to support the gameplay experience." Based on a September leak, those bells and whistles include DLSS and FSR, and quite probably ray tracing. That's all pretty hardware intensive stuff, and 32GB RAM could be helpful in making it all run nice and smooth.

Of course, it's also possible that Sony will dial the RAM requirement back to 16GB to avoid causing widespread panic or PC envy, as EA did. Returnal isn't expected to arrive on PC until sometime in early 2023, so there's still time for things to change on that front.

Returnal isn't the first PC game to recommend 32GB of RAM, but it's still a rarity. Spider-Man Remastered, for instance, also recommends 32GB RAM, but only for its Ultimate Ray Tracing (4K, 60fps) graphical preset; everything else recommends 16GB. EA initially recommended 32GB for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, but eventually walked it back to 16GB. Rocketwerkz's sci-fi survival game Icarus still recommends 32GB, but not out of any real necessity: Rocketwerkz founder Dean Hall said in November 2021 that "extra RAM helps, but the game has been optimized to work without it." Icarus also recommends an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, too.

I've reached out to Sony for more information on that front and will update if I receive a reply. In the meantime, if you are tempted to make the jump to 32GB, you'll be happy to know that this is a good time to make it happen.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill."}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Andy ChalkSocial Links NavigationAndy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

There was some fear that the high system requirements for Returnal would result in an uneasy port. Asking for 16GB of RAM and a GTX 1060 (or equivalent) as a base minimum is certainly on the higher side. My PC meets these specs and was able to run the game perfectly fine at 1080p 60fps with the highest graphics settings.

At the recent The Game Awards gala it was announced that Returnal is heading to PC. Now a handful of new details related to the port have been presented - including updated system requirements. We learned also the game's release date. The action game from Housemarque will hit PC gamers on February 15.

Full system requirements were published on the official PlayStation blog. We see one significant change from those revealed earlier. This time, the recommended configuration lists 16 GB of RAM instead of 32 GB. So the game should walk more smoothly on weaker hardware.

At The Game Awards 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment finally announced Returnal PC after several months of leaks and rumors. The Steam page went live shortly after the reveal and was subsequently updated with the minimum and recommended system requirements. Unfortunately, there's no word to the targeted resolution, frame rate, and graphics preset, but it's still better than nothing.

The Returnal PC port is being co-developed by Housemarque and Climax Studios. The long-standing British studio is mainly known for Sudeki, Silent Hill: Origins, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and Assassin's Creed Chronicles, but they've also helped port many games to other platforms, including Castlevania: Lords of the Shadow and previous Housemarque games like Dead Nation and Resogun. There's good reason to be hopeful regarding the quality of the Returnal PC port, chiefly the excellence of recent ports published by Sony (Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales, for instance). We also already know that both NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR will be supported.

The Returnal PC port also comes with all of the previously released updates, such as the Tower of Sisyphus endless mode, the Challenge mode, and the Co-Op mode. However, the co-op will be limited to PC players, as the Steam page clearly states that cross-play with the PlayStation 5 version is not supported.

Barring a sci-fi horror tale that doesn't quite nail the slow building reveal, Housemarque has absolutely succeeded with their fusion of third-person shooting and roguelike elements in Returnal, one of my personal favorite PlayStation 5 titles so far.

The system requirements for Housemarque's popular game Returnal were recently revealed, and they're quite demanding. For those who don't know, Returnal is a third-person shooter with roguelike elements and features procedurally generated levels. The game is set on the fictional planet Atropos, where the player controls the protagonist Selene as she attempts to escape the planet. The game features permadeath, meaning that when the player dies, they must restart from the beginning.

At The Game Awards 2022, Sony officially announced that Returnal will be arriving on PCs in the near future. Now, the game's official Steam page has also gone live and provides minimum and recommended settings for the game. Players will need to have an Intel Core i5-6400 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X, 16GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 GPU to play the game at minimum settings.

To run the game at recommended settings, a player will need to have an Intel Core i7-8700 or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 32GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER or AMD RX 6700 XT. From the information that has been leaked about Returnal, as well as other available data, it appears that the PC version of the game will have Ray Tracing effects and DLSS support.