8 Most Demanding Games to Test Your PC’s Mettle

The internet is buzzing with games that can be run on low-end PCs. That said, gamers who own top-tier hardware wouldn’t want to settle for playing games at low or medium Quality presets. Yet, there exist games that can push even the most powerful rigs to their limits.

These games don’t just require a good GPU but also demand loads of memory and a capable processor, so players may need to upgrade their computer for some of these titles. Here are some of the most graphically demanding games on PC.

8 Forspoken

Metascore: 59

• Minimum CPU Requirements: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 / Intel Core i7-3770 or better
• Minimum GPU Requirements: AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB / GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB VRAM

First up, is Forspoken, which pits players in the shoes of a New Yorker named Frey. After being ambushed by a gang of thugs, Frey is transported from New York to a magical world called Athia. Frey sets on a quest to find her way back and must do so by thwarting monsters with a variety of magical powers. As is the case with most open-world RPGs, players must complete quests to earn experience points, which can then be used to level up Frey’s core stats.

As one would assume, the game is fairly resource-hungry. It requires an RTX 3070 or better and a Core i7-8700K or similar to run at 1440p resolution. Even then, the game would only target 30FPS. It also eats into 150GB of storage and needs up to 24GB of RAM for a consistent experience.

7 Ark: Survival Ascended

Metascore: TBD

• Minimum CPU Requirements: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
• Minimum GPU Requirements: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 1080

Ark: Survival Ascended brings much-needed refinements to its predecessor, Survival: Evolved. The game has been built up from scratch using Unreal Engine 5. This has allowed the developers to tap into awe-inspiring visuals. The game builds up on its predecessor’s survival roots and puts players on an island infested with dinosaurs. Players must fight and tame these beasts in a big to climb the food chain.

The game is in Early Access, although has seen a lot of quality of life and visual changes, including new UIs, physics and more. Naturally, the game is quite taxing and requires a whopping 32GB of RAM. It also needs an RTX 3080 or better and an i5-10600K processor to run without any hitches at high graphics settings.

6 The Last of Us Part 1

Metascore: 59

• Minimum CPU Requirements: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X / Intel Core i7-4770K
• Minimum GPU Requirements: AMD Radeon RX 470 (4 GB) / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4 GB) or better

The Last of Us Part 1’s PC port is no stranger to performance bottlenecks. In fact, the game was unplayable on GPUs with just 8GB of VRAM, resulting in immense performance jitters. The issues have since been smoothened, but the title remains among the most demanding PC ports. The game’s story is a bit of a roller coaster ride, too, with players experiencing the highs and the lows of Joel and Ellie’s journey as they make their way through zombie-infested wastelands, making friends and enemies along the way.

Naughty Dog recommends using at least an RTX 2070 Super or an RTX 3060 GPU with 8GB of VRAM to play the game at high graphics presets. Additionally, the game requires 100GB of storage space and is recommended for PCs with an SSD.

5 Hogwarts Legacy

Metascore: 83

• Minimum CPU Requirements: Core i5-6600 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400
• Minimum GPU Requirements: GeForce GTX 960 4GB or Radeon RX 470 4GB

It’s difficult to capture the essence of being a student studying witchcraft at Hogwart’s School of Magic. But Hogwarts Legacy hits the nail on the head in that regard. In the game, players will step into the shoes of an eager witch or wizard joining the school as a fifth-year student. The game has all the trademarks that made the books and the movies great and includes a detailed portrayal of the characters as well as Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. It even lets players venture out into the open world and visit surrounding hamlets and villages.

Unsurprisingly, the game’s open-world setting can bring powerful rigs to their knees. The developers advise using a RTX 3090 Ti or Radeon 7900XT GPU for running the game at 4K resolution. In terms of CPU, it’s recommended to use an i7-10700K or Ryzen 5800X processor, or a better alternative.

4 Starfield

Metascore: 85

• Minimum CPU Requirements: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel Core i7-6800K
• Minimum GPU Requirements: AMD Radeon RX 5700 / NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti

Bethesda Studios is known for its cinematic universes, as highlighted by the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series. The studio’s latest entry, Starfield, is no different, and it lets players take on the role of a space explorer canvassing vast galaxies well beyond our solar system. The game is set in the year 2330, and it has over 1,000 planets that can be explored fully. Players can also captain and personalize their spaceship to their liking.

Be it modifying the ship’s arsenal or assigning crew members to reap additional benefits, the game leaves little to the imagination. It’s quite demanding, too, and requires a Ryzen 3600X or an i5-10600K paired with an RTX 2080 GPU. It also requires a lot of storage and will hog up 125GB of the available disk space.

3 Returnal

Metascore: 86

• Minimum CPU Requirements: Core i5-6400 / Ryzen 5 1500X or better
• Minimum GPU Requirements: GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) / AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB) or better

Most Roguelikes can be run on PCs with modest specs. Not Returnal, though, which requires a beefy RTX GPU and lots of RAM for smooth operation. The game’s protagonist, Selene, finds herself on an off-limit planet called Atropos. Selene is an astronaut who approaches the planet to inspect a signal. Upon crash-landing on the planet, Selene finds herself stuck in a time loop.

After each death, the game’s environment and level design will change, imploring players to continually try out new strategies to uncover what’s happening in the game. The game’s stunning graphics and fast-paced combat can tank the frame rate by quite a bit. As such, those who want to achieve the best possible graphics should have an RTX 2080 Super and a Ryzen 2700X or similar processor on hand.

2 Cyberpunk 2077

Metascore: 86

• Minimum CPU Requirements: Core i7-6700 / Ryzen 5 1600 equivalent
• Minimum GPU Requirements: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / Radeon RX 580 8GB / Arc A380

Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most taxing games on this list, and the game made a lot of noise at the time of its launch. In particular, the console ports suffered from poor performance, erratic crashes, and frame drops. That said, the company has rolled out several updates that have bettered the game’s performance tenfold. The game is set in a fictional Cyberpunk universe and will have players take on the role of V, who is a mercenary.

V’s consciousness is infused with someone else’s, and players must figure out a way to separate the two, or they risk losing V’s memories and personality. As prefaced previously, the game is quite daunting, even for the most modern PCs. While the minimum CPU and GPU requirements are nothing to write home about, CD Projekt Red recommends a godly RTX 3080 GPU and Ryzen 7800X3D CPU working in conjunction with 20GB of RAM to play the game at 2160P resolution.

1 Microsoft Flight Simulator

Metascore: 91

• Minimum CPU Requirements: Intel i5-4460 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or better
• Minimum GPU Requirements: GTX 770 / AMD Radeon RX 570 or better

Players with a penchant for flying should feel at home with the Microsoft Flight Simulator. The game is among the most detailed and realistic flying sims on the market. It has hyper-realistic cockpits with accurate instrumentation and navigational systems. Additionally, it allows players to fly to airports all across the globe, including the Chicago O’Hare International Airport, the Princess Juliana International Airport, and more.

The game also lets players take complete control of the plane. Instead of using navigational assistance, players can fly an airplane completely manually. The game features lifelike weather and physics, too. Combined with superb graphics, Microsoft Flight Simulator is an extremely demanding game to play.