Horizon Forbidden West is a beautiful game with densely packed environments, and highly detailed characters and creatures in game. The folks over at Guerrilla Games really made it a point to create a game that’s as realistic as possible, achieving a level of visual fidelity that was never seen before.
While I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing it on the PlayStation 5, soaking in all the visuals and stunning details, a part of me always wished it had a PC port, so I could really take advantage of the powerful PC hardware and get the best visual experience. I had a rough idea of the kind of beefy internals a game like this would need, but now we have the official system requirements for Horizon Forbidden West, just in time for its PC release.
Horizon Forbidden West PC requirements
Minimum requirements for 720p at 30fps gameplay
The specifications highlighted below are enough for those targeting 720p gameplay at 30fps, and don’t mind using the “very low” graphic preset.
- Intel Core i3-8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
- 16GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 5500XT 4GB
- 150GB SSD space
- Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)
Recommended requirements for 1080p at 60fps gameplay
Those wanting to play the game at 1080p resolution with “medium” graphics preset will need the following specifications to get stable 60fps gameplay:
- Intel Core i5-8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600
- 16GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700
- 150GB SSD space
- Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)
Recommended requirements for 1440p at 60fps or 4K at 30fps gameplay
Want to play Horizon Forbidden West with “High” graphics settings at 1440p and still get 60fps? Make sure your PC has equivalent or better specs than the ones highlighted below:
- Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- 16GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800
- 150GB SSD space
- Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)
Recommended requirements for 4K at 60fps gameplay
The specifications mentioned below will help you target an average performance of 4K at 60 FPS, at a “very high” graphic preset.
- Intel Core i7-11700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
- 16GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900XT
- 150GB SSD space
- Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)
Horizon Forbidden West is *Chef’s kiss* in 4K
The way it’s meant to be played
Horizon Forbidden West is a great game overall, but it’s more of a showcase for the power of the PS5 than anything, in my opinion. It looks absolutely incredible when played in 4K, so I highly recommend prepping your PC for it if you can. Besides that, how else are you going to notice the little details like the faint, wispy facial hair that Aloy has on her face, and tweet about it like this person who tweeted and asked “why the hell Aloy has a beard?”
I couldn’t help but mention one of the hilarious responses here on this post about Forbidden West PC requirements. That said, you should be able to play the game even if you only have a GTX 1650 or an RX 5500XT GPU, so don’t sweat over it. The game is coming 21 Mar, 2024, and you can pre-purchase it right now on Steam to be among the first to play it.
