ARC Raiders System Requirements

ARC Raiders landed on October 30, 2025, and immediately became one of the most talked-about games of the year — selling over 4 million copies within two weeks, hitting 700,000 concurrent players across all platforms by November 10, and walking away with Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2025. Built on Unreal Engine 5 by Embark Studios (the team behind The Finals), it’s a visually ambitious PvPvE extraction shooter set in a devastated future version of Italy’s countryside.

With those credentials, you’d expect crushing system requirements. The reality is surprisingly approachable but there are a few things you need to understand before assuming your rig is ready.

ARC Raiders System Requirements Official Full Breakdown

The following specifications come directly from Embark Studios’ official help center and have not changed since the game’s launch in October 2025.

Minimum System Requirements

These are the baseline specs to launch and play ARC Raiders at low settings targeting 1080p at 60 FPS.

Recommended System Requirements

The recommended tier targets high graphics settings at 1440p and a stable 60 FPS.

Epic Tier System Requirements

The Epic tier is for maximum settings at 1440p targeting 90 FPS — this is Embark’s “no-compromise” tier for high-refresh-rate play.

What the Specs Actually Mean for Your Gameplay

Spec tables tell you if you can run the game. They don’t tell you what the experience will actually feel like. Here’s the honest reality for each tier.

Playing at Minimum Specs

If you’re hitting the minimum spec exactly — a GTX 1050 Ti or RX 580, an i5-6600K, and 12GB of RAM — you can play ARC Raiders, but it will demand compromises. Low settings at 1080p should hit the 60 FPS target in standard exploration and looting scenarios, but expect frame rate drops during intense ARC machine encounters, especially against the larger enemy types.

The GTX 1050 Ti and RX 580 are both 4GB VRAM cards. ARC Raiders’ Unreal Engine 5 environments can push against that ceiling during texture streaming, particularly when multiple ARC enemies are on screen simultaneously or when transitioning between open environments and dense underground structures. You may encounter occasional stutters at these moments even with settings dialed to Low.

Practical tip for minimum spec players: Set texture quality to Medium rather than Ultra if VRAM allows. Drop shadow draw distance before reducing any other settings — it’s the single biggest frame rate reclamation lever with the least visible impact during active gameplay.

Playing at Recommended Specs

The RTX 2070 / RX 5700 XT tier is where ARC Raiders opens up meaningfully. High settings at 1440p targeting 60 FPS is an honest and achievable target at this level. The RTX 2070’s 8GB VRAM gives you comfortable headroom for texture streaming even during chaotic multi-enemy encounters, and the i5-9600K / Ryzen 5 3600 CPU pairing is sufficient for the game’s extraction loop physics and AI simulation without becoming a bottleneck.

This is the tier where the game’s visual strengths — the Unreal Engine 5 lighting, the weather systems, the environmental detail of the post-apocalyptic Italian landscape — actually deliver on their promise. If your hardware sits at or above this spec, you’re in a good position.

Playing at Epic Spec

The Epic tier exists for competitive players who want maximum frame rates at 1440p. The RTX 4070 Ti / RX 7900 XTX spec targets Epic settings at 90 FPS — a target that makes a real difference in a PvPvE extraction shooter where reaction time matters. The inclusion of the RTX 5070 as an equivalent option is notable; Nvidia’s latest generation delivers that tier of performance at a lower power envelope than the RTX 4070 Ti.

If you’re running a current-generation mid-to-high-end system, you’re likely comfortably in Epic territory or close to it.

Storage Requirements What You Actually Need

Embark Studios does not specify an official storage requirement on the Steam system requirements page, which is unusual. Based on the download size confirmed at launch, the game sits at approximately 27GB installed.

However, keeping exactly 27GB free is not sufficient. Unreal Engine 5 games generate shader compilation caches, update patches, and temporary files that can consume significant additional space. The practical recommendation is to keep at least 50GB free on your install drive.

HDD vs SSD: An SSD is not listed as required, meaning a traditional hard drive is technically compatible. In practice, though, ARC Raiders’ texture streaming is heavily influenced by storage read speeds. Playing from an HDD will result in noticeably longer load times and can cause textures to pop in during gameplay — particularly on the Acerra Spaceport and Blue Gate maps, which have large open environments with detailed assets streaming constantly.

GPU Deep Dive — What Card Do You Actually Need?

The minimum GPU tier is genuinely accessible. Here’s how the listed GPUs and their near-neighbors perform in practice:

GTX 1050 Ti / RX 580 (Minimum Tier — 4GB VRAM)

Playable at Low settings, 1080p. The 4GB VRAM is the primary constraint — texture quality needs to stay low, and some effects should be disabled to avoid overflow stuttering. For casual extraction runs, this works. For extended sessions or intense multi-enemy encounters, expect occasional frame dips below 60.

RTX 2070 / RX 5700 XT (Recommended Tier — 8GB VRAM)

The step up to 8GB VRAM is the most significant performance improvement for this game. High settings at 1440p is achievable and sustained. This is the sweet spot for most players.

RTX 3060 / RX 6700 XT (Between Tiers)

If you’re running an RTX 3060 (12GB) or RX 6700 XT (12GB), you’re between the Recommended and Epic tiers in raw performance but with generous VRAM. At 1080p and 1440p, expect High to Ultra settings with stable frame rates that exceed the recommended target. These are excellent mid-range positions for ARC Raiders.

RTX 4070 Ti / RX 7900 XTX / RTX 5070 (Epic Tier)

At this level, the game is unconstrained at 1440p with Epic settings hitting 90+ FPS. For 4K play, an RTX 4080 or RTX 5080 is the more comfortable target.

Ray Tracing in ARC Raiders

ARC Raiders supports DirectX 12, and the Unreal Engine 5 rendering pipeline includes Lumen for global illumination — which is not traditional ray tracing but delivers comparable dynamic lighting quality. Hardware ray tracing as an explicit toggle is supported on RTX-series cards. At Epic settings, Lumen hardware mode (requiring an RTX 20-series or newer) provides the highest quality lighting.

For players on GTX cards (no RT hardware), Lumen’s software mode is used automatically as a fallback. It delivers lower quality but broadly similar results at a significant performance cost. GTX 1650 and similar entry-level cards will struggle with Lumen software mode enabled.

CPU Requirements — Is Yours Enough?

ARC Raiders is described by Embark as more GPU-intensive than CPU-intensive overall, but the CPU requirements are meaningful in multiplayer contexts. When multiple human players and waves of ARC enemies are simulated simultaneously, the CPU workload spikes noticeably.

The minimum CPU tier — i5-6600K / Ryzen R5 1600 — uses older architectures with limited per-core performance by 2026 standards. Both CPUs are 6-core/6-thread (i5-6600K) and 6-core/12-thread (Ryzen 1600) designs from 2016–2017. They are functional at low to medium multiplayer loads but can produce CPU-side stutters during peak server-side simulation.

The recommended tier — i5-9600K / Ryzen 5 3600 — is a meaningful step up. The Ryzen 5 3600 in particular (6 cores / 12 threads, Zen 2 architecture) has enough single-thread performance and core count to handle ARC Raiders’ multiplayer simulation comfortably in most scenarios.

If you’re on an older CPU and hitting frame time inconsistencies even with a capable GPU, the CPU may be your actual bottleneck. Enabling the in-game FPS counter alongside a CPU usage monitor (such as MSI Afterburner with RTSS) will quickly confirm whether your GPU or CPU is the limiting factor.

RAM Requirements — 12GB vs 16GB

The minimum tier specifies 12GB of RAM — which is somewhat unusual (most games specify 8GB or 16GB). This reflects ARC Raiders’ persistent world and inventory simulation, which keeps more game state in memory than a standard shooter.

In practice, 12GB is functional but tight. Background applications like Discord, a browser, or a streaming client will eat into that headroom. If you’re on 12GB and experiencing hitching that isn’t GPU or storage related, closing background applications before launching is worth trying.

16GB is the comfortable standard. At 16GB, ARC Raiders runs alongside typical gaming applications without memory pressure. If you’re on 8GB, ARC Raiders will struggle — you’ll likely need to close almost everything else and may still encounter stuttering due to memory swapping.

32GB: No meaningful benefit for ARC Raiders at current settings. The game doesn’t use it, and you’re better served spending that budget on a GPU upgrade.

Can My PC Run ARC Raiders? — Quick Reference by Setup

Budget rig (GTX 1060 6GB / RX 570, i5-7th gen, 12GB RAM): Yes — at low to medium settings, 1080p. Expect 50–70 FPS in most scenarios. VRAM will be a constraint in heavier areas. Enable FSR at Quality mode to recover frame rate.

Mid-range rig (RTX 2060 / RX 5600 XT, Ryzen 5 3600, 16GB RAM): Yes — comfortably. High settings at 1080p or medium-high at 1440p. Stable 60+ FPS in most situations.

Current mid-range (RTX 3060 / RTX 3070 / RX 6700 XT, 16GB RAM): Yes — high to ultra settings at 1440p, 60–90 FPS. Very comfortable position with headroom for effects.

High-end (RTX 4070 / RTX 4080 / RX 7900 XT, 16–32GB RAM): Yes — Epic settings, 1440p at 90+ FPS. 4K at high settings is achievable on RTX 4080 and above.

Entry-level / old rig (GTX 950 / RX 470, 8GB RAM, older CPU): Likely not. Sub-minimum GPU and insufficient RAM will produce unacceptable performance. ARC Raiders is not designed to scale this far down.

Performance Optimization Tips for ARC Raiders

If you’re sitting at or near the minimum spec, these settings adjustments will have the biggest impact:

1. Texture quality is the first thing to adjust. ARC Raiders’ UE5 assets are detailed. Medium textures preserve most of the visual quality while staying within 4–6GB VRAM budgets. Don’t run Ultra unless your GPU has 10GB+ VRAM.

2. Enable FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution). ARC Raiders supports AMD FSR, which works on any GPU regardless of brand. At FSR Quality mode, you render at around 66% of native resolution with upscaling applied — the visual difference is minimal and frame rates improve noticeably.

3. Lower shadow distance, not shadow quality. Ultra shadow draw distance is expensive at long ranges but the difference past 20 metres is nearly invisible. Pulling it down to High or Medium is the best single-setting frame rate gain with minimal visual trade-off.

4. Disable motion blur and depth of field. These effects are distracting in an extraction shooter anyway and carry a non-trivial performance cost at minimum spec levels.

5. Set Lumen quality to Low or Medium if on a GTX card. Software Lumen without RT hardware is a significant GPU load. Reducing its quality setting preserves more frame rate than almost any other single change.

6. Install on SSD if possible. As covered earlier, storage speed affects texture streaming noticeably in UE5 games. Even a basic SATA SSD over a mechanical hard drive reduces pop-in and load times.

7. Update your GPU drivers. Embark Studios and both Nvidia and AMD have released optimization patches since launch. Keeping drivers current is particularly important for a UE5 game that was still receiving engine patches as recently as March 2026.

About ARC Raiders — The Game Behind the Specs

ARC Raiders is developed by Embark Studios, a Stockholm-based studio founded by former EA and DICE executives. It’s built on Unreal Engine 5 and set in a post-post-apocalyptic version of Italy — a future Earth where humanity has retreated underground while the surface is dominated by mechanical entities called ARC.

The core loop is an extraction shooter: players venture to the surface from an underground settlement called Speranza, scavenge loot and materials, deal with ARC machines and other human players (PvPvE), and attempt to extract before losing everything they’ve collected. Death means losing your non-pocket loot — the high-stakes risk that defines the genre.

It launched at $39.99 (Standard Edition) and $59.99 (Deluxe Edition), having dropped a previously announced free-to-play model before release. Cross-platform play is fully supported across PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

By February 2026, ARC Raiders had sold 14 million copies worldwide. It received generally favorable reviews, with 92% of critics on OpenCritic recommending the game, and won Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2025.

The game has received several major patches since launch — patch 1.18.0 landed on March 6, 2026, focused on bug fixes, exploit resolution, and balance adjustments.

If you’re exploring what platforms the game supports beyond PC, our dedicated piece on whether ARC Raiders is crossplay covers PS5, Xbox, and PC cross-platform details in full.

ARC Raiders System Requirements Complete Quick Reference

For anyone building or upgrading a PC specifically to run ARC Raiders well, the recommended tier is the target to aim for — an RTX 2070-class GPU or better, a Ryzen 5 3600 or equivalent, and 16GB of RAM. At that spec, the game delivers exactly what Embark intended: a visually striking, technically stable extraction shooter that rewards both tactical play and hardware investment.

If you’re building from the ground up, our gaming PC build guides walk through balanced builds at different price points, and our GPU comparison between RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 is worth reading if you’re deciding between those two tiers for 1440p play.