A Plague Tale: Innocence PC Hardware Guide
Official requirements explained
The official minimum for A Plague Tale: Innocence calls for an Intel Core i3-2120 (3.3 GHz) or AMD FX-4100 (3.6 GHz) processor, a 2 GB GeForce GTX 660 or Radeon HD 7870 graphics card, 8 GB of system memory, and 50 GB of storage. By today's standards the minimum CPU is a decade-old entry-level part and the GPU sits in the very old entry tier, roughly the Radeon HD 7850 class. The minimum is really about getting the game to launch and run at basic settings.
The official recommended level calls for an Intel Core i5-4690 (3.5 GHz) or AMD FX-8300 (3.3 GHz), a 4 GB GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon RX 480, and 16 GB of memory. The GTX 970 falls into the older entry level in FrameScope's tier comparison, well ahead of the minimum GPU. The gap between the two levels means that hardware at the recommended tier can run the game at the publisher's recommended settings, with twice the memory headroom.
The official listings do not require an SSD for either level, so a traditional hard drive will work, though loading will be slower. Both levels list 50 GB of storage. These are the published figures, and the actual footprint can change with updates, so leave some extra space.
One caveat: this guide describes the official tiers only. We do not have measured performance data for this game, so treat the tier comparisons as estimates.
Recommended builds for three budgets
The entry build pairs a GeForce GTX 1650 Super or GTX 1660 with a Ryzen 3 3300X or Core i5-10400F and 16 GB of memory. This combination clears the official recommended tier by a good margin and suits players who want a budget build and are happy with medium settings. Sixteen gigabytes is effectively the baseline here, since the recommended level already asks for it and extra headroom reduces stutter caused by paging.
The mainstream build centers on a 1080p-class card such as the GTX 1660 Super, RTX 3050 8GB, or Radeon RX 5600 XT, paired with a six-core chip like the Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i5-10400 and 16 GB of memory. It suits players who want higher settings with more room to spare. If your monitor is 1080p, this is usually the best value.
The high-end build uses cards like the RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT, or RTX 4060 with a Core i5-12400 or Ryzen 5 5600, and 32 GB of memory. This sits well above the recommended tier and is for players who want higher resolutions or settings, or who multitask with streaming or recording. The 32 GB is about system headroom rather than a requirement of this game.
Graphics settings with the biggest impact
In a story-driven action adventure like this, the settings that usually cost the most are shadow quality, volumetric lighting and fog, vegetation and crowd density, and view distance. Shadows and volumetrics tend to be among the most expensive, so lowering them often frees up a lot of headroom with little visible loss. Crowd and vegetation density add objects to the scene and put load on both the CPU and GPU in busy areas.
Texture quality is worth keeping as high as your VRAM allows. Textures mainly consume video memory, and their cost to performance is usually modest once you have enough VRAM, while their visual impact is noticeable. Balancing resolution and quality depends on your display; at 1080p the game is generally easier to keep stable than at higher resolutions.
Upscaling technologies such as DLSS, FSR, and XeSS render at a lower internal resolution and reconstruct the image to your display resolution, trading a small amount of image quality for more headroom. Quality modes usually lose little detail, while performance modes give more headroom. NVIDIA cards can use DLSS, AMD cards can use FSR, and XeSS works on supported hardware. Check the in-game options menu for what is available in your version.
Laptops and handheld PCs
Laptop graphics cards often share names with desktop parts, such as a mobile RTX 3060, but the power limits and cooling are very different. Mobile GPUs typically run at lower power and may throttle under sustained load when cooling is limited, so real-world performance is often below the desktop card of the same name. When buying or setting up a laptop, look at the card's power configuration and cooling design, not just the model name.
When playing on a laptop, plug in the power adapter, set the power mode to maximum performance, and make sure the fans and vents are clear. A cooling pad can help during long sessions. If the laptop only has integrated graphics or an older discrete GPU, you may need lower settings and a lower resolution with upscaling enabled to get a playable result.
Handheld PCs such as the Steam Deck or ROG Ally are portable Windows or Linux machines with tighter limits on power and battery, so you will usually balance low settings against your frame-rate target. FrameScope has no verification data for this game on handhelds, so we are not giving a handheld rating. Use the official requirements as a reference and adjust the in-game settings yourself.
Storage and memory
The official memory requirement is 8 GB minimum and 16 GB recommended. Eight gigabytes is tight on modern systems, because the operating system and background programs already take a share, which leaves little for the game. Sixteen gigabytes is a practical starting point, ideally in dual-channel configuration (two sticks in the correct slots), since dual-channel gives more memory bandwidth and helps overall performance.
For storage, the official figure is 50 GB, but the installed size can differ with updates and language packs, so keep at least 60 GB free. The official listings do not require an SSD, so a hard drive will work. An SSD does noticeably shorten loading and scene transitions, though, and if your budget allows, installing the game on one is worth it.