Atomic Heart PC Hardware Guide
Official requirements explained
The official minimum for Atomic Heart calls for an AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or Intel Core i5-2500 processor, a GPU with 4 GB of VRAM such as the AMD Radeon R9 380 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, 8 GB of RAM and 90 GB of storage. An SSD is not required at this level. In FrameScope's tier ranking, that GPU sits roughly in the GTX 1050 Ti class, an older entry-level card, and the CPU is also in the very old, entry-level band.
The official recommended level calls for an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i7-7700K, a GPU with 8 GB of VRAM such as the AMD RX 6700 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, 16 GB of RAM, 90 GB of storage and an SSD. The RTX 2070 is roughly a 1080p-class mainstream card, and the RX 6700 XT is a higher-tier card from the same generation. The gap between minimum and recommended is mostly about GPU power, VRAM and memory. The minimum will run the game but leaves less room for higher settings, while the recommended level is the publisher's baseline for a smoother experience.
The publisher did not list any higher-end hardware tier, and no official requirements are given for laptops or handheld devices. Everything in this guide is an estimate based on the official requirements and published specifications, not measured results.
Recommended builds for three budgets
The entry build pairs an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 6GB or GTX 1660 with a Ryzen 5 3500X or Core i5-10400F, and 16 GB of RAM. This GPU falls between the official minimum and recommended levels, so it suits players on a tight budget who want to play at 1080p with low to medium settings and still clear the minimum comfortably.
The mainstream build uses an RTX 3060 12GB or RX 6600 XT, a card with 8 GB of VRAM or more. Pair it with a Ryzen 5 3600 or Core i5-10400 and 16 GB of RAM. The extra VRAM gives you more room at higher texture and detail settings and helps avoid running out of video memory. This build suits most players who want to play at 1080p above the recommended level.
The high-end build centers on an RTX 4070 or RX 7800 XT, paired with a Ryzen 7 5800X or Ryzen 5 7600, and 32 GB of RAM. It is a good fit for players who want higher resolutions or higher settings and some room for future upgrades. At 1080p, this tier leaves a comfortable margin above the recommended requirements.
Graphics settings with the biggest impact
In open action-adventure games like this one, the settings that usually cost the most are shadows, volumetric fog and lighting, ray tracing, and the density of objects and simulated elements in the scene. Shadows and volumetric effects tend to draw on both GPU compute and VRAM, so if you need to lower something, those are usually the best place to start, since the visual difference is often smaller than the performance gain.
View distance and detail level affect how far the engine draws and loads distant objects. If your VRAM is tight, lowering texture quality is often more effective than lowering most other options. Ray tracing, where offered, is demanding, so unless your GPU is clearly above the recommended tier, it is best turned off or set to a lighter option.
Upscaling technologies such as DLSS, FSR and XeSS work by rendering at a lower internal resolution and reconstructing the image at your target resolution. This gives you extra headroom with a modest visual trade-off. If the game and your GPU support them, the quality or balanced modes are a sensible compromise. This guide does not provide specific frame-rate figures.
Laptops and handheld PCs
Laptop GPUs often share names with desktop cards, such as the RTX 4070 Laptop GPU and the desktop RTX 4070, but power limits (TGP) and cooling space usually leave the laptop version noticeably weaker. When judging a laptop, check its power configuration and cooling design rather than the GPU name alone. On long sessions, a laptop with poor cooling may throttle and lose performance over time.
Handheld PCs such as the Steam Deck or ASUS ROG Ally are portable platforms that generally need a lower resolution and lower detail settings, often combined with scaling or a performance mode in the game. Battery life and heat also shape the experience, so playing while plugged in is a good idea. We have no Steam Deck verification data for this title, so treat these points as general guidance only.
Storage and memory
For memory, the official minimum is 8 GB and the recommended level is 16 GB. For modern games, 16 GB is the safer starting point and leaves room for the operating system and background apps. Run it in dual-channel, meaning two matching sticks in the correct slots, which improves data transfer between the CPU and RAM.
For storage, the official listing is 90 GB, and the recommended level explicitly requires an SSD. An SSD noticeably shortens load times and reduces the wait when moving between areas, which matters most in large, data-heavy games. A hard drive will still run the game, but loading and streaming will feel slower.
Finally, keep more free space than the listed 90 GB, roughly 100 GB or more, so there is room for patches, temporary files and other games.