EVERSPACE™ 2 PC Hardware Guide
Official requirements explained
The official minimum for EVERSPACE 2 lists an Intel Core i5-2500K at 3.3GHz or an AMD FX-6300 at 3.5GHz for the processor, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 6400 (4GB) for the graphics card. It asks for 8 GB of RAM and 35 GB of storage, and does not require an SSD. By our tier comparison, the GTX 970 sits in the older entry level, the RX 6400 is also an entry card, and the FX-6300 and i5-2500K are very old entry-level processors. In practice the minimum is the threshold for the game to launch and run, not a configuration meant for a comfortable experience.
The recommended tier lists an Intel Core i7-4770K at 3.5GHz or a Ryzen 5 1500X at 3.5GHz, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8GB), 16 GB of RAM, 35 GB of storage, and explicitly calls for an SSD. In our comparison the RTX 2070 is a mainstream card around the 1080p class, and the RX 5700 XT is comparable; the processors remain older entry to lower-mid range parts. For the player, the recommended tier means the publisher expects smooth play at medium-to-high settings, and the SSD call-out signals that load and streaming speed matter to the experience.
The jump from minimum to recommended is mostly in the graphics card and memory: the GPU moves from entry to mainstream, RAM doubles from 8 GB to 16 GB, and an SSD becomes required. If your machine only just meets the minimum, lower the resolution and graphics settings and make sure memory and storage are not holding you back. The official sheet does not list a higher tier, so pushing beyond the recommended settings is a judgement call on your part.
Recommended builds for three budgets
The entry build pairs an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super with an AMD Ryzen 5 3500X and 16 GB of RAM. It suits players on a tight budget who want to play at 1080p close to the recommended tier. These parts are above the official minimum in class, but they do not give you the full headroom of the recommended tier, so start with medium settings and adjust from there. The 16 GB of memory gives you more room than the official 8 GB for modern games and background programs.
The mainstream build pairs an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 12GB with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and 16 GB of RAM. The RTX 3060's 12 GB of video memory is a practical advantage at this price when you raise texture and effect settings. This setup sits comfortably above the recommended tier and suits players who want recommended-level visuals with some room for extra effects.
The high-end build pairs an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and 32 GB of RAM. It sits well above the recommended requirements and suits players who want higher resolutions or higher settings and want headroom for the next few years. 32 GB helps with multitasking or streaming, but for this game alone 16 GB is enough, so the extra memory is mainly for other uses.
Graphics settings with the biggest impact
In space shooter and exploration games like this, the settings that usually cost the most are shadows, volumetric lighting and fog, ray tracing, and the density of objects and particles in a scene. Shadows and volumetrics are especially visible across large space scenes and planetary surfaces, so lowering shadow quality and volumetric effects often buys noticeable headroom with little loss in visual impact. If ray tracing is offered, consider turning it off on mid-range cards and spending that budget on resolution and core quality. View distance also adds load, particularly on open planets and large scenes.
Settings worth keeping are texture quality and render scale. Texture quality mostly affects video memory use rather than raw compute, so if your card has 8 GB or more of VRAM, keep textures high. Anti-aliasing matters less at higher resolutions, so reduce it when you need the performance.
Upscaling technologies such as NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR and Intel XeSS generally render at a lower internal resolution and reconstruct the image to your target resolution, which usually gives a good balance of image quality and speed. If your card supports one of them, prefer it and choose a quality or performance mode depending on how much visual fidelity you want. Results vary by hardware and settings, so compare for yourself.
Laptops and handheld PCs
Laptop graphics cards often share names with desktop parts, for example an RTX 3060 in a laptop. The laptop version is limited by power and cooling, so its real performance is usually below the desktop card of the same name. When buying, check the laptop GPU's power rating (TGP) and cooling design. Thin models may throttle after long sessions. For this game, aim for a laptop with a mid-to-high power GPU and confirm the cooling and power adapter are adequate.
Handheld PCs such as the Steam Deck and ROG Ally can run many PC games, but you will usually need to adjust resolution and graphics settings, and lower settings help preserve battery life and temperatures. We do not have Steam Deck verification data for this title, so this is general guidance only: start with a lower resolution and low-to-medium graphics, enable any built-in scaling or upscaling, and watch the device's temperature and power mode.
If you plan to play on a laptop or handheld, judge your specific machine against the official minimum and recommended tiers rather than going by the card's name alone.
Storage and memory
For memory, the official minimum is 8 GB and the recommended is 16 GB. Our builds start at 16 GB, which leaves room for the game, the operating system and background programs, and reduces stutter caused by paging. If you want more headroom or plan to stream or record while playing, 32 GB is the safer choice. Use a dual-channel configuration (two sticks in the matching slots) for better bandwidth.
For storage, the game needs about 35 GB. The recommended tier explicitly requires an SSD, while the minimum does not. An SSD greatly shortens load times and helps with asset streaming, especially in large open scenes and frequent scene changes. A traditional hard drive can run the game, but loading and streaming may be slower. Installing on an SSD is strongly advised, even if it is a dedicated drive just for games.
Also leave spare space. Patches, shader caches and save files all take disk space, so keep several gigabytes free to avoid failed updates and system slowdowns. The official material does not list exact patch sizes, so a generous margin is the sensible approach.