Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition PC Hardware Guide
Official requirements explained
The official minimum requirements for Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition list an Intel Core i5 4460 or equivalent processor, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 with 4GB of VRAM or more, 6GB of RAM, and 85GB of storage. The publisher does not state that an SSD is required. In plain terms, this is an old entry-level setup: the i5-4460 is a processor from about a decade ago, and the GTX 970 is a previous-generation midrange card that now sits at the bottom of what people consider playable.
The official recommended requirements list an Intel Core i7 6700K or equivalent, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER with 6GB of VRAM or more, 16GB of RAM, and the same 85GB of storage, again with no SSD requirement. The recommended GPU roughly corresponds to a mainstream 1080p-class card, and the CPU sits in the older mainstream range. The recommended tier is best read as a baseline for a comfortable 1080p experience, while the minimum tier is the floor for getting the game running at all.
The gap between the two levels comes mostly from GPU power and VRAM, plus system memory. Six gigabytes of RAM is tight once Windows and background apps are running, so the recommended 16GB is the more realistic target. The publisher lists no requirements for higher resolutions or ray tracing, so if you want 1440p or better, you will need to judge for yourself rather than rely on the official figures.
Recommended builds for three budgets
The entry build centers on cards such as the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, GTX 1660, or RTX 3050 6GB, paired with a Ryzen 3 3100, Core i3-10100F, or Ryzen 5 3500X and at least 16GB of RAM. It suits players who want to clear the official recommended tier at 1080p and are willing to keep graphics settings moderate.
The mainstream build uses cards like the GTX 1660 SUPER, RTX 3050 8GB, Radeon RX 5600 XT, Arc A580, or RTX 2060, with a Ryzen 5 3600, Core i5-10400, or Core i5-10400F and 16GB of RAM. This tier leaves a comfortable margin above the recommended requirements and works well for a steadier 1080p experience or for raising some settings higher.
The high build includes the Radeon RX 6700 XT, GeForce RTX 3070, or RTX 4060 Ti in 8GB or 16GB form, paired with a Ryzen 5 5600, Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5700X, or Core i5-13400F. It is well above the official recommendations and makes sense for players who want higher resolutions or higher settings, or who also stream or record while playing. We recommend 32GB of RAM at this level for comfortable multitasking.
Graphics settings with the biggest impact
In an action RPG like this, the settings that usually cost the most are shadow quality, volumetric lighting and fog, reflections, and the density of enemies and effects on screen at once. Shadows and volumetric effects involve heavy rendering work, so lowering them often gives the biggest gains with the smallest visible loss. View distance also matters, especially in large open areas.
A practical approach is to set shadows and volumetrics to medium first and adjust other options from there. If the game offers ray tracing, unless your card handles it well, it is usually worth turning it off and keeping the resources for things that affect responsiveness more directly. Texture quality depends mostly on VRAM capacity: with enough VRAM you can keep it high, and it generally costs less performance than shadows do.
Upscaling technologies such as NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS render the scene at a lower internal resolution and reconstruct it to your display resolution. In general, the quality or balanced modes offer a good trade-off between sharpness and speed, though results vary by card and scene. Compare a few modes yourself before settling on one.
Laptops and handheld PCs
Laptop graphics chips often share a name with desktop cards but are not the same. A laptop RTX 3060, for example, runs under a much tighter power limit (TGP) and cooling budget than the desktop version, so it delivers noticeably less. When buying, check the machine's sustained power limit and thermal reviews rather than relying on the card name alone. While playing, keep the laptop plugged in and set the power mode to performance, otherwise the GPU may downclock to save energy.
Handheld PCs such as the Steam Deck or ASUS ROG Ally are low-power platforms with hardware well below a desktop. They are best suited to lower resolutions and reduced graphics settings, often combined with a frame rate cap to keep power draw and heat under control. We do not have verification data for the Steam Deck, so FrameScope cannot give a compatibility rating for that device. Use the publisher's listed requirements and player reports from the community as your guide.
If you plan to play on a handheld, install the game on a fast SSD and leave plenty of free space to reduce loading waits and system strain.
Storage and memory
For memory, the official minimum is 6GB and the recommended amount is 16GB. Six gigabytes is easily exhausted on a modern Windows system, so aim for at least 16GB installed in a dual-channel configuration, with two sticks in the slots recommended by your motherboard manual. This doubles the memory bandwidth available to the CPU and iGPU-free systems alike. If your budget allows, 32GB gives you room to run streaming software or a browser alongside the game.
For storage, the 85GB listed is the base install size. The real footprint can grow with updates and additional content, so leave more space than that figure suggests to avoid failed patches. The publisher does not require an SSD, but an SSD noticeably shortens map transitions and loading times compared with a traditional hard drive. If your budget is tight, installing just the game on an SSD, even with the operating system on an HDD, is a worthwhile improvement.