No Man's Sky PC Hardware Guide
Official requirements explained
The official minimum for No Man's Sky lists an Intel Core i3 processor, an Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB, an AMD RX 470 4GB or an Intel UHD Graphics 630, along with 8 GB of RAM and 15 GB of storage. On FrameScope's tier scale, the Core i3 sits in the very old entry-level band, roughly comparable to an Intel Core i3-3220, while the GPU options fall into an older entry-level band, equivalent to an AMD Radeon HD 7950. In practice this means the game will launch on minimum hardware, but there is little headroom for higher settings or smooth performance.
The publisher did not list a recommended CPU, GPU, RAM or storage configuration, so there is no official baseline to compare against the minimum. We can only say that recommended requirements are usually set one generation or more above the minimum, but this is a general pattern, not something the publisher has confirmed for this game.
For most players the practical question is simple. If your system is close to the minimum, expect the game to run but plan on reduced resolution and quality. If your system already sits in the mainstream range, you should have a noticeably more comfortable experience across most scenes. Since no frame-rate target is given in the official data, choose your settings based on what feels stable and smooth to you.
Recommended builds for three budgets
The entry build pairs a budget GPU such as the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, Intel Arc A380 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 4GB with a quad-core CPU like the AMD Ryzen 3 3100 or Intel Core i3-10100F, plus 16 GB of RAM. It suits players who want to get into the game for a modest budget and are happy with low to medium settings, or who plan to upgrade later.
The mainstream build moves up to options such as the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super or RTX 3050 8GB, with a six-core CPU like the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or Intel Core i5-10400, and again 16 GB of RAM. For most people this is the best value, offering stable medium-to-high settings and room for future updates.
The high-end build uses cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, RTX 4090 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, with processors such as the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D or Intel Core i9-14900K, and 32 GB of RAM. It is aimed at players who want high resolution, high quality and advanced effects. For this game alone the extra spend may not pay off, so weigh it against your other uses for the PC.
Graphics settings with the biggest impact
In open, procedurally generated games like this one, the settings that usually cost the most are shadow quality, volumetric lighting and fog, view distance, the density of objects and simulation, and ray-traced reflections or global illumination. If performance falls short, these are the first things to lower. They tend to make a large visual difference, but they often matter less to how the game feels to control.
Texture quality and anti-aliasing are usually worth keeping. Textures mainly consume video memory, so if your GPU has limited VRAM, dropping texture quality is often the most effective change with the least visible loss. Anti-aliasing noticeably cleans up edges and sharpness, so it is worth preserving where you can.
Upscaling technologies such as DLSS, FSR and XeSS work by rendering at a lower internal resolution and reconstructing a sharper image at your display's resolution. Used well, they can give you more performance headroom with only a modest loss in image quality. Which option is available depends on your GPU, so pick the one that matches your hardware and compare the result on screen.
Laptops and handheld PCs
Laptop GPUs often share names with desktop cards, such as the RTX series, but they are usually considerably slower. The reason is power and cooling: laptops run the same model at lower power limits (TGP) and have less room to dissipate heat. When comparing laptops, check the GPU's power setting and cooling design rather than relying on the model name alone. Under sustained load, a laptop may also throttle if cooling is poor, so keep vents clear and use a high-performance mode while playing.
Handheld PCs such as the Steam Deck or ROG Ally are essentially portable, low-power computers. Performance and battery life pull against each other, so you will typically need to lower resolution and quality and rely on upscaling to get a smooth result. FrameScope has no Steam Deck verification data for this game, so we do not give a rating for that device. Check what other players report, and start with conservative settings.
Storage and memory
The official minimum is 8 GB of RAM, but on modern systems that is usually just enough to get by, since the operating system and background apps take a share. For comfortable play we recommend 16 GB as a baseline, and 32 GB if you multitask or stream. Install memory in dual-channel configuration (matched pairs) to get more bandwidth, which helps overall smoothness.
The official minimum storage is 15 GB, but updates can grow a game's size over time, so leave extra free space to avoid running out during an update. The official data does not state that an SSD is required. Even so, a game that loads a lot of scene data benefits clearly from an SSD, because it shortens loading and makes moving through the world smoother. If your budget is tight, at least install the game itself on an SSD, and keep other files on a hard drive if needed.