Can I Run Dark Souls?
Released in 2016, Dark Souls is an action game built by FromSoftware, Inc.. It offers a single player campaign and cooperative play. A gamepad works without remapping, since controller support is complete. It is localised into 12 languages according to the store listing. Critics scored it 89 on Metacritic. It is old enough that no current GPU generation existed when it shipped, so modern hardware tends to be far past what it can use. Its Steam review count passes 276 thousand, a large enough sample that odd hardware behaviour would be known by now. An age check at 17 sits in front of the store page. Completionists have 43 achievements to work through. Windows is the only supported platform, which is what the figures below describe.
Can your PC run it? →System requirements
Minimum requirements
| CPU | Intel Core i3-2100 / AMD® FX-6300 |
|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 750 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 7950 |
| RAM | 4 GB |
| Storage | 25 GB |
| OS | Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit |
| DirectX | 11 |
Recommended requirements
| CPU | Intel Core i7-3770 / AMD® FX-8350 |
|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 970 / ATI Radeon R9 series |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Storage | 25 GB |
| OS | Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit |
| DirectX | 11 |
Verified from Steam · 9 Jul 2026 source
Scores are deterministic, computed by fixed rules and benchmark tables, not written by an AI. How we score. Maintained by Farhad Ali. Spotted a wrong specification? Tell us.
Setting and environment
Players spend their time in a bleak fantasy world, moving through interlocking areas that reward learning the route. It is played from a third person view. There are 10 official screenshots to judge the look from.
Why Dark Souls is demanding
The graphics requirement for Dark Souls is light. Hardware around NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / ATI Radeon R9 series is enough, so Dark Souls runs on machines never bought for gaming. System memory expectations are modest at 8 GB. Dark Souls takes about 25 GB of disk space. The distance between minimum and recommended is wide, so Dark Souls at the floor and Dark Souls at the recommended tier are not the same experience. Dark Souls needs 64 bit Windows.
This reading comes from the published requirements and our own benchmark tables, not from the store listing.
Can you run Dark Souls?
Dark Souls is light on hardware. Its minimum, NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 750 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 7950, 4 GB RAM, about 25 GB free, sits below what an entry-level PC ships with today, so nearly any modern machine, and many older ones, will run it.
Bottleneck: GPU
Projected by resolution
| Resolution | Projection | Headroom |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p | Comfortable | 3.7x |
| 1440p | Comfortable | 2.08x |
| 4K | Borderline | 0.92x |
A projection, not a measurement. We scale the published GPU requirement by pixel count, since 1440p draws 1.78 times the pixels of 1080p and 4K draws 4 times as many, then compare against RTX 3060 / Ryzen 5 build. The publisher did not state a target resolution, so 1080p is assumed as the baseline. We hold no frame rate data, so no FPS figure is claimed. Headroom above 1 means the reference machine has room to spare at that resolution.
Common GPUs
| Graphics card | Verdict |
|---|---|
| GTX 1060 6 GB | Runs great |
| GTX 1060 Laptop | Runs great |
| GTX 1650 4 GB | Runs great |
| GTX 1650 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 2060 6 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 2060 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 3060 12 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 3060 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 4060 8 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 4060 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 3070 8 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 3070 Laptop | Runs great |
| RTX 4070 12 GB | Runs great |
| RTX 4070 Laptop | Runs great |
| RX 6600 8 GB | Runs great |
Each card is compared against Dark Souls's published GPU requirement, assuming an otherwise-capable PC. Laptop rows use the real mobile chip's benchmark, a mobile GPU is always slower than its desktop namesake.
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Frequently asked questions
Can my PC run Dark Souls?
Upload your DxDiag file to Idxdiag's free checker and get a component by component compatibility verdict for Dark Souls in seconds. No install required.
What are the minimum system requirements for Dark Souls?
The minimum requirements are CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 / AMD® FX-6300; GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 750 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 7950; 4 GB RAM; OS: Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit.
How much storage does Dark Souls need?
Dark Souls needs about 25 GB of available storage.
Can an RTX 3060 run Dark Souls?
The RTX 3060 runs Dark Souls comfortably, clearing the title's GPU requirement with room to spare.
What is the bottleneck for Dark Souls?
On a typical modern PC (Ryzen 5 5600, RTX 3060, 16 GB RAM), the tightest component for Dark Souls is the GPU.