Can I Run Dark Souls II?
FromSoftware, Inc. released Dark Souls II in 2014. It is an action role playing game, published by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment. The game supports a single player campaign and cooperative play. It carries 38 achievements. Over 33 thousand players have left a Steam review, so this is a title whose performance is widely reported. 10 languages are covered by the store listing. Windows is the only supported platform, which is what the figures below describe. Its Metacritic score stands at 91. It handles controllers properly rather than leaving the player to bind buttons by hand. 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.
Can your PC run it? →System requirements
Minimum requirements
| CPU | AMD® Phenom II™ X2 555 3.2Ghz or Intel® Pentium Core ™ 2 Duo E8500 3.17Ghz |
|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600GT, ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 |
| RAM | 2 GB |
| Storage | 12 GB |
| OS | Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 |
| DirectX | 9 |
Recommended requirements
| CPU | Intel® CoreTM i3 2100 3.10GHz or AMD® A8 3870K 3.0GHz |
|---|---|
| GPU | NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 750 or ATI Radeon™ HD 6870 or higher |
| RAM | 4 GB |
| Storage | 15 GB |
| OS | Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 |
| DirectX | 9 |
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. The view is from a third person view. 26 storefront images show what the game actually looks like in motion.
Why Dark Souls II is demanding
Dark Souls II barely touches the GPU. Its stated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 or ATI Radeon HD 6870 target is below anything currently sold. Dark Souls II needs only 4 GB of RAM. It targets DirectX 9, an older feature level that almost anything still running will satisfy. Dark Souls II takes about 15 GB of disk space.
This reading comes from the published requirements and our own benchmark tables, not from the store listing.
Can you run Dark Souls II?
Dark Souls II targets a mainstream modern PC: NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600GT, ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 and 2 GB of RAM for the minimum, stepping up to NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 750 or ATI Radeon™ HD 6870 or higher for the recommended experience. No single part dominates the requirements, so a balanced mid-range build clears it.
Bottleneck: GPU
Projected by resolution
| Resolution | Projection | Headroom |
|---|---|---|
| 1080p | Comfortable | 6.54x |
| 1440p | Comfortable | 3.68x |
| 4K | Comfortable | 1.63x |
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 II'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.
Similar games you can run
Cyberpunk 2077
Grand Theft Auto V
Red Dead Redemption 2
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DOOM EternalFrequently asked questions
Can my PC run Dark Souls II?
Upload your DxDiag file to Idxdiag's free checker and get a component by component compatibility verdict for Dark Souls II in seconds. No install required.
What are the minimum system requirements for Dark Souls II?
The minimum requirements are CPU: AMD® Phenom II™ X2 555 3.2Ghz or Intel® Pentium Core ™ 2 Duo E8500 3.17Ghz; GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600GT, ATI Radeon™ HD 5870; 2 GB RAM; OS: Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.
How much storage does Dark Souls II need?
Dark Souls II needs about 12 GB of available storage.
Can an RTX 3060 run Dark Souls II?
The RTX 3060 runs Dark Souls II comfortably, clearing the title's GPU requirement with room to spare.
What is the bottleneck for Dark Souls II?
On a typical modern PC (Ryzen 5 5600, RTX 3060, 16 GB RAM), the tightest component for Dark Souls II is the GPU.