Can I Run Portal?
Released in 2011, Portal is an action adventure game built by Valve. The game supports a single player campaign and cooperative play. There are 51 achievements to chase. Workshop content is supported, so the published requirements describe the unmodded game only. It keeps shared screen play alive, so a second player needs only a second controller. With more than 387 thousand player reviews on Steam, its behaviour on real hardware is well documented. It handles controllers properly rather than leaving the player to bind buttons by hand. Saves sync through Steam Cloud, so moving between machines does not cost progress. It is localised into 27 languages according to the store listing. At more than a decade old it predates every current graphics architecture, which helps compatibility and limits how well it exploits a modern card. Metacritic places it at 95. Alongside Windows it also ships for Linux.
Can your PC run it? →System requirements
Minimum requirements
| CPU | 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher) |
|---|---|
| GPU | Video card must be 128 MB or more and with support for Pixel Shader 2.0b (ATI Radeon X800 or higher / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or higher / Intel HD Graphics 2000 or higher). |
| RAM | 2 GB |
| Storage | 8 GB |
| OS | Windows 7 / Vista / XP |
| DirectX | 9 |
Single source, verify with the publisher 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
The game is set in a science fiction setting. Play is structured around platforming routes. Play is presented from a first person view. 12 storefront images show what the game actually looks like in motion.
Why Portal is demanding
Disk footprint is light, near 8 GB. Portal needs only 2 GB of RAM. The DirectX requirement is undemanding, at version 9.
This reading comes from the published requirements and our own benchmark tables, not from the store listing.
Can you run Portal?
Portal targets a mainstream modern PC: Video card must be 128 MB or more and with support for Pixel Shader 2.0b (ATI Radeon X800 or higher / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or higher / Intel HD Graphics 2000 or higher). and 2 GB of RAM for the minimum. No single part dominates the requirements, so a balanced mid-range build clears it.
Bottleneck: CPU
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Frequently asked questions
Can my PC run Portal?
Upload your DxDiag file to Idxdiag's free checker and get a component by component compatibility verdict for Portal in seconds. No install required.
What are the minimum system requirements for Portal?
The minimum requirements are CPU: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher); GPU: Video card must be 128 MB or more and with support for Pixel Shader 2.0b (ATI Radeon X800 or higher / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or higher / Intel HD Graphics 2000 or higher).; 2 GB RAM; OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP.
How much storage does Portal need?
Portal needs about 8 GB of available storage.
What is the bottleneck for Portal?
On a typical modern PC (Ryzen 5 5600, RTX 3060, 16 GB RAM), the tightest component for Portal is the CPU.