Phasmophobia: PC System Requirements & Best Hardware to Run It (2026)

Phasmophobia is not a demanding PC game, and its official requirements prove it. Kinetic Games lists an Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600, 8 GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 390 as the minimum, and an Intel Core i5-10600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with a GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 5700 as recommended. Those are old, mid-range parts, which fits a 4-player online co-op psychological horror game built around atmospheric lighting, voice chat and a small set of ghost-hunting tools rather than large open worlds or heavy simulation.

There is one important caveat in the official listing: the minimum specs are intended for VR, and the store page notes that lower specs may work for non-VR play. Phasmophobia launched in Early Access on September 18, 2020 and has been updated continuously since, with new maps, equipment and visual passes — but it remains a DirectX 11 Unity title that asks for 21 GB of storage and no more than 8 GB of system RAM on paper.

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#1 Pick

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#2 Pick

ASUS ROG GM700 (2025) Gaming Desktop PC, AMD Ryzen™ 7 9800X3D Processor, AMD® Radeon™ RX 9070 XT Prime OC, 2TB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 4 SSD, 32GB DDR5 RAM, Windows 11 Home, GM700TZ-MS777

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#3 Pick

ASUS ROG GM700 (2026) Gaming Desktop PC, AMD Ryzen™ 7 8700F Processor, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 5070, 1TB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 4 SSD, 32GB DDR5 RAM, Windows 11 Home, GM700TZ-PS776

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#4 Pick

ROG NUC 16 AI Gaming Mini PC with Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile GPU, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD, Wi-Fi 7, Thunderbolt 4, Triple-Fan Cooling, 3-Year Warranty

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Phasmophobia Official PC System Requirements

These are the developer’s published figures, taken from the game’s Steam store page.

Source: the official Phasmophobia Steam store listing (app 739630), checked October 2026. Publishers can update these specs after patches.

VR is officially supported through OpenXR, and it is the reason the minimum tier looks as high as it does: the GTX 970 / R9 390 baseline is a VR-ready figure rather than a flat-screen one. If you play on a monitor you can expect the game to run on hardware below those numbers, while in VR the minimum is your floor and the recommended tier is the comfortable target, paired with an OpenXR-compatible headset.

Notice what is not in the requirements: no DirectX 12 Ultimate, no ray tracing, no SSD requirement, and 8 GB of RAM in both columns. Broadband internet appears in the recommended column because the game is four-player online co-op with proximity voice chat. In practice 16 GB of RAM is a comfortable cushion for Windows plus Discord, a browser and voice recognition running alongside the game, but the developer does not list it as necessary.

What Kind of PC Do You Actually Need in 2026?

Because the published requirements have stayed low since the 2020 Early Access launch, almost any gaming PC built in the last several years will run Phasmophobia. The realistic goal is not clearing the minimum bar but keeping frame delivery steady when lights flicker, the fuse box is off and four players are talking at once — and, if you play in VR, staying above the higher bar the VR minimum implies.

CPU, RAM and Storage Notes for Phasmophobia

CPU: Phasmophobia is not a CPU-heavy game. It runs four-player co-op sessions in Unity, and the official CPUs — a 2014-era Core i5-4590 and a 2018 Ryzen 5 2600 — make that clear. Anything modern, such as an Intel Core i3-12100F, Core i5-12400F or 13400F, or an AMD Ryzen 5 5500, 5600 or 7600, sits far above what the game asks for and will not hold back a mid-range graphics card. There is no case for buying an expensive high-core CPU for this title.

Older quad-cores at the level of the listed minimum will still run the game, but they are the parts most likely to produce the occasional dip when several players interact with equipment and voice chat at the same time.

RAM: 8 GB is what the developer lists for both the minimum and recommended tiers, and it is genuinely enough for the game itself. 16 GB is the sensible modern target simply because Windows, Discord and a browser share the same memory, and it leaves room for the game to grow through Early Access. Beyond 16 GB there is nothing for Phasmophobia to use.

Storage: The install is 21 GB, and the official listing does not specify a drive type. An SSD is still worth having — load times between lobbies and maps are noticeably shorter, and it removes one common source of hitching — but any decent SATA SSD or NVMe drive is fine. The game does not use DirectStorage and does not benefit from a Gen4 or Gen5 drive.

Best GPU for Phasmophobia by Resolution

The tiers below scale up from the official minimum and recommended cards. Because the game renders in DirectX 11 with no ray tracing, performance comes down to raw raster power and how far you push shadow, lighting and fog quality.

1080p (Full HD) – The sweet spot

• At the official minimum: A GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 390 — the cards the developer lists, and remember those are the VR minimum. For flat-screen 1080p, older cards such as a GTX 1660 Super, GTX 1650 Super, Radeon RX 5500 XT or RX 6500 XT are in the same class or above, and modern entry cards like the GeForce RTX 3050 or Radeon RX 6600 sit comfortably above them.
• At and above the official recommended: A GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 5700 is the developer’s recommended tier and is more than enough for 1080p. Newer cards such as the GeForce RTX 4060 or RTX 5060 and the Radeon RX 7600 or RX 9060 XT add headroom for high-refresh 1080p play and higher shadow settings.
• Integrated graphics: Below the listed minimum, though the store page does note that lower specs may work for non-VR play. Modern Ryzen and Intel integrated graphics can handle the game at reduced resolution and settings; a discrete GPU is still the better experience.

1440p (QHD)

• Entry point: The official recommended cards — GeForce RTX 2060 / Radeon RX 5700 — are the natural starting point for 1440p in a game this light.
• Comfortable: GeForce RTX 3060 Ti / RTX 4060 Ti / RTX 5060 Ti or RTX 4070, and Radeon RX 6700 XT / RX 7700 XT / RX 9060 XT. These hold high settings at 1440p without effort.
• VRAM: The DX11 renderer does not need a large frame buffer; 8 GB is plenty at 1440p, and 12 GB or more brings no advantage here.

4K (Ultra HD)

• Realistic entry: GeForce RTX 3080 / RTX 4070 / RTX 5070 class or Radeon RX 6800 XT / RX 9070 — enough raster power to drive 4K at high settings in a title with no ray-traced workload.
• High-refresh 4K: GeForce RTX 4080 / RTX 5080 or Radeon RX 7900 XTX / RX 9070 XT, mainly worth it if you already own a 4K high-refresh display.
• Tip: At 4K, lowering shadow quality and fog or volumetric lighting by a step or two is the most effective way to gain headroom, and the visual difference in a dark game is usually modest.

Example PC Builds for Phasmophobia in 2026

Phasmophobia does not require high-end parts, so these two builds bracket what most players actually need. Both sit at or above the official recommended spec.

1. Budget 1080p Build

Aimed at 1080p on high settings with room for high-refresh play:

• CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F / i5-12400F or AMD Ryzen 5 5500 / 5600
• GPU: Radeon RX 6600 / RX 7600 / RX 9060 XT or GeForce RTX 3060 / RTX 4060 / RTX 5060
• RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200 / DDR5 5200
• Storage: 500GB – 1TB NVMe SSD
• Why it works: Every part here clears the official recommended tier, and the 16 GB of memory covers Windows plus voice chat and background apps. It also runs cool and quiet, which suits a long co-op session.

2. Mid-Range 1440p / VR Build

Aimed at 1440p high refresh or smooth VR play:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600 / 7600X or Intel Core i5-13400F / 14400F
• GPU: GeForce RTX 4070 / RTX 5070 or Radeon RX 7800 XT / RX 9070
• RAM: 16GB – 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5600+
• Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD
• Why it works: This is the tier that makes VR comfortable — well beyond the GTX 970 / R9 390 VR minimum — and it leaves headroom for future Early Access updates. It also handles much heavier games without changes.

For Phasmophobia alone there is no reason to go past the second build; anything above it only pays off in other, heavier titles.

Laptop and Handheld: Can You Play on Steam Deck or ROG Ally?

Laptops: A gaming laptop with a GTX 1660 Ti, RTX 3050, RTX 4050 or Radeon RX 6600M-class GPU and a modern quad-core CPU is comfortably above the official minimum and can run Phasmophobia at 1080p on high settings. Thin-and-light models with RTX 2050 / RTX 3050 Mobile-class graphics will also work if you keep shadows and fog quality moderate. Keep the laptop plugged in and in its performance mode, since battery power limits clocks and this game does not benefit from that trade.

Steam Deck, ROG Ally and similar handhelds: Yes — the game runs on current handheld PCs, with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme / 7840U-class chips in the ROG Ally and Legion Go offering more headroom than the Steam Deck. Compatibility ratings can change between updates, and the parts of the game that involve typing in a lobby or using voice chat are the fiddliest on a handheld, so a Bluetooth keyboard or the built-in trackpad helps. Lower shadow and fog settings, cap the frame rate for consistency, and play at the handheld’s native resolution. VR, meanwhile, is a desktop or laptop job: you need a machine that meets the listed VR minimum plus an OpenXR-compatible headset.

Best Settings to Raise FPS in Phasmophobia

Phasmophobia’s options are not extensive, but a few categories do most of the work. If you are below the official minimum, or chasing a high refresh rate, adjust these first.

• Shadow quality: Usually the biggest single lever. Dark interiors with many light sources are expensive to shadow-map, so dropping shadows a step or two buys real performance at little cost to visibility.
• Lighting and volumetric fog effects: These matter most during hunts, when flashlights cut through fog and the fuse box is off. Reducing them is the most effective way to raise minimum frame rates without changing the atmosphere much.
• Anti-aliasing: Lighter AA methods cost less than heavy multi-sampling and look cleaner on flashlight edges. On weaker GPUs, turning AA down or off is a small but real gain.
• Ambient occlusion and bloom-type effects: Both add subtle lighting realism and both cost GPU time, particularly on older GTX 10-series and RX 500-series hardware. Disabling them is a reasonable trade on low-end cards.
• Resolution and resolution scale: Keep the render scale at native unless you need the frames; a small reduction in render resolution usually looks better than a large reduction in output resolution. Turn off in-game V-Sync and rely on your monitor’s variable refresh support to avoid added input lag.

Texture and model detail settings generally have less impact in a game this size, so leave them high and spend your performance budget on lighting instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Phasmophobia need a good PC?

No. The official recommended spec is an i5-10600 or Ryzen 5 3600 with an RTX 2060 or RX 5700 and 8 GB of RAM — hardware that is now several generations old. Any budget gaming PC built in the last five years meets or beats that.

Can I run Phasmophobia without a graphics card?

The developer’s minimum lists a discrete GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 390, and that figure is aimed at VR. The store page notes that lower specs may work for non-VR play, so modern Ryzen or Intel integrated graphics can run the game at reduced resolution and settings — but a discrete GPU is what the spec assumes.

How much RAM does Phasmophobia need?

The official listing says 8 GB for both the minimum and recommended tiers, and the developer does not publish a higher recommended figure. 16 GB is the practical choice in a modern Windows system because the game shares memory with Discord, a browser and voice recognition, not because the game itself asks for it.

Is Phasmophobia CPU or GPU intensive?

Neither, really — it is a light game on both fronts. The published CPUs are old mid-range parts, so the CPU side is undemanding, and the GPU side is mostly about shadow, lighting and fog quality. If performance drops during hunts, settings are the usual cause rather than the processor.

Does Phasmophobia support ultrawide and high refresh rates?

There is no official statement limiting resolution or refresh rate, and the game runs at your desktop resolution in fullscreen or windowed mode, so ultrawide and high-refresh monitors can be used. Exact aspect-ratio behaviour is worth checking in the game’s display options on your own setup.