Returnal Is Going To Require A Lot Of RAM To Run Smoothly On PC

A PC port of Returnal was confirmed at The Game Awards last week, and like most PlayStation 4 and 5 games appearing on that alternative platform, you'll need some modern hardware to get the best possible performance. Curiously, Returnal's RAM requirements are much higher than previous PlayStation ports, as you'll need 32GB of RAM to keep the roguelite action flowing smoothly.

That's according to the Steam listing for the game (as spotted by WccfTech), which requires a minimum of 16GB of RAM just to get started. What makes this number stand out is that other graphically demanding games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Dying Light 2 have run just fine with between 8-16GB of RAM, and even several of Sony's previous ports haven't required that much RAM unless you were looking for a 4K experience with every PC setting set to the highest possible level. Returnal is a PS5 console-exclusive and wasn't available on PS4 like several other first-party games from PlayStation, which could explain its demanding requirements.

For example, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales recommends 16GB of RAM if you're planning to play at a resolution of 1440p at 60 FPS with ultra ray-tracing settings enabled, and 32GB of RAM if you want to bump the experience up to 4K. Beyond that, the rest of Returnal's requirements are pretty standard according to its Steam page listing. An Nvidia RTX 2070 or AMD RX 6700 XT graphics card will be able to render all the alien terror in Returnal just fine, and you'll need to have 60GB of storage space available.

Returnal's PC edition is being co-developed by Climax Studios, which has a long history of working on ports and had previously helped bring Housemarque's Resogun and Dead Nation to PC.

Returnal minimum settings

• Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-6400 (4 core 2.7GHz) AMD Ryzen 5 1500X (4 core 3.5GHz)
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB)
• Storage: 60 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD Recommended

Returnal recommended settings

• Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit (version 1903)
• Processor: Intel i7-8700 (6 core 3.7 GHz) AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (8 core 3.7 GHz)
• Memory: 32 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia RTX 2070 Super (8 GB) AMD RX 6700 XT (12 GB)
• Storage: 60 GB available space

2022 has seen several PlayStation games arrive on PC, as both of Insomniac's Spider-Man games, 2018's God of War, and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection are now available, and next year will see The Last of Us Part 1 head to PC as well.