Dark Souls II System Requirements

Quicklinks

Can I Run Dark Souls II?

Do you want to know how your system compares against the requirements for Dark Souls II? Use our interactive checker to find out!

Graphics Requirements

To run Dark Souls II it is recommended that you have a minimum of an NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600GT, ATI Radeon™ HD 5870. The recommended graphic card for the best visual experience is an NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 750 or ATI Radeon™ HD 6870 or higher (or better).

DirectX Version 9.0c should also be available on your system.

Running Dark Souls II on a graphics card that is above the recommended specifications will allow you to achieve the highest levels of visual detail and the best frame rates. Good frame rates can be beneficial when playing competitive games. A higher frame rate will reduce input lag allowing you to react more quickly to events on screen.

To easily see how your graphics card compares to these specifications use our interactive GPU checker.

CPU Requirements

Dark Souls II requires that you have a minimum of an AMD® Phenom II™ X2 555 3.2Ghz or Intel® Pentium Core ™ 2 Duo E8500 3.17Ghz processor. For the best game experience an Intel® CoreTM i3 2100 3.10GHz or AMD® A8 3870K 3.0GHz (or better) processor is recommended.

Some games require a powerful CPU in order to manage the game engine. The game engine deals with things like processing network communications for multi-player games and the AI of your enemies in strategy games. Some games are considered CPU intensive or CPU dependent. Most modern games offload work directly to the GPU and don't require a powerful CPU for demanding visuals.

To easily see how your CPU compares to these specifications use our interactive CPU checker.

Memory Requirements

It is recommended that you have a minimum of 2 GB RAM to run Dark Souls II. The recommended amount of memory for the best game experience is 4 GB RAM (or more).

Having more than the recommended level of RAM for a game will usually not yield much extra gaming performance. However it may be useful if your computer runs other applications in the background.

Storage Requirements

You should have a minimum of 12 GB available space to install and run Dark Souls II. The recommended amount of storage for the best game experience is 15 GB available space.

An SSD (Solid State Drive) will generally deliver faster game load times than a HDD with a fixed head. Having more than the recommended level of storage available for a game will usually not improve your experience.

Operating System Requirements

Dark Souls II runs on Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8. The recommended operating system the best compatability is Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.

Meeting operating system requirements is not always necessary and can sometimes be overlooked. However running an old operating system will usually mean you may have to install extra drivers and encounter unsupported game crashes.

Platforms

Dark Souls II was first released on Mar 11, 2014. It is currently available on the following platforms:

• Playstation 4
• Xbox One

An alternative to expensive graphics cards and CPU purchases is console gaming. You may not get the absolute best frame rates or visual quality but if a game is available for a console you can usually be sure of an acceptable level of performance at all times.

Additional Requirements

In addition to the above specified requirements you may also need to the following:

• Network : Broadband Internet connection
• Sound Card : DirectX 9 sound device
• Additional Notes : Controller support