PC Requirements and Settings

2:32 To run Crimson Desert on PC you need at least 64-bit Windows 10, an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i5-8500, 16 GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT, DirectX 12 and 150 GB of free space on an SSD; the recommended PC has a Ryzen 5 5600 or Core i5-11600K, 16 GB of RAM and a GeForce RTX 2080 or Radeon RX 6700 XT (Steam, read Oct 20, 2026). Pearl Abyss's own tables go higher: 4K at 60fps on Ultra asks for an RTX 5070 Ti or RX 9070. Digital Foundry's PC preview of Mar 5, 2026 ran a work-in-progress build at native 4K on Ultra with a Ryzen 9 and a Radeon RX 7900 XTX, mostly at 60fps. The game runs on Pearl Abyss's own BlackSpace Engine, not Unreal, and has been patched for PC many times since its Mar 19, 2026 launch.

Quick facts

Every requirement tier

Pearl Abyss published its PC targets as images on Mar 10, 2026, from internal testing. The table follows Game Informer's transcription of the same day; every tier lists 16 GB of RAM and 150 GB on an SSD.

Pearl Abyss warns that results vary with each PC and each graphics setting. The game's presets run from Minimum through Low, Medium, High and Ultra to Cinematic, the level above Ultra.

Graphics presets and distant detail

3:01 Ultra is not the top preset: Cinematic is. Digital Foundry's Alex Battaglia explains that the presets go "from minimum all the way up to cinematic", and that the footage Pearl Abyss captured for its preview ran on Ultra at native 4K with FSR at native resolution, mostly at 60fps on a last-generation AMD card, "quite differently than a lot of Unreal Engine games would run at native 4K". Pearl Abyss's own comparisons of its April graphics update were captured at Cinematic, 4K with upscaling off, on a high-end PC (notice 82).

13:22 Distant scenery is one of the PC version's strengths and one of its costs. Digital Foundry noticed that trees keep their 3D shape and shading far off instead of turning into flat stand-ins, that grass reaches far into the distance and that vegetation keeps animating a long way out, all on Ultra. Update 1.04.00 on Apr 23, 2026 improved distant scenery further on every platform.

Upscaling and frame generation

16:05 Crimson Desert supports all three PC upscalers and their frame generation. Before launch, Digital Foundry pointed to AMD's statement that it would support FSR Redstone features, including ray regeneration, machine-learning frame generation and FSR 4. Pearl Abyss's FAQ of Mar 12, 2026 lists FSR 3 and 4, DLSS 4 and 4.5 and Intel XeSS 3 on PC, with AMD FSR Ray Regeneration and NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction; frame generation is PC and Mac only. NVIDIA's partnership, announced on May 19, 2025, added DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation and NVIDIA Reflex.

Pearl Abyss's FAQ gives two tips for frame generation. DLSS Multi Frame Generation (x3, x4) works even at a low base frame rate, but input and image stability suffer if the base rate is too low, so use it only when the game already runs well; and with Multi Frame Generation on, turn V-sync and G-Sync settings off. Capturing the game with Windows' duplicate display can look worse with Multi Frame Generation on.

PC patches have kept improving the upscalers:

• 1.01.02 (Mar 30, 2026), a Steam hotfix: better image quality with DLSS and NVIDIA Ray Reconstruction.
• 1.02.00 (Apr 4, 2026): better FSR and frame generation on PC.
• 1.03.00 (Apr 11, 2026): Intel Arc support with XeSS 3 and frame generation.
• 1.18.00 (Aug 15, 2026): a fix for corrupted images with FSR and XeSS frame generation on low-end cards such as the GTX 1060.
• 2.02.00 (Sep 11, 2026): a fix for a crash when starting a new game with DLSS Frame Generation on.
• 2.03.00 (Sep 18, 2026): NVIDIA Streamline SDK 2.14.1 with the latest DLSS Ray Reconstruction transformer model.

Ray tracing

8:36 Crimson Desert ray traces both its lighting and its reflections on PC. Digital Foundry found ray-traced reflections on standing water and polished floors, mixed with screen-space reflections, on top of the ray-traced diffuse global illumination that lights every scene, and was "impressed at the fact that ray tracing is running this well on an older AMD GPU". Update 1.08.00 on May 22, 2026 added ray-traced shadows from the sun and moon on PC. How the engine's lighting works is on BlackSpace Engine.

Intel Arc, drivers and Denuvo

Intel Arc cards were not supported at launch. Pearl Abyss's FAQ said it was "working on compatibility and optimization support" and apologized for earlier wording about Arc, and support arrived with 1.03.00 on Apr 11, 2026. For AMD and NVIDIA, Pearl Abyss recommends AMD driver 25.9.2 or newer and NVIDIA 581.29 or newer.

The Steam version uses Denuvo Anti-tamper, which allows activation on five different PCs a day, according to the Steam store page. An internet connection is needed for the first setup and for patches; after that the game runs offline. On the Xbox app for PC, some players could not start the game at launch, and Pearl Abyss's workaround was to update the Gaming Services app from the Microsoft Store.

Keyboard, mouse and controllers

15:34 Crimson Desert's controls feel deliberately heavy, and keyboard and mouse players had the worst of it at launch. Digital Foundry's John Linneman found the game "similarly heavy on PC even at higher frame rates" and took it as a design choice. On Mar 21, 2026, two days after launch, Pearl Abyss apologized for "not providing keyboard and mouse players with a satisfactory gameplay experience" (notice 71) and promised changes.

The fixes came in stages. Update 1.00.03 on Mar 23 added shortcut keys (I, K, J and M); 1.02.00 on Apr 4 added a Movement Controls option, Basic or Classic; 1.04.00 on Apr 23 added control presets for keyboard and mouse and for controllers, with a "Classic Preset" that keeps the original layout; and 1.09.00 on May 29, 2026 added full controller remapping. On PC the game supports Xbox controllers and the DualSense, the DualSense over USB only. More options are on Difficulty and Accessibility.

Mac requirements

Crimson Desert on Mac needs macOS 15 and an Apple M2 Pro, M3 or M4 with 16 GB of memory; Pearl Abyss recommends an M3 Pro, M4 Pro or M5 with 16 GB, and macOS 26 "Tahoe" or later (notice 62). The Mac App Store's own compatibility line says M1 or later, but Pearl Abyss's minimum is the M2 Pro tier. Its Mac tables, as Game Informer transcribed them, run from 720p or 900p at 30fps on the minimum chips (60fps on macOS 26 with MetalFX frame interpolation) to 4K on an M3 Ultra or M4 Max, and a "For this Mac" preset picks settings automatically. Update 1.08.00 turned Metal 4 on by default on macOS 26.5 and later. The Mac App Store download is 124.9 GB.

Steam Deck and handhelds

The Steam Deck is not supported. A Verified badge appeared on Steam in August 2026 and was withdrawn; Steam Deck HQ found on Aug 14, 2026 that the game often did not hold 30fps at the lowest settings with FSR 3.1 Ultra Performance. The ROG Xbox Ally X, which Pearl Abyss does support, runs a 60fps Performance mode at 1080p upscaled from 720p with FSR 3 frame generation, plugged in with Turbo Mode on (Platforms, PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Performance).

Frequently asked questions

Can my PC run Crimson Desert? Crimson Desert needs at least a Ryzen 5 2600X or Core i5-8500, 16 GB of RAM, a GTX 1060 or RX 5500 XT and 150 GB on an SSD with 64-bit Windows 10; that tier targets 1080p upscaled from 900p at 30fps.

How big is Crimson Desert on PC? Crimson Desert needs 150 GB of free space on an SSD on PC, according to Steam; the Mac App Store download is 124.9 GB.

Does Crimson Desert have DLSS 4? Yes. Crimson Desert on PC supports DLSS 4 and 4.5, including Multi Frame Generation on RTX 50 cards and DLSS Ray Reconstruction, as well as FSR 3 and 4 and Intel XeSS 3.

Does Crimson Desert run on Intel Arc? Yes, since update 1.03.00 on Apr 11, 2026, which added Intel Arc support with XeSS 3 and frame generation; Crimson Desert did not support Arc at launch.

Does Crimson Desert work on Steam Deck? No. Crimson Desert is Unsupported on Steam Deck after a mistaken Verified badge in August 2026, and Steam Deck HQ found it often below 30fps at the lowest settings.

What Mac do I need for Crimson Desert? Crimson Desert needs at least an Apple M2 Pro, M3 or M4 with 16 GB of memory and macOS 15; Pearl Abyss recommends an M3 Pro, M4 Pro or M5 and macOS 26.

Can I play Crimson Desert with keyboard and mouse? Yes. Crimson Desert supports keyboard and mouse, and after Pearl Abyss's apology of Mar 21, 2026 it added shortcut keys, a Classic or Basic movement option and control presets in its first patches.

Does Crimson Desert have ray tracing on PC? Yes. Crimson Desert ray traces global illumination and reflections on PC, and update 1.08.00 added ray-traced sun and moon shadows.

Sources

• Crimson Desert on Steam, Steam, read Oct 20, 2026
• PC, Console, Mac Performance Specs, Pearl Abyss, Mar 10, 2026
• Frequently Asked Questions, Pearl Abyss (Steam news), Mar 12, 2026
• A Message to Our Players, Pearl Abyss, Mar 21, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.00.03, Pearl Abyss, Mar 23, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.01.02 (PC Steam Hotfix), Pearl Abyss (Steam news), Mar 30, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.02.00, Pearl Abyss, Apr 4, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.03.00, Pearl Abyss, Apr 11, 2026
• Dev Update, Pearl Abyss, Apr 9, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.04.00, Pearl Abyss, Apr 23, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.08.00, Pearl Abyss, May 22, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.09.00, Pearl Abyss, May 29, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 1.18.00, Pearl Abyss, Aug 15, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 2.02.00, Pearl Abyss, Sep 11, 2026
• Patch Notes Version 2.03.00, Pearl Abyss, Sep 18, 2026
• Pearl Abyss announces Crimson Desert to launch with DLSS 4 and ray tracing support on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series, Pearl Abyss, May 19, 2025
• Crimson Desert specs for PC, console and other platforms revealed, Game Informer, Mar 10, 2026
• Crimson Desert Enhanced, Apple Mac App Store, read Oct 20, 2026
• Crimson Desert returns to Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck HQ, Aug 14, 2026
• Crimson Desert First Look: The BlackSpace Engine Tech Preview, Digital Foundry, Mar 5, 2026 (video)
• Crimson Desert on PlayStation 5 Pro - The Digital Foundry Deep Dive, Digital Foundry, Mar 12, 2026 (video)