Ark Survival Evolved system requirements

For a game that's over a decade old, Ark Survival Evolved has proven to be an enduring open-world survival crafter. This is in part because of the low Ark Survival Evolved system requirements, which are inviting for gamers with entry-level rigs, laptops, and PCs, even as of the latest Ark SE updates and expansions.

Compared to its sequel, Ark Survival Evolved is arguably the more popular Ark game, and it still sits on our best survival games list despite the release of Ark Survival Ascended. You won't even need the best gaming PC from our buying guides to get Ark SE to run, although you might want to aim for more modern hardware if you plan on installing some of the larger and more demanding Ark Survival Evolved mods.

Here are the Ark Survival Evolved system requirements in 2025:

The Ark Survival Evolved minimum requirements are something straight out of a time capsule from the mid 2010s, calling for ancient GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 or AMD Radeon HD 7870, CPUs such as the Intel Core i5-2400 or AMD FX-8320, and just 8GB of RAM. Unless your gaming PC or laptop is a literal fossil, you should have no issues meeting these basic requirements in 2025.

Unfortunately, the developer never released any official expectations for frame rate or resolution, nor what hardware you should have if you want to crank the game's settings up from Low to Epic. As such, we can only assume that the minimum requirements are enough to get you up and running at 720p on the Low settings overall. As there are no Ark Survival Evolved recommended specs, you'll need to experiment with the in-game settings in combination with a frame rate monitor to see how well your PC setup fares.

The three settings you'll want to play closest attention to are the View Distance, Shadows, and Ground Clutter options. All three can have a pretty major impact on your game's performance if dialled up to their highest levels, so adjust these first if you see your frame rates dropping.

Of course, you'll start needing significantly more powerful hardware if you start installing any Ark SE mods that overhaul the graphics, so you might want to consider upgrading your graphics card if your setup is struggling.

When it comes to storage space, the Ark Survival Evolved download size only requires 60GB following the release of the Ark Aquatica expansion. As you might expect of such an old game, an SSD isn't required, but you should really consider upgrading to one of the best gaming SSD picks from our buying guide if you're still relying on a traditional hard disk drive.

If you want to outrun the hostile dinosaurs infesting Ark Survival Evolved, you'll want to do so with the best gaming keyboard so you don't miss a single input, and pair it with the best gaming mouse from our buying guides for a complete setup upgrade.

Take our Ark Survival Evolved system requirements benchmark test to answer the question… Can I run Ark Survival Evolved?

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