Phantom Blade Zero PC System Requirements
Short answer: you need an SSD, 16 GB of RAM and a GTX 1660 / RX 5500 XT to hit 1080p30 with upscaling, or an RTX 3060 Ti / RX 6700 XT for 1440p60. Plan for 145 GB installed — and 300 GB free if you pre-load on Steam. Every published target assumes DLSS, FSR or XeSS is switched on.
The four official tiers
| Tier | Target | CPU | GPU | RAM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | 1080p / 30 FPS (upscaling on) | Intel Core i7-8700K / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB / Radeon RX 5500 XT 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Recommended | 1440p / 60 FPS (upscaling on) | Intel Core i5-10600K / AMD Ryzen 5 5600X | GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB / Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB | 16 GB |
| Ray tracing | 1080p / 60 FPS with RT | Modern 6-core or better | GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB class | 16 GB |
| Path tracing | 4K / 60 FPS with PT | High-end (Ryzen 7 / Core i7 recent) | GeForce RTX 5080 16 GB or above | 32 GB recommended |
Storage is non-negotiable across all four tiers: S-GAME lists an SSD as a requirement, not a recommendation. Windows 10 or 11 64-bit and DirectX 12 are the other fixed baselines.
Storage: the number people get wrong
| Installed size (PC) | ~145 GB |
|---|---|
| Free space needed to pre-load | ~300 GB — the download cache and unpacked files coexist until launch, then the cache is released |
| Installed size (PS5) | 134.857 GB |
| Day-one patch | ~5 GB, improving ray-tracing and path-tracing performance |
The 300 GB figure is the one that catches people out at pre-load. If your drive only has 150 GB free, the download will stall even though the final install is half that size. Install on an SSD — UE5 streaming on a mechanical drive produces visible hitching, and the game's shader compilation is heavy enough that it is already the biggest first-launch complaint.
What “minimum” actually buys you
The minimum tier is a 1080p/30 target with upscaling enabled. On a GTX 1660 at native 1080p you will not hold 30 fps, and the game's frame pacing gets rough below that. Independent testing of older cards puts a GTX 1060 at roughly 44–54 fps at 1080p Low with FSR Quality — playable, but outside the supported configuration and visibly soft.
If you are on a 3060 Ti-class GPU, expect to run the recommended tier with DLSS Quality and mostly high settings. The best settings page covers which options cost the most frames; the benchmark page has measured numbers per GPU tier.
Ray tracing and path tracing
Two separate optional tiers sit above the recommended spec. Hardware ray tracing (reflections, shadows, caustics) starts around an RTX 5060 at 1080p60. Full path tracing is a different order of cost: at 4K it needs an RTX 5080 and upscaling plus frame generation to stay near 60, and even an RTX 5090 with a 9950X3D does not hold 60 fps everywhere with PT on. If you are path-tracing, budget for DLSS Quality and Multi Frame Generation, and expect to turn motion blur off.
Denuvo and shader compilation
The Steam and Epic builds ship with Denuvo anti-tamper, which requires a one-time online activation and adds a small amount of CPU work. More noticeable at launch: first-run shader compilation produced loading waits of roughly 13–30 minutes for some players. That is a one-time cost per driver or game patch — after it completes, the game runs normally.