The purpose of this thread is to help you determine whether your computer's hardware is capable of running SpaceEngine, or to help you choose hardware that is in case you're shopping for a new computer or components. This thread supersedes an older thread (archived here).

Note: the information listed below applies to hardware requirements for the upcoming version 0.990. Older versions of SE have lower requirements for GPU and VRAM.

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GPU and VRAM

By far the most important piece of hardware for determining how well SE will run on your system is your graphics processor (GPU) and its associated dedicated video memory (VRAM). I've made a list below showing all desktop GPUs that should be able to run SE at minimum or recommended levels.

Minimum Requirements:

Nvidia GeForce:

• 500 Series: GTX 560 (2048 MB), GTX 560 Ti (2048 MB or more), GTX 570 (2560 MB), GTX 580 (3072 MB)
• 600 Series: GTX 650 Ti (2048 MB), GTX 660 (2048 MB or more), GTX 660 Ti, GTX 670, GTX 680 (2048 MB), GTX 690
• 700 Series: GTX 750 (2048 MB), GTX 750 Ti (2048 MB or more), GTX 760 (2048 MB or more), GTX 760 Ti, GTX 770 (2048 MB), GTX 780 (3172 MB), GTX 780 Ti
• 900 Series: GT 945A (2 GB), GTX 950, GTX 960
• 10 Series: GT 1030 (GDDR5), GTX 1050, GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 1060 (3 GB)

ATI/AMD Radeon:

• 4000 Series: HD 4850 (2048 MB), HD 4870 (2048 MB), HD 4890 (2048 MB)
• 5000 Series: HD 5850 (2048 MB), HD 5870 (2048 MB), HD 5970 (2048x2 MB)
• 6000 Series: HD 6870 (2048 MB), HD 6930 (2048 MB), HD 6950 (2048 MB), HD 6970, HD 6990
• 7000 Series: HD 7770 (2048 MB), HD 7790 (2048 MB), HD 7850 (2048 MB), HD 7870, HD 7870 XT, HD 7950, HD 7970 (3072 MB), HD 7990
• 8000 Series: HD 8760, HD 8770, HD 8950, HD 8970, HD 8990
• 200 Series: R7 250X (2048 MB), R7 260X (2048 MB), R7 265, R9 270, R9 270X, R9 280, R9 280X, R9 285, R9 285X
• 300 Series: R7 360, R9 360, R7 370, R9 370, R9 370X, R9 380 (2048 MB)
• 400 Series: R7 450, R7 455, RX 460
• 500 Series: RX 540, RX 550, RX 560

Recommended Requirements: *highly recommended (will run SE very well)

Nvidia GeForce:

• 600 Series: GTX 680 (4096 MB)
• 700 Series: GTX 770 (4096 MB), GTX 780 (6144 MB), GTX Titan, GTX Titan Black, GTX Titan Z
• 900 Series: GTX 970, GTX 980, GTX 980 Ti, GTX Titan X
• 10 Series: GTX 1060 (5 GB), GTX 1060 (6 GB), GTX 1070, GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1080, GTX 1080 Ti, Titan X, Titan Xp
• Volta Series: Titan V
• 20 Series: RTX 2060, RTX 2070, RTX 2080, RTX 2080 Ti, Titan RTX

AMD Radeon:

• 7000 Series: HD 7970 (6144 MB), HD 7990 (6144 MB)
• 200 Series: R9 290, R9 290X, R9 295X2
• 300 Series: R9 380 (4096 MB), R9 380X, R9 390, R9 390X, R9 Fury, R9 Nano, R9 Fury X, Pro Duo
• 400 Series: RX 470D, RX 470, RX 480
• 500 Series: RX 570, RX 580 (4 GB), RX 580 (8 GB), RX 590
• Vega Series: RX Vega 56, RX Vega 64, Radeon VII

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CPU

Regarding CPUs, SpaceEngine is much more flexible. Most desktop-grade CPUs made within the last 8 years or so will be able to meet at least the minimum requirements for SE, though of course it will benefit from faster hardware.

To see if your CPU meets the minimum requirements, go to the link below and change one of the CPUs to the one you have or are thinking about getting. If the difference is 0% or is some percentage in favor of the one you picked, then it meets SE's minimum requirements.

Minimum requirements tester

To see if your CPU meets the recommended requirements, follow the same procedure for the link below.

Recommended requirements tester

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RAM

The requirements for your computer's RAM are even simpler: if it has at least 4 GB of RAM, then it meets minimum requirements. If it has at least 8 GB of RAM, then it meets recommended requirements.

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Operating System

Currently, SpaceEngine is only natively compatible with Microsoft Windows operating systems. The minimum requirement is for Windows XP, but Windows 7 or newer is recommended.

Support for additional operating systems is planned for the future, and users of some Linux operating systems should be able to run SpaceEngine right now using Wine.

(reserved)

Thank you HarbringerDawn! This thread is indeed very useful for me as I am currently sniffing around for a new rig set-up . I hope to run 0990 without the machine undergoing type Ia supernova on me!

Nicely laid out. However, regarding the GPUs I am a bit surprised: The increase in the GPUs and VRAM requirements I think is way too high. I can understand that SE 0.990 has advanced a lot from its predecessors but still a 100% increase is way too high IMHO. To not be able to run the program even on a GTX 4xx series or to barely run it on a GTX 5xx series (especially on a GTX 580 with 3Gigs VRAM - that was a special edition, normal releases had 1.5GBs VRAM) is a bit too demanding.
Other games for example Elite Dangerous, and No Man's sky have lower system requirements and I think this might have a negative impact on the sales on steam. Again that is my opinion and by no means intended to diminish the value of the program.

N0B0DY wrote:

Nicely laid out. However, regarding the GPUs I am a bit surprised: The increase in the GPUs and VRAM requirements I think is way too high. I can understand that SE 0.990 has advanced a lot from its predecessors but still a 100% increase is way too high IMHO. To not be able to run the program even on a GTX 4xx series or to barely run it on a GTX 5xx series (especially on a GTX 580 with 3Gigs VRAM - that was a special edition, normal releases had 1.5GBs VRAM) is a bit too demanding.
Other games for example Elite Dangerous, and No Man's sky have lower system requirements and I think this might have a negative impact on the sales on steam. Again that is my opinion and by no means intended to diminish the value of the program.

NMS and ED are different programs with different requirements, and aside from the slight difference in listed VRAM floor, the requirements are very similar to NMS (in fact the NMS requirements are higher than SE in every way except the difference in VRAM).

Anyway, as many - if not most - people know, it is often possible to get a program to run if your hardware falls below the listed minimum specs, it's just that it will perform more poorly than most people are willing to tolerate. You could technically get 0.990 to run on a 1024 MB 8800 GT, but that doesn't mean it would be a pleasant experience.

Hello,
What about a 4K resolution ?
For a laptop PC ?
Thank's

HarbingerDawn wrote:

N0B0DY wrote:

Nicely laid out. However, regarding the GPUs I am a bit surprised: The increase in the GPUs and VRAM requirements I think is way too high. I can understand that SE 0.990 has advanced a lot from its predecessors but still a 100% increase is way too high IMHO. To not be able to run the program even on a GTX 4xx series or to barely run it on a GTX 5xx series (especially on a GTX 580 with 3Gigs VRAM - that was a special edition, normal releases had 1.5GBs VRAM) is a bit too demanding.
Other games for example Elite Dangerous, and No Man's sky have lower system requirements and I think this might have a negative impact on the sales on steam. Again that is my opinion and by no means intended to diminish the value of the program.

NMS and ED are different programs with different requirements, and aside from the slight difference in listed VRAM floor, the requirements are very similar to NMS (in fact the NMS requirements are higher than SE in every way except the difference in VRAM).

Anyway, as many - if not most - people know, it is often possible to get a program to run if your hardware falls below the listed minimum specs, it's just that it will perform more poorly than most people are willing to tolerate. You could technically get 0.990 to run on a 1024 MB 8800 GT, but that doesn't mean it would be a pleasant experience.

It actually worked fine for me on a 640 MB 8800 GTS for years until my hard drive crashed.  I even had AA turned on and high settings, I just kept my resolution to 1024x768.  I had a Q6600 quad core CPU and 2 GB of RAM and Win XP on my old system.

Onox wrote:

Source of the post What about a 4K resolution ?
For a laptop PC ?

LOL my suggestion is that you don't try to run SE at 4k on a laptop. Almost no laptop in existence has the hardware needed to do that at a reasonable framerate. The few laptops that possibly could do it cost $3000 or more.

A-L-E-X wrote:

Source of the post It actually worked fine for me on a 640 MB 8800 GTS for years until my hard drive crashed.  I even had AA turned on and high settings, I just kept my resolution to 1024x768.  I had a Q6600 quad core CPU and 2 GB of RAM and Win XP on my old system.

Keep in mind that the list I made in this thread is for what is needed to run 0.990 at 1920x1080. Obviously older versions, or using a very low resolution, will allow you to use much weaker hardware.

I have a Acer laptop using NVIDIA 840M with 2 GB dedicated VRAM. I note that the NVIDIA GPUs mentioned at the beginning does not include any of the 800 series. Does that mean my laptop (with an extra screen) won't run SE?