Path of Exile 2 runs on almost anything — until a screen fills with skill effects in a packed hideout or a juiced endgame map, and then it’s a different game entirely.
Changelog
- 2026-07-25 — Page created; calibration anchored to current DSOGaming and GameGPU RTX 4090 benchmark data.
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System requirements
Minimum
CPUIntel Core i7-7700 / AMD Ryzen 5 2500X
GPUNVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 3GB / Intel Arc A380 / AMD Radeon RX 470
RAM8 GB
VRAM3 GB
Storage100 GB
Notes1080p, 30fps, low settings. GPU needs at least 3GB VRAM.
Recommended
CPUIntel Core i5-10500 / AMD Ryzen 5 3700X
GPUNVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
RAM16 GB
VRAM8 GB
Storage100 GB
Notes1080p, 60fps, high settings. An SSD is strongly recommended by Grinding Gear Games.
Source: View source
FPS expectations
DLSSFSRXeSS
Graphics cardEst. FPS
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080(CPU-limited at 1440p — a faster CPU would raise this)163
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT163
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070163
AMD Radeon RX 9070159
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super155
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti146
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE144
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super140
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080136
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT132
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070127
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti123
AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT117
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB112
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060112
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti110
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070106
NVIDIA RTX A4000104
Intel Arc B580100
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti96
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 406091
Intel Arc B57089
Intel Arc A77087
AMD Radeon RX 760085
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 505081
Intel Arc A75079
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 306076
Estimated, not measured — modelled from Aggregated from DSOGaming’s native-4K/DLAA performance analysis and GameGPU’s GPU benchmark suite, ultra settings, DLAA (no upscaling), open-field test areas. Hideouts, packed towns, and heavily-juiced endgame maps with dense skill-effect particles run well below these figures regardless of GPU — that’s a different, much more CPU/engine-bound scenario.. How we estimate FPS.
Recommended builds
1080p Budget
1080p high settings, easily past 100fps outside crowded hideouts and juiced maps.
1440p Sweet Spot
1440p high settings that stay smooth through endgame map juice — the CPU cache is doing real work here.
4K Ultra
4K with DLAA and full headroom for the busiest delirium-stacked maps you can build.
Squeeze more fps out of your build
Where PoE2 actually struggles
Open-field combat and campaign zones run extremely well on modest hardware — the numbers above reflect that. The real strain shows up in two specific scenarios: crowded town hubs and hideouts with dozens of other players and pets on screen, and heavily-juiced endgame maps (stacked Delirium, Breach, or similar) where skill-effect particle counts spike hard. Both are CPU/engine-bound moments that a bigger GPU won’t fix.
It’s an ARPG, not a shooter — CPU matters more than the genre suggests
Pathfinding, minion AI, and damage calculation for dozens of simultaneous effects all run on the CPU. A fast, cache-heavy CPU (the X3D line performs well here for the same reason it does in other effects-dense games) keeps endgame maps smooth even when a lesser CPU would start dropping frames.
Upscaler support is solid; frame generation is not — yet
PoE2 natively supports DLSS, FSR, and XeSS for upscaling, which is unusually complete vendor coverage for an isometric ARPG. There’s no official frame generation; community mods exist to add it, but modding an always-online game carries its own risk and we’re not going to pretend otherwise.
Frequently asked questions
Is Path of Exile 2 GPU-bound or CPU-bound?
Mostly GPU-bound in open combat, but CPU-bound the moment a hideout, town, or juiced map fills the screen with skill effects and other players. Both matter depending on how you play.
Do I need ray tracing hardware for PoE2?
No — the game doesn’t use ray tracing. Any modern GPU handles it well; the harder question is CPU headroom for busy scenes.
How much VRAM does PoE2 need?
8GB is comfortable at 1080p-1440p high settings. It’s not a VRAM-hungry game by modern standards.
Does upscaling actually help in an isometric game like this?
Yes, mainly at 1440p/4K where native rendering cost adds up with dense particle effects — DLSS/FSR/XeSS all buy back frames without much visible quality loss at Quality mode.
