Phantom Blade Zero PC System Requirements: All Four Official Tiers Compared

Phantom Blade Zero's PC requirements arrived in two waves. The minimum and recommended tiers were published alongside the game's pre-orders in mid-August 2026, with complete hardware lists for CPU, memory, GPU, operating system, and storage. The ray tracing and path tracing tiers followed within the same window: S-Game named one reference graphics card for each, together with a resolution and frame rate target. This guide puts all four tiers in a single comparison table, walks through what each tier actually promises, matches common GPUs to tiers, and finishes with the facts worth knowing before you pre-purchase or clear install space.

The four official tiers at a glance

Here is the whole picture in one table. Every target below is the official figure "with upscaling enabled":

Three things are worth flagging before reading on. First, every published target assumes upscaling is on; there are no official native-resolution figures. Second, the ray tracing and path tracing tiers currently list only a GPU and a target — no CPU, memory, or storage lines have been published for them. Third, the tiers span three hardware generations, and the gap between the recommended and ray tracing tiers gets its own look below.

Minimum requirements: the 1080p/30 entry line

The Steam store page lists the minimum configuration as follows:

• OS: Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: SSD installation required
• Target: 1080p / 30 FPS with upscaling enabled

The important number on this tier is not the GPU — it is the frame rate. The minimum tier maps to a 30 FPS experience, which means meeting the minimum guarantees the game runs at acceptable settings, not that it runs at a fluid 60. The GTX 1660 is a 2019 card without hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which lines up with a role that stops at 1080p/30.

Both minimum-tier CPUs, the Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 5 3600, are six-core, twelve-thread parts from 2017 and 2019 respectively. For any mainstream desktop built in the last five years or so, the CPU side of this tier is rarely the obstacle; the graphics card is the part that decides where a system lands.

Recommended requirements: the 1440p/60 mainstream tier

The Steam store page lists the recommended configuration as follows:

• OS: Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-10600K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8GB or AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT 12GB
• DirectX: Version 12
• Storage: SSD installation required
• Target: 1440p / 60 FPS with upscaling enabled

Set side by side with the minimum tier, the recommended tier moves two things: the GPU jumps from the GTX 1660 to the RTX 3060 Ti (and from the RX 5500 XT to the RX 6700 XT on the AMD side), while the target climbs from 1080p/30 to 1440p/60. Memory is identical across both tiers at 16 GB, and the CPU step is similarly modest, from the i7-8700K to the i5-10600K and from the Ryzen 5 3600 to the 5600X. That gap says the official targets place the burden of resolution and frame rate almost entirely on the graphics card, and treat 16 GB of RAM as a baseline shared by both tiers.

For anyone who built a PC in the last two or three years, this is the tier to measure against: the RTX 3060 Ti and RX 6700 XT were the mainstream sweet-spot cards of that cycle. Systems with a GPU at this level can be expected to hit 1440p/60 with upscaling enabled, by the publisher's own numbers.

Ray tracing tier: RTX 5060 at 1080p/60

The third tier, published by S-Game during the pre-order window, is the ray tracing configuration: a GeForce RTX 5060, targeting 1080p / 60 FPS with upscaling enabled. This tier answers a direct question — how expensive is turning ray tracing on? By the official numbers, the entry point is a mainstream-priced card from NVIDIA's current RTX 50 generation, not a flagship.

Ray tracing in Phantom Blade Zero enhances reflections and shadows. NVIDIA's earlier ray tracing showcase for the game also highlighted water caustics: the way light refracts and focuses through water now shifts in real time with the surface. Per NVIDIA's notes, the game's ray tracing does not include RTGI (real-time ray-traced global illumination), leaving reflections and shadows as the main visible upgrades.

Notice the distance between this tier and the recommended one: the RTX 3060 Ti belongs to the 2020 RTX 30 series, while the RTX 5060 is part of the 2025 RTX 50 lineup.

Path tracing tier: RTX 5080 at 4K/60

The fourth and highest tier is path tracing: a GeForce RTX 5080, targeting 4K / 60 FPS with upscaling enabled. The difference between path tracing and conventional ray tracing comes down to how much of the lighting is computed: standard ray tracing casts rays for selected effects such as reflections and shadows, while path tracing tasks the engine with solving a much wider range of light behavior in one pass, at a steep compute cost. This is the only tier with a 4K target, and its reference card sits in NVIDIA's upper enthusiast range.

As with the ray tracing tier, no CPU, memory, or storage lines accompany the path tracing tier, and nothing has been said about which other settings are scaled back when it is on. Experiencing this tier on day one takes more than an RTX 5080 — it takes a CPU and memory configuration that do not hold the card back, and the closest published reference points remain the recommended tier's 16 GB and six-core parts.

How old is each reference part?

The four tiers lean on six reference GPUs and four reference CPUs. Dating them makes the tiers easier to read: if your own hardware predates a reference part, expect the tier below; if it is newer, you can reasonably expect at least that tier's target. Launch windows for every part named by S-Game:

Read as a timeline, the requirements ask for surprisingly little on the minimum tier — 2017–2019 parts — while the path tracing tier reaches for hardware that did not exist before 2025. The four-year gap between the newest recommended-tier part (the RX 6700 XT, 2021) and the newest ray-tracing-tier part (the RTX 5060, 2025) matches the official landing-spot gap described above.

Matching GPUs to tiers

With four reference points published, the practical method is to place your own card at the nearest reference and adopt that tier's target as your expectation:

• GTX 1660 / RX 5500 XT or equivalent and older: minimum tier; expect 1080p / 30 FPS with upscaling enabled.
• RTX 3060 Ti / RX 6700 XT class: recommended tier; expect 1440p / 60 FPS with upscaling enabled.
• RTX 5060: ray tracing tier; expect 1080p / 60 FPS with ray tracing on and upscaling enabled.
• RTX 5080: path tracing tier; expect 4K / 60 FPS with path tracing on and upscaling enabled.

The gaps between and beyond the reference points carry no official labels. The entire RTX 40 series falls between the recommended and ray tracing tiers: newer than a 3060 Ti, yet absent from the ray tracing tier's single-card list. Owners of 40-series cards can bracket expectations between the two neighboring tiers; the precise landing spot awaits benchmarks. On the AMD side, no Radeon card appears in either the ray tracing or path tracing tier, so RX 6000/7000/9000 owners currently have official numbers only up to the recommended tier.

Laptop users should step one tier down: every card in the official tables is a desktop part, and same-named mobile chips ship with different specs and tighter power budgets. Comparing a laptop GPU against the previous desktop generation's equivalent card lands closer to reality than matching names.

CPU and memory matching is far simpler: both fully specified tiers call for 16 GB of RAM and six-core, twelve-thread processors. Any platform at or above that spec is unlikely to be the bottleneck in these tiers.

Memory and VRAM: what the spec sheet says

The published numbers deserve a closer read on two axes.

The official word on system memory is one sentence: both fully specified tiers call for 16 GB, and no tier asks for 32 GB — and since the two top tiers omit the memory line entirely, 16 GB should be read as a confirmed floor, not a confirmed ceiling.

VRAM tells a similar story of stepping requirements. The minimum tier's cards carry 6 GB (GTX 1660) and 8 GB (RX 5500 XT); the recommended tier's cards carry 8 GB (RTX 3060 Ti) and 12 GB (RX 6700 XT). For a UE5 title rendering at 1440p, the 12 GB option in the recommended tier is the more comfortable of the two against future texture packs and higher resolution textures. The top two tiers do not state VRAM figures, but by card specification the RTX 5060 ships with 8 GB and the RTX 5080 with 16 GB — the path tracing tier's card carries twice the VRAM of the minimum tier's GTX 1660, one more sign of how far apart the bottom and top of this table are.

What engine does Phantom Blade Zero use?

Phantom Blade Zero runs on Unreal Engine 5 — the engine S-Game lists on the game's official store page. The studio moved the project onto Unreal Engine 5 when it revived production in 2021 and began full-scale development in 2022, and the two upper tiers below only make sense inside that engine: their reference GPUs (the RTX 5060 and RTX 5080) exist to drive UE5's ray-traced lighting at 1080p/60 and 4K/60. That matters for reading the requirements because every published target is defined with upscaling enabled — an approach that leans on the upscaler to hit the number. NVIDIA announced in August 2025 that Phantom Blade Zero is among the titles that will support DLSS 4, which covers the NVIDIA side of that assumption. S-Game has not published comparable details for AMD's FSR or other upscalers, so owners of the AMD reference cards (the RX 5500 XT and RX 6700 XT in the official tables) currently have no confirmed upscaler roadmap from the publisher; what exists today is the official target and the DLSS 4 confirmation on the green side.

What to know before buying and installing

A few facts adjacent to the requirements affect the buying and installing decision directly.

An SSD is mandatory. Both fully specified tiers state "SSD installation required"; mechanical drives are outside the supported configuration. The install size has not been announced, so the amount of space to clear remains unconfirmed until the store pages are updated.

DRM is confirmed. The Steam store page lists Denuvo as bundled third-party DRM. The performance impact of Denuvo varies from game to game, and for Phantom Blade Zero it can only be settled by launch benchmarks; the background is covered in what Phantom Blade Zero's Denuvo confirmation means.

Release window and editions. The game launches globally on October 28–29, 2026 (the Steam page stamps October 28; mainland Chinese storefronts list October 29). PC pre-orders are open at $59.99 for the Standard Edition and $69.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition on the US store, with mainland Chinese pricing at ¥268 and ¥328. The differences between the four PC storefronts — Steam, Epic, WeGame, and TapTap PC — are laid out in is Phantom Blade Zero coming to PC, and the pre-order bonuses and edition contents in the pre-order guide.

Handhelds are a different question. Steam Deck compatibility is not measured on the desktop tier scale used here; that topic has its own writeup in can you play Phantom Blade Zero on Steam Deck.

Treat the tables as the publisher's current word: the install size, the unpublished fields of the two top tiers, and real-world benchmark results could all arrive between now and launch day.