How to build a PC for Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is almost here, launching August 3 on PC, after a few years of early access. The game feels like a true next-gen PC RPG, combining the classic turn-based gameplay that Larian Studios is known for with absolutely stunning visuals that I’ve never seen in an isometric CRPG.

Because the game has been out in early access for a while now, we have a pretty good idea of ​​how it will run, and even if the game looks path better than Divinity: Original Sin 2, system requirements are not so steep. Instead, it will be a game about moving from low-end hardware to the best graphics cards currently on the market.

System Requirements For Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 has had an official system requirements for Windows and Mac for quite some time. The minimum requirements are extremely reasonable, requiring only an Nvidia GTX 970 (an 8-year-old graphics card) and an Intel Core i5-4690. Both were mid-range pieces nearly a decade ago, meaning all sorts of budget gaming PCs will be able to play the game with ease.

The only thing that really stops older budget versions from playing the game is the strict requirement for an SSD. But, with the price the best SSDs fetch on a daily basis, it shouldn’t be too hard to grab an affordable drive for your PC.

The recommended specs are a bit more intense, but even those requirements are tamed for 2023. Larian recommends an Nvidia RTX 2060 Super or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT for graphics and an Intel 8700K for CPU. Both parts have been around for a while, and current-gen equivalents are very cheap. For example, you can get roughly the same CPU performance with an Intel Core i5-13600K and the same GPU performance with an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti.

Baldur’s Gate 3 will also run on the best MacBooks, although you’ll need the whole machine to run it. The developers recommend at least a MacBook Pro 15 (2016) with an AMD Radeon 460 – and that’s the minimum spec. If you want to run it within the recommended specs, you’re looking at either a MacBook Pro 16 (2019) or a MacBook with an M1 and 16GB of RAM.

The best PC for Baldur’s Gate 3

I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on PC since Early Access started in 2020, and the recommended system requirements are fine – if you’re playing at 1080p. But since all of those parts are discontinued at this point, you’ll need performance equivalent to what you’ll find on the shelf in 2023.

Right now, the closest graphics card to the RTX 2060 Super is the Nvidia RTX 3060. Since this graphics card has been replaced by the RTX 4060 and is about to be phased out, you can actually get it for a pretty low price right now, like this $289 version. from MSI on Amazon. If you want to team up with Red, the best 1080p graphics card for Baldur’s Gate is likely to be the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, which is a bit cheaper at $279.

If you want to jump to 1440p, you’ll need a bit more graphics power. We recommend using the Nvidia RTX 3070 (if you can still find it in stock). Failing that, you should get roughly the same performance from the RTX 4060 Ti.

However, if you’re looking to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on one of the best gaming laptops, a good rule of thumb is to level up to get similar performance. So a gaming laptop with an Nvidia RTX 4070 will perform the same as an RTX 4060. So if you want to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on the go, you’re going to want at least an Nvidia RTX 3070 or RTX 4070.

As for the processor, Larian Studios recommends at least an Intel Core i7-8700K processor, but you won’t find it for sale anywhere. For reference, however, it was a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a 4.7 GHz turbo boost. The best way to get similar performance is actually on Team Red. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X will only cost you around $160 these days and is a 6-core, 12-thread processor, just like the older Intel chip.

To complete the build, you’ll need an AMD B550 or X570 motherboard, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and at least a 256GB SSD. The game only requires 150GB of storage space, but you will also need space for Windows 11.

You will also need a power supply up to the task. Luckily, since none of the components in this build are particularly power-hungry, you don’t have to get too crazy here. A solid 700W power supply should be more than enough to handle everything I mentioned. Try to find one that supports PCIe 5.0, as it’s more likely to have the 12VHPWR connectors of modern Nvidia graphics cards.

To save you some time, I’ve gone ahead and put together links to all the parts to make the perfect PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 for 1080p or 1440p below.

Should you play Baldur’s Gate 3 on PC?

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a PC-first game, although it’s coming to PS5 a month later. Not only will it look better on PC, at least if you have the hardware to push it to max settings, but it’ll probably control better with keyboard and mouse. In fact, while the game will be playable with a controller, Larian Studios hasn’t added controller support to Early Access on PC, and the global launch is only a few weeks away.

Not only is the game made for PC first, it actually releases earlier on PC, August 3 instead of September 6 on PS5. Running the game on a gaming PC means you’ll have a month to boot on this massive RPG.