Civilization VII recommends 16 cores and 32GB RAM for 4K gameplay — RTX 4070 or RX 7800XT is the minimum

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However, the CPU and GPU requirements do seem a bit more reasonable.

Screenshot of Civ VII during a combat engagement between opposing armies
Screenshot of Civ VII during a combat engagement between opposing armies (Image credit: Firaxis Games)

Yesterday morning, Firaxis Games announced the Minimum, Recommended, and Ultra PC requirements for Civilization VII, the next in their timeless series of turn-based strategy games.

As an aside, Firaxis also mentioned that Civ VII would be coming to Mac OS X, Linux, and even SteamOS—likely meaning a natively playable Steam Deck port down the line since that device is only 720p/800p.

Civilization is known for being a PC series first, so no bloated (or lacking) console base specifications should be holding back the experience here— though there is some surprise that the demands for an "Ultra" class experience at 4K, 60 FPS, and High Settings demand a 32 GB allocation of RAM. This number is quite the increase of Civ VI's Recommend 8 GB RAM allocation.

The minimum system requirements for Civilization VII are pretty reasonable. For all tiers of performance and resolution, users should have at least 20 GB of space free on a Solid State Drive for the best experience.

For a playable experience targeting 1080p, Low settings, and 30 FPS, Firaxis recommends entry-level CPUs from Intel 10th Gen and AMD Ryzen's first generation— very old processors at this point that most PC gamers have likely long upgraded past. The graphics requirements of GTX 1050, RX 460, and Arc A380 are similarly reasonable. The old game's recommended RAM spec— 8 GB— is now the new minimum spec, probably the most significant bump for anyone already using 8 GB or less.

The new Recommended requirements targeting Medium settings at 1080p and 60 FPS do up the ante a little, though. Users are expected to have a 10th Gen Core i5 or a Ryzen 5 3600X-class processor and at least an RTX 2060, Arc A750, or RX 6600-class graphics card, which are considerably more expensive. The RAM requirement has also doubled while targeting the exact 1080p resolution as the minimum requirement, from raising detail to medium settings and targeting 60 FPS.

While large-scale RTS and city/society building games can get pretty intense with simulated aspects tied to the CPU and memory bandwidth, it still seems a bit surprising for many users reacting in shock about how high the requirements for Civilization VI at 4K 60 FPS have become. However, these are perfectly in line with— if not considerably more reasonable than— system requirements for several more realistic-looking, action-oriented titles on PC.

At least in terms of CPU and GPU, a 14th-generation Intel Core i7 or Ryzen 9 5950X-class CPU and the demands of an RTX 4070 or RX 7800 XT make sense considering the 4K, 60 FPS, and High settings target. 32 GB of RAM is still pretty severe for any modern game, though, and hints that the simulation aspects in play (or perhaps other gameplay elements like draw distance, zoom distance, or both) are particularly intensive on the CPU and RAM of each player's PC.

Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

36 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    32GB DDR4-3200 is $50 and DDR5-6400 is $100, with some faster DDR5 being cheaper with sales. In 2024 no desktop system being used for anything over basic office tasks should be using less than 32GB, it's both too inexpensive and beneficial not to. Heck, even with office tasks get the 32GB, $25-$50 now over 16GB and not have to worry about it again.

    The 16 core CPU is pushing it, though I imagine it's more for Intel's P+E core models since there are still way too many people ignorant of basic things like the difference between P and E cores.
    Reply
  • punkncat
    I really enjoyed Civ V. Civ VI was this long slog of doing things that seemingly had no real effect on the game within some of the shorter play options. Given my experience with that and these insane hardware requirements, I will just save myself some money and grief and skip this.
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    32GB DDR4-3200 is $50 and DDR5-6400 is $100, with some faster DDR5 being cheaper with sales. In 2024 no desktop system being used for anything over basic office tasks should be using less than 32GB, it's both too inexpensive and beneficial not to. Heck, even with office tasks get the 32GB, $25-$50 now over 16GB and not have to worry about it again.

    The 16 core CPU is pushing it, though I imagine it's more for Intel's P+E core models since there are still way too many people ignorant of basic things like the difference between P and E cores.
    This even work laptops that I order for users in the office are all 32gb of ram standard.
    Reply
  • newtechldtech
    Civ 7 ??

    If they dont use AI in this game then i will skip it.
    Reply
  • helper800
    I cannot imagine they mean 16core/32thread but rather 16t. The vast majority of games cannot address more than 2-4t. The few handful that can usually top out at around 8-16t. Who knows, maybe this is the start of really parallelizing games.
    Reply
  • salgado18
    helper800 said:
    I cannot imagine they mean 16core/32thread but rather 16t. The vast majority of games cannot address more than 2-4t. The few handful that can usually top out at around 8-16t. Who knows, maybe this is the start of really parallelizing games.
    You mean graphics, but Civ VII is a strategy game. They probably use all the cores for simulation of AI opponents (and they do mean 16 cores).
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    The 16 core CPU is pushing it, though I imagine it's more for Intel's P+E core models since there are still way too many people ignorant of basic things like the difference between P and E cores.

    helper800 said:
    I cannot imagine they mean 16core/32thread but rather 16t
    No need to speculate, they list specific CPU models in the recommended specs, not just thread/core counts. The recommended CPUs for "Ultra" (4k@60fps, high settings) are i7-14700F/R9-5950X.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY-jzy6WQAA5XvH?format=jpg&name=large
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    A game recommending 32GB of RAM, but only a 20GB SSD? 🤔
    The developers might be slightly confused...
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    salgado18 said:
    They probably use all the cores for simulation of AI opponents (and they do mean 16 cores).
    They may use all cores to simulate scenarios and carry out a single AI's moves, but I hope they are not trying to simulate all AI opponents at once since it's a turn based game. If they are, it would mean they have pre-determined paths for AI behaviors within a turn which would suck. Ideally, if they are doing a true AI opponent then I would think the AI simulation would need to be serial so that each AI is reacting to what the players and other AI did during their turn.
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    JarredWaltonGPU said:
    A game recommending 32GB of RAM, but only a 20GB SSD? 🤔
    The developers might be slightly confused...
    Maybe they found a magic bullet for asset compression?
    Reply