Can my PC run Phantom Blade Zero? Minimum vs recommended GPU, checked

Can your PC run Phantom Blade Zero? Yes, if your graphics card is a GTX 1660 6GB, an RX 5500 XT 8GB or anything faster. That's S-GAME's official minimum, for 1080p at 30 FPS with upscaling on. For 1440p at 60 FPS, the recommended card is an RTX 3060 Ti 8GB or RX 6700 XT 12GB. Both tiers ask for 16 GB of RAM and 145 GB on an SSD. Ray tracing is optional and has its own, higher tier. Checked on the game's Steam page and S-GAME's own posts on November 3, 2026.

What GPU do I need for Phantom Blade Zero?

Steam lists two tiers. Here they are as the store page showed them on November 3, 2026.

Steam gives no separate VRAM line, so the VRAM you need comes from the named cards. That's 6 GB on the smallest minimum-tier card and 8 GB on the smallest recommended one.

Can I play Phantom Blade Zero with ray tracing?

Only with an RTX-class card, and it's optional. When S-GAME published its PC specs on August 12, 2026 (date per PC Games Hardware), its chart had four tiers. Steam only carries the first two. The chart, as DSOGaming reproduced it on August 14, 2026, adds:

PC Games Hardware's write-up of the chart lists the same two cards and targets. The chart gives only a GPU for these two tiers, so S-GAME hasn't said which CPU or how much RAM goes with them. Ray tracing is not required to play, and the GTX 1660 on the minimum line has no RT cores (NVIDIA says GTX cards run ray tracing on their regular shader cores, which is far slower). S-GAME's launch-day letter says the team "spent a great deal of time refining the game's rasterized visuals" so the game holds its look "even with ray tracing turned off".

NVIDIA's launch article says the game ships with DLSS 4.5, ray tracing and path tracing, and that turning path tracing on "automatically activates DLSS Ray Reconstruction on GeForce RTX GPUs". NVIDIA also publishes frame-rate figures, but they use Multi Frame Generation at up to 6X, so they aren't comparable to S-GAME's 60 FPS targets.

Independent testing suggests ray tracing is expensive. PC Games Hardware (October 26, 2026) found the frame rate nearly halves (our translation of its German) when you switch from raster to ray tracing. It also saw repeated traversal stutter with ray tracing on, which it hoped the developer would fix. That test ran before the 5 GB day-one patch, which S-GAME says "significantly improves ray tracing and path tracing performance". S-GAME's November 4, 2026 patch (version 1.0302256) adds "Improved performance in certain areas" and stops compiling ray tracing shaders at startup unless ray tracing is on, which shortens the first launch.

What does "with upscaling enabled" mean for my PC?

Every official target, all four tiers, assumes upscaling is on. Upscaling (DLSS, FSR or XeSS) renders a lower resolution and rebuilds a sharper image. PC Games Hardware's test compares all three in the game's menu, so AMD and Intel cards get an upscaler too. In practice, 1440p60 on an RTX 3060 Ti means 1440p output, not native 1440p, and S-GAME hasn't said which quality mode or preset its targets use. If you play without upscaling, plan for more card than the tier says. More on that trade-off in how to increase FPS in PC games.

Find your card

• GTX 1660 / 1660 Super / 1660 Ti, RX 5500 XT 8GB: the official minimum, 1080p at 30 FPS with upscaling. No ray tracing.
• Slower than that (GTX 1060, GTX 1650, 4 GB cards): below the official minimum. S-GAME says it tested "mid-range and lower-end PCs, as well as handhelds", but it hasn't published anything below the GTX 1660 line, so treat these cards as unsupported.
• RTX 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT, or faster: the recommended tier, 1440p at 60 FPS with upscaling.
• RTX 5060 8GB or faster RTX cards: S-GAME's ray tracing tier, 1080p at 60 FPS with upscaling.
• RTX 5080 16GB and up: the path tracing tier, 4K at 60 FPS with upscaling.
• Steam Deck: Valve rates it Playable (checked November 6, 2026). Its test notes say the default graphics settings run below Valve's recommended standard on Deck, so expect to lower them.

Our Can I run Phantom Blade Zero? checker compares your card's VRAM with the official tiers.

How much storage does Phantom Blade Zero need?

145 GB on an SSD, per Steam. In its October 26, 2026 pre-load post, S-GAME told players to "reserve at least 300 GB of free disk space for the pre-load process" and to install on an SSD. Steam marks the SSD as required on both tiers.

Which NVIDIA driver should I use?

The developer and NVIDIA disagreed at launch. NVIDIA released its Game Ready driver for the game, version 621.01, on October 20, 2026 and recommends installing it. S-GAME's launch-day letter (October 28) says it saw "performance instability" with that same 621.01 driver. It recommends rolling back to 617.42 with a clean install until NVIDIA's next driver. If you get stutter or crashes on 621.01, try 617.42, and check whether a newer NVIDIA driver has come out since.

Should I upgrade my GPU for Phantom Blade Zero?

Only if you're below the minimum or you want ray tracing. The base game is built to run on a GTX 1660, so the recommended-tier RTX 3060 Ti already targets 1440p60 with upscaling. If you're on a 4 GB card or want the ray tracing tier, a 16 GB card covers both tiers with room to spare. Read should you upgrade your GPU or just your settings? before you buy.

ASUS Prime GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB

Above S-GAME's RTX 5060 8GB ray tracing tier, with twice the VRAM. Make sure the listing says 16GB.

Best for: 1440p gaming, and local AI that needs 16GB of VRAM on a budget.

Specs, AI models it runs and rental prices →

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Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB

AMD's 16GB option, well above the RX 6700 XT on the recommended line, for 1440p and up.

Best for: High-refresh 1440p and entry 4K gaming.

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What we don't know

• The upscaling mode behind each target. S-GAME says "with upscaling enabled" but not Quality, Balanced or Performance.
• The CPU and RAM for the ray tracing tiers. The official chart names only a GPU for them.
• How it runs below the minimum. S-GAME says it tested lower-end PCs and handhelds but hasn't published a spec for them.

Checked November 3, 2026 against the Steam store page, S-GAME's Steam posts and NVIDIA's articles; the November 4 patch and the Steam Deck rating were checked November 6, 2026. Requirements and driver advice can change with patches; we'll update this page when they do.