Best gaming PC for Elden Ring (2026)
For Elden Ring at 1080p/60 in 2026, you need at minimum a AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB and 16GB of RAM (around £799). For 1440p high settings, step up to a AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12GB — about £1,299.
The four PC tiers we'd build for Elden Ring
Budget
£7991080p · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 5 7600
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB
- RAM
- 16 GB
- Storage
- 1TB NVMe SSD
Elden Ring is famously framerate-capped at 60fps regardless of hardware, so even the budget tier hits the ceiling at 1080p/Maximum. You're really buying for stability through Caelid and Mohgwyn — both areas where weaker hardware drops frames.
Build this at Create PCs →Mid-tier
£1,2991440p · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12GB
- RAM
- 32 GB
- Storage
- 2TB NVMe SSD
1440p Maximum with locked 60fps across the entire Lands Between, including the late-game performance traps. The mid tier is the sweet spot for Elden Ring — anything more is wasted on the 60fps cap.
Build this at Create PCs →High-end
£1,7994K · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB
- RAM
- 32 GB
- Storage
- 2TB NVMe SSD
4K Maximum settings, still locked at 60fps. Useful if you're planning to mod the framerate cap with community tools, or if you want headroom for the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC's denser areas.
Build this at Create PCs →Enthusiast
£3,4994K · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 32GB
- RAM
- 64 GB
- Storage
- 4TB NVMe SSD
Overkill for the base game, sensible if Elden Ring 2 is on your horizon and you want a build that handles the next FromSoftware title without a rebuild.
Build this at Create PCs →What Elden Ring actually demands from your PC
Steam's recommended spec for Elden Ring is NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 8 GB or AMD RADEON RX VEGA 56 8 GB with 16GB RAM and a INTEL CORE I7-8700K. That spec was written for the Bandai Namco Entertainment team's internal "minimum acceptable" target, not for a buyer in 2026 planning to keep this PC for the next four years.
GPU-bound title: Framerate scales directly with GPU power. If you have a fixed budget, prioritise the graphics card and accept a mid-range CPU.
What you can skip vs what matters
- Worth spending on: GPU first, then a fast NVMe SSD (most modern games benefit from sub-3000MB/s sustained reads), then RAM at the tier amount.
- Worth skipping at this budget: RGB lighting, exotic cooling, brand-name PSUs above 850W (unless you're building enthusiast tier), and motherboards with more than 4 M.2 slots.
- Don't compromise on: The PSU. A reliable 750W gold-rated unit will outlast two GPU upgrades.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the cheapest PC that can run Elden Ring?
- A AMD Ryzen 5 7600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB build at around £799. That hits 1080p/60 on high settings.
- Is Elden Ring CPU-heavy or GPU-heavy?
- Elden Ring is primarily GPU-bound. Prioritise the graphics card; a mid-range CPU like the Ryzen 5 7600 will keep up at 1080p/60.
- Do I need ray tracing for Elden Ring?
- Elden Ring does not require ray tracing. Any current-generation GPU will deliver the intended visual experience.
- How much RAM do I need?
- For Elden Ring, 32GB is the sensible answer in 2026. 16GB still works for the budget tier but limits future-proofing.