What's the cheapest PC that can run Surviving Mars?

A AMD Ryzen 5 7600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB build at around £799. That hits 1080p/60 on high settings.

Is Surviving Mars CPU-heavy or GPU-heavy?

Surviving Mars 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 Surviving Mars?

Surviving Mars does not require ray tracing. Any current-generation GPU will deliver the intended visual experience.

How much RAM do I need?

For Surviving Mars, 32GB is the sensible answer in 2026. 16GB still works for the budget tier but limits future-proofing.

← Surviving Mars

Best gaming PC for Surviving Mars (2026)

For Surviving Mars 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 Surviving Mars

Budget

£799

1080p · 60fps

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7600
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD

Comfortably hits 1080p/60fps in Surviving Mars on high settings.

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Mid-tier

£1,299

1440p · 60fps

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12GB
RAM: 32 GB
Storage: 2TB NVMe SSD

Targets 1440p/60fps on high settings in Surviving Mars. The 4070 Super has enough VRAM headroom for ray tracing with DLSS Quality.

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High-end

£1,799

1440p · 144fps

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB
RAM: 32 GB
Storage: 2TB NVMe SSD

Built for 1440p at 144fps in Surviving Mars with all the visual extras on. The 9800X3D's 3D V-Cache helps in CPU-heavy moments.

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Enthusiast

£3,499

4K · 60fps

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 32GB
RAM: 64 GB
Storage: 4TB NVMe SSD

Designed to max Surviving Mars at 4K/60fps with path tracing and frame generation where supported.

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What Surviving Mars actually demands from your PC

Steam's recommended spec for Surviving Mars is Geforce 750 Ti or equivalent with 4GB of video RAM with 8GB RAM and a 5th Generation Intel i5 CPU. That spec was written for the Paradox Interactive 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 Surviving Mars?: A AMD Ryzen 5 7600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB build at around £799. That hits 1080p/60 on high settings.
Is Surviving Mars CPU-heavy or GPU-heavy?: Surviving Mars 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 Surviving Mars?: Surviving Mars does not require ray tracing. Any current-generation GPU will deliver the intended visual experience.
How much RAM do I need?: For Surviving Mars, 32GB is the sensible answer in 2026. 16GB still works for the budget tier but limits future-proofing.