Need for Speed: Heat

Hustle by day and risk it all at night in Need for Speed Heat, a white-knuckle street racer, where the lines of the law fade as the sun starts to set. By day, Palm City hosts the Speedhunter Showdown, a sanctioned competition where you earn Bank to customize and upgrade your high-performance cars. At night, ramp up the intensity in illicit street races that build your reputation, getting you access to bigger races and better parts. But stay ready – cops are waiting and not all of them play fair.

Below are the four PC tiers we'd actually recommend for Need for Speed: Heat today. These are our 2026 hardware picks, not the dated publisher minimums you'll find on Steam.

Official system requirements

These are the minimum and recommended specs as published by Electronic Arts on Steam. They tend to be conservative, usually "what ran the game at 1080p when it shipped". For what you should actually buy in 2026, see the tier cards above.

Verified 23 August 2026 against the Steam store page.

Can your PC run Need for Speed: Heat?

If your CPU is roughly equivalent to Ryzen 3 1300X and your GPU is at or above AMD: Radeon RX 480, you'll hit recommended settings at 1080p/60. For 1440p or higher, look at the tier picks above.

Best gaming PC for Need for Speed: Heat →