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.
Best gaming PC for Need for Speed: Heat in 2026
Full buyers guide →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.
Budget
£7991080p · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 5 7600
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB
- RAM
- 16 GB
- Storage
- 1TB NVMe SSD
Mid-tier
£1,2991440p · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12GB
- RAM
- 32 GB
- Storage
- 2TB NVMe SSD
High-end
£1,7991440p · 144fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB
- RAM
- 32 GB
- Storage
- 2TB NVMe SSD
Enthusiast
£3,4994K · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 32GB
- RAM
- 64 GB
- Storage
- 4TB NVMe SSD
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.
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |
| CPU | FX-6350 or Equivalent; Core i5-3570 or Equivalent | Ryzen 3 1300X or Equivalent; Core i7-4790 or Equivalent |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| GPU | AMD: Radeon 7970/Radeon R9 280x or Equivalent; NVIDIA: GeForce GTX 760 or Equivalent | AMD: Radeon RX 480 or Equivalent; NVIDIA: GeForce GTX 1060 or Equivalent |
| Storage | 50 GB | 50 GB |
| DirectX | 11 | 11 |
Verified 18 May 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, see the tier picks above.