Horizon Forbidden West PC system requirements: Minimum and recommended settings explored

Horizon Forbidden West PC system requirements have finally been revealed ahead of the game's upcoming launch. Released as a PlayStation exclusive in early 2022, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn is finally making its PC debut later this month. The PC version is developed by Nixxes Software, the organization responsible for the excellent Marvel Spider-Man PC ports.

Judging by the system requirements posted by Nixxes and Guerrilla Games on PlayStation's official website, it seems Horizon Forbidden West PC is going to be a good PC port, akin to Marvel's Spider-Man, God of War, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. While the system requirements are high, the game seems quite scalable.

Here's everything you need to know about Horizon Forbidden West PC system requirements, file size, pre-order details, and more.

---

What are Horizon Forbidden West PC system requirements?

Here are the official system requirements for Horizon Forbidden West PC:

	Minimum	Recommended	High	Very High
Preset (Suggested)	Very Low	Medium	High	Very High
Performance Target	720p @ 30fps	1080p @ 60fps	1440p @ 60fps/ 4K @ 30fps	4K @ 60fps
CPU	Intel Core i3 8100 or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X	Intel Core i5 8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600	Intel Core i7 9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X	Intel Core i7 11700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
Memory	16 GB	16 GB	16 GB	16 GB
GPU	Nvidia GTX 1650 4 GB or AMD RX 5500XT 4 GB	Nvidia RTX 3060 or AMD RX 5700	Nvidia RTX 3070 or AMD RX 6800	Nvidia RTX 4080 or AMD RX 7900XT
Storage	150 GB SSD	150 GB SSD	150 GB SSD	150 GB SSD
OS	Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)	Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)	Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)	Windows 10 64-bit (version 1909 or higher)

One of the biggest questions many PC players might've had following the announcement of Horizon Forbidden West's arrival on PC is whether the game will support HDD.

On the one hand, it should be supporting the traditional 7200 RPM HDDs, given the base game was released as a cross-gen title back in February 2022.

However, the PC version is also coming with the Burning Shores DLC, which was something that was developed exclusively for the PS5 and is one of the best showcase titles on Sony's current-gen console. As such, HDD support was something that didn't seem that likely.

Unfortunately for HDD users, Horizon Forbidden West doesn't officially support HDDs on PC. While yes, you can try to brute force the game on a hard drive by pairing it with a faster CPU and GPU, that won't be the ideal way to experience it on PC.

As for the game's file size, the system requirements state a minimum of 150 gigabytes of SSD storage. However, given Horizon Forbidden West on PS5 is roughly 120 GB, including the Burning Shores DLC, it shouldn't technically exceed 130 GB on PC.

---

Horizon Forbidden West PC pre-order details

Currently, Horizon Forbidden West is available for pre-order on Steam and Epic Games Store, alongside an exclusive pre-order bonus armor set for Aloy. The game is set to arrive on PC on March 21, 2024.

Titled Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, the PC version comes packed with all post-launch content and the critically acclaimed Burning Shores DLC.

As for the pre-load date and time, Nixxes and PlayStation are yet to reveal details on those aspects. However, considering PlayStation's past PC releases on Steam, you can expect to pre-load Horizon Forbidden West roughly 24 hours before its official release on PC.