Path of Exile 2 System Requirements: PC Specs, 100 GB Size and Steam Deck

Yes. Path of Exile 2 runs on any PC that clears a 2017-era CPU, and Valve rates it Verified on the Steam Deck. The requirement list on the Steam store page is short for an action RPG: an Intel Core i7-7700 or AMD Ryzen 5 2500X, 8 GB of RAM, a GTX 960 with 3 GB of video memory (or a Radeon RX 470 or an Intel Arc A380), DirectX 12 and 100 GB of free storage. The number worth planning around is the 100 GB, because Grinding Gear Games takes the game free-to-play on December 11, 2026.

GGG announced the full release at ExileCon 2026 on November 6, and our Path of Exile 2 1.0 news story has the full content list. Path of Exile 2 goes free-to-play on December 11 (PST) with the complete campaign, the new Acts 5 and 6, the Shadow class and the Conquerors of Wraeclast Challenge League.

The full PC requirements

Here is what the Steam store page lists, minimum and recommended:

Two of those lines carry extra notes. The minimum tier says “A GPU with at least 3GB of VRAM is required”, where VRAM is the video memory on your graphics card. The recommended tier adds “Solid State Storage is recommended”. The memory numbers are the floor and the comfortable tier: 8 GB to play, 16 GB to stop thinking about it.

The 100 GB download is the real requirement

Nobody fails the graphics check here. The disk space is what needs a plan. Path of Exile 2 wants 100 GB on both tiers, and that is more than most of the other big December launches on our Release Calendar. FreeStyle Football 2 asks for 60 GB on its own Steam page, and Ashes of the Singularity II asks for 50 GB.

If you are clearing space for more than one of these, start with Path of Exile 2 and plan on an SSD. A 100 GB install on a spinning drive is the difference between a smooth world and a stuttering one in the endgame areas, and the recommended tier asks for solid state storage outright.

Grinding Gear Games has published no pre-download date for the December 11 launch. The company has done it before: in its Return of the Ancients FAQ it said the torrent file for the standalone PC client would be available for predownloading the day before the launch. That is a precedent, not a promise for 1.0, and nothing official has landed, so we are not going to name a date.

Steam Deck: Verified, and ProtonDB agrees

Valve’s own compatibility check returns a Verified rating for Path of Exile 2 on the Steam Deck. The report lists four passing items: the default controller configuration works, the controller glyphs match the Deck’s buttons, the interface text is legible on the smaller screen, and the default configuration is performant. That last one matters most for an action RPG, where a steady frame rate decides whether the endgame stays readable on a handheld screen.

Linux players outside SteamOS have their own read on it. ProtonDB rates Path of Exile 2 Platinum with 687 reports and a strong confidence score, which puts it in the top tier of games on that database.

What changes on December 11

The full release is more than a date. GGG’s 1.0 announcement is titled “Path of Exile 2 Full Release on December 11 PST”, and the ExileCon keynote list adds Acts 5 and 6 to the campaign, the Shadow class, a new endgame storyline and the Conquerors of Wraeclast league.

The platforms are unchanged. GGG’s own registration FAQ names Steam, Epic, PlayStation and Xbox as the eligible platforms, and the standalone PC client gets its own torrent files, so the December 11 release lands on console and PC together. No start hour has been published for the launch itself.

We compared the requirement list against the two other big December launches we track, and the storage gap is the story: 100 GB for Path of Exile 2 against 60 GB for FreeStyle Football 2, both figures taken from the publishers’ own Steam listings. That changes what a pre-download is worth, because the download is the part that needs a plan and the hardware is not the problem. The second thing the numbers tell you is that the CPU floor is a 2017 part, which is unusually old for a 2026 release and says more about how forgiving the engine is than any review score would.

If your PC is below the minimum

• Under 8 GB of RAM. That is the hard floor. A 16 GB stick is the cheapest meaningful upgrade for a game like this.
• A GPU with less than 3 GB of VRAM. The minimum tier names a GTX 960, an Intel Arc A380 or a Radeon RX 470, and adds the note that a card with at least 3 GB of VRAM is required. The recommended tier lists cards such as the RX 5600 XT and the RTX 2060.
• A mechanical drive. The requirement list only asks for space, but the recommended tier asks for solid state storage, so buy a drive rather than clear one if you can.
• An operating system the store page does not name. Both tiers state Windows 10 and nothing else, so that is the only version the requirements cover.

Everything else on that list is a comfort tier, not a gate. The minimum spec is what decides whether Path of Exile 2 runs at all, and it is a short list.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report