Pearl Abyss has gripped RPG fans long enough, as the hype for Crimson Desert reaches a boiling point. As we head towards the March 19th release, like any good modern game, one of the biggest concerns with Crimson Desert is ‘can my machines run without exploding’.
Today, the developers took a little mercy and threw in a complete hardware and performance breakdown for PC, Mac, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Given the scope and depth of Crimson Desert, there was concern as to whether the game would work well on a working PC gaming PC, or whether it would require a kidney sale to develop this economy.
Fortunately, it seems that Pearl Abyss has risen to the occasion, with market-worthy specs that your average Steam hardware survey can happily run.
Crimson Desert PC Hardware Requirements
Looking at a PC’s system specs sheet, it’s refreshing to see that you can play a modern, beautiful game with legacy cards like the GTX 1660 while still hitting 30 FPS at 1080p, even at lower settings.
For 60 FPS at the same resolution, you need the equivalent of an RTX 2080 or RX 6700XT, and a Ryzen 5 5600 or i5 11600K CPU.
Hitting 4K at 60 FPS won’t come cheap, though, as Pearl Abyss’ internal testing shows an RX 9070XT or RTX 5070Ti is required. AMD’s offering is the most affordable with a good shot at the moment, after settling around $600. The 5070Ti will set you back about $1000, but it performs much better in most benchmarks.
There was a fear that [Crimson Desert] it will work well on a working person’s gaming PC
Regardless of your choice of display, you’ll need 16GB of RAM to play Crimson Desert, which is compatible with most modern games.
The most demanding part of the specs sheet is down on the last line: Crimson Desert needs 150GB of your precious drive space to run, putting it on par with the AAA crowd in terms of size.
Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 settings
As always, the low end of the console performance scale is reserved for the humble Xbox Series S. At 720p, the budget Xbox offers a target of 40 FPS in Performance mode, while it targets 30 FPS in native 1080p. Raytracing is not available.
On the Xbox Series X, Performance delivers 60 FPS at 1080p with low raytracing settings. The benchmark, meanwhile, offers 40 FPS in 4K higher than 1280p. The Quality preset runs at 30 FPS at 4K resolution, this time from 1440p, and with raytracing effects set to High.
Crimson Desert’s Open-World will be twice the size of Skyrim
Powered by a brand new engine, Crimson Desert will be launched on March 19.
The base PlayStation 5 mirrors the setup and performance of the Xbox Series X, while the beefier PS5 Pro uses raytracing on High even in Performance mode, with 60 FPS and 4K upscaled from 1080p. The average setting yields 40 FPS at 4K resolution (from 1440p).
Finally, Quality mode on the PlayStation 5 Pro gives you Crimson Desert in native 4K, with Ultra raytracing settings, and 30 FPS.
Mac and ROG Ally performance
Given Apple’s penchant for running the PC business with a console mindset, the performance of the Crimson Desert Mac is very model-dependent. Across the board, Pearl Abyss recommends that you use the ‘For this Mac’ preset which will adapt the game to your specific hardware.
Reaching 60 FPS at 1080p will require an M3 Pro, M4 Pro, or M5 chip, using both MetalFX upscaling and frame interpolation (available in macOS 26). 60 FPS/4K is reserved for M3 Ultra and M4 Max chips.
On the ROG Xbox Ally handheld, the standard version targets 40 FPS at 720p in performance mode.
ROG Xbox Ally X owners can hit 60 FPS at up to 1080p with that same setup. By disabling Frame Generation, Performance Mode reaches 40 FPS. Meanwhile, the quality targets 30 FPS at native 1080p.
Crimson Desert comes out for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on March 19, 2026, with pre-orders already available.
Crimson Desert Preview: No Mirage, Medieval Musou Mayhem
I think it’s called the Crimson Desert because of the endless blood you’ll spill.
- Released
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March 19, 2026
- The ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood, Drug Reference, Strong Violence, Strong Language
