Cities: Skylines System Requirements
Cities: Skylines is undemanding by current standards by 2026 standards. It wants 16GB of memory and 2GB of VRAM for a comfortable experience. Set aside 4GB of free space.
Check my PC against this gameFull system requirements
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows | Windows |
| DirectX | DirectX 9 | DirectX 9 |
| Processor | Intel® Core™ I7 930 | AMD® FX 6350≈ AMD FX-6350 | Intel® Core™ I7 2700K | AMD® Ryzen 7 2700X≈ AMD Ryzen 7 2700X |
| Graphics card | Nvidia® GeForce™ GTS 450 (1 GB) | AMD® R7 250 (2 GB) | Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake)≈ NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 | Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 580 (1.5 GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 560 (4 GB)≈ NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 |
| Video memory | 1 GB | 2 GB |
| System memory | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Storage | 4 GB | 4 GB |
Estimated performance by graphics card
High preset, upscaling off, paired with a AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D-class processor.
| Graphics card | Tier | 1080p | 1440p | 4K | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 | S | 221 | 221 | 221 | Recommended spec |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 | S | 221 | 221 | 221 | Recommended spec |
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX | A | 221 | 221 | 221 | Recommended spec |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER | A | 221 | 221 | 221 | Recommended spec |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 | A | 221 | 221 | 221 | Recommended spec |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | A | 221 | 221 | 210 | Recommended spec |
| AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT | A | 221 | 221 | 206 | Recommended spec |
| AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT | A | 221 | 221 | 203 | Recommended spec |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER | A | 221 | 221 | 199 | Recommended spec |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti | A | 221 | 221 | 195 | Recommended spec |
Modelled estimates rather than captured runs — see our methodology.
Frequently asked questions
What are the minimum requirements for Cities: Skylines?
At least 8GB of system memory, a graphics card with 1GB of VRAM (roughly a NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 or better), 4GB of free storage, Windows and DirectX 9.
What are the recommended specs?
For a comfortable experience: 16GB of memory and a card with 2GB of VRAM — around a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, paired with a AMD Ryzen 7 2700X or equivalent.
Is Cities: Skylines demanding on PC?
It is undemanding by current standards by 2026 standards, with a recommended GPU score of 7/100. It is primarily CPU-bound.
