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Build the Best PC for Hogwarts Legacy

System Requirements + Best CPUs and GPUs for Medium, Ultra, Ray Tracing

We'll also look at what it takes to build the ultimate gaming PC for Hogwarts Legacy on a 144Hz monitor, though I'll warn you know that if you really want that level of performance in this title it's not going to be pretty on your wallet as Hogwarts Legacy is both CPU and GPU demanding at high settings and/or high resolutions (and very much so if you enable ray tracing which this game has full support for).

In fact, after looking at CPU and GPU benchmarks of Hogwarts Legacy, it's easily up there with the most demanding games on PC without question. Let's start with a breakdown of the official system requirements, and then move onto hardware recommendations to reach 60FPS or 120FPS+ for your particular resolution.

Minimum Specs to Run Hogwarts Legacy (720p)

As provided by the developer on the official Hogwarts Legacy site, the bare minimum system requirements will only get you a passable 30FPS experience at the low resolution of 720p (and only with low graphics settings). An interesting thing to note here is that 16GB of RAM is the bare minimum memory requirement, so if you only have 8GB, an amount that is still passable in a lot of other games these days, then performance may suffer in this title.

Hogwarts Legacy Requirements for 1080p 60FPS (High)

The specs below is what the developer recommends if you want a very smooth average of 60 frames per second at 1080p resolution, and with high video settings (but no ray tracing). Nothing too crazy here in terms of requirements, but as you'll see as we move up in performance tiers below, Hogwarts Legacy quickly becomes very demanding at high resolutions and high settings.

Hogwarts Legacy Requirements for 1440p 60FPS (Ultra)

To hit an average of 60FPS at maxed out (ultra) settings at 1440p, you need a fairly strong CPU and GPU combo. The devs also suggest 32GB of RAM, which you rarely see in a game's official system requirements. Remember that these specs are assuming you have ray tracing disabled, but we'll get to ray tracing recommendations later in this guide.

Related: Best PC Builds for Witcher 3

Hogwarts Legacy Requirements for 4K 60FPS (Ultra)

For 4K ultra 60FPS (still no ray tracing though), the same CPU suggestions remain from the 1440p ultra recommended specs, since at 4K it's all about having extra GPU power to push those extra pixels. The RTX 3090 Ti or RX 7900 XT graphics card requirement is a high one, and means that unless you enable DLSS or FSR, to get 60FPS at 4K in Hogwarts Legacy you need a real beast of a gaming PC.

And even more so than many other titles; when it comes to modern AAA games, 4K Ultra is always taxing on GPUs, but Hogwarts Legacy is extra demanding. That covers the official hardware requirements for Hogwarts Legacy from the developer, so let's get into my own recommendations of the best parts based on GPU benchmarks that I've studied from other content creators.

Best CPUs and GPUs for Hogwarts Legacy (60FPS)

For those wanting the best CPU and GPU combo that will get 60FPS on average for a very smooth experience, you'll need the following specs. Note that the CPU recommendations below apply to all resolutions because when going up in resolution the demands on the CPU doesn't really change (as explained in What Are CPU Bottlenecks).

Higher graphics settings can tax a CPU more than lower settings though (depending on how CPU intensive a particular setting is). So consider the 'budget' CPU pick below as intended for lower settings, and the 'best' CPU pick for higher settings.

Keep in mind you don't need these specs to still have a great experience, as you don't need to hit 60FPS consistently to fully enjoy a game. Anywhere between 40FPS and 50FPS is still very playable for most people when it comes to a slower-paced action RPG title (it's not a shooter where getting 60FPS or higher is much more important). You want to avoid going under 35-40FPS though, as that's when your frame rate becomes too choppy and jittery to fully enjoy a game.

Ultimate CPUs and GPUs for Hogwarts Legacy (144FPS)

If you have a 144Hz monitor and wondering what will get you around that 144FPS level of performance, these are the specs you'll need to hit such high heights in and around Hogwarts. Just keep in mind when gaming with a 144Hz monitor that you don't need to hit 144FPS to get the benefits of that higher refresh rate, as you're still getting a visually smoother experience relative to 60Hz displays if you only hit say 100FPS. Plus, because an action RPG like Hogwarts Legacy is a slower paced genre, there's no strong need to play the game on a 144Hz refresh-rate display.

The GPUs above should hit an average of 120FPS or thereabouts for the corresponding resolution listed, but only at around medium settings (and without ray tracing) since the high and ultra presets are too demanding in this title to run at such high frame rates. AMD cards perform better at 1080p and 1440p in Hogwarts Legacy, at least at the time of writing (future game updates/patches may even things out when it comes to NVIDIA vs AMD in Hogwarts Legacy).

So that's why there are no NVIDIA cards present for the 1080p 144Hz and 1440p 144Hz recommendations above. But at 4K, NVIDIA performs better relative to AMD, and their flagship RTX 4090 is your only way of getting really high frame rates for anyone with a luxury 4K 144Hz gaming monitor - even at medium settings. In fact, a RTX 4090 won't even reach 120FPS at 4K medium; based on GPU benchmarks I've seen you'll be lucky to get a 110FPS average.

That wraps up how to build the best PC for Hogwarts Legacy, but now let's get into the FAQ. Oh and a huge thanks must go to Hardware Unboxed and their extensive Hogwarts Legacy GPU benchmarks which helped a lot with the creation of this guide. Check out that video if you want to get into the nitty gritty details of how a broad range of AMD, NVIDIA and Intel graphics cards performed in this title at various settings (they include ray tracing results too).

See Also: Best PC Builds for Red Dead Redemption 2

FAQ

How to Remove the 60FPS Cap in Hogwarts Legacy?

To remove the 60FPS cap in Hogwarts Legacy, go to the game settings and set the 'Framerate' setting to 'Uncapped'. This will allow your PC to go beyond 60FPS performance, if it's powerful enough to do so.

Related: Frame Rates Compared (30FPS vs 60FPS vs 144FPS)

Can You Play Hogwarts Legacy With 8GB of RAM?

Since the official system requirements for Hogwarts Legacy lists 16GB of RAM as the bare minimum to play the game, many gamers who have mid-range systems with 8GB of RAM will be wondering if 8GB is enough. If you do some research online, the answer is yes, you can play Hogwarts Legacy with 8GB of RAM. It will limit your performance compared to having 16GB of RAM, but it's still definitely playable with 8GB of memory assuming you have an okay graphics card and CPU.

Related: DDR4 vs DDR5 for Gaming

Should You Enable DLSS in Hogwarts Legacy?

If you have a DLSS supported graphics card (NVIDIA RTX series), you have the option to enable NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) in the graphics settings. But should you turn DLSS on? If you're unhappy with performance, then yes, playing around with DLSS settings will improve your frame rate. Start with the less intense DLSS setting, 'DLSS Quality', to see how that impacts performance, and move onto more aggressive DLSS settings if you want more of a performance increase. The higher (more intense) the DLSS setting, the more the visual quality of the game can be negatively affected, so you want to find the best middle ground of performance vs image quality/sharpness (higher DLSS settings can make things a bit too blurry for some people).

Related: The Best Value GPUs for Gaming

Does Hogwarts Legacy Support Intel XeSS?

Yes, besides support for DLSS and FSR, Hogwarts Legacy has support for XeSS, Intel's AI upscaling resolution feature that is compatible with Intel ARK GPUs and also some NVIDIA and AMD cards. If you enable XeSS in Hogwarts Legacy, you will see a boost in frame rate at the expense of slightly lower image quality. How much of an increase in frame rate you get will depend on the exact XeSS setting.

See Also: List of Games That Support XeSS

Can a GTX 1650 or GTX 1060 Run Hogwarts Legacy?

Yes, the super popular GTX 1060 3GB (or 6GB model) can play Hogwarts Legacy, and so can the newer GTX 1650, but you will only have a decently playable experience with these GPUs (staying consistently above 30FPS) if you run the game at low settings at 1080p. A GTX 1060 or 1650 is not strong enough to get near 60FPS at 1080p - not even at the lowest graphics settings. Though you may have a chance if you lower the resolution to 720p and stick to low settings.

Related: The Current Best Budget GPU for Gaming

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