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Elite Dangerous · Custom Gaming PCs

Best Gaming PCs for Elite Dangerous

Elite Dangerous is beautifully optimised on a single screen, so a mainstream GPU sails through 1440p, but it leans hard on single thread CPU speed around busy stations and turns GPU and VRAM heavy the moment you add VR or triple screen surround.

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Target Entry1080p

1080p

144+ fps Ultra

Target framerate

Recommended GPU

RTX 5060

Target Sweet Spot1440p

1440p

144+ fps Ultra

Target framerate

Recommended GPU

RTX 5070 / RX 9070

Target Ultra4K

4K / VR

90+ fps High to Ultra

Target framerate

Recommended GPU

RTX 5070 Ti / RX 9070 XT

At a glance

Elite Dangerous Performance

Elite Dangerous is beautifully optimised on a single screen, so a mainstream GPU sails through 1440p, but it leans hard on single thread CPU speed around busy stations and turns GPU and VRAM heavy the moment you add VR or triple screen surround. Pair a fast Ryzen X3D or Core Ultra chip with at least 12GB to 16GB of VRAM for the smoothest VR and high refresh play.

In-depth

Everything you need to know

Hardware breakdown, build recommendations, and tuning advice for Elite Dangerous.

Elite Dangerous drops you into a 1:1 recreation of our Milky Way, all 400 billion star systems of it, and tells you to make your own way. Trade between stations, mine glittering asteroid belts, fight pirates in white knuckle dogfights, explore worlds no commander has ever seen or fly down to planet surfaces on foot with the Odyssey expansion. It is a space sim of staggering scale, and it has long been a showcase for VR and triple screen cockpit setups, where the sense of sitting inside your ship genuinely takes your breath away. The catch is that those immersive setups ask a lot more of your hardware than a single flat monitor does, which is exactly where a properly balanced build earns its keep.

Elite Dangerous System Requirements

Minimum

OS: Windows 10 64 bit Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 (Odyssey minimum) Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon R9 280X (2GB VRAM) Memory: 8GB Storage: 60GB available space

Recommended

OS: Windows 10 64 bit Processor: Intel Core i5-8600 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 (Odyssey recommended) Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 (4GB VRAM) Memory: 12GB Storage: 60GB available space (SSD recommended)

FAQ

Common questions

What GPU do I need for Elite Dangerous at 1440p?

On a single 1440p monitor Elite Dangerous is very kind to your hardware, so an NVIDIA RTX 5060 or RTX 5070, or an AMD RX 9070, will hold a locked 144fps at Ultra with room to spare. We build every CREATE PCs machine to match the GPU to your exact screen, so you are not paying for performance you will never see.

Is Elite Dangerous more CPU or GPU intensive?

On a flat screen it is GPU led and easy going, but it is also a sim, so it leans heavily on single thread CPU speed when stations and instances get busy, which is where frame dips usually come from. That is why we favour fast gaming chips like the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D or an Intel Core Ultra for Elite builds, so the busy moments stay smooth.

How much RAM do I need for Elite Dangerous?

The game itself is happy with 12GB to 16GB, but with Windows, a browser full of trade tools and Discord open we fit 32GB of fast DDR5 as standard. It is inexpensive headroom that keeps everything responsive, and it future proofs the build for the next few years.

Can you build a PC for VR or triple screen Elite Dangerous?

Absolutely, and this is where Elite really shines. VR and triple screen surround multiply the pixels your GPU has to push and eat into VRAM, so we step up to an RTX 5070 Ti or RX 9070 XT (or higher) with 16GB or more, paired with a strong X3D or Core Ultra CPU to feed the headset a steady 90fps. Tell us your headset or monitor setup and we will hand build the right balance, backed by our 5 year warranty.

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