Lost Ark system requirements, PC performance, and Lost Ark best settings guide

There is one advantage to Lost Ark's old MMO feel, even if it is limited to the graphics rather than the usual technological trappings. Lost Ark is always required to perform on low-end and luxury PCs alike for its South Korean launch in 2019, and its upcoming Western version is following the same guidelines. As a result, the game rarely looks great but always works smoothly, regardless of whether it's running on outdated budget gear or the latest graphics cards and CPUs.

In fact, you can probably just turn on the Very High settings preset on any reasonably contemporary PC and start playing right away. However, as always, you may improve the performance of Lost Ark by tweaking the graphics settings, so keep scrolling for a list of the finest options. In my testing, I used a variety of GPUs, with a concentration on lower-end hardware; there are no premium capabilities present, such as ray tracing or DLSS, that would necessitate a GeForce RTX or Radeon 6000 series card.

Although I've heard from publishers Amazon Games that DX11 will be accessible in both the main release and the early access (or "head start") build that's launching later today, there was no working DirectX 11 implementation in the preview build I played. I'll revisit Raiders of the Lost Ark to evaluate if DX11 improves on DX9.

Lost Ark PC requirements and performance

Lost Ark minimum PC specs

• OS – Windows 10 (64-bit)
• CPU – Intel Core i3 / AMD Ryzen 3
• GPU – Nvidia GeForce GTX 460
• RAM – 8GB
• Storage – 50GB+

Lost Ark recommended PC specs

• OS – Windows 10 (64-bit)
• CPU – Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 5
• GPU (1080p) – Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon RX 560
• GPU (1440p) – Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
• GPU (4K) – Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 / AMD Radeon RX 6800
• RAM – 16GB
• Storage – 50GB+

Even 12-year-old graphics cards are compatible, and any CPU/GPU combo from recent memory should be able to run Lost Ark. Those suggested specs appear to target 60fps; I installed a GTX 1050 Ti in my main test PC, which also has an Intel Core i5-11600K and 16GB of RAM, and at 1080p with Very High settings, I almost always kept around 70fps. You can even go lower than the recommended specifications for 1440p: I tested a GTX 1060 at this resolution and averaged 79fps using Very High settings. In some places, such as pubs and narrow caves, this can reach above 100 frames per second.

Lost Ark also scales well. With an RTX 3070, maxed-out 1440p averaged 142 frames per second, with 90-100 frames per second at 4K. The RTX 2080 and Radeon RX 6800, for example, should have no problems.

All of this is to say that Lost Ark still has space for technical improvement, and not just by updating to DX11. For example, turning off V-Sync requires some back-end tinkering, and the prologue quest is prone to swooping frame rate reductions. The performance of the character roster screen is also strangely hampered.

The rest of the game, thankfully, goes much more smoothly. Although there is still a gap between the largest outside areas and the coziest interiors, you'll most likely be playing at high enough frame rates to notice it. After all, what was the true mistake in Raiders of the Lost Ark? It won't allow you to name a character after Jeff Bezos, just like in New World.

Lost Ark best settings guide

Aside from the hilarious joke denials, Lost Ark keeps graphics tweaking basic. You can choose from four presets – Very High, High, Medium, and Low – or experiment with the numerous individual options. One peculiar feature is an Auto Optimisation slider that allows you to choose between "Prioritize Quality" and "Prioritize Performance." Favoring the latter will reduce visual quality to preserve high frame rates, though I can't say how well it works because my GTX 1050 Ti seemed to handle Lost Ark so well that Auto Optimisation never actually kicked in. I ran the rest of my benchmarks with the slider fully set to Prioritize Quality for the sake of my semi-beloved testing integrity.

Because there isn't a benchmarking tool, I used MSI Afterburner to record average frame rates on a repeating run through one of the game's major semi-open-world locations. I also retained the GTX 1050 Ti and tested it at 1080p, because my RTX 3070 / 1440p combo will always perform at or around 144fps regardless of settings.