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Valheim Version 1.0 vs Windrose
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| shopping_cart Where to Buy | |
| info General Information | |
| Release Date | |
| Sep 9, 2026 | Apr 14, 2026 |
| Developer | |
| Iron Gate Studio | Kraken Express |
| Publisher | |
| Coffee Stain Publishing | Pocketpair |
| Genre(s) | |
| Survival Crafting | Survival Crafting RPG / Pirate Action |
| Engine | |
| Unity | Unreal Engine 5 |
| stars Ratings & Price | |
| Content Rating | |
| Teen | M |
| Avg. User Rating | |
| 4.8 / 5.0 | 4.5 / 5.0 |
| Current Price (USD) | |
| $29.99 | $29.99 |
| tune Key Specs | |
| Quick Highlights | |
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| sports_esports Gameplay & Mechanics | |
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| colorize Combat & Gear | |
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| trending_up Progression & Upgrades | |
| Skills & Progression | |
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Character progression in Valheim eschews traditional experience points, instead operating on a highly organic skill-by-use system where actions like jumping, running, block-parrying, and wielding specific weapon classes level up naturally. The 1.0 update expands the technological upgrade tree immensely with the introduction of 'Bloodgold' metallurgical stations like the Frigid Kiln and Frost Foundry. Moreover, the endgame shifts heavily toward the Eitr (magic) meta. Spellcasting relies on a complex, dynamic regeneration algorithm where Eitr replenishes faster when the pool is completely empty, forcing mages to precisely time their burst-damage abilities. Players also receive massive permanent upgrades by defeating the eight Forsaken bosses; for example, the new Ashlands Fader boss provides an adrenaline-boosting power, while the Mistlands Queen doubles Eitr regeneration. Balancing dietary intake using the new Deep North agricultural additions (Poteitr, Kale) in a 'Two Eitr, One Stamina' food configuration is absolutely paramount to surviving the endgame. |
Progression in Windrose is deeply rewarding and multifaceted, combining traditional RPG stat distribution with a robust talent tree and an intricate gear upgrading system. Whenever you level up, you can freely allocate attribute points into Strength, Agility, Precision, Mastery (crit chance), Vitality, and Endurance. Since stamina management is absolutely critical for the souls-like combat mechanics, investing early in Endurance is a common and highly effective strategy. Furthermore, players unlock Talents that drastically alter their combat playstyle, with passive abilities like 'Quick Strikes' for bonus base damage, 'Duelist' for intense single-target boss encounters, and 'Deadly Finale' which massively boosts damage by 15% after consecutive melee hits. The game incredibly allows for completely free and unlimited attribute and talent respecs, encouraging players to constantly experiment with different weapon scalings and hybrid builds. To complement personal stats, your gear—from your heavy Conquistador armor to your swift Rapier—must be constantly upgraded at advanced workbenches using gathered materials like copper, iron, and hardwood. |
| public World & Exploration | |
| World & Level Design | |
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The playable world of Valheim is virtually boundless, utilizing a highly advanced procedural generation engine that crafts massive, circular island continents surrounded by treacherous oceans. The map operates on a strict permanence rule: terrain zones are permanently written into the world file upon a player's initial proximity. The 1.0 update introduces the Deep North, which exclusively spawns at the extreme northern edge of the map in previously unexplored sectors. This biome introduces profound escalation in environmental hostility with a 'Frostbite' debuff that bypasses mid-game thermal protections. It features deep, realistically deforming snow, dynamic blizzards that drastically reduce draw distance, and frozen lakes that introduce ice-sliding mechanics. Furthermore, the procedural algorithm now allows the outer perimeters of the Deep North to spawn alternate, frozen variants of earlier biomes, such as snow-covered Plains or frigid Black Forests, seamlessly illustrating a climatic bleed effect that makes global navigation visually and mechanically cohesive. |
The map in Windrose is incredibly vast, utilizing a hybrid system of procedurally generated ocean layouts with fixed, handcrafted unique points of interest, ensuring that every single playthrough feels fresh while maintaining curated, high-quality content. The game is divided into distinct, expansive biomes that you progress through sequentially. You begin in the Coastal Jungle, a massive starting area boasting over 32 unique locations and 62 treasure chests that serve as an introductory proving ground. Once you conquer the jungle and its local boss, you will sail outward to the Foothills, a highly sought-after, resource-rich region where you will establish massive automated farms and mine crucial mid-game ores like iron and sulfur to craft gunpowder. Beyond the Foothills lies the treacherous Cursed Swamps and the blazing Ashlands, each presenting escalated threats, harsher environmental hazards, and requiring heavily upgraded ships and top-tier ascended weapons to survive. Finding and establishing fast-travel bells across these vast archipelagos is absolutely essential to traversing the massive oceanic map efficiently. |
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| book Story & Characters | |
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| people Multiplayer | |
| Multiplayer Details | |
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Valheim is inherently designed from the ground up as a fully cooperative multiplayer experience, supporting up to 10 players simultaneously within a single world instance. The game does not feature structured competitive PvP modes, though players can mutually agree to toggle a 'friendly fire' setting in their inventory for ad-hoc duels or emergent combat tournaments. Multiplayer is hosted either locally via peer-to-peer listen servers or through robust, persistently online Dedicated Servers. The 1.0 update expands tools for Dedicated Server administrators via an extensive suite of developer console commands (accessed via 'devcommands'), allowing hosts to ban malicious users, alter time of day, force-trigger raid events, or restore corrupted terrain. To protect the economic integrity of vanilla multiplayer servers, any item spawned illicitly by an admin using console commands is permanently branded as a 'cheated item' within the UI, preventing the quiet laundering of high-tier resources into legitimate survival communities. |
Windrose undeniably shines brightest when experienced in its incredibly robust cooperative multiplayer mode, natively supporting up to 8 players simultaneously on official or rented dedicated servers. The entire sweeping campaign, from the moment you wash ashore to the massive, multi-ship naval battles, can be played cooperatively from start to finish. The game brilliantly utilizes a clever instanced loot system, meaning that while treasure chests are shared in the physical world, the loot generated inside is entirely unique and bound to each specific character, permanently preventing loot hoarding by a single greedy crew member. Naval combat in multiplayer is a highly coordinated, chaotic affair: players must quickly divide responsibilities, with one steering the massive ship while others frantically man the port and starboard cannons, rapidly repair hull breaches with wood kits, or prepare to swing across ropes for brutal, close-quarters boarding actions. |
| extension Editions & DLC | |
| Available Editions | |
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With the transition out of Early Access into the highly anticipated Version 1.0, Iron Gate Studio has unified the game's commercial presence across all storefronts. The base price has been officially increased to $29.99, reflecting the massive volume of content added over five years, including the Hearth & Home, Mistlands, Ashlands, and Deep North expansions. Valheim does not segment its player base with Deluxe Editions, 'time-savers', or premium currencies; a single purchase grants total access to the entire game and all its post-launch features. The developer maintains a strict, pro-consumer stance against predatory microtransactions. The game is available on Steam (PC/Mac/Linux), the Microsoft Store (PC/Xbox), PlayStation 5, and the Nintendo Switch 2. Crossplay is fully supported across all these editions via Microsoft's PlayFab backend, ensuring that communities remain completely unfragmented regardless of the specific edition or hardware platform a player chooses to purchase. |
Currently available in Early Access on PC via Steam, Windrose offers a robust Standard Edition priced at an highly accessible $29.99, which provides the complete, uncompromised foundational experience. This edition includes the massive Coastal Jungle, Foothills, and Cursed Swamps biomes, the full seamless co-op multiplayer suite for up to 8 players, and the comprehensive ship-building and base-building mechanics. While there are currently no premium deluxe or physical collector's editions available for purchase, the developers at Kraken Express have implemented a heavily community-focused approach, frequently releasing major content patches and rewarding early adopters with exclusive Discord roles and potential in-game cosmetic banners. Early Access supporters are essentially investing in the ongoing, transparent development of the game, with a projected roadmap spanning one to two and a half years before the official 1.0 release. Future premium expansions and possible cosmetic ship DLCs are fully expected as the game approaches its full launch and expands onto console platforms. |
| Post-Launch Content / DLC | |
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Despite astronomical commercial success and selling tens of millions of units, Iron Gate Studio has publicly and explicitly ruled out the development of a 'Valheim 2'. Creative Director Robin Eyre and QA Manager Andreas Tomasson confirmed that the 1.0 release is merely the 'start of a new age' for the core title. Operating as a remarkably lean team of only nine core developers, the studio's post-launch philosophy focuses on iterative refinement rather than rapid, fragmented serialization. While the Deep North represents the final pre-planned major geographical biome, the procedural generation engine is incredibly modular. The studio's roadmap indicates continuous support via smaller, localized content drops, the expansion of alternate biome variations (such as the newly introduced frozen Plains), deeper refinement of the Eitr combat mechanics, and potential new crafting tiers. All future updates are planned to be integrated seamlessly into the base game without the need for segmented, paid DLC expansions. |
The post-launch roadmap for Windrose is incredibly ambitious, especially given its already feature-rich state in Early Access. The developers have estimated a continuous, heavy development cycle of up to two and a half years before reaching the final 1.0 milestone. Planned free updates include the introduction of the highly dangerous, fiery Ashlands biome, massive new ship classes like the legendary multi-deck Galleon, entirely new terrifying enemy factions, and deep expansions to the farming and automated merchant systems. Currently, there are absolutely no paid DLCs or microtransactions present, as the studio is strictly prioritizing core gameplay features like improved dedicated server stability and robust admin commands. Community feedback is directly driving the addition of new weapons, unique armor sets, and cozy base decorations. As the game steadily matures, players can expect regular, massive content drops that significantly expand the narrative and the scale of the world. |
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| build Technical Details | |
| Graphics & Visual Fidelity | |
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Valheim’s visual identity is defined by a masterful juxtaposition of retro, low-resolution pixel art textures rendered within a highly advanced, modern lighting engine. Built on Unity, the 1.0 update pushes this aesthetic to its limits with the introduction of a 'Magica Cloth' physics system, ensuring that player capes, banners, and structural fabrics react dynamically to wind patterns and combat momentum. The Deep North biome introduces deep, realistically deforming snow tracks and dynamic accumulation on structural rooftops. The architectural visual suite has been vastly expanded with 67-degree Scalewood pieces for steeply pitched roofs, alongside translucent Ice Blocks crafted from snowballs, allowing for breathtaking frozen palace designs. The engine supports dense volumetric fog, aggressive god rays (sun shafts), and robust bloom effects. To accommodate a wide range of hardware, the new Draw Distance slider allows precise control over rendering boundaries, while z-fighting on overlapping rugs—a persistent visual bug in Early Access—has been entirely eliminated. |
Powered by highly advanced modern rendering techniques, Windrose boasts a gorgeous, stylized aesthetic that perfectly balances gritty realism with a slightly exaggerated, colorful art direction. The game's dynamic lighting engine is particularly impressive, featuring absolutely stunning sunrises that reflect dynamically off the procedural ocean waves, and dense, suffocating atmospheric fog that blankets the cursed swamp regions at night. The water physics—which are absolutely crucial for the immersion of any pirate game—are incredibly detailed, with heavy ships realistically bobbing on the massive swells and reacting dynamically to explosive cannon impacts and harsh tropical weather. Character models and equipable armor sets, like the highly ornate Conquistador's Armor or the rugged Flibustier's Attire, are highly detailed and visually showcase your progression as you craft better gear. Building pieces snap together flawlessly to create aesthetically pleasing forts. |
| Audio & Soundtrack | |
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The audio soundscape of Valheim is a critical component of its immersive, atmospheric design, heavily relying on dynamic environmental acoustics and uncompressed audio assets in the 1.0 build. The game utilizes highly directional spatial audio, which is mechanically essential in the Deep North blizzards where visual draw distance is crippled; players must rely entirely on the heavy, crunching footsteps of approaching Gammeltrolls or the shrieks of the Elakingar to anticipate ambushes. The soundtrack features sweeping, biome-specific orchestral arrangements that seamlessly shift from tranquil acoustic melodies in the Meadows to thunderous, percussion-heavy battle anthems during Forsaken boss fights. Version 1.0 introduces highly cinematic, bespoke musical scores specifically for the new introductory and concluding cutscenes. Additionally, the sound design enhances the visceral feedback of combat, from the distinct metallic clatter of a perfect shield parry to the crackling discharge of the new Eitr-fueled Thunderblood magical weaponry. |
The audio design in Windrose is absolutely phenomenal, expertly capturing the thrilling and treacherous atmosphere of the open high seas. When peacefully sailing between island chains, players can press a dedicated button to command their NPC crew to sing authentic, rousing sea shanties, transforming long oceanic voyages into incredibly immersive and entertaining cinematic experiences. The sounds of melee combat are visceral, heavy, and satisfying: the sharp, metallic clash of steel during a perfect parry, the deafening, bass-heavy roar of a 36-pounder cannon tearing through an enemy hull, and the terrifying splintering of wood during full-speed ship collisions are all rendered with high fidelity. The ambient audio dynamically shifts based on your immediate environment, from the serene crashing of waves and rustling of coastal jungle palm trees to the eerie, unsettling moans of the Drowned lurking deep within the Cursed Swamps. |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | |
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The User Interface in Valheim 1.0 has received critical quality-of-life overhauls to address long-standing community grievances regarding inventory management and navigation. The most prominent addition is the 'Wardrobe', a massive structural storage unit that vastly outperforms the capacity of legacy Black Metal Chests. Furthermore, players can finally upgrade their personal carrying capacity by purchasing 'Deeper Pockets' and 'Wider Pockets' directly from the merchant Haldor. The UI now comprehensively integrates a World Modifier menu before launching a save file, allowing players to natively adjust difficulty sliders, alter resource drop multipliers (e.g., 1.5x or 3x), and toggle the controversial ability to teleport raw ores through portals without resorting to third-party mods. For the newly supported Nintendo Switch 2, the UI features bespoke optimizations, including native touch-screen support for rapid inventory sorting and a dedicated 'Mouse Mode' cursor to replicate the precision of PC-based menu navigation. |
The user interface in Windrose is purposefully designed to be highly functional and completely unobtrusive, keeping the player fully immersed in the beautiful, dangerous Caribbean-inspired environments. The clean HUD displays essential, real-time survival metrics like health (vitality), stamina, and a quick-access scrolling hotbar for swapping weapons, drinking potions, and selecting building tools. A deeply integrated 'Discoveries' tab elegantly tracks your overarching progression, neatly categorizing unlocked blueprints for crafting stations, heavy armor, and ship parts as you gather new exotic materials. During intense naval combat, the UI seamlessly shifts to provide critical, life-saving information on overall ship hull integrity, individual cannon reload timers, and wind direction indicators for optimal sailing speeds. The inventory system is a classic grid-based layout, requiring careful management of weight and slots, though this limitation is heavily mitigated by crafting and upgrading your backpack at tailoring stations. |
| Accessibility Options | |
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Iron Gate Studio has integrated an array of accessibility and convenience features into the 1.0 release to accommodate diverse player preferences without compromising the game's brutal baseline design. The core of this accessibility lies in the natively integrated World Modifiers. Players who find the traditional 'grind' overwhelming can use sliders to increase resource drop rates, reduce the severity of death penalties, lower enemy combat damage, or entirely remove the restriction on teleporting raw ores through portals. Mechanically, the introduction of the Grappling Hook dramatically reduces traversal frustration for players struggling with platforming mechanics on steep mountain faces. For hardware accessibility, the Nintendo Switch 2 version features three distinct visual profiles (Performance, Balanced, and Quality) to suit player framerate sensitivities, alongside gyroscope aiming support for bows and magical staves. Furthermore, visual impairment during blizzards can be slightly mitigated using high-contrast directional lanterns designed to cut through the volumetric weather effects. |
While Windrose is widely known as a highly demanding survival game with punishing souls-like combat, the developers have thoughtfully included several features to accommodate entirely different playstyles and skill levels. Right from the world creation screen, players can select their permanent difficulty setting: 'Calm Waters' for a relaxed, story-and-building focused experience; 'High Seas' for the standard, highly challenging survival baseline; and 'Storm's Edge' for absolute hardcore masochists. The game graciously allows for full, unrestricted respecs of both attribute points and talent trees at absolutely any time, completely removing the heavy anxiety of making a 'wrong' build choice early on. An auto-target lock option can be quickly toggled in the settings menu to assist with tracking fast-moving enemies in melee combat. Furthermore, the inclusion of an automated merchant system allows players to passively order massive quantities of raw materials, reducing the grind. |
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| Gameplay Video | |
| launchWatch | launchWatch |
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| launchView | launchView |
| settings_applications System Requirements | |
| 1080p (Full HD) - Recommended (High Preset, 60 FPS) CPU: Provides stable frame pacing during complex structural collapses and combat. CPU (Laptop): High clock speeds benefit Unity's single-thread heavy tasks. GPU: Provides the necessary VRAM to handle high-quality textures and bloom. GPU (Laptop): Easily handles max settings at 1080p. RAM: Ensures smooth multitasking and memory overhead for dedicated server hosting. Storage: Recommended for fast boot and load times. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i5 @ 3.0GHz / AMD Ryzen 5 @ 3.0GHz developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon RX 580 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i5-11400H / AMD Ryzen 5 5600H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3050 Mobile (75W) layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 6.5 GB SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-10700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-11800H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3080 Mobile (150W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 30GB NVMe SSD |
| 1080p (Full HD) - Minimum (Low Preset, 30 FPS) CPU: Absolute minimum to handle the Unity engine's world-state serialization. CPU (Laptop): Requires a capable 4-core processor to handle AI pathing. GPU: Sufficient for basic rendering with reduced shadow cascades. GPU (Laptop): Entry-level mobile graphics can achieve 30 FPS on lowered settings. RAM: Minimum threshold to prevent page file swapping during gameplay. Storage: Prevents stutter when loading new biome chunks. | |
memoryCPU: 2.6 GHz Quad Core developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 / AMD Radeon HD 7970 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i5-8300H or equivalent laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA GTX 1050 Mobile layersRAM: 8 GB saveStorage (Tier): 6.5 GB SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6800 laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-9750H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3060 Mobile layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 30GB SSD |
| 1440p (QHD/2K) - Recommended (High/Max Preset, 60 FPS) CPU: Strong multicore performance aids in rendering complex lighting at higher resolutions. CPU (Laptop): Excellent performance for higher resolution mobile displays. GPU: The sweet spot for 1440p performance, allowing max draw distances. GPU (Laptop): Full-wattage 3060 handles 1440p effortlessly. RAM: Standard configuration for modern gaming. Storage: Maximizes texture streaming speeds. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i7-10700K / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i7-12700H / AMD Ryzen 7 6800H laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 3060 Mobile (115W) layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 6.5 GB NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-13600K or AMD Ryzen 7 7700X developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-12900HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4080 Mobile layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 30GB NVMe Gen 4 SSD |
| 2160p (UHD/4K) - Ultra (Max Preset, 60 FPS) CPU: Top-tier IPC performance to eliminate any potential CPU bottleneck at 4K. CPU (Laptop): Enthusiast mobile processors required to feed high-end GPUs. GPU: Provides the raw rasterization power needed to render volumetric lighting at 4K. GPU (Laptop): Necessary for a flawless 60 FPS 4K experience on a laptop. RAM: Sufficient for 4K rendering in Valheim. Storage: Immediate loading capabilities. | |
memoryCPU: Intel Core i5-13600K / AMD Ryzen 5 7600X developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-13900HX / AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4080 Mobile layersRAM: 16 GB saveStorage (Tier): 6.5 GB Gen4 NVMe SSD | memoryCPU: Intel Core i9-13900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D developer_boardGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX laptop_macCPU (L): Intel Core i9-13980HX laptop_windowsGPU (L): NVIDIA RTX 4090 Mobile (175W) layersRAM: 32 GB saveStorage (Tier): 30GB NVMe Gen 4 SSD |
| save Overall Storage | |
| Spec: 6.5 GB SSD Note: While the base game is small, high-resolution cutscenes and uncompressed audio require faster read speeds to avoid audio desync. Type: SSD | Spec: 30 GB Solid State Drive (SSD) Note: An SSD is strictly necessary to eliminate stuttering when rapidly sailing between procedurally generated islands. Type: SSD |
| desktop_windows Operating System | |
| Spec: Windows 10 64-bit, macOS 14, or Linux Explanation: Required for modern Unity engine dependencies and optimal API support. | Spec: Windows 10 64-bit Explanation: Required for DirectX 12 compatibility and modern memory management. |
| gamepad DirectX Version | |
| Spec: DirectX 11 / Vulkan Explanation: Vulkan is highly recommended for Linux users and heavily threaded CPU architectures. | Spec: DirectX 12 Explanation: Essential for the advanced water rendering and dynamic weather systems. |
| info_outline Other Game Notes | |
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info_outline Feature details based on available data. System requirements and performance estimates may vary.
laptop_chromebook Laptop Recommendations
Common Recommendations (Handles All Compared Games)
For Valheim Version 1.0 Specifically
For Windrose Specifically
info_outline Laptop recommendations are estimates based on available component benchmarks and game requirements. Actual performance may vary depending on settings, drivers, cooling, power limits, etc. Prices and availability subject to change. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.