SOMA: PC Requirements & Best Hardware (2026)

SOMA is a first-person sci-fi horror game from Frictional Games, the studio behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and it has been out since September 2015. That age matters when you plan a build: the official requirements were written for hardware from around 2010, so nearly any gaming PC assembled in the last decade will run it. This guide covers the official minimum and recommended specs, which GPUs make sense at 1080p, 1440p and 4K, and complete build suggestions — plus what to do if the game isn’t running the way you want.

How Demanding Is SOMA?

SOMA is light on PC hardware, and it’s worth being clear about that up front. Frictional’s engine renders tight, fog-heavy underwater corridors rather than sprawling open worlds, and the official minimum is a GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 5750 with 4 GB of RAM — cards that launched in 2008 and 2009. The official recommended spec, a GTX 480 or HD 5970 with 8 GB of RAM, is equally modest by today’s standards. Even integrated Intel HD 4000-series graphics will run the game, although Frictional notes they come with issues. In practice: if you own any discrete GPU from the last ten years, you can play SOMA. The only real question is how much resolution and how many effects you want to push.

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SOMA Official PC System Requirements

Source: the official SOMA Steam store listing (app 282140), checked October 2026. Publishers can update these specs after patches.

Best GPU for SOMA by Resolution

1080p

At 1080p SOMA is easy work for modern hardware. A card as old as the GTX 1050 Ti or RX 570 already clears the official recommended spec, and current entry-level options such as the GeForce RTX 5060 or Radeon RX 9060 XT are far beyond anything the game can use — they will spend most of their time idle. If you’re buying with SOMA alone in mind, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 is already more card than this game needs; treat it as a sensible pick if you also play newer titles alongside it.

1440p

1440p roughly doubles the pixel count of 1080p, but SOMA’s rendering load is small enough that mid-range cards handle it without strain. A GTX 1660 Super, RTX 3060 or RX 6600 is plenty, and a GeForce RTX 5060 or Radeon RX 9060 XT gives you a generous margin. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is well beyond what SOMA requires at this resolution — it’s the sort of card you buy for other games and simply enjoy the headroom here. This is the resolution most PC gamers target, and SOMA is not the title that will stress a modern card at it.

4K

4K is where SOMA finally asks something of your GPU, purely because you’re pushing four times the pixels of 1080p through a 2015 renderer. A GeForce RTX 3060 or RX 6600 XT and up is enough at this resolution, and modern options like the RTX 5070 or RX 9070 are overkill. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER will run SOMA at 4K without breaking a sweat, and it leaves plenty of room for the newer games in your library. Nothing about this game needs a flagship.

CPU, RAM and Storage for SOMA

SOMA is not a CPU-heavy game. It’s a single-player, story-driven horror title with no simulation systems, no large multiplayer lobbies and no heavy AI load, so the official recommendation of a Core i5 or AMD FX processor at 2.4 GHz — roughly 2010-era silicon — tells you everything. Any modern processor, including budget quad-cores, will run it. The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is far more than SOMA needs, and the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D or the Intel Core i5-14600K are choices you’d make for newer games, not for this one. Memory is just as undemanding: 4 GB is the official minimum and 8 GB the official recommendation, so 16 GB is comfortable headroom and a Corsair Vengeance DDR5 32GB kit is far more than this game will ever touch. For storage, SOMA needs 25 GB of free space. An SSD is not required, but installing it on a drive like the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD shortens load times and keeps things tidy.

Recommended PC Builds for SOMA

1080p budget build: AMD Radeon RX 7600 + AMD Ryzen 5 7600 + 16 GB DDR5 — enormously overspecced for SOMA, which would run happily on hardware from a decade earlier. Build this if you want one machine for this game and newer ones.

1440p sweet-spot build: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER + AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D + 32 GB DDR5 + 2TB NVMe SSD — far more than SOMA requires at any resolution, let alone 1440p. Choose it as a general-purpose gaming build, not as a SOMA build.

4K high-end build: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER + AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D + 32 GB DDR5 + fast NVMe SSD — comfortable 4K in SOMA, and plenty of capacity left over for demanding modern titles.

Is It Worth Upgrading Your PC for SOMA?

Honestly, no — not for SOMA by itself. If your current machine has any discrete graphics card from the last decade, a dual-core-or-better CPU and 8 GB of RAM, it already meets or beats the official recommendation, and an upgrade won’t change much. If you’re upgrading anyway for newer games, be strategic: the graphics card delivers by far the biggest jump in gaming performance, so upgrade the GPU first if you have to choose. A mid-range CPU from the last few years will not hold back a modern GPU in this game, so you can usually keep it. SOMA also needs only 25 GB of space, so it fits comfortably on whatever drive you already have. Rather than replacing everything at once, target the weakest link in your build for the best value — and if SOMA is genuinely the only game you care about, a modest second-hand card is more than sufficient.

Can You Play SOMA on a Laptop or Handheld?

Gaming laptops with a discrete mobile GPU from the last several years run SOMA at 1080p without strain — older mobile chips like the GTX 1050 laptop GPU already beat the official recommended desktop card. Expect the usual laptop caveats of fan noise and shorter battery life rather than any real performance worry. On handhelds such as the Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Legion Go, this is an easy game: it predates all of them by years and its requirements are a fraction of what those devices deliver, making it a great portable pick for a horror playthrough. If portability matters, prioritise a device with a decent screen and pair it with a fast microSD or SSD — SOMA’s 25 GB install fits comfortably either way.

How to Boost FPS in SOMA

SOMA predates DLSS, FSR, XeSS and frame generation, so there is no in-game upscaler to lean on. If you need more performance, driver-level scaling that renders below your monitor’s native resolution is the closest equivalent, and it delivers the single biggest gain. Otherwise, lower the settings that are typically heaviest in a game like this — shadows, anti-aliasing and post-processing effects — before dropping resolution wholesale. Keep your GPU drivers up to date, close background apps, and install the game on an SSD if you have one; load times improve noticeably even though frame rates won’t. If your frame rate is unstable rather than simply low, capping it to match your monitor’s refresh rate usually feels smoother than leaving it uncapped.

Graphics Settings That Matter Most in SOMA

SOMA’s options are limited compared with modern releases: it’s a 2015 OpenGL title with no ray tracing, no upscaling and no frame generation, so there is no single magic switch to flip. The settings that usually cost the most in a game like this are shadow quality, anti-aliasing and post-processing effects, so those are the first things to lower if the game isn’t running the way you want.

Textures can generally stay high, since the game’s memory footprint is small and its assets were authored for hardware a decade old. If you want a bigger jump, reduce your render resolution or drop to a lower display resolution — on a 4K monitor, running at 1440p costs you very little visually in a dark, atmospheric horror game and frees up a lot of performance. Above all, don’t expect to fight the game’s settings menu for headroom; on any reasonably modern GPU, SOMA simply isn’t a title that needs tuning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my PC run SOMA?

Very likely yes. The official minimum is a GTX 260 or Radeon HD 5750-class GPU, a Core i3 or AMD A6 at 2.4 GHz, and 4 GB of RAM; the official recommendation is a GTX 480 or Radeon HD 5970, a Core i5 or AMD FX at 2.4 GHz, and 8 GB of RAM. Any PC built in the last decade clears both, and integrated Intel HD 4000-series graphics will even run it with some issues. You need 25 GB of free storage space.

Is SOMA demanding on PC?

No. SOMA is a light, decade-old game, and its official requirements target hardware from around 2010. Almost any dedicated graphics card handles it at 1080p and beyond.

What GPU do I need for SOMA at 1440p 60fps?

A mid-range card is more than enough — something in the GTX 1660 Super, RTX 3060 or RX 6600 class will handle 1440p in SOMA comfortably. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is well past what this game requires at that resolution, so choose a card in that tier only if you want the headroom for newer titles.

How much RAM does SOMA need?

The official minimum is 4 GB and the official recommendation is 8 GB, so SOMA is unusually modest by modern standards. 16 GB is a sensible baseline if you play other games on the same machine, but the game itself will never come close to using it, and faster DDR5 memory makes no measurable difference here.

Do I need an SSD for SOMA?

No. The game requires 25 GB of free space and will run from a mechanical hard drive. An SSD shortens load times and is a nice quality-of-life upgrade — a drive like the Samsung 990 Pro is far beyond what the game needs, but it’s a good choice for your library as a whole.