The prices of computer components continue to skyrocket, making it increasingly difficult for South Africans to upgrade their older PCs.
Thankfully, you don’t need a R30,000 gaming desktop or a GPU with 8GB or 16GB of VRAM to be able to play entertaining titles.
There are plenty of great games that can be played on a ‘potato’ PC, across various genres – whether you just have an old setup, or you only have integrated graphics.
We’ve compiled a list of many popular games which can be run on almost any Windows computer.
None of the games on the list require dedicated graphics, most can run on as little as 2GB of RAM, and some don’t even need a full 1GB of storage space.
The requirements for each game are listed as per its website or launcher.
Note that while many of these games have low requirements of Windows 7 or even XP, the Steam Client from which you may download them only supports Windows 10 and later, as of 2024.
Minecraft: Bedrock or Java
Minecraft is an extremely popular multiplayer world-building game that can be played on PC or console.
The Java edition was first released in 2011, while the Bedrock edition came later in 2017.
It has a 4.7 out of 5 rating on the Minecraft website, across more than 842,000 reviews.
The storage requirements of Minecraft vary significantly, and are not listed on the developer’s website. However, a minimum of 1-4GB is recommended for the base game, while each new world can require significantly more.
Bedrock minimum requirements:
- OS: Windows 10 or higher
- CPU: Intel Celeron J4105 | AMD FX-4100
- RAM: 4GB
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000 | AMD Radeon R5
Java minimum requirements:
- OS: Windows 7 and up | macOS 10.14.5 Mojave and up.
- CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz | AMD A8-7600 APU 3.1 GHz | Apple M1
- RAM: 2GB
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000 | AMD Radeon R5
League of Legends
League of Legends is a free-to-play online battle arena game. It was first released in 2009, and is still one of the most played games in the world.
Minimum requirements:
- OS: Win 10 or 11
- CPU: Intel Core i3-530
- RAM: 2GB
- GPU: GeForce 400 series | AMD HD 6570
- DirectX: 11, 1GB VRAM
- Storage: 16GB
Portal 2
Released in 2011, Portal 2 is a popular puzzle game with ‘overwhelmingly positive’ reviews on Steam.
- OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, or higher
- CPU: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) | AMD64X2 (or higher)
- RAM: 2GB
- GPU: 128 MB or more, ATI Radeon X800 | NVIDIA GeForce 7600 | Intel HD Graphics 2000
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 8GB
Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is an open-ended RPG game where you learn to live off the land of an old farm plot.
It is a single or multiplayer game that was launched in 2016, and is rated ‘overwhelmingly positive’ on Steam.
Minimum requirements:
- OS: Windows Vista or greater
- CPU: 2Ghz
- RAM: 2GB
- GPU: 256mb video memory, shader model 3.0+
- DirectX: Version 10
- Storage: 500MB
Terraria
In Terraria, you will explore and build as you fight to survive across randomly generated worlds.
It is a sandbox game released in 2011, and has ‘overwhelmingly positive’ reviews on Steam.
Minimum requirements:
- OS: Windows Xp, Vista, 7, 8/8.1, 10
- CPU: 2Ghz
- RAM: 2.5GB
- GPU: 128mb Video Memory, capable of Shader Model 2.0+
- DirectX: 9.0c
- Storage: 200MB
Among Us
Among Us is a popular party game that requires players to work together to complete tasks and identify saboteur imposters.
It was released in 2018 and has ‘very positive’ reviews on Steam.
Minimum requirements:
- OS: Windows 10 x32bit
- CPU: Intel i3-4330
- RAM: 1GB
- GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4600
Worms W.M.D
Worms W.M.D is the latest version of an age-old classic. Released in 2016, it is a 2D turn-based game in which opponents rain down hell upon each other to be the last man standing.
It has ‘very positive’ reviews on Steam.
Minimum requirements:
- OS: Windows 7/8.1/10 (32-bit versions)
- CPU: Intel Dual Core 6600 @ 2.4GHz
- RAM: 2GB
- GPU: Intel 4400 | GeForce GTX 280 | AMD Radeon HD 7750
- DirectX: 11
Subnautica
One of the more demanding games in this list, but still relatively lightweight, Subnautica is an underwater adventure game.
It is a singleplayer massive open world game that requires you to scavenge and craft to survive.
Subnautica was released in 2018 and ‘overwhelmingly positive’ reviews on Steam.
Minimum requirements:
- OS: Windows Vista SP2 or newer, 64-bit
- CPU: Intel Haswell 2 cores / 4 threads (running at 2.5Ghz or equivalent)
- RAM: 4GB
- GPU: Intel 4600
- DirectX: 11
- Storage: 20GB
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