Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines

By Luigi R. Updated: June 2026

To run Cities: Skylines (2015) on PC you need at least a Intel® Core™ I7 930 | AMD® FX 6350 processor and a Nvidia® GeForce™ GTS 450 (1 GB) | AMD® R7 250 (2 GB) | Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake), with 8GB of RAM and 4GB of free storage. For higher settings and frame rates, the recommended specs are a Intel® Core™ I7 2700K | AMD® Ryzen 7 2700X and a Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 580 (1.5 GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 560 (4 GB) with 16GB of RAM. Check your exact PC against Cities: Skylines with our free Can I Run It tool, estimate your frame rate with the FPS Estimator, or see the best GPU for Cities: Skylines.

System Requirements

Minimum
  • CPU: Intel® Core™ I7 930 | AMD® FX 6350
  • GPU: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTS 450 (1 GB) | AMD® R7 250 (2 GB) | Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake)
  • RAM: 8
  • Storage: 4
Recommended
  • CPU: Intel® Core™ I7 2700K | AMD® Ryzen 7 2700X
  • GPU: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 580 (1.5 GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 560 (4 GB)
  • RAM: 16
  • Storage: 4

Building a PC to play Cities: Skylines at its best

Meeting the Cities: Skylines minimum requirements (a Nvidia® GeForce™ GTS 450 (1 GB) | AMD® R7 250 (2 GB) | Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake)) is enough to launch the game, but it won't give you high frame rates at 1440p or 4K. The recommended Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 580 (1.5 GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 560 (4 GB) is a solid target, and stepping up to a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080 or Radeon RX 9070 XT gives you the headroom for ultra settings, ray tracing and high-refresh play. On mid-range cards, DLSS 4 and FSR frame generation can lift Cities: Skylines's frame rate substantially, while a flagship RTX 5090 drives 4K at maximum settings.

The processor matters just as much: pairing your graphics card with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D or an Intel Core Ultra, at least 16GB (ideally 32GB) of DDR5 RAM and a fast Gen5 NVMe SSD removes the stutter and long load times that can hold Cities: Skylines back. For modern textures at 4K, aim for a GPU with 12–16GB of VRAM so you never run short.

The same premium components also decide whether your rig is VR ready: if you game in virtual reality on a Meta Quest 3, Valve Index or PlayStation VR2, a strong GPU and CPU are what hold a steady 90 FPS. Check your exact setup against Cities: Skylines with the free Can I Run It tool, or see the best GPU for Cities: Skylines.

Cities: Skylines — Frequently Asked Questions

What are the minimum requirements for Cities: Skylines?
Cities: Skylines needs at least a Intel® Core™ I7 930 | AMD® FX 6350 CPU and a Nvidia® GeForce™ GTS 450 (1 GB) | AMD® R7 250 (2 GB) | Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake) graphics card, 8GB of RAM and 4GB of storage.

What are the recommended specs for Cities: Skylines?
For a smooth experience, Cities: Skylines recommends a Intel® Core™ I7 2700K | AMD® Ryzen 7 2700X and a Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 580 (1.5 GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 560 (4 GB) with 16GB of RAM.

How much RAM does Cities: Skylines need?
Cities: Skylines requires 8GB of RAM as a minimum, with 16GB recommended.

What GPU do you need to run Cities: Skylines?
The minimum graphics card for Cities: Skylines is a Nvidia® GeForce™ GTS 450 (1 GB) | AMD® R7 250 (2 GB) | Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake), while a Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 580 (1.5 GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 560 (4 GB) is recommended for higher settings. Check any GPU against this game with our Can I Run It tool.