Overwatch is an esport played by more than 5 million people worldwide. However, there are many others who have stopped playing it but still enjoy watching The Overwatch League and betting on it. Among those who are new to Overwatch and want to give it a shot, many have wondered what the Overwatch system requirements are. In this guide, you will learn more about the topic and hopefully get most of your questions answered.

The Basics of Overwatch System Requirements

The game was launched in 2016 and as a result, it takes advantage of many technologies that were developed after 2010. If you have an ancient PC from 8 – 10 years ago, you might need to upgrade it before you can run Overwatch.

Overwatch Minimum Requirements

On Blizzard’s Battlenet page, you quickly learn that the minimum system requirements for Overwatch are not very high relative to what today’s computers are capable of.

·       Operating System: Windows 7+ on 64-bit with the latest Service Pack

·       Processor: Intel Core i3 or AMD Phenom X3 8650

·       GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 / Intel HD Graphics 4400 / ATI Radeon HD 4850

·       Memory: 4GB RAM

·       Storage: 30GB of available HDD space

·       Resolution: 1024 x 768 (minimum display resolution)

The easiest way to know if your PC satisfies these requirements is to check the scores of your processor and video card on one of the top benchmark websites. There, you will quickly see the score of your CPU and GPU, compared to other models. What you’re interested in is how good is your CPU and your GPU compared to the minimum Overwatch system requirements for these components. If your score is above them, you’re probably good to go. But if it’s not, you should consider upgrading your PC.

Of course, if you already own the game, you could just test it anyway and see if it works properly. But if you haven’t bought it and your PC doesn’t satisfy the minimum requirements, chances are you won’t be able to play it on your current PC.

One of the big questions that people have when trying to make sure that their pc system can run Overwatch is this: Intel Core i3 or AMD Phenom? Both CPUs are low to mid range in terms of quality and the difference between them is not too significant.

Recommended Overwatch System Requirements

It’s one thing to play Overwatch with very low settings and it’s another thing to play it on ultra. If you really want to enjoy the game to its fullest, you will need a considerably better PC than what the minimum Overwatch requirements indicate.

·       Processor: Intel Core i5 or AMD Phenom II X3 (or better)

·       GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 / ATI Radeon HD 7950 or better

·       Memory: 6GB RAM

Given that you will most likely run other programs while playing Overwatch, you should consider upgrading to 8 or even 16GB RAM, as well as a better GPU, such as GTX 1050 TI.

If you’re interested in Overwatch system requirements on a laptop, the same rules apply.

How to Install Overwatch on a Mac

So far, the game has not been made available for the Macintosh. However, you can still play the game on a Mac by using Apple’s Boot Camp, a utility that allows you to download and run Windows on your computer. So, all you need to do is install Boot Camp, then Windows, and then Overwatch. The minimum system requirements are the ones presented above.

Thinking Ahead

Even if you only want to play Overwatch on the lowest settings and don’t care much about the quality of your gaming sessions, you should still consider buying a gaming PC with a better graphics card, in anticipation of Overwatch 2. The sequel will be released around mid-2022 and its system requirements will be considerably higher than those of its predecessor. In gaming, 6 years is a long time and Blizzard will almost certainly offer us a beautiful visual experience, provided we have the right PC specs.

Overwatch 2 System Requirements

At the moment, the Overwatch 2 system requirements are not known. However, the gaming community is full of debates and speculation around this topic. Many seem to agree that the game will indeed be more demanding and even offer exact specifications.

Minimum Overwatch 2 system requirements (hypothetically, of course):

·       Operating System: Windows 7+ on 64-bit with the latest Service Pack

·       Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 or AMD FX-6300

·       GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 / Intel HD Graphics 4600 / ATI Radeon HD 5850

·       Memory: 4GB RAM

·       Storage: 40GB of available HDD space

Recommended Overwatch 2 system requirements:

·       Operating System: Windows 7+ on 64-bit with the latest Service Pack

·       Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX-8350

·       GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 / ATI Radeon R9 270

·       Memory: 6GB RAM

·       Storage: 40GB of available HDD space

This recommended system might be turn out to be a bit weaker than what the game will actually demand on ultra settings. The PC system that’s more likely to be appropriate is one notch higher both in the GPU as well as in the CPU department.

Another thing you need to keep in mind here is that Blizzard tends to delay its games. So even though the release date for Overwatch 2 is somewhere in 2022, there’s a decent chance that we might only get to see it in 2023. And between now and then, who knows what else will be added to it and what technologies will be used? Such improvements would make the recommended requirements more demanding.

If you’re a serious gamer, you should never let your PC get ancient. This is even more true today than it was 5 years ago, because the advancements that took place over the last 5 years have been staggering. The GeForce 10 series was released in May 2016. Just think about how much better this series was compared to everything that came before, and just how much better the sequels got.