Since not everybody can afford a powerful graphics card, a high amount of RAM, or a great processor for his laptop or desktop PC, we thought that it would be a good idea to make a special list. The roster includes some of the best games with decent graphics we know that also work on low RAM PCs.
Without being willing to offend anyone, the best option is still to consider upgrading your PC at some point or buying a new one. Hardware parts for PC are extremely cheap nowadays, especially if you buy them refurbished or second-hand.
Behold the list, along with the minimum supported amount of RAM:
Mafia II (256MB of RAM)
Mafia II is considered by many the best gangster game ever made, and for good reasons. Released in 2010, this game remains a masterpiece of the action-adventure genre. It’s doing great in all areas, from soundtracks, shooting effects, story, etc. The game also has some incredible graphics for its minimum supported 256MB of RAM, and that’s one formula that many game developers would like to learn! Even the facial expressions of characters as they speak are realistic.
The player mainly controls Vito Scaletta, who came to Empire Bay in the late ’40s after getting involved in the war in Europe. Hoping that he’ll get rid of a life full of danger, he’ll once again get into a lot of trouble and a new life full of killing and shooting along with his buddy Joe Barbaro.
FIFA 13 (2GB of RAM)
If you’re into football, you should definitely give the FIFA series a try! FIFA 13 was one of the best football simulations out there, and it has 30 leagues, as well as lots of clubs and national teams. The best football is played in Europe in FIFA 13 as well, and the game requires only 2GB of RAM and a 3D accelerated 256 MB graphics card with support for Pixel Shader 3.0, just to say the least.
GTA 4 (2GB of RAM)
The prequel of the insanely-popular GTA 5, the less-known GTA 4, was released back in 2008 and still has an impressive fanbase today, 14 years later. That’s conclusive enough!
GTA 4 presents the story of Niko Bellic, who came to Liberty City after escaping the war in Yugoslavia. He’ll have to do all kinds of mercenary tasks to survive in the new city, and that’s where all the “fun” begins. Niko will get involved in lots of shootings, car theft, chases, and a lot more that completes one of the best role-playing open-world games of all time. Last but not least, the dialogues in this game, especially those between Niko and his cousin Roman, are amusing as hell!
The main hardware requests of GTA 4 are 2GB and 256MB of virtual RAM for the graphics card. It also requires 16GB of free space on the storage drive – although it means nothing nowadays, it wasn’t so easy back in 2008 to have that much free space on a PC.
World of Tanks (2GB of RAM)
World of Tanks (WOT) is an MMORPG released in 2010, but it has received tons of updates since that date! It even gets regular updates today. Despite being a completely online game, you shouldn’t worry even for a second that you won’t have who to play against in WOT! The servers are always full of gamers competing against one another from various parts of the world.
As you’ve already guessed, WOT is all about tanks. The armored vehicles are faithfully recreated from WWII. You’ll start off with not too advanced tanks. But as soon as you progress, you’ll get the chance to buy more powerful ones.
World of Tanks works on a minimum of 2GB of RAM, a graphics card such as NVIDIA GeForce 8600, ATI Radeon HD 4550, or something better, etc. Also, you’ll have to keep in mind that the game will demand a pretty big chunk out of your storage drive: 60GB.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2GB of RAM)
We get it, you consider Counter-Strike 1.6 to be a great game, but you’re tired of those 2000-style graphics. That’s why Valve released Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) in 2012, a game featuring pretty much all the basic gameplay elements from 1.6, but with improved gameplay quality and not to mention the graphics! CS: GO made many fans of the series forget about the good old CS 1.6. Even today, ten years after its release, CS: GO remains a highly-played game online.
Requiring a minimum of 2GB of RAM, a graphics card with at least 256MB, and an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 2.4 GHz / AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 2.4 GHz, or something better, CS: GO is clearly not too demanding when it comes to hardware configuration.
Sniper Elite 3 (2GB of RAM)
Sniper Elite 3 is a 2014 tactical stealth shooter where you get to be in the shoes of Karl Fairburne in his attempt to take down the Nazis in WWII. This game’s location is set in Africa, and your character can use a wide range of options to defeat the enemy: grenades, traps, booby traps, silent pistols, machine guns, etc. But the trademark of the Sniper Elite series remains the sniper here as well, along with his signature kill-cam that allows you to see the bullet as it pierces through the organs of the enemy in slow-motion. Fantastic game!
Despite having decent graphics, Sniper Elite 3 works on a minimum configuration of 2GB of RAM and a video card that has 256MB of VRAM.
Sniper Elite V2 (2GB of RAM)
If you like Sniper Elite 3, you may also become a fan of its predecessor that was released two years before, which is Sniper Elite V2. The location of V2 is set in Germany, and we have to say right from the start that the controls in this prequel are a bit clunky. They don’t work as smoothly as they do in Sniper Elite 3, but still, Sniper Elite V2 is an incredibly fun game to play if you’re into tactical stealth shooters! The protagonist also has pretty much the same range of weapons as he does in the 2014 title.
Sniper Elite V2 works on a minimum of 2GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 series / ATI Radeon HD 3870 or something better for the graphics card.
Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army 2 (2GB of RAM)
Rebellion has also added Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army 2 to its Sniper Elite series in late 2013, and it was seen as a great idea for those willing to use Karl Fairburne’s bag of tricks in taking down totally evil creatures. The player will have to defeat hordes of zombies and demons as they come toward him. The Nazis have made some deals with the forces of evil this time. This game is more of a shooter rather than being tactical and stealthy, as most of the enemies will just blindly go toward the protagonist and try to kill him as soon as they come close enough. They can’t be fooled too much, but still, each level can be hard as hell!
Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army 2 works on a minimum of 2GB of RAM and a graphics card of just 256MB of virtual memory.
If the games listed here won’t work in a decent way for your low RAM PC, you always have the option to lower the graphics settings a bit from the games’ menus. Surely many more exciting games could be added to the list, so we’re counting on YOU to tell us in the comment section about your own favorite games for low RAM PCs!