{"id":2402,"date":"2023-02-07T13:39:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T13:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/?p=2402"},"modified":"2026-06-15T17:39:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T17:39:48","slug":"sons-of-the-forest-system-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/sons-of-the-forest-system-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Sons Of The Forest System Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before you drop onto the island and start fending off cannibals with Kelvin and Virginia, it pays to know whether your PC can actually run Sons of the Forest<\/strong>. Developed by Endnight Games and published under their own Newnight label, this survival-horror title left Early Access and hit its full 1.0 release on February 22, 2024, and it has continued to receive patches well into 2025. This guide breaks down the official Steam system requirements in full, explains what each spec actually means in practice, and covers what changes when you want smooth eight-player co-op rather than a solo run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Official Sons of the Forest System Requirements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The numbers below are taken verbatim from the official Steam store page<\/a> (App ID 1326470). Both the minimum and recommended tiers note that an SSD is preferred for storage, even though only 20 GB of space is required either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Component<\/th>Minimum<\/th>Recommended<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
OS<\/td>64-bit Windows 10<\/td>64-bit Windows 10<\/td><\/tr>
Processor<\/td>Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X<\/td>Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X<\/td><\/tr>
Memory<\/td>12 GB RAM<\/td>16 GB RAM<\/td><\/tr>
Graphics<\/td>NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB or AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB<\/td>NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT<\/td><\/tr>
DirectX<\/td>Version 11<\/td>Version 11<\/td><\/tr>
Storage<\/td>20 GB available space (SSD preferred)<\/td>20 GB available space (SSD preferred)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few things stand out immediately. First, this is a Windows-only game on the client side \u2014 there is no native macOS or Linux build, and DirectX 11 is the rendering target for both tiers. Second, the storage footprint is modest at 20 GB, which is small for a modern open-world game. Third, the gap between minimum and recommended is wide on the GPU front, jumping from a GTX 1060 3GB all the way to a GTX 1080Ti. That gap tells you a lot about how this game scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the Minimum Specs Actually Get You<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The minimum tier is built around a six-core Intel Core i5-8400 (Coffee Lake, 2017) or an AMD Ryzen 3 3300X (Zen 2, 2020), paired with 12 GB of RAM and a GTX 1060 3GB or RX 570 4GB. This is genuinely a “playable” baseline, not a “looks great” one. On hardware at this level you should expect to run the game at 1080p with lower-to-medium presets, accepting frame dips when the forest gets dense, when fire and physics effects stack up, or when multiple AI enemies swarm you at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 12 GB RAM requirement is a notable detail \u2014 it sits between the more common 8 GB and 16 GB tiers you see elsewhere. In practice, 12 GB means the game wants more than a single 8 GB stick can comfortably give once Windows and a browser are also running. If your machine has exactly 8 GB, you are below spec and will likely hit stutter from memory pressure and disk paging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GTX 1060 3GB call-out is worth flagging: the 3GB variant has less VRAM than the more common 6GB model, so texture-heavy scenes and caves can push that buffer. If you are anywhere near minimum, an SSD is doing real work here \u2014 the “SSD preferred” note exists because streaming the island’s terrain and assets off a mechanical hard drive produces noticeable hitching as you move through the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the Recommended Specs Are For<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The recommended tier steps up to an Intel Core i7-8700K or Ryzen 5 3600X, 16 GB of RAM, and a GTX 1080Ti or RX 5700 XT. This is the configuration to aim for if you want a smooth, high-fidelity 1080p experience or a solid 1440p run with high settings. The big GPU jump from a 1060 to a 1080Ti is what lets you turn up draw distance, foliage density, shadows, and ambient effects \u2014 all of which matter in a game whose horror relies on dense, dark, atmospheric environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CPU upgrade matters too. Sons of the Forest leans on its AI \u2014 cannibal and mutant enemies, plus the companion AI for Kelvin and Virginia \u2014 and AI simulation is CPU-bound. A faster six-core part like the i7-8700K or Ryzen 5 3600X keeps the simulation responsive when several enemies are active and pathfinding around your base at the same time. That is exactly the scenario where a minimum-spec CPU starts to choke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-op and Multiplayer: What Changes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sons of the Forest supports cooperative multiplayer for up to 8 players<\/strong> \u2014 that is a hard cap baked into the game and cannot be raised through config. The published Steam requirements describe the client experience, and they do not separately call out a higher tier for multiplayer. That said, there are practical realities to plan for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you play co-op, every connected client has to simulate more: more players moving and building, more shared structures, and the same demanding enemy AI. The more bases and structures a session accumulates over a long-running save, the heavier the load gets. If you and your friends are at the minimum spec, an eight-person session in a heavily-built world is where you will feel the strain most \u2014 especially on the CPU side. For comfortable eight-player co-op, the recommended tier (or better) on each machine is the realistic target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest single improvement for co-op smoothness, though, isn’t a faster gaming PC at all \u2014 it’s where the world is hosted<\/em>. You can host directly from one player’s game, but that “listen server” ties the whole session to that person’s machine, upload bandwidth, and uptime. The moment they log off, everyone is done for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hosting a Dedicated Server vs. Playing Host<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Endnight ships a free standalone dedicated server tool, and running it offloads world simulation from your gaming rig entirely. That means your group keeps a persistent island that’s always online \u2014 your friends can hop in whenever they like, and your own framerate is no longer competing with the server’s workload. A dedicated Sons of the Forest server<\/a> is the cleanest way to run an always-on eight-player world without burning your own PC’s resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dedicated server uses a different Steam application than the game itself. You install it via SteamCMD using App ID 2465200<\/strong> with anonymous login (no game-ownership credentials required):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

app_update 2465200 validate<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
On Windows the server ships with a batch launcher named StartSOTFDedicated.bat<\/code>, which runs the server executable SonsOfTheForestDS.exe<\/code>. There is no native Linux binary \u2014 Linux hosting works only by forcing the Windows build in SteamCMD (+@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows<\/code>) and running the executable under Wine, often headless via xvfb. That is why most managed hosts and Docker images for this game run a Wine-wrapped Windows server under the hood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The server is configured through a JSON file named dedicatedserver.cfg<\/code>. A trimmed default looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
{\n  \"IpAddress\": \"0.0.0.0\",\n  \"GamePort\": 8766,\n  \"QueryPort\": 27016,\n  \"BlobSyncPort\": 9700,\n  \"ServerName\": \"Sons Of The Forest Server (dedicated)\",\n  \"MaxPlayers\": 8,\n  \"Password\": \"\",\n  \"LanOnly\": false,\n  \"SaveSlot\": 1,\n  \"SaveMode\": \"Continue\",\n  \"GameMode\": \"Normal\",\n  \"SaveInterval\": 600\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The key fields to know:<\/p>\n\n\n\n