PC ports are a bit of a mixed bag these days with dozens of examples of ports gone bad and missed opportunities for bringing PC players titles that were previously only available to console gamers. That being said, there are also some stunning and shining examples of PC ports or versions of games done right including the recent Resident Evil 4 remake, all of the Tomb Raider series by Nixxes, and even the recent efforts by Sony. The Last of Us Part I is finally available for PC and to say it’s been met with some issues would be a massive understatement. For us though, we’ve had quite a positive experience so far which may be due to the hardware we are running it on.

Before we dive into our own experience thus far, let’s take a look at the official minimum and recommended specs for the game.

“MINIMUM:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 (Version 1909 or Newer)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1500X, Intel Core i7-4770K
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 470 (4 GB), AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (4 GB), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4 GB), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4 GB)
Storage: 100 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD Recommended

RECOMMENDED:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 (Version 1909 or Newer)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel Core i7-8700
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB), AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8 GB), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (8 GB), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (8 GB)
Storage: 100 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD Recommended”

Let’s be completely clear and honest about something right up front: If you are trying to play most modern PC games with hardware below or at minimum requirements, your experience is most likely going to suck. It’s just the way it is. With testing and playing games since the late 80s, I have come to find that in most circumstances, you are going to want to be closer to recommended specs and even then, you still might not have the best experience and that is definitely the case with The Last of Us Part I and to be fair, many other PC games I have reviewed or tested as of late.

Surprisingly, VRAM (Video RAM) has been a massive bottleneck for several games this year, even on lower settings and resolutions. Here are a few examples of average active VRAM utilization on a few recent titles.

The Last of Us Part I: 16GB of VRAM
Hogwarts Legacy: 18GB of VRAM
Diablo IV Beta: 21GB of VRAM
Resident Evil 4 Remake: 9GB of VRAM
Everspace 2: 8GB of VRAM

Those are not typos. On our 4090 RTX which has 24GB of VRAM, with max settings at 4K resolution, these games are actively using way more than even the recommended specs. Granted, some games will use a lot less VRAM if you lower settings, especially texture quality but for some games even after adjusting the quality settings, we didn’t notice a large reduction in VRAM utilization. Now, for our less technical readers, why should you care? Because when a game is starved of VRAM you tend to run into pauses, stuttering, low FPS, and overall just a poor experience. Although VRAM is far from the most important spec in consideration while building or upgrading a gaming PC, from recent gaming experiences, I’ve seen more VRAM utilization by games than in any previous year in history.

Back to the subject at hand. With the latest patch and our PC specs below, so far, The Last of Us Part I on PC has absolutely fantastic to play and definitely a stunner to look at as well. Is it the most optimized port I’ve seen? Not even close. Our GPU utilization during the game was occasionally very high and even maxed out in some scenes. Does it look and play fantastic with beefy specs? 100%. Hopefully, the folks at Sony, Iron Galaxy, and Naughty Dog can continue to roll out optimizations, patches, and improvements so more people with different PC specs, including those meeting the recommended specs, can enjoy this masterpiece of a game in its full glory. Look for our full review of the PC version coming soon.

Our PC Specs