Civilization V drops to $7.49 in 2K's Autumn Sale: can your PC run it?

2K kicked off its Autumn Sale on Steam today, October 1, and Sid Meier’s Civilization V is down to $7.49, 75% off. The deal runs through October 8. It’s a 2010 game with a 90 on Metacritic that still pulls 14,848 concurrent players, and if the price has you tempted, the hardware question is an easy one: it asks for very little, and every GPU on our list runs it with room to spare.

Civilization V PC requirements

These are the Windows requirements from the Steam store page:

The store page still lists Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7 as the OS. The detail that matters most for a modest PC is that the minimum accepts Core i3 or better integrated graphics, so you don’t need a dedicated card to get in.

Which GPUs run it

Every popular GPU we checked clears both the minimum and the recommended, and every one of them grades S (Overkill) measured against the recommended requirement. That includes cards that have been around for a while:

• GTX 1650: S, well above the recommended. See what else the GTX 1650 runs.
• RX 580: also S. Here’s the game list for the RX 580.
• GTX 1060 6GB and Arc B580: S on both.

If your machine is older than any of these, check the list of games for low-end PCs: Civilization V gets in with 2 GB of RAM at minimum.

Mac, Linux and Steam Deck

• Steam Deck: Valve rates it Playable, and on canirun it clears the minimum with an S grade against the recommended. Details on Civilization V on Steam Deck.
• Mac: the Aspyr version asks for macOS 10.12 (Sierra), an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.4 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, 8 GB of disk space and 256 MB of VRAM, with GPUs like the Radeon HD 2600 or Intel HD 4000. The recommended steps up to an Intel Quad Core at 2.4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM and 1 GB of VRAM. Two notices: it is not supported on volumes formatted as Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive), and after updates Mac and PC can briefly fall out of sync, during which Mac players can only play multiplayer with other Mac players.
• Linux: the Aspyr version asks for SteamOS or Ubuntu, an Intel Core i3 or AMD A10 at 2.4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, 10 GB of disk space and 1 GB of VRAM. Intel GMA 9XX and HD 3XXX integrated chips will not run it. Aspyr notes that a configuration missing from the list isn’t necessarily incompatible, just untested.

The Mac and Linux versions are available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. For more options, browse games for Mac and games for Linux.

Can your PC run Civilization V?

Here’s how your setup grades against Civilization V and the next two games in the series, which ask for quite a bit more: Civilization VI recommends 8 GB of RAM and Civilization VII recommends 16 GB.

Game	Rec. GPU score	Rec. RAM	Min. RAM	Your PC
Sid Meier's Civilization® V	1,500	4 GB	2 GB	?
Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI	4,500	8 GB	4 GB	?
Sid Meier's Civilization VII	14,300	16 GB	8 GB	?

For your exact grade with your GPU and RAM, head to the Civilization V page.

Sources: Civilization V on Steam, 2K: Autumn Sale on Steam