Stronghold: Warlords: PC requirements and the PC you need

About Stronghold: Warlords

Stronghold: Warlords is a castle-building strategy game from Firefly Studios, set across ancient China, Japan and Vietnam. You build a working castle economy, raise armies and gunpowder siege weapons, and win over computer-controlled warlords who then fight on your side. There are campaigns and skirmishes to play alone, plus online co-op and head-to-head battles, and Steam Workshop mods. The makers recommend a GTX 970 or R9 290 and 16 GB of memory, so a mid-range gaming PC runs it well.

What Stronghold: Warlords needs

In plain words: to play at all it needs basic graphics: built-in graphics on a modern processor, or an old entry-level card, and to play it well the makers suggest an entry-level graphics card, with 16GB of memory.

A low-spec PC or a high-spec PC?

The gap between the minimum and recommended spec is modest, so a mid-range gaming PC gives a good experience.

On a PC that only just meets the minimum, the game will start and play, but on low settings: simpler shadows and textures, shorter view distances and fewer frames each second, so fast moments can feel less smooth. A 1080p screen is the sensible match.

On a PC that meets or beats the recommended spec, you can turn the settings up: sharper textures, proper shadows and lighting, more detail in the distance, and a smoother picture. A stronger PC also lets you use a sharper 1440p or high-refresh screen.

Questions about Stronghold: Warlords on PC

How we match: we compare the graphics card and the memory in each PC with the makers' spec, because those decide most of how a game runs. For very new or demanding games, ask us and we will check the processor too. More help: graphics cards explained, how much RAM, which screen.