False Minimum Hardware Requirements

Hmm, I actually do agree that it is certainly something fixable on GGG's end and NOT a hardware issue.

Software runs into this kind of stuff all the time: developers are always looking to optimize and so they test all the aspects of the game. If the shader cache is indeed taking up an inordinate amount of resources, or otherwise not functioning optimally (no matter WHAT your personal device performance is), then that is something GGG needs to fix on their end.


Void, you have a super uber powerful machine (according to your signature) and likely don't notice any issue to even analyze if it IS an issue. But that doesn't mean it isn't there. A sufficiently strong device can mask many ubiquitous issues. Mask, but not fix. Even your machine is suffering in silence.

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cowmoo275#3095 wrote:

Void, you have a super uber powerful machine (according to your signature) and likely don't notice any issue to even analyze if it IS an issue. But that doesn't mean it isn't there. A sufficiently strong device can mask many ubiquitous issues. Mask, but not fix. Even your machine is suffering in silence.

Of course I don’t encounter performance issues. My system is built for high-demand professional workloads far beyond anything PoE could ever require, while high-performance gaming is simply a natural side effect due to carefully selected components. Most people wouldn’t fully grasp just how overbuilt it is for PoE.

So of course it would be a shame if the game ran poorly on my system. If it did, that would be a legitimate reason to point fingers at the developers and demand they fix their game. However, you don’t need extreme hardware to achieve excellent performance.
Even relatively recent and cheap mid-tier systems run the game smoothly.

For example, my mid-level laptop, which I use occasionally while traveling, has no issues with PoE. It is modest, nothing extraordinary, but it is also not decade-old hardware or a bare-bones, entry-level Minecraft rig from six years ago. Despite being a laptop with inherently lower performance than a desktop and even having a disgusting Intel CPU, it still runs the game with minimal issues. The only real problem is that it gets hot over longer gaming sessions, but that happens with literally every laptop no matter what game you play because laptops are just overall bad lol.
The device cost less than 1.2k USD a few years ago, so naturally, a desktop PC with similar or better specs will perform just as fine as the laptop or better.

The performance struggles are not due to the game itself or any refusal by GGG to address non-existent issues. The real cause is outdated, entry-level, or decade-old hardware that simply cannot keep up. Such systems will not improve over time, and they cannot handle the engine as it becomes increasingly demanding. What GGG has not done is issue clear guidance on realistic hardware requirements for the modern version of the game, which would help users understand that their outdated PCs are the actual limitation.

Ideally, the game could include a system check on startup, similar to the outdated GPU driver notification, that warns users if their hardware falls below the recommended requirements and that performance issues may occur. The issue is not the engine; it is weak hardware.

The only way they could “band-aid” fix the game for players with suboptimal hardware would be to undo years of updates and improvements, which will never happen. They are not going to revert PoE to its 2013 appearance just to make the game run somewhat smooth for the tiny minority of players stubbornly clinging to their weak, aging landfiller rigs which just can't keep up in terms of power anymore.

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VoidWhisperer42#5989 wrote:

They are not going to revert PoE to its 2013 appearance just to make the game run somewhat smooth for the tiny minority of players stubbornly clinging to their weak, aging landfiller rigs which just can't keep up in terms of power anymore.

That "tiny minority" is about 70% of steam users according to Valve's yearly surveys that scan your PC. 70% of steam users have PCs less powerful than the Gabecube TM that will be coming out in 2026. The average PC Specs of steam users is pretty much around what my PC is like.

Not only that, but people with good PCs are also affected by the countless bugs and bad optimization and shader problems. Ofc having a NASA PC will let you ignore the problems, doesn't mean they aren't there though. Just means you have a CPU and SSD fast enough to ignore how unoptimized the game is.

When people have to sit there for 3 minutes waiting for shaders to load on a map they've done 100+ times, there's a problem with the game. Obviously you can just ignore the full shader bar and do the map anyway, but that strains your PC unnecessarily and can even damage some of your parts if it gets too bad lol

And PoE 2 is just getting the same bugs and performance issues aswell, there's literally a clip of a streamer where his textures turn to potato clay mush-mode. People are crashing on certain GPUs and stuff. The game just hasn't had any optimization in forever.

I got my PC in 2019 and the game ran perfectly well from Harvest league all the way up until 3.26. Then suddenly one patch bricks it all. Its the game, and they need to actually test it on their minimum requirements set on the store page and optimize it so it can be playable on those specs.

Also "landfiller rigs" is a bit rude, I love my PC and its served me beautifully ever since I got it as a present. It runs other games at 60 fps just fine. Some people just gotta use what they have, some of us live in countries where its like 3x more expensive to get a new PC. And my only hope is that I randomly luck out and get a new one somehow for free lmfao

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

That "tiny minority" is about 70% of steam users according to Valve's yearly surveys that scan your PC. 70% of steam users have PCs less powerful than the Gabecube TM that will be coming out in 2026. The average PC Specs of steam users is pretty much around what my PC is like.

I do not know what to tell you, but if you look at the statistics, you would see that the average user already has specs similar to your GabeCube, and it also shows that the average user is far ahead of what you have, with only a very small fraction falling below those requirements.

I am not sure where you are getting that 70% figure, but it would not be the first time you have made up numbers. To be completely honest without ruining your hype, the Steam system is going to perform similarly to a console. Naturally, any PC with specs above what a PS5 offers will perform better, and it is not difficult to build or acquire a rig that meets those requirements. The sad reality is that, despite how affordable it is to reach console-level performance, some people continue to use hardware below those specs and then complain that games are too demanding for their aging and underpowered systems.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Not only that, but people with good PCs are also affected by the countless bugs and bad optimization and shader problems. Ofc having a NASA PC will let you ignore the problems, doesn't mean they aren't there though. Just means you have a CPU and SSD fast enough to ignore how unoptimized the game is.

You do not need what you call a NASA PC to run the game smoothly. A recent mid tier system is more than enough to give you solid performance in modern games. Naturally, older and weaker hardware will eventually struggle to keep up. The game is generally well optimized, but not specifically around what your hardware can handle. That is simply a fact.

It is well optimized unless you deliberately create over the top scenarios to test how many particles and projectiles can be on screen at once. Most players avoid this because it is far from the most effective way to build a character. But if you are already struggling with something as simple as entering a town, I am not sure what to tell you. Your PC is clearly screaming for help.


But let’s have a real look at the statistics and compare them with what you’ve got, shall we?

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

My specs:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-9400F CPU @ 2.90GHz 2.90 GHz
16,0 GB RAM
932 GB HDD ST1000DM010-2EP102, 238 GB SSD ADATA SU800NS38 (PoE is on this SSD)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4 GB)
Windows 10 Pro

You got a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4 GB of VRAM, which was essentially an entry level card years ago. Looking at the statistics, only 5.98% of users have 4 GB of VRAM, while 33.36% already have 8 GB, the same amount the GabeCube advertises. If we expand the range to include everyone with 6 to 12 GB of VRAM, which still falls outside the high end category, a striking 74.38% of users already have a gpu that surpasses yours in terms of Vram performance, and naturally because of that performance overall.. I did not even account for those with less than 4 GB of VRAM because realistically those players will not attempt games that demand more than their hardware can handle. They might stick to casual titles like Farmville or use applications such as Wallpaper Engine, but that is about it.
To top it off, about 2% of users rock a GPU performing the same as yours, so in essence, the average user already has the exact same GPU performance as what’s going to be in the GabeCube.

Next, you have 16 GB of RAM, which, given the rest of your PC specs, is likely very slow DDR3. Looking at the Steam charts, 40.94% of users have 16 GB of RAM, but roughly the same proportion already use more than 16 GB, and they benefit from modern RAM with naturally faster clock speeds and better overall performance. Unfortunately, Steam does not show RAM speed, perhaps for good reason, as it would only paint an even sadder picture of the reality.

Next up is your storage space. Realistically, it does not matter that much, but it does help with loading times. Since Steam does not provide specifics, it is hard to determine realistic outcomes. However, you essentially have an entry level SSD from years ago with relatively slow read and write speeds. By comparison, the lowest possible option on the GabeCube offers twice as much capacity as your SSD and will perform faster simply because it uses modern technology. In terms of storage, you are already behind what the average user has, buddy.

Let’s move on to your i5-9400F. It was already considered entry level back in 2019, almost 7 years ago. Steam doesn’t really provide specifics on the clock speeds of AMD CPUs either, but looking at what the average user has, it is clear that no one is pairing mid to high-end components with an entry level CPU from 2019. Naturally, newer low-end CPUs and anything above that will perform better, so your specs are once again far from what the average user has. If we look at what the typical user might have, it aligns well with what the GabeCube advertises, which is already miles ahead of your 7-year-old entry level CPU in terms of performance. Even the latest entry level Ryzen CPUs will outperform your i5-9400F day and night without breaking a sweat, and at a much more affordable price.

And let's not forget one stunning key component, you’re still running Windows 10, an operating system that’s essentially unsupported at this point. The majority of users have already upgraded to Windows 11 for obvious reasons. It’s also worth noting that even NVIDIA cut support for your GTX 1050 a few years ago. If the manufacturer no longer bothers to provide driver updates for this product, it’s pretty clear how poorly it’s aged. This just adds another layer to the reality that your setup is falling behind.


So, I’m not sure what to tell you, but the statistics speak for themselves. The average user already has specs that are equal to or exceed what the GabeCube offers, meaning most players are already operating at console-level performance, which is on par with a solid mid-tier PC. Your system, however, falls far behind what the majority of users have, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise given that your setup consists of entry-level components from years ago.

The reality is, your hardware represents a small minority of the Steam charts, and that gap is evident in how your system struggles to keep up with the demands of PoE. If you’re going to reference statistics, at least reflect them properly and use them accurately, rather than trying to make yourself appear as part of the majority when you’re actually in the minority in most cases. Misusing statistics to suit your argument isn’t exactly the best way to come off as credible.

Simply put, if you upgraded to a mid-tier PC, all these issues would vanish, because there’s no amount of developer optimization that can overcome the limitations of your aging hardware.

And no amount of developer effort or anything you try outside of building or buying a modern PC from scratch will help salvage your landfiller rig. Well, unless you choose to remain stuck in the past, in which case, there are other titles with lower requirements and no consistent engine upgrades to make the game more power demanding, games that are still stuck in their outdated state. RuneScape, Minecraft, and others might be a good fit for you if you want games that run flawlessly on your aging system.

My PC ain't entry level lol, its medium or something. And again, unless someone is just gonna buy me one for free the only thing I can do is point out the bad optimization and hope GGG can fix it. Thankfully many others have given their feedback too in the forums, especially in bug reports and technical support.

Just gonna wait until I magically get a new PC,really its the only thing I can do as a NEET. Until then I can play all the games I wanna play perfectly fine, except PoE which is having problems since the last few patches, so I'm gonna keep asking for the game to be fixed.

And like, a Gabecube steam machine would be a nice upgrade if its cheap, so I'd definitely ask for that next year from the people around me kek,all I want is 60 fps 1080p gaming and that tiny box will deliver exactly that.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

My PC ain't entry level lol

I do not know where VoidWhisperer42 pulled those specs from - but describing them as "entry-level" is not unreasonable. A mid-range CPU from over 5 years ago is entry-level. A mid-range video card from a decade ago is entry-level. 16 GB is somewhere between entry-level and mid-range.

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Sarno#0493 wrote:

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

My PC ain't entry level lol

I do not know where VoidWhisperer42 pulled those specs from - but describing them as "entry-level" is not unreasonable. A mid-range CPU from over 5 years ago is entry-level. A mid-range video card from a decade ago is entry-level. 16 GB is somewhere between entry-level and mid-range.

I dunno why it matters what year whatever part was manufactured in, it runs stuff well enough. And like, all I can do is just hope to get some kinda freebie upgrade next year(steam machine or custom pc) and until that happens the only thing I can do is bring attention to the severe need for optimization in this game. It is what it is, if I had the money to throw at a new PC I'd do it right now, sadly I don't.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

My PC ain't entry level lol, its medium or something. And again, unless someone is just gonna buy me one for free the only thing I can do is point out the bad optimization and hope GGG can fix it. Thankfully many others have given their feedback too in the forums, especially in bug reports and technical support.

No, your PC was already entry level years ago. If you're not fully familiar with hardware, it might be better to stay quiet rather than make claims that aren't entirely accurate.

I highly doubt anyone is going to give you a grand for a new PC, and expecting the devs to go back and down-develop the game to how it was years ago just to make it run well on a tiny minority of outdated systems isn’t realistic. They’re not going to strip away progress and improvements just to accommodate hardware that’s already struggling to keep up. Realistically, they’re also not going to send a random person a new rig or money either.

If we look at the "many others," with this topic being another prime example by using even weaker hardware than you do, it should become more evident what the core problem is. It’s as simple as adding 1 and 1 together. Common sense tells you that the hardware is struggling to keep up, not the game being broken.
Plenty of players with experience and knowledge around hardware have already pointed the exact same out to you, so I don’t know who or what you’re trying to convince with your claims, especially since you’ve already admitted to not knowing anything about hardware in another topic.

If you're eager to get the GabeCube, you could already buy a PS5 or Xbox for much cheaper. Alternatively, you could invest the same money you’re planning to spend on the GabeCube into a small form-factor mid-tier PC. Not only will you get better performance than the GabeCube can offer, but you’ll also have a more future-proof path for upgrades. Upgrading individual parts is much easier than replacing the entire GabeCube once it starts falling behind.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

I dunno why it matters what year whatever part was manufactured in

It matters because you are posting about a game that will officially launch in 2026 at the earliest, and your video card is from 2016. That means a decade's worth of performance improvements have passed your hardware by. Just because something was (tbh lower) mid-range in 2016 doesn't mean it's considered mid-range in 2025.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

it runs stuff well enough

Respectfully - I believe the point of your posts had been that this isn't the case?

Sure; if you download a game from 2016 then your video card from 2016 will run it just fine. But more modern games will have been optimised around running on more modern hardware.

@Void: yes...I was merely making the assertion that, occasionally (I might even say frequently), there ARE issues with the game especially PoE that are because of the developers. And that an outlier extreme machine such as yours means you don't even experience them to be able to truly comment on whether they are there.

I did say in my post "If there is an issue with shader cache": keyword is IF. I don't know. I don't have issues, but I also don't have anything remotely resembling a clunker.

But I HAVE had issues in the past with PoE, on my current machine, that quite literally were ONLY the result of playing PoE and stemmed from issues that GGG has since fixed. They do exist, and you just wrote all of it off in the first page comment.

And GGG has a reputation and history for breaking things on CERTAIN player machines so it certainly isn't out of the realm of testing. Granted...this whole thread would have been better in the bugs section.
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3406660