Why You Can Trust CNET Will Diablo 4 Run on Your PC?
Laptop, Mac or Steam Deck -- here's which computer platforms you can play Diablo 4 on.
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Early Diablo 4 players got a chance to test-drive the game via two recent beta periods, but now it looks like we'll have to wait until the June 6 launch to get another shot.
Diablo 4 is coming to PC, Xbox and PlayStation platforms. Running the console versions should be straightforward, but if you're a PC gamer and want to know if Diablo 4 will run on your machine, you'll need to check a long list of required and recommended hardware specs.
For a Windows-based gaming laptop or desktop, the official specs are as follows.
Minimum requirements
720p resolution, low graphics settings, 30 frames per second:
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-8100
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or AMD Radeon R9 280
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: Solid-state drive with 45GB available space
- Internet: Broadband connection
Recommended requirements
1080p resolution, medium graphics settings, 60 fps:
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K or AMD R3-1300X
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 470
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: SSD with 45GB available space
- Internet: Broadband connection
Pretty much any laptop with a discrete GPU from the past 10 years should be able to play the game, even if not at high resolutions and graphics settings. Because of the wide base of Diablo fans, the system requirements are on the lighter side, compared to some more intensive games, including Hogwarts Legacy.
As always with PC gaming, the spec recommendations may change over time, and you may have to experiment to get the best results. Note also that the final game may behave differently than the beta, which is an unfinished product.
Will Diablo 4 run on a Mac?
Like most popular PC games, there is no Mac-native version of Diablo 4 planned as of right now. The latest Apple silicon chips also make it hard to dual-boot Windows in order to try Windows-only games.
But there are some potential options. If Diablo 4 comes to a cloud gaming service such as Nvidia's GeForce Now, Amazon Luna or Xbox Cloud Gaming, that would be one way to play on a MacBook, iMac or Mac Mini.
Read more: Best Cloud Gaming Services
No cloud support has been announced yet, but Microsoft, which is in the process of buying Activision Blizzard, recently announced a deal to bring more games to GeForce Now in general.
Will Diablo 4 run on a Steam Deck?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: Yes, but it's a little complicated and takes a good amount of effort to get set up.
The basic steps are as follows:
- Go to the Steam Deck desktop mode
- Download Blizzard's Battle.net installer
- Add and run the installer as a "non-Steam" game from within the desktop version of Steam
- Add the now-installed Battle.net app as a "non-Steam" game
- Run the Battle.net app from within Steam, log in to Battle.net as usual
- From there, you can run Battle.net to install Diablo 4, in either a Steam Deck desktop or SteamOS modes
That's just the broad strokes for people already familiar with how Steam and SteamOS work. For a more specific step-by-step, this guide from overkill.wtf is one of the most detailed I've seen, including exact file paths you'll need to map within Steam. Gaming on Linux also has an excellent, detailed guide.
A few troubleshooting tips from my own experience: If the game either doesn't start or starts without sound, you may need to force the game to use a specific version of Proton (which allows Windows games to play under the Linux-based Steam OS). Right-click on the Steam library entry for Battle.net, and go to Properties > Compatibility and require the app to use the recently released GE-Proton 7-51-diablo_4_beta version, specifically tweaked for Diablo 4.
To get that specific Proton version, if you don't already have it, go to the Discovery app on the Steam Deck desktop, which is like an app store. Search for "ProtonUp Qt. Install" and run that app, and from there find and install the special "7-51-diablo_4_beta" version.
I told you it's complicated.
Once I'd done all that, Diablo 4 ran pretty well on the Steam Deck for me. At low graphics settings and 1,200x800-pixel resolution, I hit 40 to 60 frames per second most of the time, with some occasional lag and stuttering. If the game is missing audio or the Steam Deck controls don't work, you may need to double-check the version of Proton Battle.net is using, restart the Steam Deck or reinstall Diablo 4. Some combination of those finally got everything working for me.