Sons of the Forest FPS Calculator & System Requirements

Sons of the Forest tasks players with surviving a gorgeous, terrifying island featuring deep AI routines, intricate building mechanics, and dense foliage. Running Sons of the Forest requires a CPU score of at least 66 and a GPU score of at least 62. The game scales well across a wide range of hardware — minimum-spec machines can hit a playable frame rate at reduced settings, while recommended hardware (CPU 80, GPU 78) targets 85 FPS at 1080p. Use the FPS calculator to test your specific CPU and GPU combination at 1080p, 1440p, or 4K.

The minimum PC requirements for Sons of the Forest are: CPU — Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X; GPU — NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB or AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB; RAM — 12 GB RAM; Storage — 20 GB available space; OS — 64-bit Windows 10. Hardware at this tier can run the game at low graphics settings, typically achieving around 30 FPS at 1080p. Performance may feel inconsistent during CPU-heavy or GPU-heavy sequences. Using an SSD instead of a hard drive and keeping background applications closed can meaningfully reduce stuttering even without a GPU upgrade.

The recommended PC requirements for Sons of the Forest are: CPU — Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X; GPU — NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT; RAM — 16 GB RAM; Storage — 20 GB available space. This hardware tier is tuned for around 85 FPS at 1080p on high graphics settings. Moving to 1440p at the same quality requires a GPU score meaningfully above 78. Use the FPS calculator to identify which specific CPU and GPU combinations hit your target frame rate at each resolution.

On hardware meeting Sons of the Forest's recommended specifications, expect around 85 FPS at 1080p on high settings. Minimum-spec hardware typically lands in the 30–45 FPS range on low-to-medium presets at the same resolution. Moving to 1440p reduces the frame rate by roughly 25–35%, and 4K roughly halves 1080p performance. Frame time consistency matters as much as the average: capping near your monitor's refresh rate can smooth out dips. Enter your components in our FPS calculator for a tailored projection including per-resolution estimates.

At 1080p, Sons of the Forest needs a GPU with a minimum score of 62 — the equivalent of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB or AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB. For smooth, consistent performance at 1080p on high settings, target the recommended score of 78 (NVIDIA GeForce 1080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT). Scaling to 1440p typically calls for a GPU scoring around 101, and 4K demands significantly more headroom. GPU performance score is derived from multi-game benchmark data and allows direct comparison across NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel Arc cards. Use the FPS calculator to match any GPU in our database against Sons of the Forest's requirements.

Sons of the Forest is primarily GPU-bound for raw frame rate output, but a CPU below the minimum score of 66 can create a bottleneck in complex scenes. The recommended CPU score of 80 (Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X) is calibrated to keep the processor from limiting GPU utilisation. If your GPU significantly exceeds the recommended score while your CPU sits near the minimum, you may notice inconsistent frame times during busy sequences. Our FPS calculator models CPU-GPU pairing and surfaces bottleneck warnings when components are significantly mismatched.

At 1440p, expect roughly 25–35% lower frame rates than 1080p in Sons of the Forest. On hardware at the recommended tier (GPU score 78), this translates to around 59 FPS on high settings. To maintain 85+ FPS at 1440p, target a GPU scoring around 101 or higher. Use the FPS calculator above to get a precise estimate for your specific CPU and GPU combination at 1440p across every quality preset.

4K demands roughly 55–65% more GPU power than 1080p in Sons of the Forest. On the recommended GPU (score 78), expect around 36 FPS at 4K on high settings. Reaching a consistent 85 FPS at 4K requires a GPU scoring around 129 or better. Upscaling technologies like DLSS 3 or FSR 3 can recover 40–60% of the resolution overhead with minimal visual cost on supported hardware.

Sons of the Forest is built on a custom Unity engine build with a heavy emphasis on forest rendering. The two settings that most significantly impact performance are Grass Drawing Distance and Volumetric Lighting. The dense forest foliage is the game's primary GPU and CPU cost — reducing Grass Drawing Distance from High to Medium recovers 15–20 FPS in dense forest areas. Volumetric Lighting adds significant cost during fog and rain conditions. SSAO quality and Shadow Distance together account for another meaningful slice of GPU budget. The game does not support DLSS or FSR natively, so all rendering is at native resolution — hardware at the recommended tier is important for stable 60 FPS in demanding forest areas.

Sons of the Forest supports up to 8-player co-op, and multiplayer sessions are generally more CPU-intensive than solo play due to additional entity simulation (other players, their builds, shared AI states). In a 4-player session, expect 10–15% higher CPU load in areas with active enemies and complex base structures compared to solo. The hosting player carries the full simulation burden — their CPU and network connection determine server stability more than GPU. For smooth co-op play, the host should have a CPU at or above the recommended score of 85 and a stable internet connection. Client players (non-hosts) see similar GPU loads to solo play but slightly increased network-dependent hitches on high-ping connections.