what do i need to download minecraft

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Minecraft has built up a false reputation as being easy to run. After all, it's just a few blocks right. Okay, so when you take it at face value you might have a point but the pure computational power modern Minecraft demands far exceeds the lowest spec PCs, especially if you want to get into some of the more recent updates such as the Caves and Cliffs, or even the incredible world of Minecraft with Ray Tracing.

There are also lots of assets that can be downloaded that can make your Minecraft world look like a 4K dream, but obviously, that's not going to be possible on low-end laptops.

So below we have a breakdown of the system requirements for the various versions of Minecraft. You can find out more about the differences between the Bedrock (normal Windows 10) and Java versions here in this article we covered previously.

Minecraft: Game Details

Release Date: 18th November 2011 (PC, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS Vita, Wii U)
System Requirements: Low
Genre:Creative
Developer: Mojang
Publisher:Mojang, Xbox Game Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment

Minecraft System Requirements

Minecraft Minimum System Requirements

CPU: Intel Core i3 3210 | AMD A8 7600 APU or equivalent
RAM: 4 GB RAM
HDD: 180 MB to 1 GB available space
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 4000 or AMD Radeon R5 series | NVIDIA GeForce 400 Series or AMD Radeon HD 7000 series
OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or later
Screen Resolution:1024 x 768 or better
Network: Broadband Internet connection

Minecraft with ray-tracing is a sight to behold

Minecraft With Ray Tracing (RTX) System Requirements

OS(Operation Systems): Windows 10 64-bit
GPU:DirectX hardware ray tracing capable GPU like NVIDIA GeForce® RTX 20 Series and higher, and AMD Radeon™ RX 6000 Series and higher
Hardware: PC; Virtual reality headsets and Mixed Reality (MR) headsets are not supported
CPU: Intel Core i5 or equivalent
RAM:>8 GB of RAM
Version of Minecraft:1.16.200 or higher

You may have to update your Windows operating system and graphics drivers to experience ray tracing. You can learn more about updating Windows 10 here.

If your hardware does not support ray tracing, you will be unable to download ray tracing content from the Minecraft Marketplace:

Minecraft Java Edition System Requirements

Minecraft Jave Edition Minimum Requirements

CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz / AMD A8-7600 APU 3.1 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 4GB
GPU (Integrated): Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Ivy Bridge) or AMD Radeon R5 series (Kaveri line) with OpenGL 4.4*
GPU (Discrete): Nvidia GeForce 400 Series or AMD Radeon HD 7000 series with OpenGL 4.4
HDD: At least 1GB for game core, maps, and other files
OS:
- Windows: Windows 7 and up
- macOS: Any 64-bit OS X using 10.9 Maverick or newer
- Linux: Any modern 64-bit distributions from 2014 onwards
Internet connectivity is required for downloading Minecraft files, afterwards offline play is possible.

Minecraft Java Edition Recommended System Requirements

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz / AMD A10-7800 APU 3.5 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 8GB
GPU: GeForce 700 Series or AMD Radeon Rx 200 Series (excluding integrated chipsets) with OpenGL 4.5
HDD: 4GB (SSD is recommended)
OS (recommended 64-bit):
- Windows: Windows 10
- macOS: macOS 10.12 Sierra
- Linux: Any modern distributions from 2014 onwards

Minecraft VR System Requirements

As a rule, Minecraft is certainly no more taxing in VR than any other game you want to run through your headset. Graphically, until the RTX version at least it has never been overly heavy on the specs for your GPU. The performance hit came hard and fast at the CPU due to the complex amount of math the game uses to generate the world and its biomes.

So if you have a PC capable of running a VR set-up you will be fine to run Minecraft and interact with your world as if you are actually there.

If you want to play Minecraft on an Oculus Quest or Quest 2 headset we have a guide on how to set it up here as there are a couple more hoops to jump through.

CPU:Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz / AMD A10-7800 APU 3.5 GHz or equivalent
GPU:GeForce 700 Series or AMD Radeon Rx 200 Series (excluding integrated chipsets) with OpenGL 4.5
RAM:8 GB
Storage:SSD and 4GB of free space
O/S:64 bit Windows 10 or MacOS Sierra

Minecraft On Chromebook

As Minecraft is only compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux it is not possible to run it on a Chromebook as standard. ChromeOS is effectively a web browser and nothing more so in order to play Minecraft on your Chromebook you would need to root it and install Linux, which of course, stops it from being a Chromebook. It's possible, but whether it is actually worth it is down to individual taste.