What PC Does a Golf Simulator Actually Need?
ProSimHQ
The honest answer to "what PC do I need?" is that it depends on which software you run — and that the published requirements are messier than anyone selling you a machine will admit. We read the actual specification pages from the major publishers. Here is what they say, where they contradict each other, and what you can safely buy on.
Published: September 20, 2026 | Reading time: Approximately 13 minutes
Quick Answer
Buy for the software you will actually run, at 1080p, and treat 4K as an upgrade rather than a requirement. No publisher we reviewed requires 4K. Every one of them specifies 1080p as the baseline and presents 4K as a higher optional tier.
A reasonable 1080p target across most current titles: a current-generation 6-core CPU, 16 GB of RAM, a dedicated GPU in the RTX 3060 to RTX 4060 class with 8 GB of VRAM, and an SSD with real headroom — courses are roughly 1 to 1.7 GB each and they accumulate.
Going to 4K typically costs one to two GPU classes and, for several publishers, a jump from 16 GB to 32 GB of RAM.
The Spec Depends on the Software, Not on Golf
There is no such thing as a "golf simulator PC requirement". There are requirements published by each software publisher, and they differ by a wide margin.
At one end, E6 CONNECT publishes a single short list: "Intel i5 Processor | 8GB RAM | Nvidia 1070 Graphics Card or equivalent | 25GB of Hard Drive Space | Windows 10 64-bit." At the other, Trackman's published specification for running its units asks for Windows 11, 32 GB of RAM, an Intel i7 at 3.4 GHz or a Core Ultra 7, an RTX 4070 Ti-class GPU, a 1 TB SSD and a minimum 800 W power supply.
That is not a small gap. It is the difference between a modest office desktop and a serious gaming machine, and the deciding factor is which ecosystem you bought into — not the fact that you are playing golf.
If you have not chosen the rest of the build yet, start with the home golf simulator guide for the build order, and our cost breakdown for where the PC sits against everything else you need to buy.
So the first question is not "what PC?" but "what am I running?" Settle the launch monitor and its software first. Everything about the computer follows from that, and buying the machine first is how people end up over- or under-specified.
What the Publishers Actually Publish
These are as published at the time of writing. Note that several publishers structure their requirements differently, and two of them do not offer a clean minimum-versus-recommended pair at all.
| Software | Minimum, as published | Recommended, as published |
|---|---|---|
| GSPro | For 1080p play: 16 GB memory, an RTX 3060-class GPU, 10 GB free space, Windows 10 or 11 | "Great 1080p": RTX 3070 / 3060 Ti, 16 GB, 20 GB space. "Great 4K": RTX 3080 or better, 32 GB |
| Foresight Premier | 1080p on Low: Windows 10/11, 16 GB RAM, 50 GB SSD, Intel i5-12500, RTX 4060 with 8 GB VRAM | Windows 11, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD. 1080p Medium: Ultra-7 + RTX 5070. 1080p High: Ultra-7 + RTX 5070 Ti. 4K: Ultra-9 + RTX 5080 |
| Foresight FSX Play / FSX 2020 | 64-bit Windows 10+, 7th Gen Intel i5 or better, 8 GB RAM, RTX 3060 or greater | 16 GB+ RAM for swing-camera use; RTX 3070 Ti / 3080 / 3090 |
| SkyTrak (v5.0+) | Intel i3-10100F or Ryzen 2600, Windows 10/11 64-bit, GTX 1650 or RX 580, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD | i5-11500K or Ryzen 3600, 16 GB+, 500 GB SSD. HD: GTX 1060 / RX 5600 4 GB+. 4K: RTX 2060 / RX 6600 8 GB+ |
| Trackman | 🔴 Not published as a minimum/recommended pair. One specification per unit type plus a separate 4K column: Windows 11, 32 GB RAM, i7 3.4 GHz or Core Ultra 7, 1 TB SSD, 800 W PSU. GPU: RTX 4070 Ti-class standard, RTX 4080/4090-class for the 4K setup | |
| E6 CONNECT | 🔴 One list only — i5, 8 GB RAM, Nvidia 1070-equivalent, 25 GB, Windows 10 64-bit. E6 labels it as the requirement in one place and "RECOMMENDED" in another, so there is no pair to report | |
| E6 APEX (TruGolf) | Gigabit Ethernet, Windows 10 64-bit, Intel i7 10th Gen, 16 GB DDR4, 512 GB NVMe, RTX 3060 | Not published in the manual |
Two patterns are worth pulling out. First, 16 GB of RAM is the effective floor for current titles, and several publishers want 32 GB at their upper tiers. Second, storage is the requirement people underestimate — GSPro notes each course is around 1 GB, Foresight Premier states roughly 1.7 GB per course and recommends a 1 TB SSD, and Trackman specifies 1 TB.
One more thing worth knowing before you choose components: several publishers explicitly do not support AMD. Foresight states that "AMD CPUs and GPUs are not recommended or supported", and Trackman notes that its software "does not support Intel Iris Xe graphics card, AMD Processors/GPUs and ARM hardware." SkyTrak is the notable exception, naming AMD parts in its own specifications. Check this before buying an AMD machine — it is the single most expensive assumption in this article.
The 4K Question, Answered Honestly
4K is the most oversold number in simulator PC marketing, so here is what the publishers themselves say.
No publisher we reviewed requires 4K. Every one specifies 1080p as the baseline and treats 4K as an optional higher tier.
Foresight puts it most directly, stating that meeting the minimum specification means Premier runs "at 1080p with Low graphics quality", and that meeting the recommended specification lets you run higher graphics quality "or 4K if your configuration supports it."
What 4K actually costs you, using publishers' own tiers:
- SkyTrak: roughly one GPU class — GTX 1060 / RX 5600 for HD, RTX 2060 / RX 6600 for 4K.
- GSPro: RTX 3070-class to RTX 3080-or-better, plus 16 GB to 32 GB of RAM.
- Foresight Premier: Ultra-7 with an RTX 5070 Ti at 1080p High, up to Ultra-9 with an RTX 5080 for 4K.
- Trackman: RTX 4070 Ti-class to RTX 4080/4090-class.
The number nobody quotes
Foresight publishes something the rest of the industry does not, and it reframes the whole discussion. In its own 4K documentation for Premier:
"All performance tiers target 30 FPS."
Thirty frames per second — at every tier, including 4K. That is materially below what sim-PC marketing tends to imply, and it is the only explicit frame-rate target we found published by any golf simulator software publisher. Nobody else publishes one at all, so be sceptical of any frame-rate promise attached to a golf simulator machine.
And one counter-example worth knowing: Uneekor's REFINE software supports 1920×1080 or 1024×768 at 100% scaling, with users instructed to set Windows to a matching resolution. Some software is not a 4K proposition at all.
Where the Published Specs Contradict Each Other
This is the part that makes buying hard, and we would rather show you the mess than pretend the specs are tidy.
| The problem | What we found |
|---|---|
| One publisher, three different minimums | Across Uneekor's own support and help-centre pages we found three different official minimum specifications, ranging from a GTX 1060 at one end to an RTX 4070 Ti at the other — as a minimum. None of the pages carries a date, so there is no way to tell which supersedes which |
| One publisher, two minimum GPUs | Foresight's software pages list a minimum of "RTX 3060 or greater", while its optimisation article lists "GTX 1060 / RTX 2060". Three GPU generations apart |
| GPUs that do not exist | Published requirement lists from more than one publisher name a "GTX 3060" and "GTX 3070ti/3080/3090". There is no such thing — those are RTX parts. Harmless in isolation, but a useful signal about how carefully these pages are maintained |
| Minimum and recommended labelled as the same list | E6 CONNECT publishes one specification and labels it as the requirement in one location and "RECOMMENDED" in another |
What to do about it. Treat published specs as a floor and a direction, not a contract. Where a publisher's pages disagree, buy to the higher figure — the cost of being one GPU class too high is far lower than the cost of a machine that stutters through every round. And check the specification page for your title, dated, on the day you buy.
We are also not going to tell you that one Foresight title is heavier than another. It is widely repeated that FSX Play is more demanding than FSX 2020; Foresight publishes byte-identical requirements for both. The genuinely heavier Foresight title is Premier, whose minimum asks for an RTX 4060 with 8 GB of VRAM and 16 GB of RAM against FSX's RTX 3060 and 8 GB.
Projectors: Two Publishers, Two Numbers
Your PC drives a projector, so the projector's requirement is part of the PC decision — particularly the resolution you set Windows to.
On brightness, two first-party publishers disagree and we are not going to split the difference for you. Foresight advises choosing "a projector with at least 3,000 lumens for standard setups, or 4,000+ lumens for larger screens or brighter rooms." Trackman's published simulator specification recommends "Min. >5,000 Lumen." Both are golf software publishers. Neither states its room or screen assumptions, which plausibly explains the gap — so take the higher figure if your room is bright or your screen is large.
Room lighting is part of this decision too, and it is easier to control than lumens — our room design guide covers lighting and surfaces alongside the dimensions.
On resolution, Foresight's guidance is unambiguous and more useful than a lumen count: "Set your PC's display resolution to match the native resolution of your projector (for example, 1920x1080 or 1920x1200)." Note that a software publisher's own projector examples are 1080p-class. Foresight also advises setting Windows scaling to 100%, matching the aspect ratio to the screen, connecting directly by HDMI or DisplayPort rather than through adapter chains, and using lens shift rather than heavy keystone correction.
What to Actually Buy
| If you are running | Sensible target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| E6 CONNECT, or an older title, at 1080p | A modest current machine: 6-core CPU, 16 GB RAM, entry dedicated GPU, SSD | E6's published list is the lightest of the set. Buying far above it is wasted money |
| GSPro or FSX at 1080p | 16 GB RAM, RTX 3060 to 4060 class with 8 GB VRAM, 500 GB+ SSD | Sits at or above both publishers' 1080p figures with headroom for course storage |
| Foresight Premier, or anything at 4K | 32 GB RAM, RTX 5070 Ti to 5080 class, 1 TB SSD | This is where the published recommendations actually land. Do not try to reach 4K on 16 GB |
| Trackman | Build to Trackman's own published figure, including the 800 W PSU | Trackman publishes a single specification per unit. It is not a negotiation |
| Undecided on software | 16 GB RAM, RTX 4060-class, 1 TB SSD, Intel CPU | Clears every 1080p requirement here, and Intel avoids the AMD support exclusions |
The three things worth spending on, in order: enough RAM to clear your title's upper tier, an SSD large enough that course installs are not a chore, and a GPU one class above your target resolution. The thing not to spend on is 4K capability you have not decided you want — the resolution is optional, and the frame-rate target published by the one publisher who states one is 30 FPS.
Simulator Computers at ProSimHQ
Purpose-built machines remove the guesswork about whether a consumer PC will clear a publisher's specification.
- SurfThing SG3-5602 Golf Simulator Computer — the entry point in the range.
- SurfThing SG3-5702 — a step up for higher graphics settings.
- SurfThing SG3-5802 — the highest tier, for 4K and the heavier titles.
- SurfThing M3H Golf Simulator Laptop — for bays where a tower is impractical.
The full range is in golf simulator computers, and the titles these machines run are in golf simulator software.
Tell us your software before you choose a machine. The published requirements differ by more than a GPU generation between titles, and two publishers exclude AMD hardware from support entirely. Which title you run decides the spec — we would rather match the machine to it than sell you headroom you will never use.
Common Mistakes
- Buying the PC before choosing the software. The published requirements differ enormously; the software decides the machine.
- Assuming 4K is required. No publisher we reviewed requires it. It is an optional tier at every one of them.
- Buying AMD without checking. Two major publishers state AMD CPUs and GPUs are not supported. SkyTrak is the exception, not the rule.
- Specifying 8 GB of RAM because a publisher's minimum allows it. 16 GB is the effective floor for current titles, and 32 GB appears at several upper tiers.
- Undersizing storage. Courses run roughly 1 to 1.7 GB each and accumulate. Two publishers specify a 1 TB SSD.
- Trusting a single spec page. One publisher's own pages disagree by three GPU generations, and more than one lists GPUs that do not exist.
- Forgetting the power supply. Trackman publishes an 800 W minimum. It is the specification people skip.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a 4K PC for a golf simulator?
No. No publisher we reviewed requires 4K. Every one specifies 1080p as the baseline and presents 4K as an optional higher tier. Foresight states that its minimum specification delivers 1080p on Low settings and that the recommended specification allows higher quality "or 4K if your configuration supports it". Moving to 4K typically costs one to two GPU classes and, for several publishers, a jump from 16 GB to 32 GB of RAM.
How much RAM does a golf simulator PC need?
16 GB is the effective floor for current titles. Some published minimums still allow 8 GB, but several publishers specify 16 GB as their minimum and 32 GB at their upper or 4K tiers. If you expect to run 4K, plan for 32 GB rather than trying to reach it on 16 GB.
Can I use an AMD CPU or graphics card?
Check your software first. Foresight states that AMD CPUs and GPUs are not recommended or supported, and Trackman states its software does not support AMD processors or GPUs, Intel Iris Xe graphics, or ARM hardware. SkyTrak is the exception and names AMD parts in its own published specifications. This is the most expensive assumption to get wrong.
How much storage do I need?
More than you expect, because courses accumulate. GSPro notes each course is around 1 GB and asks for 10 to 20 GB free depending on tier. Foresight Premier states roughly 1.7 GB per course, a 50 GB minimum, and recommends a 1 TB SSD. Trackman specifies a 1 TB SSD. An SSD is worth it for load times.
What frame rate should I expect?
Only one publisher states a target. Foresight's documentation for Premier says all performance tiers target 30 FPS, including 4K. No other golf simulator software publisher we reviewed publishes a frame-rate figure at all, so treat any specific frame-rate promise attached to a simulator PC with caution.
How bright does my projector need to be?
Publishers disagree. Foresight advises at least 3,000 lumens for standard setups and 4,000 or more for larger screens or brighter rooms. Trackman's published simulator specification recommends more than 5,000 lumens. Neither states its room assumptions, so favour the higher figure if your room is bright or your screen is large. Both also matter less than setting your PC's resolution to match the projector's native resolution.
Match the Machine to the Software
Tell us which launch monitor and software you are running, and whether you are projecting at 1080p or 4K. We will tell you which specification you actually need to clear — including when a cheaper machine is the right answer.
Golf Simulator Computers Simulator SoftwareSources and Further Reading
- GSPro — official system requirements FAQ — published 1080p and 4K hardware tiers.
- Foresight Sports — Premier system specifications — the clearest minimum and recommended structure of the set, with per-resolution tiers.
- Foresight Sports — Does Premier Support 4K Resolution? — the 1080p baseline, the optional 4K tier, and the 30 FPS target.
- SkyTrak — system specifications — minimum and recommended, including HD, 4K and Max graphics tiers and named AMD parts.
- Trackman — required PC specifications — per-unit specification plus the separate 4K column, and the 800 W power supply requirement.
ProSimHQ Editorial Note
ProSimHQ is an independent retailer of simulation equipment from multiple manufacturers. Published system requirements change and, as this guide documents, are not always internally consistent — verify the specification page for your own software on the day you buy. Specifications quoted here are the publishers' own published figures as retrieved at the time of writing, not our testing. Where publishers disagree we have reported both rather than picking one, and where a figure is not published we have said so rather than estimating it.