Can Your Computer or Laptop Run Football Manager 26?

Today Football Manager posted their first gameplay footage and it was spectacular. It looks absolutely stunning. But because it looked so good, it got people worried. If it looks this good, will my computer be able to handle it? Well today Sports Interactive have also confirmed the system requirements you’ll need to run the game. The specs are a step up from FM24, but it’s not as big as you’d think.As always, the minimum specs will get the game running at a basic level, but if you want a smoother, more responsive experience (especially with large databases or 3D match engines), you’ll want to aim for the recommended requirements.

 

Windows PC Requirements:

Minimum (Low Settings, 1080p)

• OS: Windows 10 (22H2 update) or Windows 11 (23H2 update)
• Processor (Desktop): Intel Core i3-530 or AMD FX-4100
• Processor (Laptop): Intel Core i3-330M or AMD A6-5200
• Note: Requires SSE4.2 & SSSE3
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics (Desktop): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, AMD Radeon R9 380, or Intel HD 530
• Graphics (Laptop): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, AMD Radeon R9 M375, or Intel HD 530 (512MB VRAM minimum)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 20 GB available space

Recommended (High Settings, 1080p)

• OS: Windows 11 (23H2 update)
• Processor (Desktop): Intel Core i5-9600 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600
• Processor (Laptop): Intel Core i5-1035G7 or AMD Ryzen 7 3750H
• Memory: 12 GB RAM
• Graphics (Desktop): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
• Graphics (Laptop): NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile or AMD Radeon RX 6600M (1GB VRAM minimum)
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 20 GB available space

macOS Requirements:

RequirementsMinimum (Low Settings, 1080p)

• OS: macOS 11 Big Sur, 12 Monterey, 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, or 15 Sequoia (updated versions only)
• Processor: Apple M1 or Intel Core M
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics (Desktop): Apple M1, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, Intel HD Graphics 5000, or AMD FirePro D300
• Graphics (Laptop): Apple M1, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, or Intel HD Graphics 5000
• Storage: 20 GB available space

Recommended (High Settings, 1080p)

• OS: macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, or 15 Sequoia (updated versions only)
• Processor: Apple M1
• Memory: 12 GB RAM
• Graphics: Apple M1 (1GB VRAM)
• Storage: 20 GB available space

Laptop System Requirements for Football Manager 26:

Anyone else remember when your laptop used to sound like Air Force One every time you tried to load Football Manager? Good times. But now, with Football Manager 2026 on the horizon, plenty of people are worried we might be heading back to those days… mainly because they’re not convinced their laptops are up to the task. I’ve had loads of messages about this, but it’s time to put those worries to bed.

Someone’s made a tool that does all the hard work for you and tells you if your laptop can actually run the game.

The tool comes from Football Manager Blog, and it’s called the FM26 Laptop Rater. It lets you compare your hardware against FM26’s minimum and recommended requirements to see if your machine has what it takes. You’ll get a total score at the end, plus a recommended setup if your current one doesn’t quite cut it.

Check out the tool here – Credit to fooballmanagerblog.org

What This Means for FM Players:

If you’ve run FM24 comfortably, you’ll almost certainly be fine with FM26. The big difference, as with recent editions, is that older integrated graphics chips will struggle. For the best experience, particularly if you enjoy the 3D match engine or plan to load multiple nations, it’s worth making sure your PC or Mac has at least 12 GB of RAM and a modern dedicated GPU.Database size and processing speed will always benefit from extra CPU power, so if you’re planning on running huge saves, the closer you can get to the recommended specs, the better.

 

 

Billy also took a look at each Premier League clubs current PSR situation after the transfer deadline!

If you want more FC centric articles, then you absolutely have to check out his breakdown of the single biggest FM survey ever taken! We also wrote about Womens football coming to FM, and what went wrong with FM25 that FM26 will fix,