Planet Zoo System Requirements: help me please!

wrhinehart · Sep 16, 2019

Excuse my naivety: I am totally psyched for this game but will need a new computer in order to run it. I know nothing about computers so I have no clue how to make sense of the system requirements for this game. I am buying a new laptop, and I am hoping someone with more knowledge on this subject can help me navigate this and make sure I purchase one that is able to easily handle this game.

It has to be a laptop. I am not interested in building my own computer. And it needs to be less than $700.

The computer I am looking at is the Acer Nitro 5:

Total Storage Capacity: 256 GB
System Memory (RAM): 8 GB
Type of Memory (RAM): DDR4 SDRAM
Processor Speed: 2.1 gh
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3550H
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon RX560X

Will this computer do the trick? Is there another one of comparable price that would be better?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Reminder of Planet Zoo game requirements:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

OS: Windows 7 (SP1+)/8.1/10 64bit

Processor: Intel i5-2500 / AMD FX-6350

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (2GB) / AMD Radeon R9 270X (2GB)

Storage: 16 GB available space

perafilozof · Sep 16, 2019

You shouldn't have any problems.
Both the GPU and CPU are a generation, or two, ahead of what is recommended.

aDOLPHINjoy18 · Sep 17, 2019

You'll be able to play it on 1080p low everything settings at least. If you want to play it on higher settings you need a faster quad core CPU in the high 3Ghz to 4Ghz range since it may be only directx11.

Voids Light · Sep 17, 2019

I think if you can run planet coaster or jurassic world evolution you probably won't have problems. I know nothing about computers, so please don't take my word for it.

aDOLPHINjoy18 · Sep 17, 2019

Voids Light said:
I think if you can run planet coaster or jurassic world evolution you probably won't have problems. I know nothing about computers, so please don't take my word for it.

Doesn't Jurassic World Evolution have Directx12 support? That game is on Xbox One too. And it's LESS demanding than Planet Coaster. If you can play Planet Coaster to your liking, then you should be able to play Planet Zoo to your liking too. One thing that Planet Zoo has is RAIN. And probably a bit more micro-managing since you have to care for your animals which requires less attention than Planet Coaster. With Planet Coaster, there's an option to stop rides from breaking down and requiring maintenance. Still looking forward to trying the Beta very soon.

DTV Enternainment · Sep 17, 2019

Voids Light said:
I think if you can run planet coaster or jurassic world evolution you probably won't have problems. I know nothing about computers, so please don't take my word for it.

I also have very Updated Grafic cards, who can handle JWE just perfectly I wont have many problems with that

aDOLPHINjoy18 · Sep 17, 2019

DTV Enternainment said:
I also have very Updated Grafic cards, who can handle JWE just perfectly I wont have many problems with that

The thing with JWE is it's not s piece by piece game like PC and PZ. That's why it runs so smoothly. The buildings in JWE are not piece by piece. PC and PZ are more demanding but if you can play PC fine it should be the same or similar for PZ.

WingardiumLevicoaster · Sep 17, 2019

Looks like it will be ok. The higher the spec you can get, the better it will play in large maps. With this spec, on a busy map with many pieces there will be lag. You would get more for your money with a desktop if you have a budget but want to best performance possible. However, you will be able to play with this.

AndyZoos · Sep 18, 2019

I have a similar question, actually. I'm conveniently in the market for a new laptop in the near future, so I'm looking to buy something that would allow me to play Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo at a decent clip. I was initially going to target the "suggested" requirements for Planet Coaster.

Is it anticipated that Planet Zoo will be about the same as those in terms of graphics cards, overall performance, RAM, etc. I'm not concerned about storage space, but want to be sure that I'm buying something that will work (and work well) with the game. Would doubling up on RAM compared to the minimum be sufficient, do you think (I.e., going for something with 16GB)?

I might wait until the game comes out in November, but want to start researching some computer models now.

WingardiumLevicoaster · Sep 18, 2019

alkalinexxxandy said:
I have a similar question, actually. I'm conveniently in the market for a new laptop in the near future, so I'm looking to buy something that would allow me to play Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo at a decent clip. I was initially going to target the "suggested" requirements for Planet Coaster.

Is it anticipated that Planet Zoo will be about the same as those in terms of graphics cards, overall performance, RAM, etc. I'm not concerned about storage space, but want to be sure that I'm buying something that will work (and work well) with the game. Would doubling up on RAM compared to the minimum be sufficient, do you think (I.e., going for something with 16GB)?

I might wait until the game comes out in November, but want to start researching some computer models now.

The game uses the RAM, CPU and GPU a lot, so getting the best you can for each will help. RAM is cheap in comparison to CPU and GPU and suggested specs say 16GB. Though CPU + GPU will give you the best performance improvement. I currently have a recent i5, 16GB and an NVidea 1060 6GB in a desktop and I can play Planet Coaster fairly well. I only get performance issues with really large parks (as everyone does), though I am considering an i7 upgrade for future proofing.

I will mention that a laptop CPU/GPU do not perform as well as their desktop counterparts to keep heat down and reduce space requirements, so as I mentioned before, you may get more performance for your money in a desktop, but then you need a monitor and a desk. (Or play on an armchair with a tv plugged in like me!)

AndyZoos · Sep 18, 2019

WingardiumLevicoaster said:
The game uses the RAM, CPU and GPU a lot, so getting the best you can for each will help. RAM is cheap in comparison to CPU and GPU and suggested specs say 16GB. Though CPU + GPU will give you the best performance improvement. I currently have a recent i5, 16GB and an NVidea 1060 6GB in a desktop and I can play Planet Coaster fairly well. I only get performance issues with really large parks (as everyone does), though I am considering an i7 upgrade for future proofing.

I will mention that a laptop CPU/GPU do not perform as well as their desktop counterparts to keep heat down and reduce space requirements, so as I mentioned before, you may get more performance for your money in a desktop, but then you need a monitor and a desk. (Or play on an armchair with a tv plugged in like me!)

Definitely understood about the laptop, but I already have a desktop that functions fairly well... So can't justify a new one at the moment.

Noted about the CPU and GPU too. All of the models I've been looking at have had i7's with similar graphics cards and RAM to what you just described, so I should probably be okay if I stick in that range.

Thanks again for the advice!

WingardiumLevicoaster · Sep 18, 2019

I was lucky in some ways when Planet Coaster came out. I had no desktop, only a laptop. So I bought one and still have my laptop for standard use.

Faulty13 · Nov 12, 2019

Sorry to revive such an old thread! I'm currently looking at the Acer Nitro 5 models below - they're on sale at the minute, and I'm not interested in a desktop computer, so these all seemed like pretty good options.

Would anyone be able to tell me:
a) which of these models would be able to simply run Planet Zoo?
b) which of these models would run the game best?
b) whether there would be a noticeable difference if I were to upgrade from the cheaper models/would it justify the extra expense?

Also, for reference, here are the minimum and recommended specs from Steam:

Minimum	Recommended
Processor: Intel i5-2500 / AMD FX-6350 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 (2GB) / AMD Radeon R9 270X (2GB)	Processor: Intel i7-4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8GB)

Thank you in advance!

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/acer-nitro-5-an515-43-15-6-gaming-laptop	https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/acer-nitro-5-an515-52-52bx-15-6-full-hd-gaming-laptop	https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/acer-aspire-nitro-5-an515-42-15-6-full-hd-gaming-laptop	https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/acer-nitro-5-an515-42-r3ee-15-6-full-hd-gaming-laptop	https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/acer-nitro-an515-42-72mn-15-6-gaming-laptop
$1199 (AUD)	$1199 (AUD)	$1399 (AUD)	$1499 (AUD)	$1499 (AUD)
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-43 15.6" Gaming Laptop	Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52-52BX 15.6" Full HD Gaming Laptop	Acer Aspire Nitro 5 AN515-42 15.6" Full HD Gaming Laptop	Acer Nitro 5 AN515-42-R3EE 15.6" Full HD Gaming Laptop	Acer Nitro AN515-42-72MN 15.6" Gaming Laptop
AMD Ryzen 5 3550H processor (4-Core, 4M Cache, up to 3.7 GHz)	Intel® Core™ i5-8300H Quad core processor up to 4GHz, 8MB Cache	AMD Ryzen 5-2500U Quad core up to 3.6GHz, 2MB Cache	AMD Ryzen 7-2700U processor (Quad Core up to 3.8GHz, 2MB Cach)	Intel® Core™ i7-8750H (6 Core, 2.20GHz up to 4.10GHz, 9M Cache)
16GB RAM	8GB RAM	16GB RAM	8GB RAM	16GB RAM
AMD Radeon RX 560X Graphics (4GB)	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 (4GB)	AMD Radeon™ RX560X (4GB)	AMD Radeon RX 560X graphics (4GB)	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 (4GB)

aDOLPHINjoy18 · Nov 30, 2019

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52-52BX 15.6" Full HD Gaming Laptop

I got my new Surface Pro 7 with the new Intel Core i7 10th gen quad core CPU with Intel Iris Plus Graphics, which is better than Intel UHD Graphics. And I was amazed how it could play this game on 1080p low everything settings! Though it won't be used primarily for gaming. It also has 16GB DDR4X RAM.

I also have a custom desktop pc with an i7 6700k and EVGA GTX 1070SC. I'm surprised that this game has more demanding specs than planet coaster, as in the planet coaster, the recommended specs don't start off with a gtx 1070, they start off with a lower graphics class.

my next custom pc with be a RTX 2080 Ti (11GB VRAM) and i9 9900k 5.0Ghz CPU. Overkill and expensive, but coping with stuttering when you build detailed or bigger zoos, is sad.

KLH2708 · Dec 7, 2019

Could anybody please advise whether ryzen 5 2600, GTX 1650 Super & 16GB DDR4 RAM would be able to perform well at 1080 on high settings?

My GPU isn't at the 8gb vram level but it performs better on benchmark than the recommended RX 580.

aDOLPHINjoy18 · Dec 7, 2019

KLH2708 said:
Could anybody please advise whether ryzen 5 2600, GTX 1650 Super & 16GB DDR4 RAM would be able to perform well at 1080 on high settings?

My GPU isn't at the 8gb vram level but it performs better on benchmark than the recommended RX 580.

Depends on your definition of "well". The recommended spec is a GTX 1070 GPU or better or AMD equivalent. A 1070 is better than an AMD 580. But not by a lot. The 1070 and rx580 both have 8GB VRAM. Gaming playing this game my GPU is 70-95% utilized according to MSI Afterburner and w10 task manager. Thus you need 8gb vram to play it "well" especially on bigger zoo's or if you're putting a lot of build items or scenery. But you'll be able to play smaller zoo's like the one in the tutorial on 1080p low settings or medium settings at best if you don't want a slideshow. I play on 4k high settings with shadows on low cause shadows consume a lot of GPU or CPU resources. I have 16gb DDR4 RAM and an i7 6700k 4.2Ghz CPU. The higher clock your CPU the better. Since this game still runs on directx11 it won't utilize your multicore CPU to it's full potential since only one cpu core is utilized for certain game tasks where as directx12 utilizes all of your CPU cores making directx12 more efficient. The main culprit behind planet coaster lag is directx11 and its limitations.

mmppolton · Dec 17, 2019

aDOLPHINjoy18 said:
Depends on your definition of "well". The recommended spec is a GTX 1070 GPU or better or AMD equivalent. A 1070 is better than an AMD 580. But not by a lot. The 1070 and rx580 both have 8GB VRAM. Gaming playing this game my GPU is 70-95% utilized according to MSI Afterburner and w10 task manager. Thus you need 8gb vram to play it "well" especially on bigger zoo's or if you're putting a lot of build items or scenery. But you'll be able to play smaller zoo's like the one in the tutorial on 1080p low settings or medium settings at best if you don't want a slideshow. I play on 4k high settings with shadows on low cause shadows consume a lot of GPU or CPU resources. I have 16gb DDR4 RAM and an i7 6700k 4.2Ghz CPU. The higher clock your CPU the better. Since this game still runs on directx11 it won't utilize your multicore CPU to it's full potential since only one cpu core is utilized for certain game tasks where as directx12 utilizes all of your CPU cores making directx12 more efficient. The main culprit behind planet coaster lag is directx11 and its limitations.

Humm i saw a 6 core 12 thead CPU at 50% in all core in the game