Having conquered the globe in Europa Universalis, it was only a matter of time until Paradox set its sights on ever greater heights - the universe. Stellaris is grand strategy taken to the next logical level, exploring the vast depths of space; encountering alien races, brokering peace and waging intergalactic war. 

Based upon previous games from Paradox, we can hazard a solid guess that Stellaris will be a ludicrously deep tactical strategy title combined with emergent storytelling and events that ensure no two play-throughs are the same. For sci-fi strategy fans it's a prospect to drool over, but before you send yourself into hyperdrive be sure to cast an eye over the official Stellaris system requirements. 

Stellaris Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP 32-bit 
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 3500+ 2.2 GHz
• RAM: 2GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 512MB Graphics Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT or AMD Radeon X1900
• DX: DirectX 9.0c
• HDD: 4 GB Free Hard Drive Space
• Audio: Sound Card: Direct X-compatible sound card

Stellaris Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows Vista 32-bit
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0 GHz or AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.9 GHz
• RAM: 2 GB System Memory
• GPU RAM: 1024MB Graphics Memory
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 or AMD Radeon HD 6770

If you're familiar with the rest of Paradox Interactive's range of grand strategy titles then you'll also likely be familiar with these extremely low system requirements here for Stellaris. These are pretty much identical to 2013's Europa Universalis IV, despite the shift to a slightly snazzier new 3D look. It's all running in the Clausewitz Engine so beloved by Paradox, and as such Stellaris isn't very demanding at all. 

The minimum requirements are decade-old parts, and there really shouldn't be all that many PCs out there that are incapable of playing Stellaris, let along gaming PCs. Pentium 4 and Athlon XP are comparatively ancient brands today, while the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT and the Radeon X1900 series are absolutely at the lowest end. 

Stellaris is a turn-based grand strategy game and as such the frame rate and graphical fidelity aren't the focus here. It's really all about depth of gameplay and tactical nuance, so there's little to worry about at all on the hardware front. The extremely lenient hardware demands makes Stellaris perfect laptop fodder. Any modern-ish laptop should be more than capable of playing Stellaris. 

Remember, you can always check out how well your PC can run the Stellaris System Requirements here, where you can check benchmarking and performance from other users. Compare your graphics card to the Stellaris GPU benchmark chart.