Valheim: Dedicated Server Requirements
Running a smooth Valheim server depends on balanced hardware. While the game isn't heavily CPU-intensive, it is sensitive to network latency and single-core performance. This guide outlines the necessary specs for a lag-free experience.
Hardware Specifications
| Component | Recommended Requirement |
|---|---|
| CPU | 4 Cores (High clock speed preferred over core count) |
| Memory (RAM) | 4GB for 2-10 players. 8GB+ for heavily modded servers. |
| Storage | 10GB Free SSD space (plus additional for world backups). |
| Bandwidth | About 1.2 Mbps upload per player at most: on Steam the server caps each connection at 150 KB/s, so 10 players need up to about 12 Mbps up. |
Measured: What Our Valheim Servers Actually Use
| Players online | Servers | Typical memory | Busy memory (90th percentile) | Typical CPU | Busy CPU (90th percentile) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 528 | 1.8 GB | 2.4 GB | 0.2 cores | 1.3 cores |
| 3 to 5 | 349 | 1.8 GB | 2.5 GB | 0.4 cores | 1.8 cores |
| 6 to 10 | 43 | 1.8 GB | 3.2 GB | 0.7 cores | 3.0 cores |
| Every reading, players or not | 600 | 1.8 GB | 2.4 GB |
Valheim is light and steady: the typical reading was 1.8 GB whether one or ten players were online, and even the busiest tenth of readings with six to ten players stayed at 3.2 GB, inside the 4 GB above for 2 to 10 players. CPU rises with players, from 0.2 of a core with one or two to about 3.0 cores at the busiest moments with six to ten.
Memory here is everything the server process holds, including anything moved to swap. CPU is in cores, where 1.0 is one full core. Typical is the median reading; busy is the reading only one in ten went above.
Software Requirements (Linux)
The hardware table above is ours. This section is Iron Gate's: it comes from the Dedicated Server Manual that ships inside the server package itself (Iron Gate's online guide to dedicated servers lists the same packages and minimums), so it describes what the binary actually needs rather than what a distribution happens to have installed.
| Requirement | Value | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Package | libatomic1 | Required in addition to what the Steam client already pulls in. |
| Package | libpulse-dev | Required. The server links against PulseAudio even though it never plays a sound. |
| Package | libpulse0 | Required, alongside the -dev package above. |
| Runtime minimum | GLIBC_2.29 | Older glibc will not load the binary at all. Ubuntu 18.04 ships 2.27 and fails here; 20.04 and later pass. |
| Runtime minimum | GLIBCXX_3.4.26 | The C++ runtime floor, from the same manual. Ships with GCC 9 and later. |
If your distribution is below either runtime floor, the manual's own answer is
not to upgrade the system: it is to run the server in Docker, and the package
ships a docker_start_server.sh for exactly that. A server that
starts and immediately exits with a version 'GLIBC_2.29' not found
line in its log is this requirement, not a corrupted install.
Three of the arguments the server accepts have defaults you will want to know
before sizing storage: it saves the world every 1800 seconds
(-saveinterval), keeps 4 automatic backups
(-backups), the first after 7200 seconds and the rest
43200 seconds apart (-backupshort,
-backuplong). Every one of those numbers is the manual's, and every
one is a launch argument rather than a config file entry.
What GPU Do You Need to Play Valheim? (Client Hardware)
Valheim is one of the lighter survival games to run. It is far more CPU and world-size bound than GPU bound, and the common questions are "can my old PC run it" rather than "which high-end card do I need." Almost any modern GPU, and many integrated ones, will run it well.
- Bare minimum: integrated graphics (recent Intel Iris Xe or an AMD Radeon iGPU) or an old card like a GTX 1050 will run Valheim at 1080p on low-to-medium.
- Comfortable 1080p/1440p high: any current entry card (RTX 5060 or RX 9060 XT) maxes Valheim out with room to spare. You do not need a high-end GPU.
- The real issues are not raw power. "Valheim running hot" is almost always an uncapped framerate on a menu or simple scene pushing the GPU to 100% for no reason: cap your FPS in-game or in the driver to fix it. Crashes are usually outdated drivers or a corrupt shader cache, not an underpowered card.
Because the client side is so light, the thing that actually decides a smooth multiplayer session is the server: a weak host stutters long before a modern GPU does, which is why a dedicated Valheim host matters more for group play than your graphics card.
Optimizing Server Performance
1. Combatting Desync
Valheim uses a unique networking model where one player acts as the "owner" of an area. If that player has a poor connection, everyone nearby will experience lag.
The server's own limits, from the game files of Valheim 1.0.17: on the Steam backend each player's connection sends at a fixed 150 KB/s, and the server only queues more world data for a player while less than 10 KB is still waiting. In a big base that queue is what fills up. The Better Networking mods raise both limits, on the server and every client; read that page first, because the original mod targets the pre-1.0 game and only community forks run on 1.0.
2. Dropped Items
Every item left lying on the ground is one more object the server saves and sends to the players near it, so big piles slow saves and the area around them. To clear one, stand in the area and type removedrops in the console. It deletes the loose items in the area your game is currently running and reports "Removed item drops:" with a count. It does not reach the rest of the world, it leaves fish that are still in the water alone, and it cannot be undone, so check nobody has just dropped their gear there.
3. Server Location
Latency (Ping) is the #1 enemy of Valheim combat. Always host your server in a region closest to the majority of your players. Routing issues across oceans will cause "ghost hits" where enemies strike you before their animation finishes. If you would rather not benchmark clock speeds and tune networking yourself, a managed Valheim dedicated server lets you pick the region closest to your group.
Pro Tip: Valheim servers use ports 2456-2457 (UDP) by default. Ensure these are open in your firewall or NAT settings. A server started with -crossplay does not need them forwarded, because players reach it through a relay.
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