What Computer Do You Need to Run GSPro, E6 Connect or Awesome Golf?

Short answer: For GSPro, plan on at least an Intel i5 (i7 is safer), 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti or better, since it renders full 3D courses in real time and leans hardest on your graphics card. E6 Connect scales with the tier you buy — the Home edition runs comfortably on an i5 with 8GB of RAM and a GTX 1070, while the Expanded and APEX tiers want an i7 and more GPU headroom. Awesome Golf is the lightest of the three and will run on a modest mid-range PC, which is a big part of why budget-friendly setups lean on it.

Why the software you pick changes the PC you need

Every golf simulator setup has two separate jobs happening at once: your launch monitor capturing ball and club data, and your golf simulator software turning that data into a rendered course you can actually play. The launch monitor side is light on your computer — it's mostly small data packets over USB or ethernet. The rendering side is where a cheap laptop falls apart, because you're asking a PC to draw full 3D terrain, trees, water, and ball flight in real time, at a high frame rate, shot after shot.

GSPro: build around the GPU

GSPro is the most visually demanding of the major platforms, and it shows in the hardware it expects:

• CPU: Intel i5 or newer (i7 gives more headroom for course detail)
• RAM: 16GB
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti or newer
• OS: Windows 10 or 11

The GPU is the part people underspend on most often. A laptop with integrated graphics will technically open GSPro, but courses will stutter and load slowly — this is a dedicated graphics card platform, full stop.

E6 Connect: a tier for every budget

Because TruGolf's E6 Connect Home software is sold in tiers, the PC requirement moves with it:

• E6 Connect Home: Intel i5, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 1070 or newer, DirectX 11, Windows 10 (64-bit)
• E6 Connect Expanded: Intel i7, 8GB RAM, GTX 1070 or newer
• E6 APEX: Intel i7 (10th gen or newer), 16GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 or newer

This is worth knowing before you buy, because the Home tier's modest specs make it the easier of the two "full simulator" platforms to run on hardware you might already own, while APEX asks for roughly the same machine GSPro does.

Awesome Golf: the lightweight option

Awesome Golf is built to also run on iOS and Android, and that mobile-first engineering carries over to its PC footprint — it's noticeably easier on a modest machine than GSPro or E6 APEX. If your main goal is a clean, reliable hitting bay without buying a gaming PC, it's worth a look specifically because of how little horsepower it demands.

Don't forget the rest of the chain

A capable PC only helps if the rest of the setup can keep up with it:

• A dedicated Nvidia GPU, not integrated graphics — this is the single most common bottleneck
• A wired ethernet connection to your launch monitor instead of Wi-Fi, for more consistent data timing
• An SSD, so courses load in seconds instead of minutes
• A projector with enough brightness and the right throw distance for your screen, so the extra GPU power actually shows up as a sharper image

Our take: what to actually buy

• Tight budget, casual play: a mid-range PC running Awesome Golf or E6 Connect Home
• Want the most realistic courses and don't mind spending on a GPU: i7, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 Ti+ running GSPro
• Already own a solid gaming PC: any of the three will run well — pick software based on course library and features, not hardware

Bottom line

Match your computer to the software, not the other way around — decide which platform's courses and features you actually want, then build or buy a PC that meets that tier's GPU requirement with some headroom to spare. For a full breakdown of what each platform offers beyond hardware specs, read our golf simulator software buying guide. When you're ready to pair software with the right launch monitor, browse our golf simulator software collection or shop E6 Connect Home directly.