Why ARK uses three times more resources than other game servers

The numbers first

A vanilla CS 1.6 server with 32 players uses roughly 512 MB of RAM and very little CPU. A vanilla Minecraft server with 30 players uses 2 to 4 GB of RAM. An ARK server with 20 players uses 6 to 12 GB of RAM and far more CPU.

ARK is not just heavier than other games. It is in a different category.

Why ARK uses so much

The map is huge and fully simulated. ARK maps are among the largest in survival games. Every creature on the map (and there can be thousands) has its own AI: hunger, aggression, patrol routes, breeding. All of it runs in parallel, all the time, whether players are nearby or not.

In Minecraft, areas without players unload from memory. ARK does not do this the same way: the simulation keeps running across the whole map.

Tamed dinosaurs are expensive. Every tamed creature has an inventory, stats, breeding state, food needs and AI. A base with 50 dinosaurs means 50 complex entities running continuously. Large tribes with many tames push RAM usage up significantly.

Structures have physics. In many games, what you build is just decoration. In ARK, structures have collision, can be destroyed and interact with the physics engine. Large bases with hundreds of pieces show up in performance.

The engine. ARK runs on Unreal Engine, which was not built primarily for efficient dedicated servers.

ARK Survival Ascended vs the original ARK

The remake uses Unreal Engine 5 and is noticeably heavier than the original. For the same player count, expect 30 to 50% higher resource use.

What actually matters for ARK

RAM first. ARK needs RAM above everything else. When RAM runs out the server stutters badly. Give ARK more RAM than you think it needs.

CPU clock speed. Like CS 1.6, ARK does not use many cores well. How fast each core is matters more than how many you have.

Fast storage. ARK saves the world often. On a slow disk you feel stutter at every save. NVMe storage makes a real difference.

ARK at Wiptor

ARK is the game that most clearly shows whether a host oversells its machines: on crowded hardware, ARK falls apart quickly. Our ARK: Survival Evolved servers run on NVMe storage and high-frequency CPUs.

Our advice: start with a plan that has RAM to spare and upgrade as your tribe count grows.

See the ARK plans