Reading Games PC Requirements?

CastorTroy

So I just saw the requirements for Aliens Colonial Marines released and it reminded me to ask How can you compare your specs to the requirements without using sites like System Requirements Lab?

Or is it just if you understand the tech side of things then you know where your card stands?

saiint

id say most techie people would know straight off if their pc can support a game
me on the other hand id only know the basics
like ram and processor
graphics card i wouldnt have aclue
so i use system requirementslab

SeantheMan

The minimum specs below appear to be VERY low requirement.
Any PC bought in the last 2-3 years should easily be able to run this.
Any custom built gaming PC definitely would

If you do game on PC, you "should" maybe take an hour or two just to learn the basics of a cpu and you'll not have a problem in future.
There are only 6-7 main components of a computer anyways.

CPU-Z http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html is a free program that will gather detailed information about your system and specs should you ever need to find them out quickly.

Minimum Specs:
Operating System: Windows XP SP3
Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core Processor
RAM: 2GB RAM (XP),2GB RAM (Vista)
HD: 20GB free hard disk space
Optical Drive: DVD
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Video Card:NVIDIA GeForce 8500/ATI Radeon HD 2600 (256 minimum)

Overheal

I always shake my damn head at those listed specs on the box. Some new games even list the radeon X1200 as a minimum.

Thing is, those are the minimums that the game will load on without suffering a calamitous error. It doesn't mean the experience will be enjoyable. Yes, you can get Crysis to run on an 8400M GS and a Core2Duo and 2GB of RAM, but that doesn't mean it's really going to play all that well, or at anything above 10 frames per second (and that was Peak!).

I try to educate customers all the time, "I'm looking for a gaming laptop for the Sims and Minecraft, how about this AMD E-300 with 2GB RAM?" /shudder.

Kiith

It would probably help if there was a better (easier) method of showing system specs for non techie people. While i've not checked the system specs on a long time, as i know my pc will play the game, a lot of people will look at the specs and not have a clue if they can play it.

Chairman Meow

Basically, if you have a PC built in the last 2-3 years you can run anything thanks to this gen having such a long tail. So many new gmes using Unreal engine 3 like Batman AC and a million others, UE3 runs so well on PCs that even ****ty midrange graphics cards can handle it without breaking a sweat.
I never even bother looking at system requirements anymore. Its not like how it was in the early 2000s when you had to actually give a **** about them. The only games to even trouble my PC lately are AC3 (and even thats only down to really poor optimisation in the Boston area) and FC3, which is again not a well optimised game.

CastorTroy

Yep. This is also a reason a lot of people don't game on PCs. Like seeing requirements on the box listed as minimum and recommended. If your exact card or CPU isn't listed, do you buy the game on the off chance it might work, or do you just pick up the console version?
I know there's a reason for the naming system, but it might help if cards had alternate names that would imply where it comes with regard how good it is. Like if seeing 2 cards named 6870 and 7570, the 7570 would obviously be the better one since it's got a higher number. So then when look at the box and see the recommended graphics card is 6870, you know your 7570 would play it easily.

And yes, I am speaking as someone who doesn't understand how they work, just that they do. When I upgraded I got advice from here.

balkieb2002

Yeah the naming system of graphics cards is really confusing as a higher number doesn't always mean a better card.

My current PC is a high end system so I haven't needed to look at the min/rec specs since I know it will run but I will just need to tweak the settings. Before that though I used a laptop (that I still use now and again for gaming) and the card on the that still confuses me. For the laptop I generally use a site like game-debate which has the usual min/rec but also a modified recommended settings based on users performance. It also ranks your machine specs compared to other users to see a visual difference.

Skerries

try this site to see if you can run games

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

CastorTroy

Yeah, I use that site and yougamers to confirm, since the time before I upgraded, requirements lab told me I could run a game but the game was unplayable on with everything turned off/down. Yougamers confirmed I couldn't run it.

Wossack

surprisingly the thing thats catching me out with requirements these days, is my old monitor.. an old 22" LG tft

royal pain in the ass starting a game, for the screen to go black and it to display "out of range" etc. Config diving then to find the (hopefully) cleartxt document listing the 1080p resolution.. just shockingly lazy programming..

in fact darksiders 2 support, as a 'solution' to this problem say to start the game connected to a monitor that can support 720p, and then change the resolution in game to one which your original monitor can support - hah!


/edit tldr - I need a new monitor

System requirements are the reason I stopped being a PC-gamer and switched to a console instead. I like picking up a new game without scratching my head, staring over system requirements to figure out whether or not my laptop can run it - and in most cases, the answer is going to be no.

ShadowHearth

Deleted User wrote: »

System requirements are the reason I stopped being a PC-gamer and switched to a console instead. I like picking up a new game without scratching my head, staring over system requirements to figure out whether or not my laptop can run it - and in most cases, the answer is going to be no.

I havent looked at requirements on any game for the last 6-7 years. I wont be checking for another 5 at least.

A tip to anyone who wants to start pc gaming - learn basics of PC hardware. dont learn each parts characteristics and "specs", but learn how and where to find info on it. Its not hard, its not rocket science. It will take only few minutes.
The worse thing anyone can do, who wants to start PC gaming is just go on some dell website and buy anything that is marked as "high performance" " gaming". It wont kill you to look in to parts inside and learn what those parts do.

KonFusion

I don't think I've ever read the system requirements for a game.

I just presumed nobody did.

You just know :pac:

CastorTroy

Wossack wrote: »

surprisingly the thing thats catching me out with requirements these days, is my old monitor.. an old 22" LG tft

royal pain in the ass starting a game, for the screen to go black and it to display "out of range" etc. Config diving then to find the (hopefully) cleartxt document listing the 1080p resolution.. just shockingly lazy programming..

in fact darksiders 2 support, as a 'solution' to this problem say to start the game connected to a monitor that can support 720p, and then change the resolution in game to one which your original monitor can support - hah!


/edit tldr - I need a new monitor

Can you not turn off autodetect?

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I havent looked at requirements on any game for the last 6-7 years. I wont be checking for another 5 at least.

A tip to anyone who wants to start pc gaming - learn basics of PC hardware. dont learn each parts characteristics and "specs", but learn how and where to find info on it. Its not hard, its not rocket science. It will take only few minutes.
The worse thing anyone can do, who wants to start PC gaming is just go on some dell website and buy anything that is marked as "high performance" " gaming". It wont kill you to look in to parts inside and learn what those parts do.

Any suggestions for sites people could use to brush up on their knowledge? Maybe one that breaks it down on what to look for?

ancapailldorcha

ShadowHearth wrote: »

A tip to anyone who wants to start pc gaming - learn basics of PC hardware. dont learn each parts characteristics and "specs", but learn how and where to find info on it. Its not hard, its not rocket science. It will take only few minutes.
The worse thing anyone can do, who wants to start PC gaming is just go on some dell website and buy anything that is marked as "high performance" " gaming". It wont kill you to look in to parts inside and learn what those parts do.

I've started gaming on my laptop and I absolutely love it. I've noticed the spec is just not good enough for modern games and I'm putting serious thought into building a rig. I keep an eye on the PC Building & Upgrading forum and I've no idea how you guys choose specific componenets. If you've any tips on where to find info on building a pc and the components that'd be great.

ScumLord

For the most part if your number is bigger than the number on the box your ok.

If you can find out what graphics card you have and it's the same name as the one on the box you can be comfortable enough assuming the bigger number is better. If it's not the same name you will have to find out if the the card listed is better or worse than yours.

CPUs are easy enough, i5 is better than i3 and so on with the higher number being better than the smaller number.

ShadowHearth

Right. So as mentioned above - dipping your toe in to building PC forum is a good start. Even if you dont want to make threads there, we have an Off-topic thread, in which you can get almost any basic info. Lads in there are sound.

When you looking at PCs and laptops, don't get fooled by whole i7 CPU!!!!!! 4GB Ram!!!! 500gb hdd!!!!! SUPER POWERFULL DERP DERP! All those specs mean nothing if you dont have dedicated GPU ( graphics card )

So lets loook at it simply:

CPU ( Processor ) - It is sort of a heart of PC. Doing all the calculations, but when we are getting to Gaming Cpu takes secondary role. Almost any i3, i5, i7, q6600 CPU is good for gaming. When you are looking for machine to play games almost any modern CPU is good enough.
RAM - Its memory. Short term memory. All you need to know - if you got 4gb RAM and more, then you have enough ram to play any game on the planet. We got to the age, where ram is cheap and this is the last thing you need to worry as long as you got at least 4gb ram. 4gb ram, 6gb ram, 8gb ram will all perform in games almost same. Current games can use max only 2gb ram anyway. dont be fooled by advertisements of 8gb ram!!!! awesome! Yes, it is nice, but it is cheap. It will be feck all good to have 8gb ram if other parts are lacking.
GPU - Graphics processor. This is your bread and butter when comes to gaming. Remember i said CPU is the heart of PC, but it takes the secondary role when we get to gaming? So when you are gaming, GPU takes all the load from CPU. To make it very simple - this part is pretty much only exist to make shiny things appear on screen. Its the most important component in PC gaming.

Now there are tons and tons of GPUs. It might look confusing, but only when you start. I will try to make it simple as possible again.
There are 2 main companies: Nvidia and ATI. Now it might look and sound confusing, but other companies are using same model GPU and making their own version. So for example you got MSI 7950 GPU and Gygabite 7950 GPU. Both are same card, just each of those companies give their own touch to it: different cooler system or different clock speeds. When you get more advanced you will know better brands or setups, but for now, to kill the confusion and make it a bit simplier - its same card.

Second thing you need to know - numbers used to discribe GPU:

Lets take same example of ATI 7950 GPU.

7950 - First number is generation. The higher the number the newer card model. Keep in mind, newer card, does not mean faster, I will explain you why in next step.
7950 - Second digit shows you the performance position of that generation. Numbers 1,2,3 will mean that cars is low range and not suitable for gaming. numbers 4,5,6, means it is mid range card. It will play games, but it will low to mid spec. numbers 7,8 is usually a golden spot. where performance/price meets. These cards are great for gaming and wont make you sell your kidneys. Number 9 means high end of that generation. the fastest card out of 7series generation. It might be dual gpu or single gpu.
7950 -Llast two digits showing performance in the particular performance bracket. So it might be 50 and 70. So 70 means it is faster and better.
It goes very similar to Nvidia cards too, they use 3 digits instead. For example GTX 680. 6th generation card high end performance gpu.

So now when you know what these digits about you can clearly see: 6970 will be faster then 7770 GPU, even if it is NEWER GPU. So dont be fooled again by ads!

Remember, best friend is google: look for GPU benchmarks. These are charts which show GPU performance. There you can roughly compare GPUs and check how they stack up agains each other.
This is very basic website, but it shows you in a simple way compared GPUs.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ You can google and find a lot more detailed and better graphs. Like i said, dont learn all the spec, learn how to use google and find information.

I will add more info if anyone interested. i wrote all this just right now, with no preparation orr planing. So sorry if it is a bit messy. I will go have a dinner and try make it better.

ancapailldorcha

Cheers lads. Putting serious thought into building a rig if I can get the cash together. For now, I'm praying the laptop can handle Mass Effect 3 (loving ME2 at the moment).
I never knew that about GPUs, ShadowHearth. I just thought higher number meant better performance as a rule of thumb. I'll definitely need to do more research. I've known to stay away from the like of Dell for a while now. I think I'd enjoy the experience of building it myself anyway.

CastorTroy

Thanks for the info ShadowHearth.
That's the kind of information I think needs to be more widely known and it's explained in pretty simple terms.

With help from the Upgrade forum I settled on the 6870 when I was upgrading last year.

Sarn

I've found system labs isn't always accurate. It's told me that my graphics card has failed the minimum requirements for a game, but I had already been playing the game on medium settings with no problems. In the absence of anything else it gives you an idea.

As I game on a laptop, where my graphics card stands is the biggest problem. I've been using this site Laptop graphics card to get a rough idea.

Overheal

CastorTroy wrote: »

Yep. This is also a reason a lot of people don't game on PCs. Like seeing requirements on the box listed as minimum and recommended. If your exact card or CPU isn't listed, do you buy the game on the off chance it might work, or do you just pick up the console version?
I know there's a reason for the naming system, but it might help if cards had alternate names that would imply where it comes with regard how good it is. Like if seeing 2 cards named 6870 and 7570, the 7570 would obviously be the better one since it's got a higher number. So then when look at the box and see the recommended graphics card is 6870, you know your 7570 would play it easily.

And yes, I am speaking as someone who doesn't understand how they work, just that they do. When I upgraded I got advice from here.

Thing is I havent bought a PC game from shelf in years (except Skyrim, for a damn map). Providers like steam let you know what the minimums are, and they're ignorable for the most part: when you actually stumble upon a game with a requirement, Steam is going to alert you. In fact I wonder if they won't eventually pad your system's specs into the store at some point. But even right now you will see Orange warnings on games that have specific requirements, like DirectX 10 or 11, a Previous Expansion, Windows Vista and above, etc. (example)

Excellent write-up Hearth. I can only add that there are some suffixes that might throw people off:

HD - Pretty much all AMD Radeon cards are HD suffixed
X2 - Means the card is a Dual-Core GPU (basically, 2 of that model GPU slapped together like Smores. eg. 4870X2)
GS - Nvidia's slightly better than entry-level card suffix, usually denotes minor bump in spec (8400M, 8400M GS)
GT - Nvidia's bump above GS, entry-level and mid-range gaming cards (GT 640)
GTX - Nvidia's high-end (GTX 680)
Ti - Nvidia Titanium series. These are overclocked versions of their equivalent (eg. GTX 660 Ti). Usually not by much, but worth comparing benchmarks.
M - A Mobile, Laptop version of the GPU. These run at lower voltages than their desktop counterparts. Do not be fooled into thinking a laptop chip will have nearly the same output as it's desktop equivalent card (Geforce GT545 vs. GT545M)
LE - Low energy desktop cards. (eg. 8400 LE), usually passively cooled, clocked as the laptop/M equivalent, and designed to be quiet and run grandmother's 2nd monitor. Not a good buyers choice for gaming.

Pay attention to your series numbers, your suffixes, etc. and don't be suckered in by cards that harp on about how much memory they have. a GT640 with 2GB of GDDR5 isn't going to run as well as a GTX660 with 1GB of GDDR5 (GDDR5>DDR3>DDR2>Derp). Memory only really makes a big whoop in Texture Resolution and Screen Resolution situations, and when you are playing at resolutions beyond 1080p (1920x1080). As always, if you're not sure, compare 2 cards through a benchmark website like notebookcheck

ShadowHearth

Okay, I fixed a few spelling mistakes. Few capital letters too. It should be a little bit easier on am eye now. Sorry lads, you know English is not first language so it can be a mess. Really thx for understanding all these years.

I hope this little wrote up will clear up things for se newbies. It's a very basic, fast write up, which should makeot more clear. Like I said PC specs and gaming might look very confusing, but when you do just a little bit research or get explanation it becomes a very simple and easy affair.

Overheal added one more great thing that I forgot about. Don't be fooled with all: 1GB ram!!!!! 2GB ram!!!! Super super fast!!!!
As overheal explained. Ram is important only if you go silly resolutions. Just because gpu got 1gb ram it does not mean it is good. Low end gpu like nvidia 630 with 1GB will be completely destroyed by ATI 7850 which has 1gb ram too. It's one of the marketing tactic they love to pull off on consumer, which does not know.
So make it more simple again - 1gb ram is enough for 1080p gaming. 2gb ++ ram for anything else.