How we determine if your PC can run it

Where requirement data comes from

Every requirement record in our database is transcribed from a publisher's or vendor's own published specification — a store page, an official support article or a documentation page. Each record stores the source name and URL alongside the figures.

Records begin life unverified, and every page carrying an unverified record says so. We currently hold 544 requirement records across 269 games and 57 applications.

There are exactly two ways a record becomes independently verified, and we label which one applied:

• Independently verified against the publisher. A script fetches the publisher's own live specification and compares every field — operating system, processor, graphics, memory, storage, DirectX — against what we hold. The record is marked verified only when the numbers match exactly and the wording names the same parts. Where they disagreed we corrected our data to the source. That correction pass found and fixed errors in the majority of the records it examined, which is precisely why the check exists.
• Independently verified by an editor. A person read the source and confirmed the record by hand.

Both check against the publisher rather than against our own earlier assumption, which is what makes them independent. Records we have not yet re-checked say so instead — they were transcribed from the publisher, but we are not going to claim more than that.

Both are genuine checks, but they are not the same claim, so the badge on each page states which was done and on what date. A verified badge never means “this looked about right”.

Where a publisher does not state a figure, the field stays empty and the site shows “Not stated”. We do not fill gaps with estimates, and we do not publish leaked or speculative specifications for unreleased titles.

The relative performance index

Comparing an “RTX 3060” requirement against a user's “RX 6600” needs a common scale. We maintain an internal relative performance index for every graphics card and processor in the database, normalised so an RTX 3060 12GB and an Intel Core i5-12400F each score 100.

This index is an editorial estimate derived from published specifications and the general consensus about where parts sit relative to one another. It is not a benchmark score, it was not produced by running tests, and it should not be treated as one. It exists to rank parts and to make comparisons possible.

Processors carry two indexes, because one number would be misleading:

• Single-thread, which is what most games actually depend on
• Multi-thread, which is what rendering, compiling and encoding depend on

The engine blends them differently for games and for applications, which is why the same processor can produce a different verdict on a game page and on a creative-software page.

How the comparison works

For each component we compare your part against the lowest-indexed part the publisher lists at that tier — publishers usually give alternatives (“X or Y”), and comparing against the weakest listed option is the honest reading of a minimum.

Because the indexes are approximate, comparisons use tolerance bands rather than exact greater-than checks. A part within roughly 10% of a requirement is reported as borderline rather than as a confident pass or fail.

Each component returns one of four results:

• Meets recommended — at or above the recommended specification
• Below recommended — above the minimum, under the recommended
• Below minimum — under the published floor
• Insufficient data — either you have not told us, or the publisher has not

Critically, a missing figure is never treated as a failure. If we cannot compare something, we say so.

Confidence levels

Every verdict carries a confidence level, because “yes” based on four matched components and “yes” based on two guesses are not the same claim.

• High — every component matched a database entry, and the requirement record has been verified
• Medium — one component could not be matched, or the requirement data is unverified
• Low — several components could not be matched; treat as indicative
• Insufficient data — we will not give a verdict at all

Unverified requirement data caps confidence at medium, no matter how complete your PC details are.

Performance estimates

Our performance estimator distinguishes sharply between two things, and labels which one you are looking at every time:

1. Measured data. A real, cited benchmark result for that game, resolution and preset. When one exists we use it and show the citation.
2. Model-based estimate. Anchored on the publisher's own recommended specification, which we treat as targeting roughly 60 fps at 1080p on a High preset. That anchor is a convention publishers broadly follow, not a measurement — which is why the model path always returns a wide range at low confidence.

We do not invent benchmark numbers to fill gaps in the benchmark table. If neither path can produce something defensible, the estimator says “insufficient data”.

What a requirement sheet cannot tell you

Even a perfect comparison against a perfect specification cannot account for:

• Minimum requirements do not guarantee high frame rates. They describe the configuration the game was tested to run on, often targeting 30 fps on the lowest preset.
• Recommended requirements vary enormously between publishers. There is no shared standard for what “recommended” targets.
• Resolution and refresh rate. A machine that meets recommended for 1080p60 will not deliver 1440p144.
• Settings, drivers, thermals, background processes and the specific scene you are in all move real performance considerably.
• Laptops differ from desktops with the same part names, sometimes by a wide margin, depending on the power limit the manufacturer chose.
• Requirements change after launch. Major updates have raised baselines on several titles in our database.

What we will not do

This is the part that matters most, so it is stated plainly:

• We do not fabricate requirements, frame rates, benchmarks or hardware specifications.
• We do not publish speculative specifications for unannounced PC releases — our Grand Theft Auto VI page deliberately contains no requirement figures at all.
• We do not mark data as verified because it looks plausible.
• We do not present our relative indexes as benchmark results, and we say so on every page that shows them.
• We do not recommend products based on commercial arrangements. We currently run no affiliate links at all; if that ever changes it will be disclosed.

Incomplete data is more useful than confident-sounding fiction. If you find something wrong, every requirements page has a Report an issue button — reports with a link to the publisher's own page are reviewed fastest.