Step 2 of 5
Step 2 — Working out whether your computer qualifies
Most disappointing evenings with a new game were decided before the download finished. This step has you write down four numbers from your own machine, then read a published requirements list against them.
Platform first: the question that ends the conversation
Before any number, answer one question: does this game run on the kind of computer you own at all? Platform support is not a matter of degree. A title published for Windows and Linux desktops does not run on a Mac because your Mac is fast, and it does not run on a tablet because the tablet is new.
The game used as this course's example states its scope plainly: desktop computers running Windows or Linux. No Mac version is in scope, and it is not offered as a console or a phone game. That single line is enough to end the exercise for a household whose only machine runs macOS — and ending the exercise there is a success, not a failure. You have spent five minutes instead of an evening and a chunk of your data allowance.
If the platform answer is yes, carry on to the numbers. A useful habit: write the platform line into the same note as the numbers, because it is the one requirement that no setting can work around.
The procedure: four numbers, ten minutes
The four numbers are the operating system, the processor and memory, the graphics hardware, and the free storage on the drive you would install to. Every published requirements list in this category is written in those terms. Here is how to find them on the two platforms in scope.
1. Operating system, and whether it is 64-bit
On Windows, open Settings, choose System, then About. Three lines matter: the edition (for example Windows 11 Home), the version (a number such as 23H2), and the system type, which will say 64-bit or 32-bit. Current PC games are almost always 64-bit only, so a 32-bit system type is a stop sign.
On Linux, open a terminal and run lsb_release -a for the distribution name and release, and uname -m for the architecture — x86_64 is the 64-bit answer. Write down both, because Linux support is often published against particular distributions and versions rather than against "Linux" in general.
2. Processor and memory
The same Windows About screen lists the processor model and the installed RAM in gigabytes. On Linux, cat /proc/cpuinfo gives the processor model name and free -h gives total memory. Copy the processor line exactly as it is written, including the model number; "an Intel one" is not a number you can compare against anything.
3. Graphics hardware
This is the number most people guess at, and the one that most often decides whether a game is playable. On Windows, press the Windows key together with R, type dxdiag and press Enter; on the Display tab you will find the device name and its dedicated video memory. On Linux, lspci | grep -i vga lists the graphics controller.
What you are looking for is whether the graphics are integrated — part of the processor, sharing system memory — or dedicated — a separate chip with its own memory. Integrated graphics run many online games acceptably at modest settings; they struggle with others. Knowing which you have turns a vague worry into a comparison you can actually make.
4. Free storage on the installation drive
Open the file manager, select the drive you would install to and read the free space in gigabytes. On Linux, df -h does the same from a terminal. Note the figure for the specific drive, not the total across all drives, because the installer cares about one of them.
Write it on paper
This site stores nothing. There is no field to type into and no saved profile, by design — see the Cookie Policy. Keep the four numbers in a notebook or a text file of your own. You will reuse them for every game you consider from now on, and they only change when your computer does.
Reading minimum and recommended requirements
Published requirements usually come in two columns. They are not two opinions about the same thing; they describe different experiences.
| Column | What it means in practice | How to treat it |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | The game is expected to start and run at low settings and a low resolution. | Meeting it exactly is a floor, not a target. Expect to turn settings down. |
| Recommended | The game is expected to run comfortably at ordinary settings on an ordinary monitor. | This is the realistic target for a machine you want to keep using for a year. |
| Storage figure | The size of the installation at the moment the figure was published. | Add headroom. Installed games grow with every patch. |
| Operating system | The versions the vendor supports and tests against. | Treat as a yes-or-no condition, not a preference. |
Two cautions. First, requirements lists are published by the vendor and change over time; always read the current list on the vendor's own site rather than a copy on a third-party page, including this one. We deliberately publish no hardware figures for any named game here, because a figure we typed in October would be stale by autumn and you would have no way to tell.
Second, a requirements list describes the game running on its own. If you keep thirty browser tabs, a video call and a music app open, the practical requirement is higher. The fair test is to compare the list against your machine as you actually use it.
Storage, patches and your data allowance
The install size is the beginning. Online games patch, and patches are how new content, balance changes and fixes arrive. A game you play weekly will download updates regularly, and the vendor decides when.
If your household internet plan is unlimited, this is an inconvenience at worst. If it has a monthly allowance — still common on fixed wireless, satellite and mobile broadband plans around Australia — then an installed online game is a recurring claim on that allowance, shared with everything else the household does. The practical move is to find your plan's monthly allowance before you install, not after a bill arrives.
Two habits help. Set your computer's connection as metered if your operating system offers that option, so that large updates are not downloaded automatically in the background. And install during whatever off-peak window your plan provides, if it provides one.
Desktop and laptop, honestly compared
Desktop
- Usually has dedicated graphics or room to add them.
- Cools better, so performance holds up over a long session.
- Parts can be replaced individually later.
- Fixed in one room, which can be an advantage in a shared household.
Laptop
- Often integrated graphics, especially in thin or office models.
- May slow down deliberately when hot or on battery.
- Rarely upgradeable beyond memory and storage.
- Portable, which makes household rules about time and place harder to keep.
Neither is the right answer. The point of the comparison is that a laptop meeting a minimum specification on paper may behave differently in practice, and that plugging it into power before a long session is a free improvement.
The household in Step 2
The hypothetical household opens the shared desktop's About screen together, which takes four minutes. Windows 11, 64-bit, sixteen gigabytes of memory, a processor model number nobody had looked at before, and — from the diagnostic tool — integrated graphics rather than a dedicated card. Free space on the main drive: about ninety gigabytes.
They then look at the platform line for the title they are considering. Windows is in scope, so the conversation continues. Their provisional conclusion is that the machine will probably start the game and that they should expect to run it at lower settings, which is a far more useful expectation to hold in advance than to discover at nine o'clock at night.
Their internet plan has a monthly allowance, so they decide to install at the start of a billing month rather than at the end of one. None of this is a claim about how any particular game performs; it is a way of showing the order of the checks.
Checking the example game's own pages
The current platform and hardware requirements for the title named in this course live on the vendor's own site, which is the only place they are maintained.
Affiliate link. If you create an account after following it, the affiliate network that operates the link may pay us a commission. It costs you nothing extra, and this step would say exactly the same things without it.
Before you move on
You should now have four numbers and a platform answer written down somewhere you can find again, and you should be able to compare them against any published requirements list without guessing at a single field.
Step 3 moves from the machine to the account: what a sign-up form is actually asking for, why an email confirmation exists, and how to read the terms and the privacy notice that the form quietly attaches to the tick box.
Checklist for Step 2
- I have confirmed the game supports the kind of computer I own, as a yes-or-no answer.
- I have written down my operating system, its version, and whether it is 64-bit.
- I have written down my processor model and the amount of memory installed.
- I have written down my graphics device, and whether it is integrated or dedicated.
- I have written down the free space, in gigabytes, on the drive I would install to.
- I have read the vendor's current requirements list on the vendor's own site.
- I have compared my four numbers against the minimum and the recommended columns.
- I have left storage headroom above the published figure for future patches.
- I know my internet plan's monthly data allowance, or that it has none.
- If I am using a laptop, I have decided to run it on power rather than battery.