Step 2 of 5

Working out whether your computer can run it

This is the step that saves the most wasted time. Twenty minutes spent writing down five facts about your computer will tell you, before you install anything, whether a given game is realistic on it.

Desktop computers, not phones or consoles

The category this course covers is desktop PC games: software you install on a desktop or laptop computer running Windows, macOS or Linux. Enlisted, the example used in this course, is published for those desktop operating systems — Mac, Windows and Linux — and not for phones, tablets or game consoles. If the only device in your house is a phone or a console, this course will still teach you how accounts and sign-ups work, but the specific example will not apply to your device.

"Desktop operating system" means the full operating system that runs on a computer with a keyboard, rather than the mobile system on a phone. A laptop counts. A tablet that runs a mobile operating system does not, even if you attach a keyboard to it.

That distinction matters more than it used to, because the same brand name often appears on several platforms with different software behind it. Before you spend an evening on this, check which platforms the vendor actually publishes for, on the vendor's own site.

The five things you need to know about your machine

Every requirements list published by every vendor is some arrangement of the same five facts. Write them on paper once and you can read any requirements list in the category in about a minute.

The operating system and its version. Not just "Windows" but which release; not just "a Mac" but which version of macOS; for Linux, which distribution and release. Requirements lists are usually written as "this version or newer".

The processor. Often called the CPU. This is the general-purpose chip that runs the software. You want the manufacturer and the model number, not just the brand.

The memory. Often called RAM, measured in gigabytes. This is the computer's short-term working space, and it is a different thing from storage, which people confuse constantly. Memory is emptied every time the computer is switched off.

The graphics hardware. Often called the GPU or graphics card. Either a separate card inside the machine, or a section of the processor doing the same job. Which of the two you have matters, because requirements lists almost always name separate cards.

The free storage space. Measured in gigabytes, on the drive where software gets installed. The number that matters is free space, not the size of the drive. A 512 GB drive with 11 GB free will not accept a 40 GB installation.

Finding them, on any operating system

Every desktop operating system has a built-in panel that shows this information. You do not need to install anything to find it, and you should be sceptical of any website that offers to scan your computer and tell you — that is a category of software with a long history of being unhelpful at best.

1. Identify the operating system. On Windows, open Settings and look at the System or About section. On macOS, open the Apple menu and choose the "About This Mac" item. On Linux, the settings application for your desktop environment has an About or Details page, and the terminal command uname -a prints the kernel version.
2. Find the processor and memory. The same panel on all three systems lists the processor model and the installed memory. Copy the whole processor string, including the model number.
3. Find the graphics hardware. On Windows, the Display settings have an Advanced display page that names the adapter. On macOS, the same About panel names the chip, and the System Information application has a Graphics section. On Linux, the settings About page usually names it, and lspci | grep -i vga prints it in a terminal.
4. Measure free storage. Open the file manager, find the drive where applications are installed, and read the free space figure. Write down free space and total size, in that order.
5. Write the five facts on one piece of paper. Keep it. You will use it again every time you consider any game, and the figures change only when you change the hardware.

If any of those panels gives you a model number you cannot interpret, that is fine and expected. You do not need to understand what the number means. You only need to be able to copy it accurately and compare it with the one in a requirements list.

Reading minimum and recommended requirements

Vendors usually publish two columns. Reading them correctly is mostly a matter of knowing what each column is promising.

Three habits make these lists easier to use. First, compare line by line rather than forming a general impression: meeting four requirements and missing one still means missing one. Second, treat storage as the easiest line to fix and the one most often ignored — you can usually free space, and you cannot usually add a graphics card to a laptop. Third, if you are sitting right on the minimum, expect to reduce the detail settings in the game, which Step 5 covers.

Requirements change when software is updated, so take them from the vendor's current page on the day you are deciding, not from a forum post or an article. We do not reproduce Enlisted's requirements here for exactly that reason: anything we printed would be a snapshot that quietly goes out of date. The vendor's own site is the only source that is current by definition. You can visit the Enlisted website to read what it states today.

A paid affiliate link: IGOA s.r.o. earns a commission on registrations made through it, at no additional cost to you. Checking requirements does not require registering.

Your connection and your data allowance

An online game needs two different things from your internet connection, and they are not the same.

The first is the download. Installing a modern PC game can mean transferring tens of gigabytes, and large updates arrive periodically afterwards. On a plan with a monthly data allowance, that is worth checking before you start rather than discovering at the end of the month. If the household connection is shared, it is also worth starting a large download at a time that does not interfere with anyone else.

The second is the connection while playing. Online play sends small amounts of data constantly, and what matters is consistency and delay rather than raw speed. Delay — often called latency or ping — is the time it takes for a message to reach the server and come back. A connection that downloads large files quickly can still be an uncomfortable one to play on if it is inconsistent.

Two practical points follow. A wired connection to the router is steadier than wireless, and it is the single easiest improvement available to most households. And servers that are physically far away add delay that nothing on your end can remove, which is why games typically let you choose a region.

If you want general, independent guidance on internet services, connection types and what a retail service provider must tell you, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission publishes consumer information at accc.gov.au.

The worked example: two machines, one decision

Our hypothetical household has the Windows laptop, four years old, and the older Linux desktop. This is a constructed illustration, not a real set of measurements, and it is used only to show the shape of the decision.

They write down the five facts for each machine. The laptop turns out to have a processor and memory that sit comfortably above a typical minimum, graphics built into the processor rather than a separate card, and 23 GB free out of 256 GB. The desktop has a separate graphics card but less memory and a much older operating system release.

Line by line, neither is an obvious winner, so they make a decision rather than guess at one. They choose the laptop, because the operating system is current and supported, and they resolve the storage line first: a folder of old video files moves to an external drive, which takes ten minutes and frees enough space to make the question moot.

They write "laptop" on the piece of paper from Step 1, and move on. The important part is not which machine they chose. It is that they chose it from written-down facts rather than from a feeling about which computer seemed faster.