So yeah... Sometimes just checking minimum and recommended requirements isn't enough and I never know are those "can I run it" sites any good.

I have a Toshiba Qosmio X870-15Q laptop I game on, and it's been serving me pretty good. But some games I bought just never seem to work as well as they should (Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons being the most recent example).

Trying a demo seems to be the safest bet, with checking the Steam forums and snooping around the web as backup.

So, of course, maintaining your drivers and system aside, is there any better way to MAKE SURE you'll be able to run a game? And not just run it, but run it with a normal frame rate that's playable and all that...

Am I missing something?

What was your biggest regret? What did you buy and was unable to play or was unsatisfied with because of this?

I look at the specification of my system and then look at the specification requirements of the game, alongside real world reports/video of the game running on disclosed hardware.

I also mostly play games on a laptop, and it's pretty hard to know whether things will run or not. Since mine's not very powerful, my rule of thumb is that if I'm worreid enough to have to check system requirements to see if a game will run, it probably won't. I tend to either buy graphics intensive games on consoles, or pick them up in steam sales where if they don't run well it's no big deal.

The only time I've ever had to not play a game I bought because my laptop wouldn't run it was the first GRID - my laptop could almost handle it, but the framerate tended to drop on long, straight stretches. That would've been bareable, but as you approached a corner and the game had less in front of you to draw, it would suddlenly speed up, which made the driving pretty erratic, to say the least. Honourable mention goes to Saints Row III - I waited until a humble bundle to try that, since I was apprehenive as to whether it would work at all. I was sort-of right, in that it ran at a pretty awful frame rate, but the game doesn't need much precision, and I enjoyed it enough to keep playing.

@immortal_guy: Yeah, looks like laptops are especially tricky. Watch Dogs is coming out pretty soon and I imagine it should be at least playable on my laptop. And games that are not as polished and not that supported, like ArmA III- I really don't know. I'll need to make a gamble I guess :(

If there's a question, pretty much this.

I'm not saying this to sound like an asshole, but so far there's never been a question of whether I can run it. My rig's not amazing - I've only got a 7870 - but it has run everything I've ever thrown at it with good settings, framerates, and resolutions.

@choi: It is a bit of a guessing game - the specific way games are optimised and scale down seems to make a huge difference. GRID caused me problems, but Bioshock ran totally fine. Diablo III runs well, while Torchlight II runs worse despite looking less detailed. And pretty much anything published by Paradox is garunteed to barely work...

Buy hardware that is gonna be good for all games in the near future and just assume that it's gonna work.

Has been fine so far!

The best thing to know is the GPU, since it will have the most impact on what games you'll be able to play. Knowing that is the greatest way to compare against the system requirements and, probably more revealing if you want an actual idea of how playable "playable" is, other benchmarks.

Keep in mind even if it is a higher-end mobile GPU, mobile GPUs also tend to be terribly named against their desktop counterparts, and are often of lesser power (supposedly for power saving, and also because it's much harder to cool a mobile GPU stuffed in a tight laptop). Makes it a whole lot more difficult to find accurate comparisons unless it's a common part.

Edit: if the search I made turned up the exact right model, you should have a GTX670m running at 1920x1080. I have the same desktop card, and even keeping in mind what I said earlier about mobile parts, seems odd that you'd be having an issue with Brothers.

Actually, on further inspection, the 670m is using older gpu architecture and running at lower clocks, so yeah. The comparison to the desktop 670 is misleading.

There are sites that read or system and compare it to the requirements, not always 100% especially if you have some different hardware than other stuff but a good way to check if it can run a game. I'm on my phone and I don't have a URL off the top of my head but just Google can I run this and should be the first link.

That one.

Also I'm not so sure about calling something that came ready to go out of a box, a rig.

Most of the time if you have a mid to high range GPU like an r9 280 or a 760 or better and a decent CPU like an i5 or an FX-6300 you can pretty much stomp anything.

If you have a desktop PC upgrade it every so often and always stay in the mid to high-end. Once every 5 years or so should be fine these days, maybe even less so this console generation, since PS4 and Xb1 are relatively weak. A beefy PC might serve you well for almost a decade if you don't have to play everything maxed out. Unless the marked changes and the consoles suddenly "die out", I imagine they will hold back PC gaming even more this time around unfortunately.

Can you run it is the site I use.

The fact that the only ''good'' answers in this tread so far have been ''spend more money and you won't have to care'' or ''fish around for comparison videos for your exact hardware'' illustrates why most people don't bother with PC gaming.

Yeah, this. Ridiculous outliers like BF4 and Metro not withstanding, I haven't run into a game that I couldn't play on at least high with a minimum framerate of 50-60.

It's not that tricky. A decent computer will run any game fine. If my computer can run Bioshock Infinite fine, it can run Battlefield 3/4 fine. If my computer can run Dead Island fine, it can run Dead Space fine. If my computer struggles with Space Marine, it's going to struggle with Saint's Row: The Third.

For the most part if your computer can play game X at high settings, it can play game Y at high settings, or at least medium settings. Once you can play modern games at 1920x1080p 60 fps you can do with most games of that era.

You mean I have to boil water and THEN put the instant pasta in the pot?! This is why most people don't bother with cooking.

Can You Run It is a decent tool, but it really only uses back of the box requirements. Some games may low ball the recommended settings or set them too high. Remember how CoD: Ghosts recommended a 780 or something crazy to play a port from an 8 year old powerpc machine?

Here

Pretty decent analyzer.

Although it is just going by min/recommended specs

@slaegar: CoD Ghosts actually needed that though because it was horrendously optimized, seriously, it was stunningly bad.

Spend a enough time with PC games and you eventually more or less get a feel for it, also knowing what the game is built on engine wise goes a long way. It's generally safe to assume for instance that if the game is built on Unreal 3 and they didn't mess with the render code in some really horrific ways that it will run on more or less anything in existence.

This worked for me as well. But my 6 or 7 year old PC is starting to feel a little old and dated. I can get most games up to high graphics, but I made a poor choice in operating systems and my OS is now useless and no longer supported in 99% of modern games. Doesn't help that the price of Windows 7 install disk costs more than a new PC where I live.

@therealmoot: I start to feel like my video card is dated when it's 6 or 7 months old...

PC gaming.

You kinda can't. It's one of the worst things about PC gaming. If you're lucky enough, someone has a video up on YouTube of the game running on your exact specs. " Recommended " specs are usually not a great way to tell, because most of the time, the developers don't specify what settings, frame rate, and resolution the game was running at when they tested that stuff because why the hell should they care, right?

I'm sad. My poor GTX 560 ti is really straining itself to play recent games. Looks like the Witcher 3 is gonna force me to upgrade, just like its predecessor did. :P

You don't need the lastest bestest thing all the time. Do you get sad when a newer version of your phone comes out?

I'm rocking my 7850 that I bought on day one and it feels fresh and new. Also runs games quite well. It certainly doesn't feel two years old.

My GTX 580 has been able to handle just about everything over the last few years on decent settings. I am curious how it would handle Watch_Dogs, it's so much cheaper on PC than if I were to get it for my PS4.

Look at the recommended specs and assume that is what is needed to run the game on the lowest settings @1920x1080.

Its kind of hard with laptops, IMO. The big things are 1) your laptops resolution 2) the desktop equivalent of the components you have and 3) is the game optimized well. 1 thing I do is go on youtube and lookup the game Im looking into followed by the name of my graphics card. You'd be surprised how many people post videos testing out specs for various laptops/configurations. If you can't find a video, find out what the desktop equivalent to your GPU is and search with that instead. For me, my GPU is a 330m, and if there's no video detailing that I look up the 8800 because it's pretty close to the 330m.

Resolution is a big thing for me because, from what I can gather, developers use 1080p as a marker for coming up with system specs. My laptop is 1366x768, so that means I will have to push out significantly less pixels than what they are specing for. For instance, the recommended specs for DmC state there's no chance in hell I could run the thing at even minimum settings, yet I can actually run it at the highest settings with like 45fps. It's all because they aren't accounting for weird resolutions when coming up with those specs.

And, at the end of the day, if the game isn't optimized well you'll run into trouble if you don't have great components.

Also, "can you run it" (from system requirements lab) is too inconsistent for me to recommend it. Far too many times has it told me 'you definitely can't run this game, fuck you' when I totally could.

To be more helpful with mobile GPUs. Compare benchmarks for your card to benchmarks for the minimum spec.

Let's say you have a trinity A8 apu:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+HD+6550D

The minimum spec is an 8800GT:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+8800+GT

You have a chance at being able to run this game at the absolute minimum settings and a low resolution.

@slaegar:It's not that tricky my ass man. Explain to me how I can run BioShock Infinite, L.A. Noire, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and games like that no problem but have barely 15 fps in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and Renegade Ops?

@narujoe93: @pyrodactyl: Exactly my thought reading all the asnwers here... I love that laptop to bits for all the other things I do on it, but for gaming, looks cheaper and easier to buy a PS4.

@andrewb: @narujoe93 Thanks guys! That is actually pretty helpful advice.

@tobbrobb: Really? I ask how can I make sure I can run something and you say I need to buy new hardware and stay current? And I have a laptop? Throwing money at it is not really helpful man...

I guess it is impossible to occasionally, casually dabble in PC games without knowing all the GPU comparisons, benchmarks and all that other stuff to be as sure as you can. And even that doesn't make it bulletproof without throwing money at it as far as I can tell, and as far as all you said here.

I know that now, when this generation of games finally start coming out (Watch Dogs being kinda the first on my radar) my laptop is going to start having problems handling them. I just want to play as much as I can before buying a PS4... There, I won't have these complications...

It's hard to tell, especially with no games having demos anymore. I used to search for videos on youtube to get an idea. Just search the game's name, followed by your video card and/or CPU.

I'm fortunate enough to still be in the range with my PC that worst case scenario, I'll just have to turn down a few settings. When I had a less powerful PC, I would choose between playing on my 720p TV, 1440x900 monitor, or my 1920x1080 monitor, depending on my performance. It was a little bit extra work, but it gave me a nice range of pixels to work with and not have things look too bad.

@choi: Yup, laptops are not very good if you want to stay current with big triple A games. My laptop can, sometimes, run bigger games, but for the most part my gaming on it is primarily indie. Everything else I play on my ps3 (and probably the ps4 in the future).

Also, there's something definitely wrong if you can run something like the witcher 2 but not brothers: a tale of two sons. I can run brothers, and my laptop has a really old, kind of shitty nvidia gpu. Can barely run the witcher 2 (all low settings, and sub 30 fps). I would dig around on the steam forums to see if there's anybody having a similar problem.

@choi: You asked what I do and I told you. If you want an answer that both gives you guaranteed framerate and doesn't require "throwing money at it" then perhaps I should tell you that there isn't one. You can't arbitrarily increase the amount of traffic a road can handle without either slacking on the rules, or adding another lane. Which in this case would either mean overclocking until it starts burning or bringing out the wallet.

Either you put in the time to figure out a moderately priced setup that can run all current things, and then upgrade occasionally, or you buy something strong and expensive that will last far longer. There is not more to it.

I buy the game and find out.

I have never checked the system requirements, cause you have no idea what they mean, does minimum mean that the game will start, or does it mean minimum by a human rights standard?Does reccomended mean 30 fps at medium, or does it mean flawless 60/120 at max?

It differs from game to game, and in my opinion is pretty useless, unless you are a parent buying your kid a christmas present and want to figure out if the game will start or not.

If games start to chug, it is time to upgrade, whether i have money for that or not is another question,but its not like i lost something cause i bought a game, i will play that game regardless, whether i decide to wait until i have my upgrades, of if i turn some of the settings down from ultra and play it like that.

I dont really get the whole deal with people who are afraid to buy a game cause their computer might not handle it, unless of course, they only play like a game a year.

If the game runs poorly it's probably not optimized for your specific hardware. This will increasingly become the case as more and more indie or lower budget games become the norm.

However, with that being said, if you have a modern computer with at least mid tier capabilities you should run any game fine. If not, it's not necessarily your computer- that is assuming your computer is modern (built within the last 5 years).

It's interesting, actually, now that it's become more common to be unsure of these things Demos should be more common again. Really they're not (although some games still get demos) and all you can do is research or take a gamble if you have an older system.

System requirements Lab, while not always completely accurate, is still my go to if I am unsure a game will work. If nothing else it can tell you if your hardware meets specifications for the game. You should always look at the recommended settings and not minimum if you are worried about low frame rates and such. If you don't mind a drop in quality that is the only time minimum specifications matter.

Maybe people don't like throwing money away on games that may not work and for which all sales are final? Seems pretty straightforward unless I am totally missing something about your statement.

@mb: As i said, if you play one game a year, then one game not working will be a big slip up.

As well as the fact that you probably don't know how your machine fares, since you pick up games so seldom.

The game you bought, you will play eventually anyway, if the world depended on every game-purchase i made, i would be far more worried about the game i just bought being bad and un-enjoyable, and a waste of money, cause a bad game will be bad in the future too, where as a good game can be played later when you have the hardware.

If you are on the cusp of minimum, and your next upgrade is three years away, i would stop buying games entirely and invest in hardware as soon as possible, but that's me.

Honestly though, system requirements don't help much, and systemrequirementslab is a great site, their intentions are fantastic, but all they do is tell you that your graphics card is infact worse than the one written on the box there, in case you yourself are not into hardware.

Which means, systemrequirementslab are only as accurate as the system requirements listed by the game, they dont run any tests on your hardware, they just compare text to other text.
I believe they have started letting people post their hardware and state what kind of fps they get, so that people can actually read real data, which is a step in the right direction.

The best thing is to look up a hardware review where they test your graphics card, and the game in question.

official demos are pretty rare these days, and the problem with the unofficial ones is that they have extra code in them that sometimes affect the performance negatively.

@devildoll: MB is picking up on your arrogant tone as you insinuate that someone afraid of a game not working means they only play one game- because clearly anybody can just buy a $60 game at a whim and write it off if it doesn't work. Yes, it is fairly arrogant to assume that- I am just pointing this out to you.

Also upgrading a computer is complicated. It's not something a regular user cares to think about. Whether or not they should is up to the person and those of us that know better to try and advise but everyone has their own interests. OPs computer is a laptop, though, so we're more than likely talking about buying another one altogether which could be a little extreme if the computer isn't that old (and based solely on what computer OP says they have I assume it's not that old from my casual research on it).

I am replying to you, though, because you mentioned systemrequirementslab which I brought up. My recommendation for it came with the caveat that it is not always accurate. The problem with most PC users who know what they're talking about is they forget when talking to someone who doesn't know that the person who doesn't may not have the time to invest in their computer that you may have. System requirements lab is by no means an end all solution, but it's a much better start than just giving up on your computer altogether and buying another one because the frame rate drops in some games. The most likely cause for this is that your computer is just not optimized for the game. With laptops, even today, this is one of the risks. System requirements lab gives a good base line for this as it checks for known quantities- such as if they support your graphics card or not.

It could just be that the graphics card doesn't support something the game uses and to fix the problems all you need to do is turn it off (Like SSAO and other graphical hogs that can affect performance in computers that aren't great with those things or aren't optimized well). I am speculating at this point though.

Just saying, though. Hopefully this helps.

Well i meant that they only play one game just because of the fact that they cant spend more on games, that i can understand.

Yeah i think i might be in a bit of a bubble on this one, because of my own habits and experiences, pretty much everyone i know upgrades their stuff, as well as me frequenting a lot of hadware forums, so i might have a unrealistic perception of how many people actually play games and at the same time know hardware.

@therealmoot: Get Windows 8, I can get an OEM version for the same price as a new console game and a medium whopper menu.
In desktop mode I enjoy Win 8.1 more than Win 7. OEM versions have strict limitations with upgrades, but my Win 7 Pro key went bad after a few upgrades anyways, so I'm not going for the pricier options there anymore.

went bad after a few upgrades? really, I've had my windows 7 license since release with four different graphics cards.

This is part of the bullshit that scares people away from PC gaming. Unless youre well over the specs you prob wont really know if your PC will run the game well. Even then you can come across bugs, driver issues that cause a game to be unplayable. Demo is best bet, or you could always dload a copy from "somewhere" off the internet. Try it, and then pay for it if you intend to use the game.

Video cards count for a lot less than your motherboards on board LAN MAC address or your CPU model when doing an activation. If you have a retail win 7 key (not the discount student deal) and it won't auto activate, usually all you have to do is call MS and tell them it is only installed on one computer. They will give you a very long code to enter that will activate the install.

By knowing that at this point my desktop at least can play anything.