It is 2014 and PC specs are still way too confuisng.

A

Alphahawk

Member
To start off I'll fully admit to being a noob when it comes to PC gaming but this stuff just is way to confusing for it's own good. I'm on steam and it seems like for every system requirement their are like 5 different ways of stating them. One might say to run this game I need a AMD Athlon or equivalent which forces me to google whether my graphics card is good enough to run the game. Another game might mention "hey you need a sm 2.0" to run this game, after googling I determine that the object in question is actually determined by what direct X number you have, so why they even bothered to list it outside of a direct X requirement is beyond me. Again a lot of this stuff may be common since to PC gamers, in fact I'm sure it is, but as a primary console gamer all the techno babble and additional websites I have to consult make me never want to purchase a game that looks even the least bit modern.

Am I missing something here?
 
The confusion is one of the main reasons I haven't jumped on the PC gaming bus yet. I want to, I really do, but I have no idea what the fuck is going on, lol.
 
PCs have never been easier to build, do some research.

There are tons of great benchmarking sites and pricing guides.
 
If you have a decent PC ... don't care, don't read. You will only know about requirements after release. Developers just recommend weird stuff
 
I understand it can be hard if you've never had anything to do with PC hardware but if you plan on playing AAA graphics games on your PC, chances are you spent a fair amount on your components/pre-built rig and thus know what those requirements mean and if you meet them. It will come with time, I had no idea back in November last year when I buildt my gaming PC and I dare to say I know a fair bit about it by now.

But on a sidenote, those min/recommended specs are quite useless since there is no standardized answer to what minimum and recommended mean in terms of actual performance.
 
I haven't looked at system requirements for a game in years, just buy good parts and most things will run. The usual "requirements" are wrong half the time anyway, just ignore them.


I also don't think <5 minutes of googling something if you really need to know is particularly confusing or strenuous.
 
TUSR said:
PCs have never been easier to build, do some research.

There are tons of great benchmarking sites and pricing guides.
Click to expand...

I've built numerous PC's for friends, family, and work/colleagues, have researched how to do so heavily, and poured over the guide here, and I'm STILL overwhelmed by the sheer number and variety of different components and choices as to be put off making one myself.

Even with all those guides and hours of research, I'm still not certain which of the most likely millions of combinations is right for me, and can't decide exactly what components are the best for me to buy for my needs and longevity.

Every single time a new component gets announced and people always post their annoyance that they just bought something else and should have waited doesn't help either frankly.

I fully admit it's never been easier, but that doesn't make it simple.
 
Just buy a decent enough rig and you won't really have to worry about system requirements for awhile.

There will always be something new or better around the corner, but that's just the nature of it. PC isn't a closed platform and that's a good thing.
 
I haven't seen shader model listed on requirements in a while. Even if it is listed, just look at the GPU needed. Same for DirectX. They won't list a GPU that doesn't have the necessary DirectX/Shader Model.

If you need to know what is a equivalent GPU, use this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Seriously, the only things you need to look at are CPU and GPU. Maybe RAM if you have less than 8GB.

Also, knowing the basics helps. If you are searching for graphics cards because you read AMD Athlon (it is a CPU), you are wasting your time.
 
even if you understand them the system requirements just keep going up and up and it's annoying to worry about. Easier to just get a ps4 and be set for the next 10 years.

as we see from this gen consoles lasted forever and are still getting cross gen.
 
Build a decent PC and none of it will matter.

The Build a PC thread has a chart that is of AMAZING help for those that are not sure what parts to choose from. From a budget $500 build to an enthusiast "nice things" $1500 build.

In fact, the Enthusiast build is about a month outdated. Switch the GTX 780 with the new 970, subtract around $200, and you'll be set for the entire console generation (assuming your still content with its performance as the years go by).
 
Athlon? Shader model 2.0? Are you looking at games from 2003?

PC requirements listed with games have gotten simpler, you just haven't noticed because you're not buying any new games.

You get a pretty basic CPU requirement (a minimum Intel and AMD equivalent). Same goes for GPU, along with memory requirements and DirectX version requirements.

This stuff used to be very confusing. DirectX 9 had numerous versions itself (9.0a, b, c) each which had various features that may or may not have been supported by your GPU at the time. I recall my relatively new and powerful Radeon X850 not running the Splinter Cell Chaos Theory demo because it didn't support shader model 3.0. This kind of confusion is practically nonexistent today.
 
Tidus_Great said:
even if you understand them the system requirements just keep going up and up and it's annoying to worry about. Easier to just get a ps4 and be set for the next 10 years.
Click to expand...

It's pretty trivial, they don't, it isn't, it probably is, and only with ever greater concessions.
 
It takes less than an hour of reading to understand the components in your PC, if you think that's too much work then just buy an xbone so you can turn your brain off when you are buying games.
 
4th Chamber said:
Just buy a decent enough rig and you won't really have to worry about system requirements for awhile.

There will always be something new or better around the corner, but that's just the nature of it. PC isn't a closed platform and that's a good thing.
Click to expand...

That kind of attitude is hardly conducive to getting value for money though. What's a 'decent enough rig' without spending more than you need? How do you avoid buying more powerful hardware than you need, and how do you guarantee that those components will all be the best to last the maximum amount of time to fulfil your needs?

Yes, being an open, customisable open system is absolutely the greatest strength of PC gaming, and the fact you can go hog wild on power with only really how much money you're will to spend being what holds you back, is a great thing, but it's still very off putting at an entry level if you're not the kind of person that likes to takes risks and has have a very strict budget.
 
I'm still learning and still a mugwump as a noob PC gamer, but here's my advice: Just get a powerful GPU and a fast processor and play!

Seriously, that's all I did and I'm having a blast!

That 970 or 980 is such a great deal! I say start there. I just look at the requirements on Steam and see if it's a older GPU that's recommended, and that's all I need to know.

All that tinkering and optimization comes afterward. It can be a pain but if you toy around with it long enough, it's pretty easy to find a setting that works. I just stick with a similar setting for all the games depending on how new or old they are, respectively.

I do get into trouble with some things like older games that don't work, for example, or newer games that haven't been patched to work on Windows 8 and things like that. And I'm weary when it comes to mods or patches that aren't made by developers. If a game doesn't work and there's no solution, I just avoid them.

Other than that, just having a nice rig is all one needs when it comes to system requirements and all that.

And tech forums are always helpful. You can find any help if you just look it up!
 
PC hardware has never made any sense, it's just a e-penis scam when hardware manufacturers add extra zeros and turbo to the name so they can sell them at ridiculous prices. This is why pc gaming will never catch on.

Also having to read several manuals in order to get going is laughable by today's standards.
 
I didn't know much either until I built my first. That helps a lot, you ask questions and get familiarized with each component. Nobody truly knows how good a gpu is out the gate until it's been benchmarked, so I use anandtech to determine how my gpu fairs in comparison to others, give or take a few variables across different titles, then when it comes to pc requirements on steam or whatever you have a rough idea where your card lies in relation to others. Same for cpu.
 
Are you looking at games from 1999? If you do any research on your build (via the build thread), the modern stuff will all make sense. It's very simple stuff.
 
Building a PC have never been easier. There are a lot of helpful guides out there. Just order the parts online and most of the hardware shops are putting your pc together for a few bucks.
Once you have your pc, just install the newest graphic card and your soundcard driver (just google the names of these parts), and from that point everything will be updated automatically (if you want)

You dont have to worry about all the specifications that every part has, you dont have to need any of this stuff to buy a good pc. besides buying a mainboard which fits to the cpu socket there no thing which really can be incompatible.

And for those who worry about setting up all the graphic options: Programs like the Geforce Experience (installed with the graphiccard driver) can set up the graphic settings for each game to the best experience you get for your system.

System requirements are also nothing to worry about. once you build your pc you can play everything for the next years. Once you notice that you cant run every new game in the graphic settings you want, you can think about upgrading some parts within the next year.
 
MRORANGE said:
PC hardware has never made any sense, it's just a e-penis scam when hardware manufacturers add extra zeros and turbo to the name so they can sell them at ridiculous prices. This is why pc gaming will never catch on.
Click to expand...
I read on the steam forums that your eye can only see 30fps and that this 60fps+ gaming is a conspiracy by gpu manufacturers to make you buy expensive hardware. Now everything makes sense.
 
Stuff like shader model version in DX is something you don't need to worry about at all, if you're buying an AMD, NVIDIA or even an Intel chip with an integrated GPU, they all support the standards and software used by games. Software wise, if you've bought an AMD GPU/CPU, NVIDIA GPU, or Intel CPU and they're not low end, bottom of the barrel parts, then you'll be completely fine with those parts supporting the software you need to meet the requirements of those games. So that's one aspect of the requirements you can safely ignore.

As for choosing the right hardware, there are plenty of resources online, including on these forums. Do a little research, see what people recommend and look up some reviews, perhaps just at the benchmarking sections to see where those particular parts fit into the market at that moment.

PC Gaming does still require you to be more tech savvy than otherwise, but the only "challenge" in it is picking the hardware from the start - but we now have less variety, the hardware is more standardised, they all support the software they need to, the operating systems they need to, none of that is a worry these days. A few hours of research and help from others and you have that bit sorted too.

or just buy a pre-built machine.
 
MRORANGE said:
PC hardware has never made any sense, it's just a e-penis scam when hardware manufacturers add extra zeros and turbo to the name so they can sell them at ridiculous prices. This is why pc gaming will never catch on.

Also having to read several manuals in order to get going is laughable by today's atandards.
Click to expand...
You buying pc parts based on their names? Everyone knows that you're supposed to pick out pc parts based on how cool the box art is, not on how cool the name is.
 
MRORANGE said:
PC hardware has never made any sense, it's just a e-penis scam when hardware manufacturers add extra zeros and turbo to the name so they can sell them at ridiculous prices. This is why pc gaming will never catch on.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. If PC gaming is to get close to console-level popularity, the actual hardware naming needs to be easier - and not something the 'average joe' will look at and have their eyes glaze over.

It'll never happen, but Intel, AMD and nVidia should adopt years for labels, instead of numbers (both using a different scale).

"Nvidia (2014)" for a 970 and "Nvidia (2014) Ultra" or whatever
"Intel (2014)" "Intel (2014) High" "Intel (2014) Ultra"

Feel free to attach the model numbers in the spec sheets, but those labels should be front and center. Then people won't be asking "Why is a GTX 970 better than a Radeon 7570, when its a lower number?"
 
yatesl said:
I agree with this. If PC gaming is to get close to console-level popularity, the actual hardware naming needs to be easier - and not something the 'average joe' will look at and have their eyes glaze over.

It'll never happen, but Intel, AMD and nVidia should adopt years for labels, instead of numbers (both using a different scale).

"Nvidia (2014)" for a 970 and "Nvidia (2014) Ultra" or whatever
"Intel (2014)" "Intel (2014) High" "Intel (2014) Ultra"

Feel free to attach the model numbers in the spec sheets, but those labels should be front and center. Then people won't be asking "Why is a GTX 970 better than a Radeon 7570, when its a lower number?"
Click to expand...
The question will only change to:
Why is a 2012 GPU faster than my 2014 GPU?
 
Wurstsemmel said:
I read on the steam forums that your eye can only see 30fps and that this 60fps+ gaming is a conspiracy by gpu manufacturers to make you buy expensive hardware. Now everything makes sense.
Click to expand...

I agree.

I saw some Youtube videos of a comparison of Shadow of Mordor on a PC with 4 Titans against da PS4, and they look IDENTICAL. Lolol
 
yatesl said:
I agree with this. If PC gaming is to get close to console-level popularity, the actual hardware naming needs to be easier - and not something the 'average joe' will look at and have their eyes glaze over.

It'll never happen, but Intel, AMD and nVidia should adopt years for labels, instead of numbers (both using a different scale).

"Nvidia (2014)" for a 970 and "Nvidia (2014) Ultra" or whatever
"Intel (2014)" "Intel (2014) High" "Intel (2014) Ultra"

Feel free to attach the model numbers in the spec sheets, but those labels should be front and center. Then people won't be asking "Why is a GTX 970 better than a Radeon 7570, when its a lower number?"
Click to expand...
Its very difficult to google a specific graphic card and the word benchmark, takes about 10 seconds to find out how good a card is in comparison to others...

Jimmy Rustle said:
I agree.

I saw some Youtube videos of a comparison of Shadow of Mordor on a PC with 4 Titans against da PS4, and they look IDENTICAL. Lolol
Click to expand...
Youtube compression and 30fps limit is clearly an indicator how good a game look...
 
Stilton Disco said:
I've built numerous PC's for friends, family, and work/colleagues, have researched how to do so heavily, and poured over the guide here, and I'm STILL overwhelmed by the sheer number and variety of different components and choices as to be put off making one myself.

Even with all those guides and hours of research, I'm still not certain which of the most likely millions of combinations is right for me, and can't decide exactly what components are the best for me to buy for my needs and longevity.

Every single time a new component gets announced and people always post their annoyance that they just bought something else and should have waited doesn't help either frankly.

I fully admit it's never been easier, but that doesn't make it simple.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by new components? The only thing that goes "obsolete" these days are GPUs, and that's only compared to the newest GPUs, not consoles. People have only been freaking out lately because of VRAM requirements blown out of proportion.

Everything else is on autopilot. I could ride my 2600k CPU out for longer if I wanted to, and I've been using that for almost 4 years now. DDR4 RAM isn't going to be a thing for a bit.
 
TUSR said:
PCs have never been easier to build, do some research.

There are tons of great benchmarking sites and pricing guides.
Click to expand...

This is so true compare to days to pre plug and play,and to the days of the shaders (SM1.0/1.1, SM2.0, SM3.0 etc)


No more IRQ, DMA or anything like that today.
 
Its only hard if you don't know anything about PCs.

If you have a modern i5 or i7 (prob i3 as well) you won't have to worry about that.

Ram is easy . You just need to know how much you have .

Graphics cards are easy as well if you just learn how the numbering system works for both ATI and Nvidia cards work.

Basically it's as hard and as easy as its been for years.

I can only imagine its hard if you buy a premade PC without learning anything about them first which I would never recommend anyone do. Knowing your PC is part of the fun and how to know what / when to upgrade.
 
I agree that it could be a bit confusing for people who don't keep up with gpus, I sometimes have no idea what "tier" the gpus they mention in the recommended spec are and how they compare to mine unless I look for a benchmark chart.
 
Someone should invent a system that converts all your PC components into a number and then the system specs just say "Compatible with PC's above 600" or something.
 
Alphahawk said:
Someone should invent a system that converts all your PC components into a number and then the system specs just say "Compatible with PC's above 600" or something.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't work because you could have a serious bottleneck in your config. And different games stress different parts of your PC.

Even in consoles this happens. For example: most games last-gen were similar for 360 and PS3, but then the split ram on PS3 made it way worse for Skyrim even though it was fine for other games.
 
Unfortunately, even with all the research in the world, I'll never be comfortable assembling a PC.

I'm not interested in potentially damaging hundreds of dollars in hardware, regardless of the weak forum assurances of how 'easy' it is.
 
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