Minimum and Recommended System Requirements

[PewPewCthulhu]

Dug through a few posts here and searched google trying to find out how game system minimum requirements are determined for games and if there is any regulation for them, but couldn't find any useful answers. Can somebody point me to any documents, websites or info about this topic?

[Komarimaru]

Minimum requirements change entirely based on the type of game and features of said game. There's no, 100% right answer for every game.

Cyberpunk 2077 for example.
Minimum:
In-game graphics preset low.
Resolution: 1080p.
Expected FPS: 30.
OS: 64-bit Windows 10.
Processor: Core i7-6700 or Ryzen 5 1600.
Graphics card: Geforce GTX 1060 6GB or Radeon RX 580 8GB or Arc A380. Vram: 6 GB.
Ram: 12GB. Storage: 70 GB SSD.

Notice how, that's only 30 FPS. Yuck... and lowest settings, looks horrid.

Yet, looking at Witcher 1.
Minimum:
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor:Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or Athlon 64 +2800. Athlon XP series, such as the Athlon XP +2400, is not supported
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800
RAM: 1 GB
Hard Drive: 15 GB
Gives 60 FPS at near high settings.

[Kage Goomba]

Specs are determined by the Devs - as to what standards they use is entirely up to them.

Those Specs however do change as the game evolves - especially if its Early Access.

If your seeking to build a game and need benchmark - you should reach out to the Devs via the publisher or other.

Otherwise - your guess is good as mine as the industry is quite varied and very much wild in that regard.

[rawWwRrr]

A lot of times.the minimums are due to specific technical limitations that need to be met, like a certain generation of CPU or GPU. Other times it's meant to establish a baseline in which the game would still present an enjoyably acceptable experience, although it could possibly run on lesser hardware.

Recommended is always what the developers targeted as the optimal experience even though better performing hardware exists that can exceed these expectations.

[kitty]

both (low an recommended) is what has been tested by devs. if they can be bothered to update it. Valve still lists decade old reqs for CS2 copied over from CS:GO. in reality it will not work at all.

better research it elsewhere before purchase.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by kitty:

Valve still lists decade old reqs for CS2 copied over from CS:GO. in reality it will not work at all.

That is not correct...

MINIMUM:
OS: Windows® 7/Vista/XP
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 processor or better
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for Pixel Shader 3.0
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 15 GB available space

https://web.archive.org/web/20230225135525/https://store.steampowered.com/app/730/CounterStrike_Global_Offensive/

MINIMUM:
OS: Windows® 10
Processor: 4 hardware CPU threads - Intel® Core™ i5 750 or higher
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Video card must be 1 GB or more and should be a DirectX 11-compatible with support for Shader Model 5.0
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 85 GB available space

[Crazy Tiger]

Simply put, no standard there.

[Lithurge]

Some companies give examples of expected framerates/resolution, e.g. CDPR (games mentioned in the first reply) and 4A with Metro Exodus, but most companies don't give a hint as to what experience the specs will give you.

https://www.metrothegame.com/PCSpecs/

[Kage Goomba]

It might also stem from the "engine" they choose to employ.

Various games had their specs changed dramatically with Engine upgrades.

IE: Unreal Engine

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

If I build a game with a certain machine there is no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ way I will post higher requirements than I used to build the game.

[kitty]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

That is not correct...

these specs are faulty. go try to run CS2 with old GPU like that and report back if you had at least 5 FPS.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by kitty:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

That is not correct...

these specs are faulty. go try to run CS2 with old GPU like that and report back if you had at least 5 FPS.

I think he was referring to specs that originally where posted - not updated.

They've changed.

No doubt when the game first launch you could - today? Doubt it.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by kitty:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

That is not correct...

these specs are faulty. go try to run CS2 with old GPU like that and report back if you had at least 5 FPS.

That's not what you said it was.

[kitty]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by kitty:

these specs are faulty. go try to run CS2 with old GPU like that and report back if you had at least 5 FPS.

That's not what you said it was.

:summerfish2023:

I said system reqs cannot be trusted. and you just quoted current reqs which wont work at all. I said it is decade old as an estimation knowing CS:GO had update few years back with increased reqs and actual reqs for CS:GO was greater than 1GB GPU so it's probably decade old spec.

are you saying everything is correct now?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by kitty:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

That's not what you said it was.

I said system reqs cannot be trusted. and you just quoted current reqs which wont work at all. I said it is decade old as an estimation knowing CS:GO had update few years back with increased reqs and actual reqs for CS:GO was greater than 1GB GPU so it's probably decade old spec.

are you saying everything is correct now?

The archive link has the date when it was archived on it.

[Rin]

Specs are also handled by what said devs have avail and what they perceive as "playable".

For instance, RX 5700/GTX 1080/RTX 2060 Super/A750 are all kinda in the same boat for maxed out 1080p/60fps for newer (i.e 2020+) (WITHOUT upscalers) games unless they're really poorly optimized and rely on vaseline upscalers which more and more people are getting used to. Which is how we got garbage cards like RX 7600 and RTX 4060. Vaseline upscalers and fake frames are just training wheels in the end but don't tell that to anyone. But hey, if training wheels are your thing then all the more power to you I guess?

Now both the dev and and target audience might be fine with vaseline and that's okay, but for me that's unacceptable while also justifying an increased price increase for no real reason. You either increase the lowest common denominator (potato PC) or optimize more which is exactly how devs don't deal with their games these days.

SO the specs you see might be a lie in reality, and is only there so they can say "our game runs on a potato PC" but it'll be at 480p/60fps, but the average user won't ever look at that and instead look towards recommended when they in fact have a potato PC and then complain they can't run it that well. The other outlier is when an oblivious and uninformed buyer has a good GPU but everything else is not on par like pairing an AMD Athlon II X3 with a RTX 4090 and expecting the same results as "everyone else". So often you have 2 issues (or more) but the majority only sees 1 problem because they are galaxy brained like that.

There is one outlier though and is when you see overrated specs because the dev don't want you running out of RAM or storage space and then blaming them for running the game poorly even if you are within specs. The average user relies on Chrome which is a notorious memory hog and paired with steam... doesn't make things any better. The average user is sadly a clown that think that they are above everyone else. And more so in countries where personal responsibility isn't thought.