Current Events > Real talk, how the hell do you read computer specs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is my biggest turn-off for PC gaming. I have no idea how to compare my computer's specs to a game's requirements. It's always a specific name-brand part that, to me, usually has zero relation to what I have.
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You don't have an Intel or AMD processor? What 3rd rate Chinese shit are you buying?
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well usually a game will need to utilize a few key components from your computer.

1) the CPU
2) the amount of RAM
3) the graphics card, or GPU.

in terms of which is most important, i'd say GPU > CPU > amount of RAM.

the way you measure CPU's performance is clock speed (so 2.8ghz is better than 2.5ghz) and the number of cores, (so a quad core system is better than a dual core system. usually, more cores is better, but not always.

RAM.. it also has speeds but thats not that imporant. youll need about 8GB of ram for modern games, 4gb or so for older. 16gb is what most mid-end gaming rigs have, even though they dont need it.

lastly, GPU. because of how fucked up the marketing for these has been, its hard to say. before i would say go for the higher model number (ie, a gtx 1060 is better than a 1050) but nvidia fucked it all up with their 2000 series cards, 1600 series, and ti and super versions of all that with the SAME hardware, at the SAME time at NEARLY IDENTICAL price points. but in a nutshell, you should be looking at 2000 series cards and 1600 series cards with nvidia, and with Radeon the 400 series, 500 series, and the higher end 5700 series. obviously, the higher the model number, the better the specs and thus the price.

everything else like... hard disk space you shouldn't have to worry about unless you know you dont have enough. just check i guess in windows.
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Crazyman93 posted...

You don't have an Intel or AMD processor? What 3rd rate Chinese shit are you buying?

Nah, I have an AMD.

EIiza posted...

https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

That doesn't help with my current predicament which is trying to buy a laptop for my mom's birthday tho
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pegusus123456 posted...

That doesn't help with my current predicament which is trying to buy a laptop for my mom's birthday tho

Okay, what does she do with a computer? What will the computer be used for? These questions are far more useful to selecting a PC than the specs.
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And will she be gaming on it?

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The specs and what the computer will be used for is pretty much the same thing in this case. Most strenuous thing she does is play Sims 3. Despite being a ten-year-old game, it's apparently somewhat demanding because it's so poorly optimized.

I was looking at this one because a random comment on the Sims reddit posted it and it has an SSD to help with the game's awful load times.
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Display-Graphics-Keyboard-A515-43-R19L/dp/B07RF1XD36

It's really stupid, but I'm kinda hesitant because I was willing to spend $500 on it and this one's a lot cheaper <_<
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pegusus123456 posted...

Most strenuous thing she does is play Sims 3. Despite being a ten-year-old game, it's apparently somewhat demanding because it's so poorly optimized.

I feel physical pain reading this. Mostly because I've had the game shit out because I added too much shit to it TWICE and I have 32GB of RAM
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That's the problem she's having now. She bought an expansion pack she can't even use because it just completely craps out when she does.
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fuck you
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BlueMonk why you gotta be like that
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GPU and CPU are the two that make the most significant difference and hardest to have an idea of how they stack up with one another. I use this site for rough comparisons

Https://www.videocardbenchmark.net
Https://www.cpubenchmark.net

Only caveat with the CPU benchmarks is to ignore the Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC results as those are server grade CPUs that score well on the benchmark but arent optimal for gaming

For RAM, generally bigger is better is the order of the day. More capacity and faster speed are the two things to look at. 16 GB is what you want to shoot for here, with RAM speed having only a minor impact on overall performance in many applications.

SSD follow the same rule as RAM
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