Why are PC requirements so arbitrary?

Started by the-pi-guy, Dec 08, 2021, 05:48 PM

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the-pi-guy

Inspired by: the God of War PC feature announcement.  

First to explain the problem:

Problem 1: Usually when you buy a game there will be minimum and recommended specs. But the target for these specs can be very arbitrary. Sometimes it means 1080p30, sometimes it means 1080p60, or any other variety of settings.

Problem 2: Often times, the recommendations don't really match the reality. I would guess especially with the recommended specs. Recommending a 3080 for example, when a 2080 is probably all you really need to run at max settings.

Why this problem exists:
 - Different games tend to like different types of settings. Racing game might be more likely to aim for a 60 fps minimum. An action game might be fine with 30 fps.
- I would say that CPU architectures being different means that a CPU can perform better in some work loads and worse in others relative to another CPU.

Why I'm making this thread anyway:

There have been very poor efforts to try to make any of this easier.

Legend

I remember posting about this before but don't remember what I said.

Maybe it's time to get rid of them. Just have a very basic heavy or light score. Most indies just make jokes about them.