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> In parallel I don't understand gamers with 15 years old hardware leaving bad reviews or whining when a game chokes above 720p with minimum settings. Because

> In parallel I don't understand gamers with 15 years old hardware leaving bad reviews or whining when a game chokes above 720p with minimum settings. Because they bought the game. After decades of PC gaming, it's totally absurd there is no system that tell you how bad or how well a game is going to play on your system. And if it's too difficult to make, how can we expect regular people to know themselves ?

GreenWatermelon 1y ago
Steam literally has a section called Hardware Requirements under every game.
- wqaatwt 1y ago
  Yes, they are entirely arbitrary. Worst cases (e.g. Cities Skylines 2) outright false
  - sensanaty 1y ago
    To be fair that's on the devs/publishers, not Steam
- Jolter 1y ago
  As soon as what you have in your machine doesn’t literally match the stated system requirements, you’re on your own. It’s up to the user to research and understand which CPU or GPU is ”better” or ”worse” than the required one. These things are nontrivial when comparing between generations and across tiers, not to mention across different vendors. A knowledgeable user might be able to predict their performance reasonably well, based on publicly available benchmark databases, but you still can’t really get a good estimate FPS unless you find someone with exactly your hardware setup who benchmarked the game (and is willing to share).
  - bavell 1y ago
    Most minimum/recommended game specs reference mainstream gaming CPU/GPUs, and most gamers know the strength of their own hardware relative to mainstream components. If you're a very casual/young/inexperienced gamer then sure, you might have trouble comparing your own system with the min specs.
- mvieira38 1y ago
  Which is so bad it barely means anything for lower-end PCs. I played and enjoyed plenty of hours on Elden Ring while rocking hardware well below the minimum requirements
falcor84 1y ago
Steam makes it easy to get a full refund for a game you don't like for any reason. So there's no risk in trying an install of a game that might not work well on your below-specs device, but then you shouldn't give it a negative review.
- mhitza 1y ago
  Unless most of the problems come later on, after the 2 hours game time. I've heard about multiple games that where steamdeck verified but the performance choppy. If it can't hold a steady 30fps, a game shouldn't be steamdeck verified in my opinion.
keyringlight 1y ago
I think one factor to this is that PC gamers are hostile to telemetry, and couldn't give a damn if the reasoning for it is advertising, real world feedback on game design which would feedback for future patches or the next game, or a mutual benefit of "hardware like (this) generally performs like (this) at low/med/high quality preset". The only thing I've seen which is close is Star Citizen's telemetry: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/telemetry https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/telemetry
- samtheprogram 1y ago
  > I think one factor to this is that PC gamers are hostile to telemetry Is there any data to support this? IME most PC gamers I know don't give a shit about telemetry. They are stock Windows and Android users, love Google products, etc. They only care whatsoever when it comes to adblocking, because they don't want to watch ads. (I'm also in the US)
patmorgan23 1y ago
Most games publish minimum and recommend specs. Steam could probably build in a system to guess the performance if there was some benchmarking data, but game performance can change dramatically after release between updates to drives or the game itself.
sleepybrett 1y ago
There are too many dimensions to address unfortunately, cpu, gpu, memory, gpu memory, hell even disk speed for some games.
- nomel 1y ago
  It could be survey based. Heck, it could be coupon based. Something like: 1. Enroll is the discount program by running steam hardware survey. Steam holds onto your system specs. 2. Steam offers discounts for games that have insufficient benchmarks for your rough system. 3. For these games, steam collects performance data (either 5 minutes of benchmark before, during the game, first run, or maybe when the PC is idle (screensaver mode)). There's all sorts of way they could do it. I'm guessing a large portion of people would be fine with a "Folding at home" style system, that just runs benchmarks for screensavers (with some coupons or whatever granted).

GreenWatermelon 1y ago

Steam literally has a section called Hardware Requirements under every game.

wqaatwt 1y ago
Yes, they are entirely arbitrary. Worst cases (e.g. Cities Skylines 2) outright false
- sensanaty 1y ago
  To be fair that's on the devs/publishers, not Steam
Jolter 1y ago
As soon as what you have in your machine doesn’t literally match the stated system requirements, you’re on your own. It’s up to the user to research and understand which CPU or GPU is ”better” or ”worse” than the required one. These things are nontrivial when comparing between generations and across tiers, not to mention across different vendors. A knowledgeable user might be able to predict their performance reasonably well, based on publicly available benchmark databases, but you still can’t really get a good estimate FPS unless you find someone with exactly your hardware setup who benchmarked the game (and is willing to share).
- bavell 1y ago
  Most minimum/recommended game specs reference mainstream gaming CPU/GPUs, and most gamers know the strength of their own hardware relative to mainstream components. If you're a very casual/young/inexperienced gamer then sure, you might have trouble comparing your own system with the min specs.
mvieira38 1y ago
Which is so bad it barely means anything for lower-end PCs. I played and enjoyed plenty of hours on Elden Ring while rocking hardware well below the minimum requirements

falcor84 1y ago

Steam makes it easy to get a full refund for a game you don't like for any reason. So there's no risk in trying an install of a game that might not work well on your below-specs device, but then you shouldn't give it a negative review.

mhitza 1y ago
Unless most of the problems come later on, after the 2 hours game time. I've heard about multiple games that where steamdeck verified but the performance choppy. If it can't hold a steady 30fps, a game shouldn't be steamdeck verified in my opinion.

keyringlight 1y ago

I think one factor to this is that PC gamers are hostile to telemetry, and couldn't give a damn if the reasoning for it is advertising, real world feedback on game design which would feedback for future patches or the next game, or a mutual benefit of "hardware like (this) generally performs like (this) at low/med/high quality preset". The only thing I've seen which is close is Star Citizen's telemetry: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/telemetry https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/telemetry

samtheprogram 1y ago
> I think one factor to this is that PC gamers are hostile to telemetry Is there any data to support this? IME most PC gamers I know don't give a shit about telemetry. They are stock Windows and Android users, love Google products, etc. They only care whatsoever when it comes to adblocking, because they don't want to watch ads. (I'm also in the US)

patmorgan23 1y ago

Most games publish minimum and recommend specs. Steam could probably build in a system to guess the performance if there was some benchmarking data, but game performance can change dramatically after release between updates to drives or the game itself.

sleepybrett 1y ago

There are too many dimensions to address unfortunately, cpu, gpu, memory, gpu memory, hell even disk speed for some games.

nomel 1y ago
It could be survey based. Heck, it could be coupon based. Something like: 1. Enroll is the discount program by running steam hardware survey. Steam holds onto your system specs. 2. Steam offers discounts for games that have insufficient benchmarks for your rough system. 3. For these games, steam collects performance data (either 5 minutes of benchmark before, during the game, first run, or maybe when the PC is idle (screensaver mode)). There's all sorts of way they could do it. I'm guessing a large portion of people would be fine with a "Folding at home" style system, that just runs benchmarks for screensavers (with some coupons or whatever granted).