

You’ll generally find this information on the game’s website or on the site for whatever store is selling it. Next, look up the system requirements for the game you want to run. The model of your computer’s graphics card and the amount of RAM the graphics card has on-board.The main summary screen shows you what you need to know: Download and install Speccy, and then fire it up. We recommend Speccy (the free version is fine), made by the same company that makes the excellent CCleaner. The easiest way to find all these details, however, is with a system information tool. You can find this information in a variety of different ways, including looking up your laptop’s specifications online. You’ll need to know the hardware in your computer-primarily its CPU speed, amount of RAM, and graphics card details. We’ll cover a more automatic method later on, but first we’ll look at the manual method. If you only have Intel graphics, you may not even be able to play the newest games on the lowest graphics settings. Even the latest Intel graphics hardware is much slower than using a dedicated graphics card from NVIDIA or AMD. Intel’s onboard graphics performance has improved over the years, but not nearly enough when it comes to gaming. With a desktop, though, it’s usually pretty easy to buy and install a dedicated graphics card to give yourself a gaming boost.


Many desktop PCs also use Intel integrated graphics to keep costs down. Those gaming laptops typically offer both Intel integrated graphics and a dedicated graphics card, switching between them based on what you’re doing. Most laptops that aren’t specifically billed as gaming laptops use Intel integrated graphics, which is cheaper and consumes less power. RELATED: How to Set Your PC Games' Graphics Settings with No Effort Beware Intel Graphicsįirst, one big warning: If your computer uses integrated Intel graphics instead of using a dedicated NVIDIA or AMD graphics card, you’ll likely experience issues running newer, graphically demanding games. Laptops not built for gaming and older PCs are a different matter. And even then, a newer graphics card might be all you need to get going on more recent games. Even a gaming PC built years ago should be able to handle the newest games just fine. The good news is that PC gamers don’t have to upgrade their hardware as often as they used to.
