What will this PC run? How our game estimates work
What Very smooth, Smooth and Playable mean on a listing, why resolution matters, and how we estimate which games a used PC can run.
A spec list tells you what's inside a PC. It doesn't tell you whether it will run the games you play. So on RigYard, computers with a known graphics card show a "What will it run?" panel. This page explains what it means and how we work it out.
What the four ratings mean
- Very smooth: high settings with plenty to spare. Suits a high-refresh monitor.
- Smooth: high settings, comfortably. What most people want.
- Playable: it runs, but you'll turn settings down to keep it comfortable.
- Struggles: not really suited to it at that resolution.
Why the resolution matters so much
Resolution is how many dots your screen has. 1080p is the standard for most monitors. 1440p is sharper and needs roughly a third more graphics power. 4K needs about twice as much as 1440p. So the same PC can be very smooth at 1080p and only playable at 4K. Check what your monitor is before you compare PCs.
How we work it out
- The graphics card does most of the work. Every card in our parts list has our own score from 0 to 100 for how fast it is next to the others, set from how the cards compare in reviews. A faster card gets a higher rating at each resolution.
- The processor can hold it back. A fast graphics card paired with an old processor can't show what it can do. When that's the case we lower the rating and say so.
- Graphics memory sets a ceiling. Cards with less than 8GB can't hold high-quality textures at 4K, however fast they are.
- Some games are far lighter than others. We rate a handful of popular ones separately (Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, GTA V, Minecraft, EA Sports FC, Cyberpunk 2077), because a PC that struggles with the newest releases may still fly in the lighter ones.
What it can't tell you
It's an estimate from the parts, not a test of the actual PC. It can't know whether the machine is clean, cool and working properly, and it doesn't count ray tracing or upscaling such as DLSS and FSR, which can move things a long way in either direction. Laptops vary more than desktops, because the same graphics chip gets different amounts of power in different models.
So use it to narrow down, then ask the seller to show you the game you care about running. If the listing has a Specs checked badge, the parts were read from the PC itself. For what to check in person, read testing a second-hand PC before you buy.
Find a PC by what it runs
In search, open More and choose "Runs new games smoothly at" to see only computers that manage your resolution: 1080p, 1440p or 4K.