GameReady Methodology
Every number on this site is either confirmed by a publisher, estimated by us with a disclosed method, or explicitly marked unknown. Here is exactly how that works, no black box.
The three-tier evidence system
Every fact on GameReadyCheck falls into one of three categories, shown as a colored label wherever the fact appears.
We don't label a guess as a fact. A confirmed release date next to an estimated spec still gets shown as two separate things, never blended into one confident-sounding number.
How predicted specs are built
When official PC requirements do not exist yet, our Estimated specs are built from the same handful of concrete inputs every time:
- Console hardware equivalence. PS5 and Xbox Series X are both built around a Zen 2 8-core CPU and an RDNA2 GPU roughly equivalent to an RX 6700-class card. A PC minimum typically sits close to that baseline, since the console is what the game is actually built for.
- The developer's own PC port history. Rockstar's past ports (GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2) shipped with higher settings ceilings and higher requirements than their console versions. We weight a developer's own track record heavily, a studio with a history of demanding PC ports gets a higher predicted floor than one with a history of lean, scalable ports.
- Comparable, already-released titles. Games built on the same engine, by the same studio, or targeting the same generation give a real data point instead of a guess.
- Install size trends. Storage predictions come from the same developer's prior install sizes (for example GTA V at roughly 95GB, Red Dead Redemption 2 at roughly 150GB) adjusted for map size and asset density.
- Generation-only status. A current-gen-only game (no PS4/Xbox One version) has no legacy hardware to design down to, which raises the realistic PC floor compared to a cross-gen release from the same studio.
Every Estimated page states which of these inputs applies and why. No mystery model, no fake leaks. It's a researched estimate, and you can see exactly how it was built.
The ReadyScore™ formula
The PC checker tool on every game page converts your GPU, CPU, RAM and storage into a single 0 to 100 ReadyScore™. The formula is the same one behind the plain pass/fail verdict, just expressed as a number instead of three buckets. Nothing here is a separate secret model.
| Step | How it works |
|---|---|
| Performance tier | Every GPU and CPU has a performance tier on a continuous 1 to 10 scale with one decimal, built from relative gaming performance (an RTX 2060 is 4.0, an RTX 4070 is 7.0, an RTX 4090 is 10). It is an approximation from public review results, not our own benchmarking, and we adjust it when better data appears. |
| Thresholds | Each game's Minimum and Recommended thresholds name the reference cards from the official requirements (or from our prediction). The threshold is the weakest named card, so a card a publisher lists as Recommended is never scored below Recommended. |
| Per-component score | Below Minimum scales 0 to 60. Between Minimum and Recommended scales 60 to 100. At or above Recommended is 100. |
| Weighting | GPU counts for 45% of the score, CPU for 30%, RAM for 25%, reflecting which component most often limits gaming performance. |
| Penalties | An HDD subtracts 15 points. VRAM below the game's floor subtracts 10. Free disk space smaller than the install is a hard failure. |
| Caps | A missing Minimum in any component caps the score at 59. Missing Recommended, VRAM or an SSD caps it at 84. One strong component can never hide a weak one, and "Ready" (85 and up) requires clearing the whole Recommended tier. |
| Hard requirements | Requirements that are yes or no, such as the hardware ray tracing GPU Gears of War: E-Day requires, override the score: a GPU without it cannot pass however fast it is. |
| Result bands | 85 to 100 is labeled Ready. 60 to 84 is labeled Playable. Below 60 is labeled Not ready. |
| Confidence | Games with official requirements show high confidence and a range of about 3 points. Games with predicted specs show low confidence and a range of about 10 points, and say so in the result. |
If you do not tell us your storage type, the SSD requirement is not checked and the result says so, we never assume an SSD for you. Your ReadyScore™ is calculated entirely in your browser. Your selections are remembered on your own device so you do not have to re-enter them. If you accept analytics cookies, usage events such as which game you checked, the score band and the hardware models you picked are sent to Google Analytics. See our Privacy Policy for details.
What changes a prediction
The moment a publisher announces official PC requirements, an official release date, or an official price, the Estimated or Unknown label on that page is replaced with Confirmed after verification, and the source is updated. We do not keep publishing a prediction once a real number exists to replace it.
Sources we track
Confirmed facts are sourced from official publisher and platform channels: Rockstar Games' own Newswire and store pages, Sony's PlayStation Blog, Xbox Wire, and equivalent official channels for Fable, Metro 2039 and every other game covered here. We do not treat leaks, rumors, or unofficial reporting as Confirmed, at most they inform an Estimated prediction, clearly labeled as such.