Will this game run on my PC? How to check before you buy (2026)

Buying a game you can’t run is the most avoidable waste of money in PC gaming — and the checks take about two minutes. Here’s the order to do them in.

Step 1 — Know your own specs (30 seconds)

On Windows, press Win + R, type dxdiag, hit Enter. The window that opens tells you your processor, RAM and — in the Display tab — your graphics card and its VRAM. That’s everything the requirements list refers to.

Write those three down somewhere; you’ll compare against them constantly.

Step 2 — Read the requirements the way they’re actually meant

Every Steam page lists Minimum and Recommended. What they really mean:

Minimum: the game launches and is playable at low settings, often 720p-1080p and around 30 FPS. It is not a promise of a good experience.
Recommended: 1080p at roughly 60 FPS on medium-high settings. This is the honest target.

Two things the list hides: storage requirements grow after patches, so leave headroom; and the GPU matters far more than the CPU for most modern games — if only one of your components is below spec and it’s the graphics card, expect trouble.

The blunt rule: if your PC only meets Minimum, assume a compromised experience. If it meets Recommended, you’re fine.

Step 3 — Check what real players report

Requirements are written by marketing departments; player reports are written by people whose game stuttered.

Steam reviews: filter by recent, then search inside them for “FPS”, “stutter” or “optimization”. Poorly-optimised launches are always visible there before anywhere else.
ProtonDB: essential for Linux and Steam Deck, where the badge on the store page tells you less than the community reports do.
Deck Verified / Playable badges: Valve’s own testing, if you’re on a Deck. Our Steam Deck buying guide covers how to combine both.

Step 4 — Know your safety net

Steam refunds any game with under 2 hours played and bought less than 14 days ago, no questions asked. That makes “buy it and test it” a legitimate strategy: install, play twenty minutes, and refund if it runs badly.

Two caveats worth knowing before you rely on it:

Those two hours include time spent in menus and shader compilation — don’t burn them
Keys bought from third-party stores are refunded by that store, not by Steam. Their policies vary and usually require the key to be unredeemed. If you’re specifically buying to test performance, that’s an argument for buying on Steam itself

Step 5 — Lower the stakes instead

The underrated move: if you’re unsure whether a game runs, it matters much less when the game costs €8 instead of €60. A borderline purchase you might refund is a very different decision at catalog prices — which is what most of the library costs once you compare stores and wait for the right moment.

That’s the same principle as checking the all-time low before buying: the cheaper the entry, the less any single mistake costs you.

The checklist

dxdiag → know your specs
Meets Recommended?     → buy with confidence
Only meets Minimum?    → check recent reviews for FPS complaints first
On Deck or Linux?      → ProtonDB before anything else
Still unsure?          → buy cheap, test within 2h, refund if needed

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