Step 2 of 7
Checking your PC before you download anything
Five minutes with your own system settings tells you more than any compatibility badge on a store page. This step covers how to read your machine's specifications on Windows and on Linux, why a title can support both of those and still exclude macOS, and what an Australian connection means for an online game.
Short answer
Write down four numbers — processor model, installed memory, graphics card model, and free space on the drive you install to — then compare them against the requirements the vendor publishes for the specific title. Check the operating system separately: support for Windows and Linux says nothing about macOS, and the two questions are often confused.
The four numbers, and where to find them
Nothing here requires extra software. Every figure below comes from tools already installed with the operating system.
| What you need | On Windows 10 or 11 | On a typical Linux desktop |
|---|---|---|
| Processor and memory | Settings › System › About. The processor line and "Installed RAM" are both shown. | lscpu for the processor, free -h for memory, in a terminal. |
| Graphics card | Press Windows+R, run dxdiag, then open the Display tab. The card name and driver date are listed. |
lspci | grep -i vga lists the adapter; your distribution's driver manager shows the driver in use. |
| Free disk space | Settings › System › Storage, or the drive's properties in File Explorer. | df -h, reading the row for the filesystem you will install into. |
| System architecture | The "System type" line under Settings › System › About. | uname -m. |
| Operating system version | The "Edition" and "Version" lines under Settings › System › About. | cat /etc/os-release. |
Two of those figures are more important than the rest for online games with player-built content. Memory matters because these titles hold a large number of part models and other players' constructions in memory at once. Free disk space matters because an installed game is rarely its download size, and patches need working room on top of the installed footprint. Leaving a comfortable margin on the drive is sensible regardless of the game.
Why Windows and Linux support does not imply macOS
Supporting an additional operating system is not a formality. It means a separate build, separate graphics work, separate testing and separate support load for the publisher, and titles frequently ship for Windows first, add Linux second, and never add macOS at all. Apple's move to its own silicon and its deprecation of older graphics interfaces made maintaining a macOS build harder for many studios, and a number of publishers withdrew existing Mac versions rather than maintain them.
The practical consequence for a reader is simple: check the operating system list for the exact title, on the vendor's own page, and treat "PC" as ambiguous until you have. Compatibility layers that run Windows games on other systems exist, but a title that is not officially supported on your operating system is a title whose publisher will not help you when something breaks, and some online games treat unsupported environments as a policy matter rather than a technical one.
For the one title profiled on this site, the material supplied by the advertising network covers desktop Windows and Linux only; macOS sits outside it. That is a statement about the advertising terms, not a claim about what the publisher may offer elsewhere — check the vendor's own site for the current platform list. Step five keeps the stated and unstated facts separate.
Drivers, and the one update worth doing first
Graphics drivers are the single most common cause of a game that installs correctly and then performs badly, crashes at launch, or renders incorrectly. They are also the easiest thing to fix. On Windows, install the driver from the graphics vendor's own site rather than relying on the version Windows Update supplies, which often lags. On Linux, use the driver packages your distribution provides, since mixing vendor installers with distribution packages is a reliable way to break a working desktop.
Do this before the first launch rather than after a problem appears. It removes the largest variable, and it means any remaining issue is more likely to be the game than the machine.
Connection quality, from Australia
For an online game, throughput matters less than people expect and latency matters more. A competitive match is sensitive to the round-trip time between your machine and the game server, and to how consistent that time is. Physical distance sets a floor on it: a server in Europe or North America cannot respond faster than the speed of light allows across that distance, and no plan upgrade changes that.
What you can influence is everything on your side of the link. A wired connection is steadier than Wi-Fi. A router that is not simultaneously handling a large upload will produce fewer spikes. Background updates on other devices in the house are a common cause of sudden, unexplained lag during a match. If a title offers a choice of server regions, choosing the nearest one usually matters more than any graphics setting.
For general information on connection performance and on what to do about a service that does not deliver what was sold, the ACCC publishes material on broadband services and consumer rights, and complaints about a telecommunications provider can be taken to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, which is the industry's external dispute resolution scheme.
A sensible order of operations
- Record the four numbers above and keep them somewhere you can find them again. They are useful every time you consider a new title.
- Open the vendor's own page for the specific game and read the platform list and the published requirements. Treat any third-party summary, including this one, as secondary to that.
- Update the graphics driver.
- Confirm you have working room on the install drive, not just enough for the download.
- Prefer a wired connection if one is available, and close large background transfers before playing.
- Only then create the account and install, following step three.
What to watch out for
No page on the internet can tell you what is inside your computer without you telling it, and a website that claims to have detected your hardware, your drivers or a problem with them is either guessing from your browser or is not being straight with you. The same applies to "driver updater" and "PC optimiser" downloads, which are a long-standing source of unwanted software. Drivers come from the hardware vendor or your distribution; nothing else is needed.
If the game runs poorly anyway
Lower the resolution before you lower anything else — it is usually the setting with the largest effect on frame rate. After that, shadows, effects and draw distance tend to cost the most. If performance is fine in menus and poor only in busy matches, the bottleneck is more likely to be the processor or memory than the graphics card. If the game stutters at regular intervals rather than constantly, look at background software, storage speed, or a drive that is nearly full.
None of this requires a diagnostic tool. Change one setting at a time, in a comparable situation, and note the result.