I am not a gamer and know next to nothing about technical specs but there's a few games I want to play but don't have the money (or need) for a custom PC/gaming setup so I'm trying to see what, if any, games I could run on my current laptop. The ThinkPad I have now is legit 10 years old but it seems to have what is needed to run the few games I want to play. Most of the games need at least Windows 7 (I have Windows 10), 1.80GHz Processor (I have 2.3), between 2 and 6GB of memory and storage. My questions are:What's the difference between memory and storage? If a game needs 2GB of memory and 2GB HDD space what exactly does that mean? Can I just use an external drive for both?One game needs "DX10 Video card with 512MB of VRAM". I have Intel Graphics HD 520, are those even remotely comparable/compatible? A few of these games have different requirements (like "Discrete GPU" or "NVIDIA GeForce"), is there a good rule of thumb to tell if what I have will run it?
>>1558792>What's the difference between memory and storage? If a game needs 2GB of memory and 2GB HDD space what exactly does that mean?Memory is RAM, and storage/space is, well, HDD (or SSD) space. RAM is used for whatever is running right now (the OS itself and whatever programs you have open). If the game requires X gigs of RAM, it generally means that if your PC has at least X gigs of RAM the game will work. But if your PC can run Windows 10 you probably have at least 8 gigs, so for the games that require 2 GBs it shouldn't be a problem.HDD space is what is being used for programs, data, documents, and shit, basically your C: (and other) drives. If your drive is 500 gigs, 250 gigs are already taken by whatever stuff, then if you install the game, 252 gigs will be used.>Can I just use an external drive for both?For RAM/memory you technically can, you can set your page file to be on an external drive, but it's an extremely stupid idea. But you can install a game to an external drive, and it will be perfectly fine unless it's some shit from the 00s that uses USB 1.1 or some other slow interface or if the drive itself is slow.>I have Intel Graphics HD 520, are those even remotely comparable/compatible?It does support DX10 and on the integrated GPUs VRAM is just taken from RAM (i.e. if you have 8 GBs or ram it will be 8GBs - 512 MBs = 7.5 GBs), so it should be fine, but the problem is that this iGPU is shit. Unless the games you want to play were released before ~2010 or are some kind of not too demanding 2D games made using renpy or RPGM, you'll have a hard time playing them.
>>1558798>Unless the games you want to play were released before ~2010 or are some kind of not too demanding 2D games made using renpy or RPGM, you'll have a hard time playing them.All of them are old, at least by my standards. They're mainly walking sims like Firewatch, Obra Dinn, Sagebrush and Gone Home. I figure since most of them are almost or at least a decade old they might be able to run on decade old software. From what I'm understanding in theory they should run fine, if a little slow? I guess the only real test is to try it. Any other tips/tricks to make things run smoother?
>>1558810>I figure since most of them are almost or at least a decade old they might be able to run on decade old software.It hugely depends on the game and the computer. Some games are well-optimized, some are not, some computers become e-waste the moment they leave the manufacturing line, some will last a decade.>From what I'm understanding in theory they should run fine, if a little slow?I'd say that it's mostly correct, but most likely not 'a little' slow. While I think Return of the Obra Dinn will run perfectly fine, Firewatch, if it'll even launch on your hardware, will most likely run only at the lowest settings, in 800x600, all with the framerate barely reaching 30.>I guess the only real test is to try it.Yep.You can also try comparing your hardware and the minimum specs hardware on userbenchmark if you're unsure. Userbenchmark is sometimes unreliable and biased, but still, if it shows that the GPU/CPU recommended for some game is, like, five times better than yours, it'll most likely be just a waste of time trying to make this game run. But most likely doesn't mean always, minimum system requirements often have quite a margin, I've beaten games on PCs that were way below the minimum required specs.
>>1558792Hehe the wolp has a melon :DDDD
>>1558816>Firewatch, if it'll even launch on your hardware, will most likely run only at the lowest settings, in 800x600, all with the framerate barely reaching 30.Is that necessarily bad? I don't need the ultra smooth HD experience, just playable enough to get through the storyAppreciate your help anon
