Game-o-Meter FAQ
GENERAL
Q: What is the Game-o-Meter?
A: Game-o-Meter is a service designed to estimate your computers gaming performance based on your hardware profile.
Q: What does Game-o-Meter need to know about me?
A: To be able to estimate your gaming performance, Game-o-Meter needs to run a brief hardware check. No personally identifiable information is checked. See our Privacy policy for more information.
HARDWARE CHECK
Q: What are the requirements for running the hardware check?
A: The Game-o-meter hardware check currently works with all major browsers.
Q: Why does my hardware check fail?
A: The hardware check is not foolproof and might not work correctly for all hardware. USB devices and copy-protected media in drives may interfere with the check. If the check fails, disconnect all USB devices (USB drives including mp3-players such as iPod, USB card-readers etc.) and remove all media from disk drives and try again.
Q: Do I have to run the check every time I use Game-o-Meter?
A: The results of the hardware check are saved to your account when you log in to YouGamers. Currently this overwrites any previously saved hardware information, i.e. you can only have one (1) system's hardware information saved.
Q: What to do if my hardware is detected wrong?
A: Please make a post in the Site Feedback forum or email us at gameometer@yougamers.com and we'll try to resolve your issue. Please include the sysInfoId displayed in Your System details and your correct hardware configuration.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE ESTIMATES
Q: What is the graph at the top of the Game-o-Meter results?
A: The graph shows the overall gaming performance estimates for your computer and the publisher’s minimum and recommended systems, and YouGamers minimum and recommended systems, if available.
Q: What's the range of the chart?
A: The chart ranges approximately from older systems like a 600 MHz Pentium III with Geforce 2 GTS to current high-end gaming PC's. Note that the scale is currently (March 2007) top heavy compared to actual gaming requirements; a system that ranks in the middle of the chart can currently comfortably play practically any game available.
Q: Is all hardware supported by Game-o-Meter?
A: Almost all viable hardware components are supported by the Game-o-Meter. Some of the hardware that is not supported may still be able to run some of the games featured on YouGamers.com, but performance is likely to be very poor.
Q: What are the estimates based on?
A: Game-o-Meter performance estimates are based on Futuremark's industry standard 3D gaming benchmarks; 3DMark03 and 3DMark06. Estimation models have been calculated from Futuremark's Online ResultBrowser (ORB) database, containing over 12 million benchmark results from 3 million+ users all over the world.
Q: I'm not getting an estimate of my performance on the chart. Why is this?
A: It might be that your processor and graphics card combination is so rare, that the ORB database doesn't have any data for it. You can help us improve by running 3DMark03 and/or 3DMark06 (they're free!) and submitting the score to ORB.
Q: What is the performance estimate model like?
A: The Game-o-Meter performance estimation model is actually built from several linear regression models. To account for differences between different processors and graphics cards, a separate model has been estimated for every processor and graphics card combination for which benchmark data exists.
Q: Huh? Linear regression models? What does that mean?
A: I'm glad you asked! In linear regression, the estimate is calculated as a sum of predictor variables each multiplied by a constant factor.
This means that the estimate formula is of the form SCORE = b0+b1*x1+b2*x2+... The x's are variables that affect a systems performance, for example one of these variables is the processors clock frequency. The constant parameters b are estimated using the method of ordinary least squares to fit the available benchmark data.
These parameters also have a simple practical interpretation; they measure the average effect of the variable on the benchmark score. For example, if x1 is the processors frequency in MHz, then b1 is the increase in score when the processors frequency increases by 1MHz. So if we increase the processors frequency by 100 MHz, we should see an increase of about 100*b1 in the benchmark score.
Q: How reliable are the estimates?
A: There are many factors that can affect a systems gaming performance and the estimation models cannot take all possible factors into account. For a single system configuration, the actual performance level of most systems matching that configuration with correctly functioning hardware and latest drivers is within one line width of the shown estimate on the chart. It's important to keep in mind, that performance is always estimated based on 3DMark benchmark scores, actual performance levels may differ slightly from game to game.
Q: How are the performance estimates calculated for the minimum and recommended systems?
A: Minimum and recommended system requirements are often rather vague. The performance estimate shown on the chart represents a typical low- to mid-end system matching those specifications. Differences in performance levels between systems matching the given minimum or recommended system requirements so the estimates shown should be taken as rough guidelines. Generally even if your systems performance estimate is lower than that of the minimum system, but you pass all component checks, your computer can often run the game, but performance and gaming experience is likely to be poor.
Q: I have SLI/Crossfire, does the overall performance estimate reflect this?
A: The performance estimation model is equipped to handle SLI and Crossfire. If there's no increase in your performance with SLI enabled, it might be because we don't have enough benchmarking data from your hardware combination with SLI. Again, you can help by running 3DMark06 and submitting your results.
Q: I have a dual-core processor. How does this affect my estimate?
A: The benchmarks benefit from multi-core processors, so performance estimates are also higher for multi-core processors than single cores. Notice that all games do not benefit from multiple cores, so your estimates might not totally accurately reflect actual performance. Please refer to our reviews for information on whether a particular game benefits from a multi-core processor.
THE COMPONENT CHECKS
Q: What's all that data below the chart?
A: The area below the performance estimation chart shows both the publishers and YouGamers minimum and recommended system requirements and your system, as identified by the Game-o-meter system check. Your components are then compared to all various requirements and recommendations.
Q: How does the Game-o-meter compare display cards?
A: The component check only compares necessary features, such as texture video memory and pixel shader capabilities. For performance level comparisons, refer to the overall performance estimate chart.
Q: How does Game-o-meter compare different processors?
A: Processor performance is estimated from benchmarking data and these estimates are compared to each other. As in overall performance estimation, benchmark data might not accurately reflect performance levels for all software.
Q: Why is my free disk space not detected properly on Windows Vista?
A: Due to the new User Account Control (UAC) feature in Windows Vista the hardware check cannot determine the free disk space correctly if you are running Internet Explorer as "Standard User". To fix this you can run Internet Explorer "as administrator" by right clicking on the Internet Explorer icon and selecting "Run as administrator". Note however that you must have admin rights to the machine you are using to be able to do this. You can learn more about UAC from Microsofts Technet web site here
