RigReady Methodology

RigReady's core value is not just re-publishing minimum and recommended specifications. We actively parse, normalize, and compute facts about a curated catalog of 5,000 PC games to help you understand exact hardware compatibility. Here is how our engine works.

1. Provenance and Evidence

We classify the source of every requirement set into distinct evidence tiers:

  • OFFICIAL: Requirements sourced directly from the publisher, developer, or official storefronts (e.g., Steam).
  • VERIFIED: Requirements independently tested or confirmed by the RigReady team or trusted technical partners.
  • EXPECTED: Educated estimations based on the game's engine, predecessor requirements, and console target specs (used strictly for unreleased or unannounced titles).
  • UNKNOWN: Missing or ambiguous data that cannot be confidently normalized.

2. The Normalization Engine

Publisher requirements are notoriously inconsistent. "An i5 processor" could mean a 2011 dual-core or a 2023 14-core CPU. RigReady reads the raw text and maps it into an internal deterministic ordinal scale (Hardware Tiers).

This internal abstraction is what allows our Upgrade Impact engine to tell you exactly how many games in the catalog a specific hardware upgrade will unlock for you. Our CPU tiers, for example, are a disclosed formula based on physical/logical core counts, not subjective performance rankings.

3. Coverage States (FULL, PARTIAL, BASIC)

Not all games provide enough data to do a full analysis. We grade our own coverage:

  • FULL: We have successfully normalized the GPU, CPU, and RAM requirements.
  • PARTIAL: We have normalized at least one dimension (e.g., RAM), but others remain ambiguous or unknown.
  • BASIC: We only have raw text with no normalized dimensions.
  • UNAVAILABLE: No data is available yet.

We do not invent data to reach "FULL" coverage. If a publisher leaves the GPU unspecified, we leave it as UNKNOWN and mark the page as PARTIAL. We believe honest uncertainty is more valuable than fabricated certainty.

4. Curation and Quality Control

RigReady is not a mass-scraped database of millions of entries. We limit our catalog to 5,000 canonical games to ensure high data fidelity. This includes:

  • Canonical identity validation to prevent duplicates.
  • Deterministic QA scripts that check for logic errors (e.g., recommended RAM lower than minimum RAM).
  • Targeted source validation when publishers release confusing or contradictory specs.