Legitimacy of systemrequirementslab

Hey,

Going through the Tom's Forums I discovered that many: "Can my pc run (insert game)?" questions gets referred to systemrequirementslab.

I'm planning to buy a few games (GTA4, Demigod, Batman AA etc.) and went onto the site to see if my pc would be adequate.

Much to my dismay I failed EVERY test

Looking closer I discovered I passed all the component tests except for my OS, which is Windows 7. systemrequirementslab indicates that Fallout 3 is not compatible with Windows 7 but at the moment it's working flawlessly on my pc.

Just to confirm that my pc was as weak as said website indicated, I put in Warcraft 3 as my little test subject. FAILED. OS yet again. Now how can my pc be penalised just because my Operating system is apparently not compatible.

I know it's a silly question but I just wanted to know what the Tom's Forum Gods think...

Specs:
OS - Windows 7 Build 7068
AMD Athlon X2 4000+ (Overclocked to 2.73mhz)
4gb DDR800 ram
ATI HD3850 256mb/256bit (Stock)
400watt PSU
17inch Samsung 794v
26inch Samsung LCD TV

Hey mousemonkey, bandwidth a bee-yatch in South-Africa. Unable to download demos of the games and test it with a benchmark tool.

Thought this website would be a good indication of how well my system would be able to run it without having to buy the game and be dissappointed with the performance.

I'm running Fallout 3 maxed out detail, 4x AA, 1280x720 resolution and running basically flawlessy. Lags now and then but barely noticeable.

I know my cpu and gpu is barely up to standard anymore so I just wanted to make sure I'll be able to run these newer games with nice eye candy and decent framerate.

That's why I never bothered to buy and play Crysis lol, don't want to play a game that's suppose to be the epitome of graphics, and play it on medium detail settings

Was thinking about a 4850...but only after the ATI 5800 series is nicely settled in the market lol.

Thanks for the input mousemonkey. My current gamelist will have to do until I have enough munkey for a better rig

I think System requirements lab just compares your specs to the min and recommended requirements for the game.

This would be such an incredible amount of work it's insane. One thing's for sure, if it existed, it couldn't be anywhere near free.

And the point of systemrequirements is to tell you if you CAN play/run a game, not how well. And if all you fail on is the OS, especially since you're running an OS that isn't officially out yet, you shouldn't worry at all. They just test if you can run it up against the game's official specs, since Win 7 isn't out yet, I'm pretty sure it's not under anyone's official specs.

Well, the site is mainly used for people who don't know their systems very well. You know, not for us super awesome computer builders. I use it just to be lazy instead of googling. But yeah, I'd say it's a pretty good site and they're accurate except for having not added Windows 7. I just find it funny how it goes "Windows XP or higher" FAILED you don't have that.