Refining the recommended system requirements for Windows 8

Does this aging PC have what it takes to run Windows 8 well?

Microsoft’s official line for Windows 8 is that it has been designed to run on all hardware that is capable of running Windows 7. Thanks to thorough optimization efforts by Microsoft and the continued availability of a 32-bit version, this is largely true—Microsoft’s official system requirements for the new operating system are identical to those of Windows 7.

Those minimum system requirements only tell part of the story, though, and there’s a wide gap between a system that can run Windows 8 and a system that can run it well, particularly when it comes to Metro and Metro apps. We’ll go through all of Microsoft’s requirements one by one and tell you what you’re actually going to want to use to run Windows 8.

Microsoft says: 1 GHz or faster
Microsoft still uses clock speed to tell you what kind of processor to use with Windows, but we already know that clock speed is essentially irrelevant for comparing processors of different architectures. There are hoary old Pentium IIIs from around the turn of the millennium that run at 1GHz, but you’ll bring yourself nothing but sadness if you try using them to run a modern operating system.

For a satisfactory experience, you'll want to be using at least a dual-core processor, preferably one of Intel's Core 2 Duos, AMD's Athlon X2s, or anything newer—these processors both became common in mainstream PCs in 2006 and 2007.

Microsoft says: DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

This basic graphics recommendation, the bare minimum required to enable the Aero Glass theme in Windows Vista and Windows 7, worked fairly well for those operating systems, and for the most part the Windows 7 user interface looks and behaves the same whether you’re using a pair of $500 graphics cards or a lowly Intel integrated graphics chip from 2006.

Windows 8 is less kind to older, low-end graphics hardware. Microsoft itself says that "some games and other software" require a DirectX 10-class graphics processor, which began shipping in late 2006 and 2007. If you have a dedicated graphics processor from ATI/AMD’s Radeon HD 2000 series or NVIDIA’s GeForce 8-series or better, you should have a reasonably good experience with Metro and Metro apps, and drivers for your card should be readily available from AMD, NVIDIA, or through Windows Update, which isn’t a given for older cards.

The conversation changes a bit when we’re talking about cheaper, integrated graphics processors, which have historically been a convenient way to cut costs and bring down power requirements in cheap PCs and laptops, but have only in recent years been powerful enough to replace even low-end dedicated GPUs. To get a decent Windows 8 experience, I would recommend using an AMD Radeon HD 3200 (2008) or better, an NVIDIA GeForce 9400 (2008) or better, or any version of Intel’s HD Graphics processor (2010), which has been included with Intel’s last three processor generations.

TechPowerUp's GPU-Z says that I've got a DirectX 10 GPU, so chances are I'm in good shape.If you’re unsure what your graphics processor your computer uses, you can check it out either in the Windows Device Manager or by using GPU-Z, a third-party program that will give you much more detailed information about your hardware.

Microsoft says: 1GB (32-bit) or 2GB (64-bit)
Microsoft's Windows 7 RAM requirements are too low, and they continue to be too low in Windows 8. You should be using at least double the recommended amount to ensure headroom for additional programs and background services; Windows will run in the officially recommended amount of RAM, but open more than a few programs and your computer will quickly be hobbled. Memory is dirt cheap these days—treat yourself.

Microsoft says: 16GB (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit)
The exact capacity of the drive you use for Windows will depend entirely on what you need to store on it, so I'll refrain from making specific recommendations about it.

I do recommend using a solid-state drive to boot Windows 8, but that recommendation stands for basically any computer running any operating system ever. Windows 8 still runs fine on the spinning hard drives still shipped in most desktops and laptops, but Windows 8's tablet-esque feel and search-heavy usage model will be much better served by solid state storage—good, reliable drives from the likes of Crucial, Samsung, and Intel can be had for prices nearing about $1 per gigabyte these days, which is pretty tempting given spinning hard drives' reluctance to drop back down to pre-flood prices.

When Windows 7 was in its public preview phase, the netbook movement was still in full swing, and Microsoft proudly proclaimed that the new OS would run much better on netbooks than Windows Vista did.
Windows 8 still runs on netbooks, but the tiny laptops’ limitations can severely impact its functionality. The Atom processor itself, especially in its dual-core variations, can run Windows 8 well enough, but the graphics processors with which Atom is so often paired— Intel's GMA 950, 3150, and 500 integrated graphics processors, for the most part—all fall well under the minimum GPU requirements we talked about above.

Even more problematic however, is the 1024x600 screen resolution used by the majority of netbooks, which is too small to run any Metro apps (the minimum is 1024x768, or 1366x768 to use Metro’s Snap feature). This by itself limits Windows 8’s usefulness on netbooks.

To recap, this is our complete list of recommended system requirements for a good Windows 8 experience:
ComponentMicrosoft saysArs saysIntel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon X2 or betterDirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 driver or betterDedicated GPU: AMD Radeon HD 2000 series, NVIDIA GeForce 8 series or betterIntegrated GPU: AMD Radeon HD 3200, NVIDIA GeForce 9400, Intel HD Graphics or better16GB (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit)

 

This should encompass just about any desktop or laptop PC sold with a Windows 7 sticker attached, and many PCs sold during the middle and late Vista era (which is to say, from mid-to-late 2007 and on, and making the obvious exception for netbooks). You can certainly run Windows 8 on lesser hardware, and knowing the PC enthusiast community many of you probably will. However, unless you've identified some Windows 8 features that you absolutely can't live without, the Windows 8 and Metro experience on these computers won't be good enough to merit the cost of the operating system license.

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