Newbie here, and I just bought a game, and as it's downloading I see it's a 4GB game. I didn't realize one game would be that many gigs so now I am wondering if I have to get more gigs.

I'm totally new at these games and only played HOGs before this. Did I just buy the wrong "size" game for my PC or how do others handle this as I don't want to "not" be able to buy more games?

Now you know where I get my username, lol!!

For us to better help you, please state the name of the game.

Hi themken,

I think I know the answer, geesh. I need to have an SD card?? Anyway, the game is Stellaris. Is that what you guys do, just store your games on an external device? If not, I am open to learning the way to handle this;)

Denise

Do you know the difference between Hard Drive gigs and Memory gigs? Unless your "Gaming Rig" is literally almost 20 years old (in which case it would be way too slow to run Stellaris), I guarantee you that it has more than 8 GB hard disk space.

Hard Drive is where your games are installed. You probably have at least 500GB, unless it's a netbook or something.

Memory/RAM you can think of as the "short term memory" - how much your computer can "think about" at any given time. This is only used on programs (including Windows) which are running at any given time.

Stellaris needs to 2GB memory (RAM). Your 8GB can handle it unless you're running other memory intensive applications. I'd be more worried about your graphics card. If you have an integrated only one, it might not be able to handle the game.

So that game wants 2GB of RAM minimum, 4GB recommended. Your computer had better have that. To increase without good computer knowledge, take to a shop.

The game ALSO wants 4GB to store its files on your hard drive (or SSD). I am very surprised if you do not have this space.

Forget memory cards for this kind of needs.

Thanks, I'll show you the "About PC", I've got a 1 TB of hard drive, so I don't know the difference. I'm glad you're telling me like it is though. A PC is like a vehicle to me, I can drive them but I don't know what makes them go except my foot on the gas peddle;)

HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop Computer, AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, AMD Radeon RX 550, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Windows 10

I was going to say the game thing.

Denise, what is your computer?

looks like everyone else has got this

No problem. As I edited in my post, you might still have an issue if the rest of the specs aren't up to snuff. Particularly the CPU (processor) and GPU (graphics card).

No problem, I can use all the help I can get;)

HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop Computer, AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, AMD Radeon RX 550, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Windows 10

4GB is 0.4% of 1TB. Windows wants some 30GB too but still lots and lots of space.

That computer is alright and should be able to play just about every game on the market. As usual when buying the cheaper brand boxes, the graphics card is decidedly on the weak side though.

That should run things nicely

hope all goes well

Yup, those specs should be able to run Stellaris without a hitch. More graphics intensive games would have problems though.

Ok, now I get it, just never payed attention until I downloaded anything that big! So RAM is just for programs that are "running" and hard-drive is where the Game's actually stored. You guys are probably amazed I managed to pick out a decent gaming pc, lol!

Thanks so much to all of you, I think I'm going to love Stelaris;)

denise
Oh darn, I'm all about "gorgeous graphics" but maybe if I get that far, I can get a bigger boat, oops I mean, graphics card;) Denise

I google "about game specifications"...
Top result: https://www.pcbuildadvisor.com/what-parts-are-most-important-for-a-gaming-pc-understanding-your-computer-hardware/
Knowing the basics about computer hardware is part of playing games on a PC, like it or not.

Thanks Teceem, I love learning so thank you for the link, I'll check it out;) Denise
PS Just looked it over and great info. Thanks again:)