What is the bld4me Grade?
bld4me calculates a “bld4me Grade,” a score from 1.0 to 10.0, using a proprietary algorithm that compares the performance demanded by the latest game releases with widely adopted hardware currently on the market (including sources like Steam Hardware Survey data).
To help users quickly judge “what needs to be prepared” and “whether it will run on their PC” at a glance, the bld4me Grade is grouped into seven categories.
Grade Tiers Explained
1. ULTIMATE (Grade 10)
“The pinnacle of PC gaming. An extreme visual experience.”
- Performance target: An ultra-demanding workload built for the very top tier of today’s hardware market.
- Recommended devices: The latest-generation, top-of-the-line flagship models.
2. PREMIUM (Grade 8–9)
“A serious gaming experience—built for high refresh rates.”
- Performance target: A heavy workload that demands high processing power for consistently smooth performance.
- Recommended devices: Current-generation high-end models, or previous-generation flagship models.
3. STANDARD (Grade 6–7)
“The modern baseline. Where mid-range PCs do most of their work.”
- Performance target: Tuned for the standard environment used by the largest share of gamers.
- Recommended devices: Widely adopted current mid-range models, or previous-generation high-end models.
4. ENTRY (Grade 4–5)
“The gateway to gaming PCs. A dedicated GPU is required.”
- Performance target: The threshold where a “dedicated graphics card (dGPU)” is required to run.
- Recommended devices: Entry-level gaming GPUs (with dedicated graphics) or previous-generation mid-tier models.
5. ADVANCED BASIC (Grade 3)
“High-performance integrated graphics—optimized for portable devices.”
- Performance target: Internal optimizations enable gameplay on high-performance integrated GPUs (iGPUs).
- Recommended devices: The latest portable gaming handhelds, or gaming-class CPUs with high-performance integrated graphics.
6. BASIC (Grade 2)
“Typical laptops for office work and students.”
- Performance target: A lightweight design intended to run across a broad range of mainstream systems.
- Recommended devices: PCs with standard CPU integrated graphics.
7. MINIMAL (Grade 0–1)
“Ultra-lightweight—runs on virtually any PC.”
- Performance target: Runs across almost any environment, regardless of generation, as long as basic compute performance is available.
- Recommended devices: Nearly any PC that’s still in active use, regardless of specs.
The Calculation (Transparency & Fairness)
Our grading is more than just a copy-paste of official requirements:
- Real-world Buffers: We apply an "Optimization Factor" to official recommended specs to account for heavy combat/scenes in real gameplay.
- Market-Weighted: We use Steam Hardware Survey data to ensure the 1-10 grades reflect what gamers are actually using globally.
- Dynamic Updates: As new GPUs launch and the market standard shifts, our entire database is re-calculated to keep the grades relevant for today's hardware.
