Understanding Your Hardware Limitations
Table of Contents
- Summary
- What is the Minimum Computer Specs for VTubing/Streaming?
- How Do I Know if I Meet These Requirements?
- Hololive Comparison
- I Have a Potato PC. What Can I Stream?
- Additional Resources
Summary
Before we get started on anything, we need to address the elephant in the room—being able to run VTube Studio and being able to run VTube Studio, a game, and stream at the same time are two very different things.
While you can technically stream on your phone, laptop, or potato PC, in most cases, your computer specs will determine your ability to VTube in general and what you can stream. As games continue to require beefier hardware to run year after year, your computer’s minimum requirements become more and more of a bottleneck for what your can feasibly stream.
This section will go over what I would consider the minimum requirements for streaming, how to find out if you meet these requirements, and what you can do if you don’t meet these requirements.
While the remaining sections will be a bit technical, I will try my best to explain things as easily as possible so that people who aren’t familiar with computers can understand.
What is the Minimum Computer Specs for VTubing/Streaming?
Everyone you ask will have a different answer for this question. Twitch recommends a $1,000 laptop and PC parts manufacturer MSI recommends a $900 graphics card for a “minimum spec” streaming PC build but realistically, the threshold is much lower.
You can technically stream with any laptop released within the last 5-10 years but I would recommend at least the following if you plan on using a Live2D model and be able to stream modern-ish game running at 1080p with medium graphics settings:
| Component | Recommendation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | A modernish-gen (10th gen or above) i5 or equivalent | Also known as the processor, the CPU does most of the computing and processing for your computer. |
| RAM | At least 16 GB of RAM | RAM (random-access memory) provides temporary storage for applications and other processes so they can run more quickly. |
| GPU | A GTX 1060-equivalent | The GPU or graphics card is used for graphics and video rendering. A better GPU allows you to play more graphically-intensive games, watch videos at higher resolutions, the use more monitors. |
These specs are what I consider passable if you already have them. If your computer specs do not meet these, I would highly recommend investing in a better graphics card than this one.
What specs you need will depend on what type of VTuber model you plan on using and what games you intend on streaming. The following sections will cover how to find out if your computer can run certain games you may be interested in streaming. It’s important to note that your computer will need to exceed the minimum requirements of the games you intend on playing in order to account for VTubing and streaming software running as well.
How Do I Know if I Meet These Requirements?
To find out what CPU, RAM, and GPU specs you have, I’ve found that something like Speccy (pictured above) is one of the easiest ways to find out for non-technical users. If you don’t feel comfortable downloading something, you can always Google how to do it for your operating system, as how to do so differs between Windows, Mac, and Linux.
| Component | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| CPU | For Intel CPUs, a 10th gen i5 (2020) will show as i5-10XXX, an 11th gen (2021) as i5-11XXX, etc. Generally, an i7 is better than an i5 an an i9 is better than an i7. For AMD CPUs, you can compare benchmark scores by searching for your CPU and seeing if their benchmark scores meet or exceed the recommended CPU (Intel Core i5-10400). |
| RAM | At least 16 GB of RAM |
| GPU | You can compare benchmark scores by searching for your GPU and seeing if their benchmark scores meet or exceed the recommended GPU (GTX 1060). |
Example Comparison
It’s important to take everything with a grain of salt. You won’t really know if you can run something until you try it out yourself but you can at least rule something in or out if your benchmarking scores are vastly inferior or superior to the minimum requirements of a game.
Let’s use my current computer’s specs and compare them to the minimum requirements to run Dragon’s Dogma 2, a very resource-intensive game that came out recently. Since both Intel and AMD CPUs are listed, as well as NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, we will compare our components with the respective brand listed (bolded).
| Components | Dragon Dogma 2’s Minimum Requirements | My Computer Specs | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5 10600 / AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Avg. CPU Mark: 13675 / 17767 | AMD Ryzen 5 3600X Avg. CPU Mark: 18216 | PASS |
| RAM | 16 GB | 64 GB | PASS |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT with 8GB VRAM Avg. G3D Mark: 13510 / 9164 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER Avg. G3D Mark: 12776 | FAIL |
Based on the above, in theory, I should expect frame drops or stuttering gameplay when running the game alone before accounting for VTubing and streaming software. I might be able to get it to run more smoothly and stream it if I reduced the resolution to 720p and turned down additional graphics settings like texture quality, shadow quality, and anti-aliasing.
Hololive Comparison
Thanks to some Redditors, we can take a look at how our minimum requirements compare to some of the computers used by the talents in Hololive (data from 2021, 2023, and 2024 onwards, RAM is speculative):
| Component | Minimum | Median | Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-10400 Avg. CPU Mark: 12130 Price: $75-150 | Intel Core i9-9900K Avg. CPU Mark: 18311 Price: $250-400 | Intel Core i9-13900KF Avg. CPU Mark: 58656 Price: $400-600 |
| RAM | 16 GB Price: $50-100 | 32 GB Price: $80-120 | 64 GB Price: $150-250 |
| GPU | GTX 1060 Avg. G3D Mark: 10073 Price: $50-150 | GTX 2080 Ti Avg. G3D Mark: 21785 Price: $200-400 | GTX 4080 Avg. G3D Mark: 38579 Price: $600-1600 |
I Have a Potato PC. What Can I Stream?
If you’re on older hardware and/or have “integrated graphics” (meaning you don’t have a dedicated graphics card), chances are your computer will struggle to be able to run a modern video game let alone stream it. If this is the case and you don’t have the resources for an upgrade at the moment, there is nothing wrong with starting as a PNGTuber playing retro or indie games that require less resources.
You can check out the community below for games that might run on your hardware:
- r/LowEndGaming - “A community for anyone struggling to find something to play for that older system, or sharing or seeking tips for how to run that shiny new game on yesterday’s hardware.”
Additional Resources
If you can’t make heads or tails out of any of this, you can check out the community below to help you decipher whether or not you can run a game:
- r/CanIRunIt - “A community with the goal to help computer enthusiasts figure out if they can run certain video games or applications.”
If you are looking for more information about upgrading or buying a new computer, this is covered in a later section.