Windows 8 Minimum System Requirements
These are the minimum system requirements for Windows 8 according to Microsoft:
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit) Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
Below are some additional requirements that are needed for Windows 8 to run certain features, like touch.
A tablet or monitor that supports multitouch.Windows Store apps require a screen resolution of at least 1024x768, and to snap apps you need a 1366x768 screen resolution.Some games/applications only run at full capacity if used with graphics cards with DirectX 10 or higher.DVD playing software is not included by default in Windows 8, so you have to download your own program either from the Windows Store or through a vendor’s website.For Windows 8.1 Pro users, BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive.A TV tuner is needed to record live TV in Windows Media Player.
If your computer runs Windows 7, Windows 8 should work just as well (if not better) on that same hardware. Microsoft ensures Windows 8 is backward-compatible with Windows 7. As for device-and-app compatibility, most programs and devices that work with Windows 7 should work with Windows 8—the full Windows 8 operating system, not Windows RT.
How to Find Your Computer’s Specs
To see the hardware specifications for your computer, you could either run a system information tool that gathers all that information for you (most of them are easy to use) or you could use Windows itself. To find your system’s specs in Windows, do the following:
