What the rating means
The rating is one number from 0 to 100. It sits on the same scale as our GPU tier list, where the RTX 4090 is 100. Your PC gets the score of its graphics card, because the graphics card decides the frame rate in most games, and the score is then lowered if your processor or your memory cannot keep up with it.
For example, the GeForce RTX 4080 (71) scores in the 70s, the Radeon RX 7800 XT (50) and GeForce RTX 4070 (46) sit around 50 and 46, the GeForce RTX 3060 (24) is in the 20s, and the GeForce GTX 1650 (8) is in single digits. A score twice as high does not mean twice the frame rate in every game, but it is a fair guide to which PC is faster.
How the processor and memory change it
We check the processor against the graphics card at 1080p, the same test the bottleneck calculator uses. If the processor is more than 10% too slow for the card, the rating drops to what the processor can feed. A fast card in front of an old processor is rated lower than the card alone, because that is what you would see in games.
Memory lowers the rating only when it is small. 12 GB takes off about 5%, 8 GB about 12%, 6 GB about 25% and 4 GB about 40%. At 16 GB and above nothing is taken off, so there is no gain from adding more for a rating.
The six tiers
A rating of 70 or more is Top tier, built for 1440p and 4K. 50 to 69 is High end. 30 to 49 is Upper mid-range, a good fit for 1080p on high settings and many games at 1440p. 18 to 29 is Mid-range, fine for 1080p with some new games on medium. 8 to 17 is Entry level, where new games need low settings, and anything under 8 is Basic, good for older and lighter games.
What the rating does not tell you
It is not a benchmark. It does not test your PC, and it does not know about your cooling, your drivers, your storage speed or whether your memory runs in dual channel. Two PCs with the same rating can differ by 10 to 15 percent in a game. Laptop graphics cards are listed with the word Laptop in their name and are rated lower than the desktop card with the same number, because they run at lower power.
For one game you care about, use the Can I run it checker, which compares the game's own requirements with your parts. The rating is the quick answer to a different question: how strong is this PC overall, and which part should I change first.
How to raise your rating
Read the notes under your result. If the processor holds the graphics card back, a faster processor is the first step, and the bottleneck calculator shows how much you would gain. If your memory is under 16 GB, adding more is the cheapest change. If neither applies, the graphics card is the part that sets the rating, and the upgrade advisor ranks cards by how much speed you gain per dollar of launch price.