Spec check

Find out what your computer can actually run

One number decides most of this, and it is not the one people expect. Not the processor, not how much memory the computer has — the memory on your graphics card. This finds it, along with everything else we need, in about thirty seconds.

Download the spec check → 10 KB · four files, all plain text · Windows, macOS and Linux

Why the graphics card decides it

An AI model is a large file that has to sit in memory while it thinks. Graphics memory is dramatically faster than ordinary computer memory for that particular job.

If the model fits on the card, answers come back in a second or two and it feels like a conversation. If it does not fit, the overflow spills into ordinary memory and the same answer takes ten or twenty times longer. Same model, same machine, completely different experience. That is why we measure instead of guessing.

What it reads, and what it does not

Reads

Make, model and operating system version
Processor, memory, and how many memory slots are free
Graphics card and its memory
Free disk space
Whether a short list of developer tools is installed

Never touches

Your documents, photos or downloads
Email, messages or browser data
Passwords, keys or logins
Serial numbers, or anything identifying you
The network — it makes no connections at all

Please check for yourself. Both scripts are readable text. Open Collect-NovahSpecs.ps1 or collect-novah-specs.sh in any editor before you run it. Every line is a read operation, there are no writes outside that folder, and there are no network calls anywhere in it. You would be running a script you got from the internet — we would rather you looked first.

Running it

Windows. Unzip the folder first — running from inside the zip will not work. Then double-click RUN-ME.cmd.

macOS or Linux. Open Terminal, drag the folder in, and run bash collect-novah-specs.sh.

Run it. A window opens, prints what it found, and waits for a keypress.
Two files appear in the same folder, named after your computer.
Open the .md one — it is the readable version. See exactly what is being shared.
Send both back. On macOS and Linux there is only the one file.

Windows will probably warn you. A blue “Windows protected your PC” box is SmartScreen doing its job on a downloaded file. Click More info, then Run anyway. If it still will not start, right-click the unzipped folder → Properties → tick Unblock.

What the answer looks like

The check sorts your machine into a tier. Every tier gives you a working system — the tier decides how large and how quick the model is, not whether it runs at all.

Tier	Graphics memory	What it means
TIER-1	24 GB or more	The largest model we deploy, with room for context.
TIER-2	16 GB or more	Strong. A large model at higher quality.
TIER-3	12 GB or more	Comfortable. A large model at standard quality.
TIER-4	8 GB or more	The common laptop case. Everyday model is instant.
TIER-5	6 GB or more	Workable. Everyday model only.
TIER-6	under 6 GB	Small models only.
No NVIDIA card	—	It runs on the processor instead. Slower, but it runs.

It also flags anything that would derail an install later — a firmware setting switched off, memory slots already full, an edition of Windows that limits something. Far better to know on day one than halfway through.

You get a plan written for your actual machine — which model, what it needs first, and how long it takes.

Download the spec check → Nothing is installed. Nothing changes on your machine.

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