I wonder where the supercomputer comes in to play. Are they modeling what a game should need, like trying to speculatively predict what settings would be acceptable for an infinite number of video cards?
Why not just use a dumb database to keep track of all the factors and mix/match. I mean there are a finite number of possible combinations, you could do that with testing different setups, or even just collecting data from various testing websites, and then putting it all together in a database, instead of using a supercomputer?
Edit: wait, this article doesn't seem to mention the supercomputer, and does describe the approach I was thinking where you just test and experiment without need to simulate/predict. I read about the supercomputer somewhere else, maybe it was before they edited this article or another article entirely.