What's up with the extreme system requirements?

[Psyringe]

As has been said, these "can I run it"-sites are usually not worth the mouseclick. They work on very general assumptions based on the specs published and general (non-game specific) benchmark tests of hardware testers. They have no idea why a certain piece of hardware is recommended for a given game since they don't know the specific tasks that the game is running and where's the bottleneck. Basically they provide info that you can just as well collect elsewhere, without letting a dubious site gain control of your PC while hoping that they just collect the data for selling it to some odd marketing department instead of trying really devious things.

 

[Auncien]

Even the suggested specs aren't extreme. Hardware and software have advanced a lot even in the last two years. One can obtain the parts required to meet the suggested requirements fairly cheaply if you shop online and build yourself. May I suggest Newegg.com. Cheap and wide selection.

 

[Lyoncet]

I don't see what the problem is! We know everything's better when it's
EXTREME!!!!!!

[/Linkara]

 

[krunsh]

That's what the site is telling me.

CPU
Recommended: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU

You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz

Unfortunately, your CPU does not meet this requirement


... Okay lol, it tells me I won't be able to play on the minimum setting.

 

[NBAfan]

That's what the site is telling me.

CPU
Recommended: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU

You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz

Unfortunately, your CPU does not meet this requirement


... Okay lol, it tells me I won't be able to play on the minimum setting.

That is flat out wrong, nothing should require a quad-core yet.

 

[Dbob]

I think something is not quite right with that website, it said my single ATI HD 5870 had 4 GB of memory when the manufacturer says it only has 1 GB. Not quite sure how they are calculating that....but I'll take it!

 

[Tylerryan79]

When it says your graphics has 4 gigs of ram that's including memory your pc has set aside for your card as well. Most of the time it will set it aside like pagefiling, but for graphics. I had a gt120 with 1 gig, but it reads it as 4 gbs. I have 8gb of ram, and the card will use some of it for holding info, say if your playing a game that constantly changes environments or something. That part of the level is stored there so it loads quicker and theirs no delay.

 

[crismac]

This is what it says about my system,I know the CPU is very old but I think the game will run just fine.I hope

Civilization V
System Requirements Lab Analysis

Sorry, your computer does not meet the minimum specifications required to run this product. Please review the details below for more information.
Loading...
Minimum Recommended CPU
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 180
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU does not meet this requirement. Click here to see some recommendations.

CPU Speed
Minimum: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
You Have: 2.39 GHz
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU Speed does not meet this requirement. Click here to see some recommendations.

RAM
Minimum: 2 GB
You Have: 3.9 GB
PASS

OS
Minimum: Windows® XP SP3/ Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit
PASS

Video Card
Minimum: 256 MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT or better, 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
You Have: GeForce GTX 465
PASS
Features: Minimum attributes of your Video Card
Required You Have
Video RAM 256 MB 2.7 GB
Hardware T&L Yes Yes
Pixel Shader version 3.0 4.0
Vertex Shader version 3.0 4.0


DirectX version
Minimum: DirectX® 9.0c
You Have: 10.0
PASS

Sound Card
Minimum: Yes
You Have: Realtek AC'97 Audio
PASS

Free Disk Space
Minimum: 8 GB Free
You Have: 1383.8 GB
PASS


CPU
Recommended: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
You Have: Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 180
Upgrade Suggested: Unfortunately, your CPU does not meet this requirement. Click here to see some recommendations.

RAM
Recommended: 4 GB
You Have: 3.9 GB
PASS

OS
Recommended: Windows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit
PASS

Video Card
Recommended: 512 MB ATI Radeon HD 4800 series or better, 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800 series or better
You Have: GeForce GTX 465
PASS
Features: Recommended attributes of your Video Card
Required You Have
Video RAM 512 MB 2.7 GB
Hardware T&L Yes Yes
Pixel Shader version 4.0 4.0
Vertex Shader version 4.0 4.0


Sound Card
Recommended: Yes
You Have: Realtek AC'97 Audio
PASS

Free Disk Space
Recommended: 8 GB Free
You Have: 1383.8 GB
PASS

SessionID: 03d932aa-6c9a-48db-9444-08e633da7b81
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[Boshi]

Yeah same problem here, it's saying that my CPU is too slow to meet minimum standards when it is faster than recommended (it had better be, got it in May and it was one of the better lap tops Samsung had available).

 

[Dbob]

When it says your graphics has 4 gigs of ram that's including memory your pc has set aside for your card as well. Most of the time it will set it aside like pagefiling, but for graphics. I had a gt120 with 1 gig, but it reads it as 4 gbs. I have 8gb of ram, and the card will use some of it for holding info, say if your playing a game that constantly changes environments or something. That part of the level is stored there so it loads quicker and theirs no delay.

Cool. Thanks for clearing that up...its always nice to learn something new about how computers integrate hardware and make my gaming experience rock!!

Is this a new development to help extend the life of the GPU or has this always been the case, just on a smaller scale?

 

[sdlufkin]

THat site is ONLY looking at the base numbers, like the model of your video card, which isn't accurate. I have an 8800 GTX which is a very high end card, but I failed on the video test because it's not a 9000 generation card (or higher) even though it's much better than a 9800 GT card. That site is a good starting point, but head to Tom's Hardware for better information on what your parts are actually capable of compared to other hardware.

Additionally, I've mentioned this elsewhere but it's worth repeating - hit Mafia II demo and see how that runs. It's not quite the same, but it actually has MORE severe requirements. If Mafia II runs well on your system, it's a fair bet Civ V will as well.

 

[charon2112]

My PC is pretty mid-range, but I guess I can handle it...

 

[bernlin2000]

I thought Geforce 9800 and 8800 were basically the same card. And my dual 3.16 ghz intel better work.

The 9800gt is in fact a re-branded 8800gt, there is no differences whatsoever, not even a higher directx support (Both are directx10). All your specs look above the recommended: that software you used failed

 

[Tylerryan79]

Cool. Thanks for clearing that up...its always nice to learn something new about how computers integrate hardware and make my gaming experience rock!!

Is this a new development to help extend the life of the GPU or has this always been the case, just on a smaller scale?

Honestly my reply isn't 100% accurate, but it's pretty much right. I've really only seen it done(using system ram for graphics) with integrated cards, that is until my Mom bought her pc with the gt120. Usually integrated cards had small amounts of dedicated ram, and needed to use system ram to run games and other intensive graphic applications. I only assume the system uses this extra memory in newer cards in extreme cases, someone more qualified than me would need to answer/explain it better. My answers just a rough generalization, but explains it well enough to understand.

 

[Pratputajao]

Wouldnt worry about it, I just tested it and got about the same. However I also tested some games I already have....rubbish! Fallout 3 didnt meet "Recomended". BS! I run FO3at near highest res with all vid options on and most at max and have no slow down that I have ever noticed. I wouldnt worry unless you want to run it at the very highest settings with everything on max.

 

[krunsh]

My PC is pretty mid-range, but I guess I can handle it...

lol my PC is much better than that and it says I don't meet the minimum, great website!

 

[tokala]

Honestly my reply isn't 100% accurate, but it's pretty much right. I've really only seen it done(using system ram for graphics) with integrated cards, that is until my Mom bought her pc with the gt120. Usually integrated cards had small amounts of dedicated ram, and needed to use system ram to run games and other intensive graphic applications. I only assume the system uses this extra memory in newer cards in extreme cases, someone more qualified than me would need to answer/explain it better. My answers just a rough generalization, but explains it well enough to understand.

It was once intended that a video card could access the main memory if it runs out of video memeory. These days this makes only sense for low-/lowest-cost video chips, as for mainstream and high-end cards the access to the system memory is 10-100 times slower than to the video memory .
If a dedicated video card runs out of local memory, games will show extreme slowdowns and/or crashes.
So the 2 or 3 GB video RAM this "system analysis" gimmick is claiming most people have, is completely irrelevant for performance evaluation.
If you have a slow card even 100GB RAM wouldn't change the fact that it is a SLOW card and thus will likely drop to single digit fps before even 512MB of video RAM are used.

 

[Tylerryan79]

That's what the site is telling me.

CPU
Recommended: 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU

You Have: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6750 @ 2.66GHz

Unfortunately, your CPU does not meet this requirement


... Okay lol, it tells me I won't be able to play on the minimum setting.

In your case the site got it right, kinda. Your core 2 duo doesn't meet the recommended requirments, that your showing. It does meet the minimum.

Turning on eye candy is more to do with your graphics card, so if you have nice card you'll be able to most likely. But remeber your CPU sends the info to the graphics card, as well as computing the AI. That's probably why they are recommending a quad core, even though it's at a lower ghz than your duo it will be able to handle more threads, and the game is optimized for multiple threads.

 

[matt112986]

People get too caught up on running things at the max settings. The game will likely run fine and look great at medium settings. I remember the hoopla about Crysis needing a supercomputer to run when my pos emachine with single core Athlon 64, 2GB ram (or 1? cant remember), and radeon X1600 (256mb) ran it fine on medium settings.

I currently have a 8800GTX (640mb), Core 2 Duo 6140 (2.13Ghz), and 2GB of 1033mhz ram. I run Starcraft 2 on all ultra settings with the exception of textures which is just on high (1920x1200 resolution on Win 7). Back when I still had Win XP I ran Crysis all high at 1920x1200 without problems.

I may need to get some more ram and a better processor to really max out Civ V but that is all I probably need. That old E-machine can probably run it (which will make my little bro happy with his hand me down comp)

 

[Tarkhan]

About the 4GB...It's recommended. Not required...Most games will say 4GB is recommended these days.

Though I had an odd thing where it didnt recognize my video card's type, but could find the specs for it. Also, its a 5850 with 1GB, not clear on where the other 1.7GB came from.

[/IMG]

Think Civ5 is scary, look at Final Fantasy XIV, its practically the new Crysis, given that it actually says it needs an i7 or equivalent grade CPU for Recommended.