Early guesstimate of system requirements?

[woad&fangs]

The guys from CA seem to have been dropping in pretty frequently the last couple of days so I was wondering if they could give a guesstimate of the expected system requirements for Empire.

[iblewafuse14]

I would say something like a minimum of a

P4/Athlon 2.5 GHz
1 gig RAM
7300 GS 256 MB
14 gig HD

just a geuss... most definatly Shader 3 needed... I could be all wrong but that's what I would think

[BoyarPunk]

HAL 9000

[Daveybaby]

From looking at the screenshots:

System Requirements: whatever you got - it aint enough.

[gardibolt]

Word, brother. I don't think an 8800 can handle that in 3D. Maybe dual 8800s.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Isn't an 8800 one of the best graphics cards out there? They can't ask their customers to have dual 8800's, not even some hardcore gamers have those. 1GB of RAM seems a likely requirement though.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Keep in mind two things. First, the promo shots are done on very good rigs. Second, if you work hard on it, you can really optimize a game and still make it look good and play on old hardware. Bioshock does a pretty good job of it, from what I understand.

[Kraggenmor]

So what do you think? Vista compatible?

[BoyarPunk]

So what do you think? Vista compatible?

Probably. Just hopefully not "Vista exclusive". Don't trust it yet to replace my old faithful reliable XP.

[Csargo]

From looking at the screenshots:

System Requirements: whatever you got - it aint enough.

Yeah

[Hooahguy]

i would definitely say if they want a big market for ETW, dont make it have ridiculously high system requirements. most of the gamers i know have ok systems, nothing big, including myself. i have 1.25 gb of RAM, the GeForce FX 5200 (256 mb) and a 2.53 ghz processor. do you think thats enough?

[Incongruous]

I doubt they're going to be breaking heads with amazingly high specs guys. This is CA, where all are welcome. They want the biggest market, that isnt exclusive to hardcore gamers.

[Hooahguy]

better tell that to CA

[pevergreen]

CA are generally kind. Take M2TW specs, up that a bit.

[Pode]

Please do all the wonderful graphics tricks with DX9 instead of DX10. I love TW, but nothing is worth having to buy Vista.

[Polemists]

Fact of life. Lots of games are leaping on the Games for Windows Band wagon and I have no doubts considering this game isn't coming out till mid 08 it will work with Vista and XP both, I assume.

That said if you don't have dual core or Athlon equivelent and one hell of a graphics card you won't be able to run it.

[gardibolt]

Isn't an 8800 one of the best graphics cards out there? They can't ask their customers to have dual 8800's, not even some hardcore gamers have those. 1GB of RAM seems a likely requirement though.

That's the point. Rendering moving water well is one of the most difficult computer graphics tasks out there. And if those are real screenshots, they're putting a lot of detail into the water. It's going to chug like a dying moose if you try to run in on a FX 5200 or a 7300--which can barely run M2TW at low detail. And what's the fun of that?

Considering Vista requires 1GB itself, if it's a DX10 game they'd be foolish not to require 2GB of RAM at minimum. Good thing there's a year to save up for that upgraded system.

[Ethelred Unread]

If it's out in 08 then it'll be on vista, and that means DX10.

Time for an upgrade!

[Charge]

DX 10 strategy? I think you wrong. In 2008 only some shooters/RPGs will fully require DX10.
Crysis is mostly DX9 game with some dx10 features. There is no need (I think) in dx10 for ETW. Maybe dx10 perfomance improvements, by I'm not expert in it.

But I can do not care about it . After army in 09 I'll buy new comp, and it willn't be something like my current celeron-northw.@2.7,512 ram-266,geforce fx5200 128mb 64bit!

[Hoplite7]

Pentium 4 or equivalent
NVIDIA 6600 or equivalent
1 GB RAM

Considering Vista requires 1GB itself, if it's a DX10 game they'd be foolish not to require 2GB of RAM at minimum. Good thing there's a year to save up for that upgraded system.

It's not going to be a DX10 game, DX10 is for an entirely different customer base.

[icek]

P4 3,0
1 Ghz ram
geforce 6600
not working on Vista

[Charge]

P4 3,0
1 Ghz ram
geforce 6600

Lowest...
Max: Core2Duo@3GHz
2gb ddr2
8800

[TuuSaR]

From looking at the screenshots:
System Requirements: whatever you got - it aint enough.

If you compare pics from say Pirates of the Caribbean(2003 PC) or to any recent sea-battle game then pics CA released arent anything revolutionary. Just something you naturally expect to see in good 2008 games.

Of course I cant remember any sea game with actual soldiers boarding other ships.(in larger numbers) That would be new and require extra power.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Hmm, there's the Video Options you know. IIRC M2TW requires 128Mb of Video memory with shader support. This will require some more; say a good 256Mb one should do.
RAM: M2TW could do with 512Mb; so 1024 Mb would be reasonable.
Processor: there are more demanding processes out there than a TW one. So I think if you have some 2.0Ghz you should be (more than) fine.
Leaves us with OS requirements. M2TW was cool with older version than XP too; I imagine that this game won't require Vista just yet.

We will know in 2008; and if my guesses are worth anything, we will know by Christmas 2008.

EDIT: Of course CA will (highly) recommend more powerful systems.

[Brighdaasa]

Hmm, there's the Video Options you know. IIRC M2TW requires 128Mb of Video memory with shader support. This will require some more; say a good 256Mb one should do.
RAM: M2TW could do with 512Mb; so 1024 Mb would be reasonable.
Processor: there are more demanding processes out there than a TW one. So I think if you have some 2.0Ghz you should be (more than) fine.

That's largely what i was thinking too, but probably a little faster processor like maybe a non celeron 2.5ghz?
That would be the absolute minimum requirements. Possibly also shader 2.0 as a requirement for vid cards, which wasn't the case for MIITW iirc.

I would also guess that this engine won't be using dx10 yet as it wasn't around when they started building the engine. I predict that the evolution of this engine (the tw game after empire) will be using optional dx10 effects. The next revolution will probably use dx10 standard, with maybe some barely playable legacy support for dx9. My personal guess.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

If it's much as a hog as Oblivion, that would be just sad; I dunno wanna use 60 men units, I rather have at least large.

I have
1 gig
3ghz
Pentium 4 HT
7600 GS

Do you think I can run it well?

[Akeichi Mitsuhide]

I got:

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2,4 GHz
Raedeon x800 video card
1 gb RAM
XP.

Hopefully, thats enough cuz i dont think i got enough cash for a big upgrade in mid 2008.

[trickydicky]

This is my current machine - by no means a top end spec.
(About 9 Months Old)

Intel Core2Duo 2.2Ghz
Radeon X1950 512MB
2GB DDR2 800mhz Memory

This runs MTW2 fine, with most settings maxed at 1280 x 1024 res.
I would imagine that the new game should run OK with these sorts of specs, and by the time it's released, you will be able to pick something like this up for very little.

[Abokasee]

I have a 1 GB of ram, and my PC struggles running CoH and it have fairly powerful graphics card (Nothing like a 8800 though) so im getting a new one soon, well around this time next year, which will be alot more powerful (2 GB OF RAM , well the one im looking at now) But strangly MTW:2 works a treat in a dream

So I think getting a new one will be... very much necessary

[Belgolas]

I think the minimum system requirements will be...
3 GHZ P4 or AMD equivalent
1 GB ram
8GB Hard drive space
256MB video ram with DX9.0c vertex/shader 2.0 (Nvidea 6800 or better)

Recommended...
Dual core 2GHz or more
512mb GPU or 320mb 8800 GTS
2GB ram
8GB hard drive
DX10 optional



Seriously it shouldn't be that expensive to buy a computer to run this at least medium-high settings. 8800's should be $150-200 by the time this game comes out. No worries. If you can only play M2TW on low settings then time for an upgrade. Ram is so cheap too. 2GB of DDR2 800mhz @ $100.