Bloated Recommended Hardware Requirements

[Doomer411]

I recently got Plants vs Zombies. It recommends a 2.4 (I think) GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, & the like. However, my home computer has half the requirements & the game runs like flint.
Seriously, a 1.06 GHz Athlon Thunderbird, 256 MB of RAM, & a 64 MB nVidia GeForce 4 MX.

What's with that? Does anyone else have any stories like this?

[Jawni]

Recommended =! Minimum.

You can run a lot of games without even getting near the recommended values as long as you reach the minimum. It just means you can't play the game enjoying its full potential. Mainly this means you have to cut down visual effects, rendering, resolution, etc.

So you can play it, but the game could look and perform better.

[PsychoMantis]

You don't even have to reach the minimum. The minimum shows the hardware you can run a game on without bugs or technical problems.

For example, a game requires a Geforce 6800 to run. However, you could have a 6500, it would still run well but there could be technical problems that go along with it because it is not tested to run on that hardware.

[Doomer411]

Right. That's a good example; I kind of... botched my first post.
Still, some requirements are quite bloated, if you look into it.

[dimmerwit]

I guess they are artificially raised a little bit so customers with very borderline PCs don't go complaining about how they can't run the game properly. With the minimum specs they give game makers are making sure you can run the game with no issues.

[Doomer411]

I don't care for that, not at the expense of entertainment & the principle behind it. No one will ever truly regulate these things, though.

[yjakez]

i have plants vs. zombies
i have an ibm t-30 thinkpad from 2000 that runs it fine with a build in ati radeon 7200 mobility graphics card that lags on halo, with 512 mb of ram.
im positive that your pc will run it.

Originally Posted by yjakez

i have plants vs. zombies
i have an ibm t-30 thinkpad from 2000 that runs it fine with a build in ati radeon 7200 mobility graphics card that lags on halo, with 512 mb of ram.
im positive that your pc will run it.

its also 2 ghz processor.