Minimum system requirements may need tweaking...

[danny7147]

I'm not sure when the published minimum specs were last reviewed, but I've been doing some experimenting today and I think they may be slightly off. I'd be glad to hear from other users though! A quick forum search has pulled up a few threads regarding people having difficulty running 0.25 at minimum specs, and I was one of them.

As a refresher, published minimums are:-

2.0GHz Dual Core or higher

4Gb RAM

512Mb Graphics card with shader model 3.0

The remaining specs regarding Windows, free space etc are fairly simple but it's the above three that are highly variable on people's systems.

My computer's quick, about the quickest dual core you'd find without spending big money...

3.0GHz Dual Core

4Gb RAM

1Gb Graphics card with shader model 5.0 (GeForce GTX 550)

0.24 ran perfectly, 0.25 crashed before loading. Graphics were set to roughly medium, the only exception was the resolution set to 1280x1024.

Today I tried some tweaking and varied a few components to see what I could achieve... the results were interesting.

At low graphics, it ran fine. If I increased textures over halfway the game crashed at ship building. I stole a 2Gb ram stick from my wife's computer and upped it to 6Gb. No change.

Next, I installed 0.25 on my wife's computer and it ran exactly the same despite having only a 1.86 dual core and a 512Mb graphics card.

The processor doesn't therefore seem to affect very much, but still no cigar. If my wife's underscored machine reacted the same as my overspend, it suggested a fairly major upgrade was needed. Lastly, I borrowed a 2Gb graphics card from a friend, analogue rather than DVI, and it ran perfectly on the highest graphics settings.

It could be a system flaw, but to me the 512Mb card requirement really needs looking at!

Would be good to know if I'm totally off the mark or if others have experienced similar!