What does Blizzard mean by broadband?

Question

According to Diablo 3 System Requirements, we need a broadband connection.

• What qualifies as "Broadband"?
• Does DSL-3Mb connection count?
• What could possibly be the issue with Wireless?

Asked by Mike

Answer

Usually broadband just means "not dialup". If you have even the lowest end DSL, it'll probably be playable, and anything faster than a megabit should be more than sufficient. I played the open beta on a 1mb/s connection without any problems.

And wireless just tends to be buggy, especially with stuff like this where a few lost packets can make you jump around the screen and lag a lot. Putting in a caveat about wireless is just a way for them to wash their hands of your local network problems.

Answered by Satanicpuppy

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What's the definition of broadband?

Question

According to Diablo 3 System Requirements, we need a broadband connection.

• What qualifies as "Broadband"?
• Does DSL-3Mb connection count?
• What could possibly be the issue with Wireless?

Asked by Mike

Answer

Usually broadband just means "not dialup". If you have even the lowest end DSL, it'll probably be playable, and anything faster than a megabit should be more than sufficient. I played the open beta on a 1mb/s connection without any problems.

And wireless just tends to be buggy, especially with stuff like this where a few lost packets can make you jump around the screen and lag a lot. Putting in a caveat about wireless is just a way for them to wash their hands of your local network problems.

Answered by Satanicpuppy

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How firm are The Witcher 2's minimum required specs?

Question

According to TotalPCGaming.com, Steam, and the official site, The Witcher 2 requires at least a Radeon HD 3850. How firm is this requirement? Has anyone managed to play with a lesser card? (Bonus points if you can talk about the other required specs as well.)

I ask because one of my PCs has a Radeon HD 3650* (later rebranded 4570/4580), and I'd prefer to use it if possible. I've also noticed that nowadays "minimum specs" are generally the specs required to have everything at medium detail and the like, rather than an actual hard minimum.

_{* The 3650 is actually superior in some respects, such as having twice the RAM. Memory bandwidth is a bit over half, though.}

Asked by Matthew Read

Answer

The answer: Pretty firm. The game is playable on the lowest settings, but pretty choppy. Not an enjoyable experience, but at least it's doable. The CPU requirements seem to be basically the same -- you can run it on a fast single-core, but not well.

Answered by Matthew Read

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GTA IV system requirements

Question

do you think I can run GTA IV on a pc with this system:

• Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
• RAM: Up to 4GB
• ATI Radeon Graphics Processor 512MB HD 2400 PRO

?

Answer

Your VGA is a little better than the X1900 mentioned in the GTA 4 minimum requirements in the Wikipedia article. The only weak component of your system seems to be the CPU, but it's one of the fastest one-core Pentium 4, so you'll do fine with it. It won't be ultra settings, of course, but it'll be playable at normal framerate. By the way, back then it even worked on my 2.4GHz P4 with 9600GT.

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What are the system requirements for the Elder Scrolls: Skyrim?

Question

From the press footage and trailers so far, Skyrim looks to be pretty graphics intensive, and I'm worried my computer won't be able to handle it.

Have the official system requirements been released yet? If so, what are they?

Answer

Supposedly the system requirements will be released in October, however, there are a number of sites that have guessed at what they will be. This may give you a starting point.

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=625&game=The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20V
Intel CPU - Celeron E3300 Dual-Core 2.5GHz
AMD CPU - Athlon II X2 240
Nvidia GFX Card - GeForce GT 420
ATI GFX Card - Radeon HD 5670 512MB RAM (Memory) - 4 GB
Hard Disk Space - 10 GB
Direct X - 9

http://www.skyrimportal.com/skyrim-system-requirements
CPU: Core 2 Duo/Athlon X2 or better
RAM: 1.5GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800 Series, ATI Radeon 1800 Series or better
VRAM: 512MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 12GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
DirectX: DX9.0c

http://www.systemrequirements.in/system-requirements-for-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim.html
Minimum System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz or Althon X2 2.0 GHz
* RAM: 3 GB
* HDD: 15 GB
* Graphics: 512 MB card
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c

Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Core 2 Quad 3 GHz
* RAM: 3 GB
* HDD: 15 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c

Supported Graphics Cards:
Minimum – 8800 GT
Recommanded – Geforce GTX 460/Radeon 5850

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Why are some 32-bit PC games not supported on 64-bit operating systems?

Question

I have the original gamebox of "Medal of Honor Airborne", where the system requirements state that the game cannot be played on Windows Vista 64-bit. Why are some games not supported on 64-bit operating systems?

Answer

32 bit games can run 64 bit Windows, typically without any issues. Older 16 bit games designed for Windows XP or earlier will not run on Windows Vista/7 64 bit.

Many times, software and games will claim they do not run on a particular operating system (Windows Vista 64 bit in this case) simply because they don't want to allocate resources to test on that particular system or support it. According to this forum post, Medal of Honor: Airborne runs just fine on Vista 64 bit.

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Cities XL System Requirements

Question

What are the system requirements of Cities XL.

I have
Motherboard: Intel DG35EC
Processor: 2.0ghz Dual Core
RAM: 1GB DDR2 Graphics: Onboard 384MB (I can play splinter cell chaos theaory, City life with very good performance and graphics)

Can i play Cities XL with good graphics?

Answer

Taken from the game's own site, the recommended requirements, which would allow for nicer graphics, are:

For a desktop

• CPU : Intel Core 2 or higher
• RAM : 1.5 GB (XP), 2 GB (Vista)
• Video Card : nVidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 3850 or better. 512 MB VRAM or better.

For a laptop

• Platform : Intel Centrino 2 w/ nVidia or ATI GPU w/ 512 MB VRAM
• RAM: 1.5 GB (XP), 2.5 GB (Vista)

However, your rig seems much closer to the minimum requirements (available through the link), so you may not get good graphics out of the game. Of specific concern is your graphics card, since I find it difficult to compare onboard cards (which in my experience are notoriously weak) to dedicated graphics cards which are commonly listed in system requirements.

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Why does Starcraft 2 keep telling me to lower the graphics settings or close other applications?

Question

I'm running a (new) 2010 Macbook Pro with:

• A Core i7 2.66 Ghz Processor
• 8GB Ram
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M Graphics Card

Is it really possible that it can't handle the "high" graphics settings on Starcraft II? It's particularly confusing since I'm using all the "recommended" graphics settings - the game seems to think my computer can handle it, but then while I"m playing, it'll pop up a message suggesting I turn down the settings or close other programs.

It doesn't appear to just be a bad message - the game does seem to slow a bit right after it pops up.

I've closed everything open in the dock, and disabled time capsule. Is there anything else I should be doing?

Answer

The nVidia GT 330M isn't really a gaming graphics card; it definitely has trouble with recent games like Bad Company 2. In-game benchmarks for the 330M show the performance of the chip in a lot of fairly recent games, and you can see for yourself that it doesn't really do well in high settings for most games. The PassMark benchmark for the 330M shows that the 330M isn't competitive on par even with current mid-market graphics cards like the GTX460.

As a comparison, my laptop has an ATI 4670HD (772 PassMark vs the 330M's 479 PassMark), 8GB RAM and a Core2Duo@2.66GHz, and it has trouble handling the game on medium at 1920x1080.

I hate to say it, but you're more or less out of luck trying to get Starcraft 2 to perform on a laptop on high settings unless you've forked out for something that advertises itself as a gaming laptop.

I've also heard that performance of Starcraft 2 under OSX is abysmal; it might be worth your while getting bootcamp running with Windows to see if that gives you a bit of a performance boost.

Summary: settle for lower settings, try installing Windows under Bootcamp.

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Why are some PC games not supported on 64-bit operating systems?

Question

I have the original gamebox of "Medal of Honor Airborne", where the system requirements state that the game cannot be played on Windows Vista 64-bit. Why are some games not supported on 64-bit operating systems?

Answer

32 bit games can run 64 bit Windows, typically without any issues. Older 16 bit games designed for Windows XP or earlier will not run on Windows Vista/7 in either 32 bit or 64 bit.

Many times, software and games will claim they do not run on a particular operating system (Windows Vista 64 bit in this case) simply because they don't want to allocate resources to test on that particular system or support it. According to this forum post, Medal of Honor: Airborne runs just fine on Vista 64 bit.

Check more discussion of this question.