System requirements not true

So, I have bought a new video card, 8500gt from Gainward (a company that has a habit to overclock Nvidia's chips) so the clock is 600 MHz core and 1.2 GHz of GDDR3 memory and shaders. The rest of my rust-bucket is composed out of P4 3.0 fsb800 s.478 ht (pretending to be dual-core), 1.2 GB DDR1 RAM and a very rare motherboard that unites s487 with pcie x16.

I have a dual-boot configuration. (vista ultimate and xp pro), So I was just wondering how come I can play Mass Effect under vista? Maxed out without AA, it gives me 20 FPS lowest, but on the box it clearly says Vista minimum 2 GB RAM and 8500gt below minimum... I do have brief glitches when the game needs to trash and reload RAM, but it's more than playable... Oh, and under xp I can play Crysis on medium without AA and like 2 setting on low... My default resolution for all games is 1024x768.

One last thing... Do games optimised for dual-cores take advantage of ht?

Why do you care if your running the games fine?

So, I have bought a new video card, 8500gt from Gainward (a company that has a habit to overclock Nvidia's chips) so the clock is 600 MHz core and 1.2 GHz of GDDR3 memory and shaders. The rest of my rust-bucket is composed out of P4 3.0 fsb800 s.478 ht (pretending to be dual-core), 1.2 GB DDR1 RAM and a very rare motherboard that unites s487 with pcie x16.

I have a dual-boot configuration. (vista ultimate and xp pro), So I was just wondering how come I can play Mass Effect under vista? Maxed out without AA, it gives me 20 FPS lowest, but on the box it clearly says Vista minimum 2 GB RAM and 8500gt below minimum... I do have brief glitches when the game needs to trash and reload RAM, but it's more than playable... Oh, and under xp I can play Crysis on medium without AA and like 2 setting on low... My default resolution for all games is 1024x768.

One last thing... Do games optimised for dual-cores take advantage of ht?

Crofna

I never go by what the box says. It's never accurate.

ME requires at least a GF 6 series. You have a GF 8 series.

ME requires at least a GF 6 series. You have a GF 8 series.

Gog

Says in the readme file that 8500 is below minimum

[QUOTE="Gog"]

ME requires at least a GF 6 series. You have a GF 8 series.

Crofna

Says in the readme file that 8500 is below minimum

Dont mean to be rude but *sigh*. I wouldnt go by what the readme file says either. They're the same guys that put the minimum and recommended settings on the box.

... My default resolution for all games is 1024x768. ...

Crofna

And that's likely why, if you are, you're able to get any frame speed. You're playing it well below the average resolution people play games at. Probably when they were testing the game they assumed nobody still used 17" and smaller monitors anymore to play games on... which is not a bad assumption because really almost nobody would.

[QUOTE="Crofna"][QUOTE="Gog"]

ME requires at least a GF 6 series. You have a GF 8 series.

Elann2008

Says in the readme file that 8500 is below minimum

Dont mean to be rude but *sigh*. I wouldnt go by what the readme file says either. They're the same guys that put the minimum and recommended settings on the box.

remember: 6800 is better than 8500

[QUOTE="Elann2008"][QUOTE="Crofna"][QUOTE="Gog"]

ME requires at least a GF 6 series. You have a GF 8 series.

GTR2addict

Says in the readme file that 8500 is below minimum

Dont mean to be rude but *sigh*. I wouldnt go by what the readme file says either. They're the same guys that put the minimum and recommended settings on the box.

remember: 6800 is better than 8500

[QUOTE="Crofna"]

... My default resolution for all games is 1024x768. ...

WDT-BlackKat

And that's likely why, if you are, you're able to get any frame speed. You're playing it well below the average resolution people play games at. Probably when they were testing the game they assumed nobody still used 17" and smaller monitors anymore to play games on... which is not a bad assumption because really almost nobody would.

You would be surprized how many people still play on 17" screens. Steam Survey Below, Only 25% of all people use a widescreen of any sorts that have steam vs the other 75%.

4:3 Aspect Primary Displays (1310701 of 1777032 Total Users (73.76% of Total) )

16" 25%

17" 22%

[QUOTE="WDT-BlackKat"][QUOTE="Crofna"]

... My default resolution for all games is 1024x768. ...

04dcarraher

And that's likely why, if you are, you're able to get any frame speed. You're playing it well below the average resolution people play games at. Probably when they were testing the game they assumed nobody still used 17" and smaller monitors anymore to play games on... which is not a bad assumption because really almost nobody would.

You would be surprized how many people still play on 17" screens. Steam Survey Below, Only 25% of all people use a widescreen of any sorts that have steam vs the other 75%.

4:3 Aspect Primary Displays (1310701 of 1777032 Total Users (73.76% of Total) )

16" 25%

17" 22%

Wow... That's actually rather odd to think of. I thought the majority had Widescreen.

Anyways, i never trust the requirements on a game case for good reasons. Just as an example; STALKER recommended requirements says a 7900GT, but even with my 8800GT i get max 20 FPS at Low.

Anyways, i think the reason people prefer to play on smaller screens, is that if you play at 800x600(Example) on a 22" Widescreen which has a native resolution of 1680x1050, it'll look terrible like a 2D shooter. But if you run it in native resolution, chances are you'll have a decrease in FPS.

[QUOTE="04dcarraher"][QUOTE="WDT-BlackKat"][QUOTE="Crofna"]

... My default resolution for all games is 1024x768. ...

stappy

And that's likely why, if you are, you're able to get any frame speed. You're playing it well below the average resolution people play games at. Probably when they were testing the game they assumed nobody still used 17" and smaller monitors anymore to play games on... which is not a bad assumption because really almost nobody would.

You would be surprized how many people still play on 17" screens. Steam Survey Below, Only 25% of all people use a widescreen of any sorts that have steam vs the other 75%.

4:3 Aspect Primary Displays (1310701 of 1777032 Total Users (73.76% of Total) )

16" 25%

17" 22%

Wow... That's actually rather odd to think of. I thought the majority had Widescreen.

Anyways, i never trust the requirements on a game case for good reasons. Just as an example; STALKER recommended requirements says a 7900GT, but even with my 8800GT i get max 20 FPS at Low.

Anyways, i think the reason people prefer to play on smaller screens, is that if you play at 800x600(Example) on a 22" Widescreen which has a native resolution of 1680x1050, it'll look terrible like a 2D shooter. But if you run it in native resolution, chances are you'll have a decrease in FPS.

Oh really? I play stalker on high and at 1680/1050 and it runs great. Specs are in my sig.