Yes, the so-called "minimum requirements" quoted by every game manufacturer are the minimum to start the damn thing. Doesn't mean it will run with any kind of playability.
Now. My main machine, plays smoothly (>75 fps) at 1280x960:
Manufacturer: Me
CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz / 1333MHz FSB
Mobo: Asus P5KR
RAM: 2Gb PC5400 dual channel
Video: GeForce 8600GT 256Mb
The missus' machine and my backup, playable @1024x768 but fps suffers near planets thanks to the onboard GPU:(
CPU: Athlon X2 dual core 4400+
Mobo: Asus M2A-VM HDMI
RAM: 2Gb PC6400 dual
Video: ATI x1250 w/ shared RAM
And I come to power with the awesome spectacle of my incredibly powerful Gaming beast!
Pentium 4- 1.8 GHz
256Mb DDR Ram
55GB of Hard Drive space
A stock cooling fan
A 19-inch monitor
A nVidea GeForce FX 5500
And two stock speakers...
...one of which does not work at all
FL will just run on it, with every performance turned down to minimum. Trading was possible but combat was out of the question. (Man the skies are black with "background stars" turned off....)
Generic FoxConn motherboard with an AMD Sempron @ 1.66GHz
512 MB RAM
256 MB nVidia 6200 LE (AGP 8x)
120 GB HDD
20 GB HDD
DVD-ROM
External CD Burner
Antec 350 W PSU
I built it a couple of years ago, and it still does everything I need and runs Disco beautifully.:)Cost me less than $200 to build it. Probably going to overhaul it with a new motherboard and processor and PSU sometime relatively soon.
Manufacturer: System manufacturer
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Hard Drive: 201 GB Total
Video Card: ATI Radeon X1250 Series
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Sound Card: Realtek HD Audio output
Speakers/Headphones: Surround Sound
Keyboard: ASUS PS2 Keyboard
Mouse: ASUS USB Optical Mouse
Mouse Surface: Standard blue mouse-pad
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Not the best, but it can run Quake4 on medium-high graphics with no lag.
EDIT: JON! You have the same processor I used to have..!!!!!
"Freelancer Alpha dash niner, this is Freeport 7 control, You are cleared for departure. Good luck out there."
Soldato Zavier Benitez, Benitez flight instructor.
OS Windows XP Pro
CPU Athlon 3500+
MB: MSI K9NUltra (Nforce chipset)
2 Gb Ram
256 Mb Ati Radeon x1950
160 Gb Hdd Maxtor
19" Samsung monitor
Tagan 400W PSU
Operating system: None
Required energy drain: Windows Vista home premium
Operating system: AMD Turion 64 x2 tl-64 (2.20 ghz.)
Video Card: ATI Radeon x1200, 256 dedicated and around 700 shared memory
RAM: 2 gig.
There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for. -Elizabeth Elliott