Discuss Spore

Was anyone else shocked at the specs required to play spore, from what all the rumors were these sure are much lower than I had expected.

FOR WINDOWS XP
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 512 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space

FOR WINDOWS VISTA
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 768 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space

Supported Video Cards

ATI Radeon series
9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900,
3650, 3850

NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800

Intel Extreme Graphics
GMA 950, GMA X3000, GMA X3100


BUt alas all this good news has to come with some bad. They say this game will run poorly on laptop GPU set ups

Other than that who else is excited!?!

 

It all depends on the laptop and it's specs. If even the GMA950 is supported,I am sure it will run smooth for anyone.

 

it will probably run poorly on integrated laptop gpu's, yes.

as long as you are swinging a modern ati or nvidia gpu you are set.

 

I want to know why the 8700 series isnt supported thats what I have

 

it doesn't matter. its supported.

 

Even the low-end GMA950 is supported?! Guess lots of 8600m GT users like myself should expect medium settings at least with 1280 widescreen.

 

Yeah, the GPU requirements are very low. Doesn't suprise me at all that they ask for a powerful CPU and lots of RAM though. I bet it is a very data heavy game. Or I should say I hope. Also, "supported" probably means they actually have test machines with that hardware that they are testing on. It doesn't mean any other card will not work.

 

Despite the hype about original gameplay, the system requirements remind me very much of traditional RTS games with emphasis on CPU first with the GPU a close 2nd.

 

Well traditional or not, there really isn't much else spec-wise you could have. And it makes sense that any large scale game with lots of values will be CPU/RAM heavy. I do have to admit though that from the progression of info coming out from initial announcement to today, it seems like they have had to scale back on ambition a whole lot and take it more traditional, unfortunately. Should still be quite good though.

 

2.0GHz P4 is very very low. I got a comp sitting around here. 4 yrs old. mid-low range when bought and sports a 3.0GHz P4.

dual core lappys (most even sub-gaming lappys) should have absolutely no probs.

 

Good point. I hope it is well multi-threaded though, to take advantage of all the multi-core out there today.

 

Sounds like the game were designed by Blizzard lol

 

I remember hearing that the requirements were going to be similar to the Sims 2

 

I agree and feel it should be expected that spore will be able to take advantage of multi-core, but I haven't been able to find anything saying that it does.

 

every time i hear a bit more information it seems like it keeps on getting crapper.

I just pray that they don't focus on the ufo stage.

 

this game just is not interesting for me, FPS is where its at

 

I'm actually amazed by the requirements considering the scope of the game.

Will Wright's joke didn't help .

I can't wait to try and make an creatures like the griffin (lion + eagle) or an actual cameleopard.

IRL, Cameleopard = Giraffe.

 

fps is repetitive and boring. cod4 kicked a bit of life into it. but the novalty has worn off. rts is where its at.

 

lol@Wright's joke. If you don't like this kind of game, no need to comment, but for the record, FPS are simplistic and appeal to short attention spans. Jeff, I am also disappointed with each new bit of news I hear, but I'm still hopeful that the game will be good. I mean, it's Will Wright. He made a game about simulating an ant colony that was fun. *knocks on wood*

I think they just got overambitious with thier design and set expectations too high. I bet it will still be quite solid and fun. And maybe Spore II will be able to approach the hype claims of the early announcements. Maybe it will also require higher specs.

 

Yeah - original P4 specs are very low. My beloved Eee may have a small chance in hell of playing it. The Celeron 900 ~ original P4 1.8GHz. It has the GMA 900 not the 950, but either way there's little difference between the two.

Although I'm confused as to why they would say it won't run well with laptop GPU setups? Surely if it will run on a Radeon 9600 or a nVidia FX 5xxx video card, I see no reason why an 8600m GT would not run it well.

 

The Thief series made the same claims a few years ago, maybe the developers are referring to the reduced specs on mobile equivalents which could hamper performance or perhaps the lack of "official" drivers for laptop chips.

 

i've been looking forward to this game for a while but those specs are not lookin too great, unless they mean u can play it on all lowest at like 800x600 and get 20 fps

 

Probably implied given the GMA950 is supported, it's naive to think the GMA950 will run Spore at any settings above rock-bottom and lowest supported resolution without the game looking like a slideshow (assuming rock-bottom makes the game playable in the 1st place for that chipset).

 

yeah......hype is good and bad for games........good if they can match expectations......abd if they can't.............maybe i just had too high hopes in the start. i will probably still get it. the tribal and city stages seem rather cool.

 

They probably mean IGPs or GF 8400s. Or just covering their butts for not testing on laptops.

 

probably the latter

 

yea...look at GTAIV...

 

i have. don't really like it.

have a look at hearts of iron.

 

c'mon you know I'm going to chime in after that comment Anyway I'm happy overall with GTAIV, but the new game charm is wearing off a bit. It doesn't help that the online experience is ruined by everyone being a tough guy and spouting racial slurs and I "f***ed yer momma last night" comments the whole time. Hopefully it comes to pc since there seems to be ( generally ) a more mature crowd online. As for spore I still have hope that it will cause me to waste a lot of time on my laptop, much in the way the sims 2 has - I love building new real estate and return to it every time my interest in new games wanes. Anyway, it will hopefully be something new and interesting ( groundbreaking let's hope ) even though it won't wow us with graphics and effects.

 

NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800

No 9000 series? That really sucks :|

 

I love the idea of being able to play it on an EEE actually, once the specs on those get better for the price.

 

Probably didn't have test beds with 9 series cards when they were doing most of the developing. Not that it matters since the vast bulk of mobile 9 series cards are just die shrinks of their 8 series counterparts.

It will be very amusing if an EEE PC can actually play Spore (instead of seeing a slideshow run).

 

I assume because Spore runs on procedural methods it's very easy for them to scale just about everything down(and possibly up too).

 

well Knowing that GMA 950 is even SUPPORTED that makes any lappy with 8600gt able to max it out i believe

 

i hope i can max it out at 800 x 600

 

Levenly have you got mad? rofl, you'll max it 1440x900... haha

 

haha i was kidding. i can probably do 1920 x 1200... hows that RAM thing going btw?

 

first of all, notice the "haha" at the end of the sentence, And about the Ram, its supposed to arrive tomorrow

 

I have no doubt EEE Pc tweakers will make it work