By any comparison, my computer's at the low end of the spectrum. I run a 700 MHz P3 with Geforce 256 with a near-full hard drive. However, I absolutely never have problems with slowdowns in my games. I play Tribes 2 at 1024x768 with settings all the way up and get smooth 30-40 fps.
The only reason I can do this is I have 640 MB of RAM (PC100 RAM, even). Lots of memory, even relatively slow memory, easily compensates for a somewhat deficient processor. Most of the games written today are expected to fill up the memory space and spill over into virtual memory. As such, they have a lot of overhead left over when you drop the hard drive access times. In short, it's time to go up, not down. The 3% of people on there who used less than 640x480 were most likely mistaken or joking, and if they weren't, it's hardly reasonable to design games specifically aimed at those 3% to the detriment of everyone else. The cheapness of memory is quickly driving Half-Life's total system usage bill down. Backwards compatibility is admirable, but I have near the slowest processor and definitely the slowest named video card on that survey, and my computer runs fine. The fact that the majority of people have over 128 MB of memory is what should be telling. Persuter gettin his two bits in... :) --- Kuja <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was the first one to submit that survey :D > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of Tim Holt > Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 4:07 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [hlcoders] Fun and games and amateur > analysis of 1.1.0.9 update > hardware survey results... > > > -- > [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] > Dunno of you all like to read the hardware survey > results from the > 1.1.0.9 update, but I do. See > http://valve.speakeasy.net/ > > Stuff I see that catches my eyes... > > * People with fast connections get the patch > first (hence the huge > skew towards high speed with only 14,000 > responces :^) > * A lot of ppl are still using what you'd call > "crappy" video cards. > Voodoo 3 + TNT2 accounts for 10.4%. of all > responses > * Most ppl have around 256 MB of RAM. You'd > think it would be more > like 512 because it's cheap. > * Double peaked bell curve for processors. Lots > in the 800-900 mhz > camp, and another bunch in the over 1 ghz > range > * Most ppl run video at 1024x768, but there's a > pretty surpising # > at 800x600. And who are these morons running > 320x200? :D > > So what's that make me think? We (as game > developers) need to be > careful we don't unconciously make our games > unplayable by what we > consider the "fringe" of low end users - who are > actually a pretty big > percentage. Of course one can clearly decide > "Minimum specs are Geforce > 2, 512 MB of RAM, 1 gig processor" and go from > there. > > The other thing that comes to mind is this: don't > waste time > complaining about all those old vid card users, or > ppl who don't upgrade > their RAM, because that isn't going to make them > upgrade (unless you're > willing to pay). It's not about how you think it > should be, it's about > what it really is. > > I know with DoD we kinda have been pushing the > "minimum configuration" > limits, but not necessarily by planning. DoD's next > release (2.1) is > going to include a big revamp of all our maps with > this in mind. We > asked all the mappers to reduce their texture usage > down to 5 meg or > less. Testing shows us they run MUCH faster now on > the "lower end" > video systems. Made some mappers (ok, just one) > really really mad, but > I think it was worth it for the players. > > So anyone else have any > observations/conclusions/etc. from the stats? > > -- > I think...I think it's in my basement. Let me go > upstairs and check. -M.C. > Escher > > > -- > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view > the list archives, > please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view > the list archives, please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders > ===== [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Humanity I love you for when you're hard up you pawn your intelligence for a drink" -e.e. cummings __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
