d friendly wrote...
This thread is a big fat reminder about why I hate the hardware side of computers. I thought that I'd be close to recommended (medium settings at 1680 × 1050) with my 8600M GS, One or two letters apparently make some ridiculous kind of difference. Now I'm just hoping somebody with a similar card will share results that indicate that I won't need to play at 800 × 600 for medium.
For one, the graphics card you have is firstly an 8600. This is pretty baseline for 720p HD and higher, but then you see "M" which is mobility, meaning it is furthermore underpowered from it's 8600 standard. THEN, you see it's a GS which is somewhat ~ to M or less.
Basically, no offense, your card sucks for gaming at a nice resolution/settings.
This is what my laptop has:
Core 2 Duo T9600
3GB DDR3 ram (actually four but its got 32bit xp pro on it preinstalled <_<)
ATI Mobility FireGL V5700.
My home computer (near the top of this page) runs it maxed, including AA (which anything more than 2x or 4x on 1920x1200 is overkill). My laptop however runs it
decent but not great at 1650x1080, medium textures, medium graphics, no AA, everything else on.
Depending on your other components, your graphics card might be able to do medium settings at native res. This game isn't THAT intensive, honestly.