I am one of those people who cannot afford to buy a graphics card right now, and this game uses lots of memory, even if you have 2GB of memory... What is the system requirements for this game anyways?

This is what you NEED to play.

Video Card with Vertex Shaders 1.1
Intel Pentium 4 or greater processor
Windows XP or Windows Vista operating system
Broadband internet connection
512 MB RAM

Recommended:

GeForce 6 or better video card
Intel Pentium 4 or greater processor
Windows XP or Windows Vista operating system
Broadband internet connection
1 Gig RAM

For more information:

help.freerealms.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20755/c/1934/r_id/158

It DOES use a lot of memory,but so far it's a GREAT game .

Even with those recommended settings (not just the minimum required), you're still going to play the game at it's lowest settings or else it'll be a slideshow.  My main machine is an Inspiron E1705 with 2GB RAM and a 256MB Nvidia GO 7900GS.  On that machine, which can play a number of other games with better graphical settings (WAR, LotRO, Darkfall, Runes of Magic, Wizard101, FusionFall, etc...), I still have turn my settings down in Free Realms.  On my lower end machine (Desktop with 2 GB RAM and an Nvidia 7300 LE), I have all settings down to minimum in order to make it playable.

By comparison, Fusion Fall plays better on each machine and Wizard101 plays flawlessly at max settings (it plays on two even lower end machines, too).  Obviously each game uses different technology and optimization techniques.  I'm not comparing the tech so much as the target audience.  All three are centered around kids/tweens, but only one plays incredibly well on almost any machine.

~Ripper

free realms is not really meant to be played on a low end machine it requires a broadband connection to function properly.   I see people upset because they can use dialup on other kids games, but not this one.  Well its a full featured game with fairly high resource demands and it updates in the backgroun as you are running along with minimal software downloads that remain on your computer to actually make the game go.   Their minimal specs are just that minimal the recommended specs are also kind of minimal, but most people can run the game with that.

I have no problem with free realms, but I am running it on a computer with a newish graphics card and 512 meg of ram on it and 3 gigs of ram.  

Part of what is the problem is people are not using pci-express type cards and stil using AGP which is slower.   

Its a new game with fairly high end demands.   If you want it too look good you need a newish computer.  That being said the computer I am running the game on is over 2 years old, but I live in a place where we have high tech industry (silicon valley north) so what is new to me is not necessarily the norm across the board.   Here dual cores are like way passee and obsolete quad cores are the norm right now and I"m lagging behind on this computer I hate windows vista I refuse to upgrade until windows vista is replaced with something better so I am being limited by software ^^

Originally posted by ummax

free realms is not really meant to be played on a low end machine it requires a broadband connection to function properly.   I see people upset because they can use dialup on other kids games, but not this one.  Well its a full featured game with fairly high resource demands and it updates in the backgroun as you are running along with minimal software downloads that remain on your computer to actually make the game go.   Their minimal specs are just that minimal the recommended specs are also kind of minimal, but most people can run the game with that.

I have no problem with free realms, but I am running it on a computer with a newish graphics card and 512 meg of ram on it and 3 gigs of ram.  

Part of what is the problem is people are not using pci-express type cards and stil using AGP which is slower.   

Its a new game with fairly high end demands.   If you want it too look good you need a newish computer.  That being said the computer I am running the game on is over 2 years old, but I live in a place where we have high tech industry (silicon valley north) so what is new to me is not necessarily the norm across the board.   Here dual cores are like way passee and obsolete quad cores are the norm right now and I"m lagging behind on this computer I hate windows vista I refuse to upgrade until windows vista is replaced with something better so I am being limited by software ^^

Sorry, but I don't buy it. "Recommended settings" should let you play on  higher settings than minimum, especially if your specs exceed the recommended settings.  I play on a broadband connection, just like I do all other games, and that really has nothing to do with the quality of my play experience.  I download streaming content just as quickly as I do with  Wizard101 and Fusion  Fall.

The sad reality is simply that Free Realms seems to take more hardware than many other games released within the last year (Wizard101, WAR and Darkfall, all of which I mentioned above, were released in the last year and all play better at higher settings than Free Realms on my main machine).  If it were a full fledged MMO, a la WoW, I could see that.  The fact that it's primarily a kids' game, however, makes me question the hardware requirements, since most kids don't have newer/bleeding edge machines. Most kids probably use hand-me-down/budget machines, especially if their parents aren't gamers.  Heck, I'm a gamer and my kids use hand-me-down machines.  I might upgrade the machines at some point, but they play the games my kids play (Wizard101 and Dungeon Runners) just fine. I'm not going to upgrade their machines for "just another kid's game", especially one that's at least partly F2P.

~Ripper

Originally posted by rhinok

Originally posted by ummax

free realms is not really meant to be played on a low end machine it requires a broadband connection to function properly.   I see people upset because they can use dialup on other kids games, but not this one.  Well its a full featured game with fairly high resource demands and it updates in the backgroun as you are running along with minimal software downloads that remain on your computer to actually make the game go.   Their minimal specs are just that minimal the recommended specs are also kind of minimal, but most people can run the game with that.

I have no problem with free realms, but I am running it on a computer with a newish graphics card and 512 meg of ram on it and 3 gigs of ram.  

Part of what is the problem is people are not using pci-express type cards and stil using AGP which is slower.   

Its a new game with fairly high end demands.   If you want it too look good you need a newish computer.  That being said the computer I am running the game on is over 2 years old, but I live in a place where we have high tech industry (silicon valley north) so what is new to me is not necessarily the norm across the board.   Here dual cores are like way passee and obsolete quad cores are the norm right now and I"m lagging behind on this computer I hate windows vista I refuse to upgrade until windows vista is replaced with something better so I am being limited by software ^^

 

Sorry, but I don't buy it. "Recommended settings" should let you play on  higher settings than minimum, especially if your specs exceed the recommended settings.  I play on a broadband connection, just like I do all other games, and that really has nothing to do with the quality of my play experience.  I download streaming content just as quickly as I do with  Wizard101 and Fusion  Fall.

The sad reality is simply that Free Realms seems to take more hardware than many other games released within the last year (Wizard101, WAR and Darkfall, all of which I mentioned above, were released in the last year and all play better at higher settings than Free Realms on my main machine).  If it were a full fledged MMO, a la WoW, I could see that.  The fact that it's primarily a kids' game, however, makes me question the hardware requirements, since most kids don't have newer/bleeding edge machines. Most kids probably use hand-me-down/budget machines, especially if their parents aren't gamers.  Heck, I'm a gamer and my kids use hand-me-down machines.  I might upgrade the machines at some point, but they play the games my kids play (Wizard101 and Dungeon Runners) just fine. I'm not going to upgrade their machines for "just another kid's game", especially one that's at least partly F2P.

~Ripper

you dont buy what? that it requires a new computer to play on?

its true

/shrug

What I don't buy are your apologies for the game.  "Its a new game with fairly high end demands."?  Not according to the minimum and recommended specs, which is all people have to go by until they actually try to play the game.  The game is primarily targeted towards kids who, as I said, won't necessarily have the newer, better hardware necessary to make the game look pretty and run smoothly.

So,  yes Free Realms does seem to require newer hardware, but should it?  Not in my opinion and not according to the "recommended" requirements.  As i said before, I can play other recent MMOs with better performance at higher graphical settings than I can with Free Realms.

Regardless, we're really arguing the same point.  Free Realms does take significant power to run at decent graphical settings.  On that point, we both seem to agree.  The difference is that I think it's unexpected and an unrealistic demand on the target demographic, whereas you seem to think it's ok.  We'll just have to agree to disagree ;)

~Ripper

if your rig runs wow it will run this. if your rig can't run wow then i give up

I have a 3 year old Nvidia card.  7600 GT ..haven't turned graphics down...3 gigs memory. Played Vanguard, Warhammer and many other games, no problems.

Might be your internet connection..no idea.

Good smooth game play from what I have experienced, been playing just over a month, have 3 level 20 jobs on one character so far.

I have installed this game for my kids. In their low end machine, which complies with the recomended specs, it requires the lowest graphic settings to make it playable. Still, it is playable and according to my kids, lots of fun.

But I agree with the comments above that the "reccomended" specs should allow to play the game with something better than the lowest graphic settings, that is what "minimum specs are for anyway.

By the way, at least in my case, it is not the internet connection, I do have a fast broadband internet connection at home.

OT: I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of this game, specially taking into account that it is F2P. I think I'll try it myself too.