Combat Arms System Requirments (In Detail)

Minimum

* Windows 2000
* Intel Pentium III 1 GHz
* 256 MB RAM
* GeForce 2 MX
* DirectX 9.0c
* 2.0 GB free HD space
* 128 kbit/s ADSL or equivalent

Recommended

* Windows XP
* Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
* 512 MB RAM
* GeForce FX 5600
* DirectX 9.0c
* 2.0 GB free HD space
* 128 kbit/s ADSL or equivalent


A few notes on these requirements:


Your internet speed: They list a DSL connection at 128kbit/s or equivalent. Consider this the very rock bottom minimum to play the game. If you are on a connection this slow, you can most likely expect lag. I would personally recommend a 3Mbps or higher cable connection as the minimum requirement to play the game with minimal lag, assuming your computer is not severely outdated.

Your CPU: Even though they only list Intel CPU's in their requirements, AMD CPU's will work just fine. Anything over a Sempron 2500+ will play this game wonderfully. In all reality, I do not recommended running it on a Pentium 3 as they suggest as a minimum requirement. Your game experience will be severely limited when compared to most everyone else in the game.

Video Card: Even though they only list Nvidia cards in the requirements, an ATI Radeon 9200 or later will run this game beautifully. It may work on lower end cards, but the 9200 was the lowest I had to test it with.

All of these cards were tested and found to run the game quite beautifully at the specified resolutions and default settings. The test map was Snow Valley.

Radeon 9200 Pro 128MB: 1024x768
Radeon 9550 Pro 256MB: 1024x768
Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB: 1280x1024
Radeon x850 Pro 256MB: 1280x1024
Radeon x850 XT 256MB: 1280x1024

I personally recommend at least a Radeon 9550 Pro or higher card. The 9550 produces a very smooth and stable frame rate, it actually ran at a steady 40-50FPS average throughout all the maps at a resolution of 1024x768 in heavy combat. If you want to go above 1024x768 I suggest the 9700 Pro or higher. At 1280x1024 the 9700 Pro pumped out 50+ FPS overall, not bad for an older card. For stable FPS over 80+ at 1280x1024 or higher, you should have an X850 Pro or better in your rig. The X850 XT PE puts out 100 FPS easy so anything beyond that would work great.

Your Memory: Having tested the game at 512MB of RAM, I would highly recommend that you have at least 1.0GB of RAM to enjoy the game as it was intended. Especially if your on a "lower end" PC. I am not sure why the list 256MB as a minimum as the game is barely playable with such little physical memory. I tested this game at 512MB on a P4 2.8 system running a clean XP Pro install and the FPS and control lag was noticeable no matter what video card I put in the system. Adding 256MB to the system helped a lot, but taking it to 1GB really improved its performance. The more memory, the better.

Your HD Space: 2.0GB free HD space on the drive or partition you intend to install the game and at least 10GB of free space on your OS drive or partition. The 10GB free space on your OS drive makes room for your page file to resize as needed if its windows controlled. This assumes of course that your page file is located in its default location and settings.

I personally recommend that you specify a static size for your page file and not let windows manage it. Its also a good habit to have your page file located on whatever your fastest drive is on the partition with the most free non-fragmented space. I myself also purge my page file about once a month, sometimes more depending on my usage load. There are many sites out there that tell you how to do this. Google is your best friend.