You Might Need a New PC to Run Bioshock

There Are 71 Responses So Far. »

1. 

   Comment by Pete on 15 July 2007:

   D: omg
2. 

   Comment by zune on 15 July 2007:

   I think I need a new laptop, with an external water cooler.
3. 

   Comment by Noone on 15 July 2007:

   Not bad specs:P Cant wait for the game.
4. 

   Comment by Joshua on 15 July 2007:

   Bioshock looks awesome! Can’t decide on 360 or PC…
5. 

   Comment by Hip Hop on 15 July 2007:

   ahh I need a new PC
6. 

   Comment by Andrew on 15 July 2007:

   I have a Dell XPS Gen 2. It sits on a pizza rack to stay cool. Don’t get my wrong, I love my desktop replacement. But one time it burned my wife’s leg when she tried to move it from the pizza rack to her lap.

   This game would force my computer to temperatures approaching that of the Sun. It would collapse like a star and burn through my desk.

   That, and I don’t have 8 gigs to spare!
7. 

   Comment by john savage on 15 July 2007:

   I hate to say it but its Photoshop on the PC and gaming on the 360. This is what it’s come to…
8. 

   Comment by Chris on 15 July 2007:

   Those sys requirements arent that bad. The 6600 is ancient so if thats the minimum and you dont have that its about time.
9. 

   Comment by B Miller on 15 July 2007:

   John Savage – That’s a stupid assumption. If it weren’t for games like Bioshock, Crysis, and Spore pushing our computers to their hardware limits, we’d never see the graphical innovations that propel the PC above and beyond anything the 360 can do. Those high requirements mean progress, and it’s that sort of thing that solidify PC gaming’s spot as the ultimate gaming platform.
10. 

    Comment by Sai on 15 July 2007:

    w00t i can play
11. 

    Comment by Nicholas on 15 July 2007:

    @ Andrew, that is because you have a POS dell. -=/, gateway/dell/hp premade computer = pos/not worth the circuit board printed on.
12. 

    Comment by UberNerd0 on 15 July 2007:

    all things considering, not really unexpected. technology as a whole has been developing in a steady fashion for the past 5 years. faster, better, stronger.

    saying “you might need a new PC to run bioshock” is like saying you might need a new PC if you want an internet connection slightly more significant than ISDN.

    so in my response: If you consider yourself to be a gamer enough to WANT to buy Bioshock for a PC then you should be competent enough to keep your computer as up-to-date as possible all the time. especially with the prices coming down as drastically as they have been. 1gb of ram isn’t very expensive.
13. 

    Comment by Sarah on 15 July 2007:

    @nicholas

    Most people don’t have $3500 to go out and buy a custom gaming laptop. Anyway it’s damn near impossible to buy parts for one. Don’t give Andrew a hard time because he’s not doing the impossible. If you were think he was talking about a desktop, then read post and think for a second.
14. 

    Comment by Nick on 15 July 2007:

    Chris: Whens the last time playing a game at the “Minimum Requirements” was anything less than agony?
15. 

    Comment by john savage on 15 July 2007:

    B Miller- take it easy it’s just a joke. Leave your computer and go for a walk.
16. 

    Comment by Person on 15 July 2007:

    @Sarah

    Built computer 2yrs ago for $800 excluding monitor and it exceeeds every requirement. =P. Not impossible, and not hard to put together either, everything you need is in the manuals. As for computer parts: newegg.com has almost everything for dirt cheap.

17. Pingback by Game Rag Daily » Blog Archive » PC System Requirements for Bioshock on 15 July 2007:

    [...] the chance to play Bioshock on your PC, you may want to head over to thegamegods.net and check out the system requirements. They look pretty steep, but still somewhat reasonable. If [...]
18. 

    Comment by Jake on 15 July 2007:

    honestly, the requirements aren’t THAT bad…
19. 

    Comment by Josh on 15 July 2007:

    Im sure my Intel ‘Extreme’ Graphics 855GM chip can handle it, it’s just so extreme! I got 4ps playing battlefield 2142! w00t!
20. 

    Comment by sdlvx on 15 July 2007:

    LOL. NEW PC?

    You dopes. I have an Opteron 165 I paid 120 for, and now it’s 99 on newegg.com

    ZOMG GUESS WUT. I OVERCLOCKED IT TO 2.91Ghz, and it beats e6700 in most benchmarks, and there’s a few that it is even with, and then there’s some that i get obliterated in.

    If you aren’t a dumbass, you can easily get an opteron 165, asus a8n32 SLI Deluxe s939 MOBO, and an 8800GTS for like 500 dollars.

    Opteron 165 = $99
    Asus a8n32 = $150
    Nvidia 8800 GTS 320MB = $270

    That’s not that much, if you can overclock.

    You can keep your DDR Ram, HDs, case, etc.

    Seriously, if you still have a single core system, you should just get off the internet.

    I used to be a naysayer. Hell, I had a 3.2Ghz prescott OCed to 3.95Ghz. I thought, damn, nothing can stop me.

    I got this stuff, because the P4 was dying since I had it overvolted too high, and it got too hot. So, I though I’d spend a little bit on a small upgrade to hold me over until nehalem/K10.

    Making the dive like this was something I’ll never regret. Sure, a lot of programs aren’t dual core, but the fact that if somethings eating your CPU, that you have a whole other one there to pick up the slack. It makes a huge difference.

    Plus, 2.91Ghz AMD is WAY faster than any P4, no matter what Ghz it’s at. Trust me, I had one of the best P4 systems.
21. 

    Comment by n0xx on 15 July 2007:

    This is absolutely insane. I think Microsoft, ATI, Nvidia and the various game developers are deliberately trying to kill the PC as a gaming platform. The games for pc are shamelessly unoptimized, windows gets in the way of the game by denying proper low level access to the hardware and both ATI and Nvidia have all the intrest in the world in having your favorite game run like crap so you’ll upgrade and give them $$$. They’ve got as all running in circles! We need an alternative platform… Some kind of thin linux layer that provides nothing but the absolutely necessary to load the damn games and then let them do whatever they want with the Hardware.
22. 

    Comment by Zeeky on 15 July 2007:

    yay for minimum requirementS!
23. 

    Comment by duran on 15 July 2007:

    heh.
    Good thing I just got that E6600 2.4ghz with 2GB of RAM and an 8800GTX.
24. 

    Comment by Imad on 15 July 2007:

    Just bought the base mbp and it fits the “recommend specs”! Saweet can’t wait to try this out.
25. 

    Comment by A2r0n on 15 July 2007:

    To all of those complain about the high end requirements and the cost of a computer to run it. I just build a 2.4 Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of Corsair 4-4-4-12 RAM, X-FI, and an 8800gts for around $1200 for everything including HD, Case, etc. So you do not need to shell out $3000 dollars to play the latest games at a decent resolution, although it would be nice to be playing this game on a 30″ screen with all the bells and whistles.
26. 

    Comment by Kwipper on 15 July 2007:

    I wish people would realize that…

    Minimum Requirements: Game will run, but not run well enough to be enjoyable

    Recommended Requirements: Game will run, and run well enough to be playable

    Never EVER go by the minimum requirements.
27. 

    Comment by Josh Reiter on 15 July 2007:

    Haha, I just recently built a rig that nearly exactly has those specs. Unfortunately, not sure if this game appeals to me much in any way.
28. 

    Comment by matt on 15 July 2007:

    thats not heafty…
29. 

    Comment by Timon on 15 July 2007:

    And you wonder why i’m building a new computer… for $1100 with better specs than Alienware’s cheapest desktop?

    That sounded like an advertisement, but yeah, i’ll be able to run that when I get finished building.
30. 

    Comment by Jord on 15 July 2007:

    Those specs are perfectly reasonable. If you don’t meet them I can’t imagine your PC gaming experience being enjoyable at all.

    F*ck, I built a computer nearly 3 years ago, have paid a total of $1500 since then, and will be able to play this game very nicely.
31. 

    Comment by Zac on 15 July 2007:

    Ouch…
    you guys know that they forced a desktop to 8 ghz with liquid nitrogen?
32. 

    Comment by PhoenixP3K on 15 July 2007:

    I have all the minimum requirements and a bit above. This is why I like demos so I can run them and see how they will look. Lost Planet was a no-no for me.
33. 

    Comment by Anton on 15 July 2007:

    Are you guys joking? you can built a PC that’l run that game in under a 1000 bucks if you know where to look. But i still prefere xbox360 version. Just spend 400 bucks and you’ll be able to play
    most good games that come out.
34. 

    Comment by DeuS on 15 July 2007:

    I think I need a Nuclear power core extruding sideways out of my GFX Card to run this thing now…..
35. 

    Comment by Nick on 15 July 2007:

    I’m glad that i have a x6800 (2.93 Ghz) dual core processor, 2 gigs of ram and i will be replacing my 7900 GS with a 8800 gtx in a few months… so i should be able to handle this game fine.
36. 

    Comment by agentarsenic on 15 July 2007:

    The system requirements aren’t that bad.
    You can get a 8600gt on Newegg for 99 dollars now, two of those SLIed will almost compare with an 8800 for half the price. An Athlon X2 4000+ with motherboard is relatively cheap too, around 120-150. I just built a system with an Athlon X2 3600+, mobo with PCIe x16, 8600gt, 80g HD, and 1gb of ram for 300. Of course I’ll upgrade as prices drop.
    If you build you own system and go for budget/midrange parts, you should be fine.
    Bioshock looks awesome, by the way. I’ve been a big fan of System Shock 2 for years.
37. 

    Comment by Kyle on 16 July 2007:

    Y’know, at one point in time I would have been blown away by those system requirements. Luckily I ousted my old Compaq Presario from 2001 and bought a Dell XPS with specs higher than that they’re reccomending. Generally I wouldn’t give my hard earned cash to a heartless corporation……But they give you a widescreen monitor.
38. 

    Comment by Kamo on 16 July 2007:

    Cool, I have exactly the minimum requirements, but I guess I should upgrade though cause it probably wouldn’t look very good with the worst graphic settings. I’ve been juggling between playing it on the PC or 360, and the 360 would play it the way it’s meant to be without problems, but I know it would be so much more enjoyable on the PC with nicer graphics and better controls, if I could just cough up the money for an upgrade. Tough choice.
39. 

    Comment by Fable on 16 July 2007:

    Wow… just wow… My current rig would get totally owned by BioShock. Thank goodness I’ll be investing in an Alienware soon…

    Steve
40. 

    Comment by Andrew on 16 July 2007:

    Eh ok specs. STILL CAN’T WAIT. My new pc will easily chew threw it.
41. 

    Comment by Nadril on 16 July 2007:

    Good stuff, my new PC I just built for around $800 will be able to tear through this game. Once I OC my processor (Intel duo core 2 1.8ghz) it’ll run great.

    Also running at 2GB of ram and a 7900 GS KO.
42. 

    Comment by red on 16 July 2007:

    @n0xx

    you are aware that windows is not getting in the way of access to the system it and Direct X provide the layer in between hardware and software, without this developers would have to code the game to work for every type of hardware configuration posible. This is not a problem on 360 as every 360 has the same hardware.
43. 

    Comment by Joe on 16 July 2007:

    These requirements are by no means heavy-duty. Whoever wrote this piece needs to get their finger on the pulse of PC gaming a whole lot more than they do now. These are very reasonable requirements, overall.

    Furthermore, if you’re going to be a PC gamer you should expect to spend some upgrade cash once in a while to stay abreast of great games. It all comes down to the fact that EVERY hobby costs money – if you can’t spend it, don’t get involved with that hobby. Nuff said.
44. 

    Comment by DRJTower on 16 July 2007:

    @sdlvx
    You need to simmer down a bit buddy,
    Most gamers dont know how to overclock, and overclocking as much as you are is most likely going to cause stability problems.
    If I were you I would spend the extra money and get a chip that already meets the clock speed you want right out of the box. Then you can overclock it later when need more power, and your not too woried if you fry it.
45. 

    Comment by Dan on 16 July 2007:

    B Miller: ultimate gaming platform? well, that certainly helps explain the difference in sales numbers between consoles and pc games. consoles dominate. u know why? cause bioshock for 360 is optimized for xbox, and it will go off without a hitch. with pcs, there is always some bs problem. and u need a new graphics card every 2years. fuck that. way 2 expensive, and why do that when consoles offer u super mario, metroid, god of war, gears of war a year earlier, halo much earlier, and much much more?

46. Pingback by 1P Start » Blog Archive » Rdy for Bioshock? No you aren’t. on 16 July 2007:

    [...] [Via] [...]
47. 

    Comment by sand on 16 July 2007:

    Ha!

    I already have a dual core 2.4..and a 512 7950GT KO
    wh00t!!

    making you own system is awesome.
48. 

    Comment by red on 16 July 2007:

    People are pc gamers over consoles because they like having the best graphics around, ok there are good games on 360 and one day ps3 but none of the next-gen consoles can match pc for graphics Crysis say hi .
49. 

    Comment by sdlvx on 16 July 2007:

    @DRJTower

    Sorry, bro, I haven’t seen a BSOD or a hard lock on this thing at these speeds yet. BELIEVE IT!

    I know it’s not going to last years like this, but I don’t care. I spent 500 dollar for this, and when K10/Nehalem (AMD’s and Intel’s new CPU Architectures) that perform 40-80% faster per clock, and start at the high 2Ghz range, I’ll be ready to pounce.

    Those recommended requirements will seem like a joke to me.

    And, of course, I can play all the games I want now, for 500 dollars. That’s less than a PS3!

    All of this is coming in 2008! OH JOY!

    And, I won’t have to be too concerned about DX11 or anything for a while, I hope.

    So, kudos to you, nublets.

    I look forward to smoking you with my K10 system.
50. 

    Comment by Wow... on 17 July 2007:

    Umm… you think those requirements are high? Really…? Cause that’s more or less average specs. these days. My laptop, bought in Feb. for $1030, could easily run this at mid-quality settings. I would imagine the typical

51. Pingback by GamexViral » Blog Archive » You Might Need a New PC to Run Bioshock on 17 July 2007:

    [...] Story found in: TheGameGods [...]
52. 

    Comment by Ren on 17 July 2007:

    Sweet I have a Core2Duo Extreme + 8800GTX and 8Gigs of RAM. Bring it on baby I cant’ wait for this game.
    I’m also on the hype for Alan Wake, Crysis and World In Conflict

53. Pingback by You Might Need a New PC to Run Bioshock | GamezUtopia.com on 17 July 2007:

    [...] of getting Bioshock for your PC? Well you may want to take a look at the requirements first…read more | digg [...]
54. 

    Comment by daunorubicin on 20 July 2007:

    Feh. My comp will meet the recommended specs and I don’t even think its that fast.
55. 

    Comment by Gang* on 22 July 2007:

    if you think this is bad….just wait for crysis!
56. 

    Comment by simon on 27 July 2007:

    I have never really had a problem with pc specs as i slowly upgrade when the price is right. My computer morphs slowly and surely and runs all the games i need-point blank refuse to use consoles as the pc has so much more usability-games,peer to peer, porn(teehee), movies, tv, music, internet, whatever.
    So play bioshock on ya xbox-dont matter to me-but some simple advice -buy or make a good mid range pc for bioshock-upgrade cpu and gpu every year or two-you will not regret it.
    Spec amd s939 4400 (oc’ed to 2.8), 2 gigs ram (corsair at low latency), 4 hdd(250 x2 raid 0+ 2x 320 gb for storage-screw that elite) 320mb 8800 gts, 480w tagan psu, p182 antec case,vista home premium, razer krait mouse, saitek eclipse keyboard,5.1 logitech speekers, 22″ iiyama crt main monitor-19″ lg crt as secoundary monitor.
    Overall a good mutation rig that will always play the latest and greatest-no problem!
57. 

    Comment by simon on 27 July 2007:

    Laptop forgaming!
    Why use cut down componants at higher prices for a gaming laptop(cpu,gpu,hdd etc)
    Go desktop for price and upgrade option-i.ea small case and monitor to take to ya mates i.e shuttle!
    Laptops are sweet but better gaming desktop rig for gaming
58. 

    Comment by Rade0nFighter on 1 August 2007:

    what quality will the minimum requrements get u? 800×600? aa/af/hdr? I built a PC that will cost you about £500 today for parts (exc peripherals)

    i.e. AMD X2 4600+ (2×2.4GHz)
    2 Gig DDR
    X1950XTX
    X-FI Xtreme Music
    250GB SATA

    This rig meets the recommended system requirements, o/c it and ur above and beyond!

    -Beat that 360 with your non upgradeablilty – all i need for next-gen (i.e. dx10 or wotever is to come out next) is a new GPU! (dont u console kids get pissed off that wen u upgraded from a xbox to a 360 u had to buy a new optical and hard drive, PSU etc etc?)
59. 

    Comment by joe on 3 August 2007:

    yo i dont have enough GHz so does that mean i cant play at all or i can play but it will just be really crappy
60. 

    Comment by The Bird Man on 6 August 2007:

    I easily meet the minimum requirements, but I’m not going to upgrade my machine to meet the recommended just for this game.
61. 

    Comment by htalabis on 19 August 2007:

    Not bad at all. But for Vista users, i recommend having 1.5GB to 2GB on their computers memory chip.

    Though most computers still has 256-512MB of memory, most computers sold nowadays are equipped with at least 1GB. You might need a video card upgrade though.

    Can’t wait for a Mac version! Oops..
62. 

    Comment by Sterfry on 21 August 2007:

    8ghz? You think that’s the best they’ve done? IBM hit 50 Ghz several months ago with a super chip cooled to near absolute zero. Liquid nitrogen? That’s cake.

    Just thought I’d let you know we have much more advanced technology than is currently affordable. Let’s see you guys shell out $1million for a CPU.
63. 

    Comment by matt on 22 August 2007:

    You see the real fun is to see who can run it on the oldest crummyest PC!

    See if anyone can beat this:

    P4-HT @3.0Ghz
    1 Gb PC-3200 RAM
    7900-GT 512Mb on a ye olde AGP 8x bus!
    (sold as a 7800 but its a limited edtn with true 7900 core. so don’t waste yout time telling me you can’t get a 7900 for AGP…)

    It’s 3yrs 2 months. Bet it runs OK. (ish

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65. 

    Comment by Jase on 25 August 2007:

    I just bought Bioshock today… had my first gaming session. It runs too slow in my monitors native resolution (1650 x 1050). While I have a PC near(ish) to the recommended specs it finds things a little too hard in widescreen.

    If you have 1650 x 1050 widescreen I’d recommend a core duo and 640 MB NVIDIA 8800 GTS.

    I’m trying to get away with only turning the water reflections off. Having a look around for ideas to speed things up.

    I have:
    22″ Samsung 226BW LCD monitor
    AMD 64 X2 2000 GHz CPU
    2 GHz Corsair 2-2-2-5 DDR RAM
    Creative Audigy 2ZS Pro
    512MB ATI 1950XT Pro
66. 

    Comment by A to the O on 25 August 2007:

    don’t buy bioshock for com… i can’t get it work
67. 

    Comment by matt on 28 August 2007:

    OK you can see my Ye Olde specs above. Just incase you were thinking of buying Bioshock, I get roughly the following results:

    1024X768
    Every thing ON (including forece global lighting) ~30FPS

    1280×1024
    Everything On (except force global lighting) ~30FPS

    1600×1200
    Everything on (including force global lighting, BUT NOT the high detail shader) ~30 FPS

    There is comparatively poor granularity in what you can control in the graphics setup so if your system isn’t quite there you may have to turn something big off. For example there is a large difference between the low and high detail shader. No medium. 16X12 as above looks much worse than 12X10 as above.

    Problems with the game:
    I couldn’t get past the initial plane crash stage of the game. It always crashed out at the start of the next level. Downloading the latest Bioshock beta drivers from NVIDIA fixed that but then the same thing happened at the next level. Fixed that by ditching the high detail shader for a bit. Turned it back on in the middle of the level and its OK again.

    It seems that the game is generally unstable (on my system) if I use the high detail shader. I have seen other people running the DX9 path with the same problems. Every time it crashes it resets ALL the settings including mouse/keys!

    Also I bought the retail box, but the serial number could not be registered with Steam. I was forced to use 2K’s system. In the past (e.g. Dark Messiah Might and Magic) you could do that. Therefore I’d reccomend you buy it straight from Steam.

    Hope that’s useful for someone.

68. Pingback by You Might Need a New PC to Run Bioshock « Pc Games on 4 October 2007:

    [...] read more | digg story [...]
69. 

    Comment by JED on 27 December 2007:

    well, I just upgraded my Dell P4 to the minumum reqs after installing this game and finding that nothing happened (next time I’ll read the sys reqs on the box without assuming that a compueter that I bought 3 yrs ago is still good)

    The game runs great on min requirements. I added 512mb of DDR1 ($34) to my alread existing 512 (two channels of 256) and bought a hard to find AGP 256mb graphics card from ATI for $119.

    I agree with some of the statements that the PC that I bought 2 Septembers ago, should be a fantastic tool, even more than enough for all of my business and that these gaming requirements are obscene. But the quality of the graphics… man oh man. Unfortunately the vast majority of us are not geeks, and don’t have the time to assemble a machine from scratch. Buying a game for Christmas that results in 3 days of research and visits to crowded boxing day stores for RAM and graphics is enough to turn off anybody.

    But, it is still hard to find a reasonably priced computer from a big box store for under $1000, and so, upgrading to min reqs has worked beautifully. I did learn that AGP is obsolete, and that DDR2 will not install on DDR1 motherboards. Sigh.
70. 

    Comment by Jake on 29 December 2007:

    Look you guy’s are right, I just got the game for christmas and poped it in. It diden’t even run! I might have to return it…
71. 

    Comment by Jake on 29 December 2007:

    I totally agree with you guy’s, I just got Bioshock for christmas and popped it into my computer. The thing can’t even start up! I installed it but after that I kept getting these “ERROR REPORTS”. And Mirosoft kept kicking me off.

    So I don’t know what to do, it’s eather spend who knows how much rewiring my entire computer or just giving up. I might just have to return the game… oh well I guess I was born to always be a consile gamer! Keep trying though, one of you might get it running…

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