We have a date!

[WHIPperSNAPper]

You know, Kabuki, I don't buy into all of the hardware enthusiasts' hype about how UT3 is going to require a top-end system simply because I don't think Epic would release a game that only 5% of the gaming population could play comfortably. If you want to play at 1600 x 1200 and ultra high quality with max AA/AF then yeah, you might need two 8800 GTXs in SLI and an upper echelon Core 2 Duo. However, if you'd be satisfied playing at 1024 x 768 and or even <gasp> 800 x 600 at medium detail you might very well be fine with a good single core CPU and a merely decent video card (say, a 7950 GT or x1950 Pro). Nothing wrong with 800 x 600, by the way. My Webshots wallpaper photos are all at 800 x 600 on my LCD, which is set at 1024 x 768, and they look great. Heck, until I built my current rig 20 months ago I played UT99 at, get this, 640 x 480 and medium settings and I loved it and never really felt that I was missing out on anything.

[DW_ACY]

Sorry Whipper can't agree with you on that one. I gotta have at leasst 1280x 1024 since getting my 2x 6800 gts in 2004 and last years minor upgrade to 2x 7600gts in sli I will never go back to the lower resolution. I think your single core cpu is going to be the biggest bottle neck for enjoying the game.

[zeus]

The kicker as always, is going to be your video card.

I went from a AMD 3400+ w/ 1G ram to a C2D E6300 w/2G ram. I kept the same video card. My 3DMark score went up by 10.

[DW_ACY]

Okay and as my mate Zeus keeps reminding me maybe a video card upgrade!

[WHIPperSNAPper]

Yeah, you have to have a powerful video card before you start to see the CPU bottleneck it. There's a neat study about that here:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/gef ... u_scaling/

[d2frob]

Eeek playing at 800 x 600! I play at 1680x1050 and wonder why the hell i used to force a different resolution. One month till the demo guys ;)