Spore's system requirements

82 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski Jun 10th 2008 5:30PM
Filed under: Mac, PC, Simulations

We're not exactly sure how long it's been up on the official Spore site, but below we've posted the basic system requirements for running the sim-everything title on PC and Mac. The "recommended" (read: real) requirements are not currently listed on the site. For the super-breakdown of supported graphics cards and other nit-picky details, check out the Spore site.

Windows XP:

2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
512 MB RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 6 GB of hard drive space

Windows Vista:

2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
768 MB RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 6 GB of hard drive space

Mac:

Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
Intel Core Duo Processor
1024 MB RAM
ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
At least 4.7GB of hard drive space for installation, plus additional space for creations.
This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).

[Thanks binturong]

Gallery: Spore

Gallery: GDC08: Spore User Generated Content

Gallery: Spore (2-12-08)

Tags: ea, specs, spore, spore-specs

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

tc: Jun 10th 2008; 5:37PM

6 gigs? i guess thats a nice change from the exponential growth of game sizes these days.

At this rate the Sims 10 should be about a terrabyte!

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 5:43PM

Don't forget to add on all the expansion packs as well! By Sims 10 there should probably be around 130 expansion packs available, including...

Sims 10 Telemarketer
Sims 10 Post Comments on Joystiq
Sims 10 Ride Bike
Sims 10 Fanboy Wars

Neebs: Jun 10th 2008; 6:01PM

i'll buy it for the sims post on joystiq pack

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 6:13PM

The joystiq pack should be pretty good, I've heard you can comment on stuff in game!

tc: Jun 10th 2008; 6:30PM

think i'll make a family in the new sims game comprised entirely of joystiq writers. then we can shove them into a house, turn on "free will" and see who survives.

Jhongerkong: Jun 10th 2008; 5:37PM

While they're modest specs, they still make my laptop cry in a corner.

PojoMofo: Jun 10th 2008; 6:00PM

My Laptop has a 1.7ghz Celeron and and Intel X3100, I feel your pain

Mr Khan: Jun 10th 2008; 6:17PM

I know nothing about support for Pixel Shader 2.0, but my laptop can meet that. It's 2.0 Ghz and 2048 MB RAM

Strangely enough, my laptop is the only device in my house that is even in that ballpark. My desktop blows :(

Jhongerkong: Jun 10th 2008; 6:18PM

So, is 512-1gb of ram the standard? Cause ive been rocking 128mbs for years

Mr Khan: Jun 10th 2008; 7:17PM

Most mid-range laptops will put you in the range of 512 to 2048

I couldn't imagine 128 for modern applications, unless you trim out every nonessential Process. My 256 MB desktop goes screwy everytime virus scan updates and you try to run any other program

Jhongerkong: Jun 10th 2008; 7:27PM

Don't I feel like an old man...

Josh: Jun 11th 2008; 4:45PM

Actaully, 2 GB is pretty much the standard now. You'll find 1 GB on the lower end models, though.

giantenemycrab: Jun 10th 2008; 5:37PM

Wow, those are really low.

velocitySTRIKE: Jun 10th 2008; 5:38PM

Wahey, not too bad at all. My ancient lappy can manage this. No complaints.

Platinum_Skeet: Jun 10th 2008; 6:48PM

Agreed I can run this on my laptop...

saladin0813: Jun 10th 2008; 8:08PM

It can't be too ancient, if it supports pixel shader 2.0.

mr nimblewick: Jun 10th 2008; 8:53PM

Right, my 2 year old laptop does not support the pixelshader. Woe is me.

velocitySTRIKE: Jun 11th 2008; 3:02AM

Saladin, "ancient" is my broken English way of saying "my former laptop", but that sounds even worse. =/

Josh: Jun 11th 2008; 4:47PM

How do you pronounce "wahey"?

JerJer: Jun 10th 2008; 5:39PM

real: at least 2GB ram
core 2 duo 2.2 or higher
nvidia 8600 or higher
at least 40 GB hard drive if you want any user generated content that will be out.

ThePerfectCompanion: Jun 10th 2008; 5:44PM

More importantly do you think this game will be better played on PC or console?

God its been years since I played a game on any PC. I think the last one was Blade Runner back in the 90's and before that Age of Empires...lol.

However this game seems to be huge and I want to be able to fully work with it quickly and have fun at the same time. I don't know if a console controller will allow that. Especially since games like this do require fast movement and decision making.

Thoughts?

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 5:45PM

I really hope the file size on user gen stuff isn't to big. I don't think it should be to bad, the Sims has tons of user content and none of those items are more then a megabyte.

NATO_Duke: Jun 10th 2008; 5:46PM

Wouldn't the problem be that it uses a lot of user generated content that would need to be downloaded and stored onto a console?

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 5:47PM

It's not coming to consoles so why would we be thinking about that?

ThePerfectCompanion: Jun 10th 2008; 5:51PM

Actually it is coming to consoles...

Last time I heard it was definitely coming to ps3 and 360. I doubt the Wii.

And thats why I posed my question. Right now its slated to come out FIRST for PC and then later the major consoles.

Therefore I want to know whether I should go ahead and dive into the PC version or just wait for the console version which could be better in different ways thanks to your online friends, etc.

Plus I have an Elite so the space issue really isn't an issue.

tmacairjordan87: Jun 10th 2008; 5:54PM

I actually remember hearing the opposite, that it was coming to PC and the wii.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 5:56PM

Where are you hearing anything about console releases? Any proof? The only thing I've heard is that the Wii version is in very early design and that if console versions come they will most likely be very different from the PC one.

Grant: Jun 10th 2008; 6:02PM

i heard that they were releasing spore on basically every platform possible. While they all might be slightly different iterations, they will still be the same basic concept.

ThePerfectCompanion: Jun 10th 2008; 6:02PM

God DAMN this stupid ass shitty reply system...

CTC it was actually on Joystiq that I read all this.

You can scoff all you want but I read several articles on Joystiq regarding the game.

If it turns out to be on PC only its not that big a deal. It has nothing to do with console wars. It just seems like its going to be an EXCELLENT game and I want to experience in the best possible way. Hence my first question.

Not sure why you're going ape shit over whether or not its coming to the 360 and ps3...

NATO_Duke: Jun 10th 2008; 6:04PM

I said that about consoles because the post above me asked if it would be better on colsole or pc. Not too hard to see why I would respond with a console remark.

Have I heard about it going to console? No.

Grant: Jun 10th 2008; 6:05PM

@CTC

Taken from IGN:
"Published by: Electronic Arts
Developed by: Maxis
Genre: Simulation
Number of Players: 1
Release Date:
US: September 7, 2008
Europe: September 5, 2008
MSRP: $49.99
Also Available On: Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Wireless, PlayStation 3, Macintosh, iPhone"

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 6:05PM

I wasn't aware I was going "ape shit", all I asked was a simple question which you seem unable to answer. It's OK to admit you were wrong sometimes.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 6:08PM

@Grant

IGN also shows Haze as coming out on the PC and 360.

NATO_Duke: Jun 10th 2008; 6:08PM

I never understood the "going ape shit" comments. What does that mean exactly? Is it a reference to an ape throwing shit? I dunno, it just seems like something we say with no meaning.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 6:11PM

@nato

I think people usually use it when they are wrong but not willing to admit it, then they try to make it sound like the person that called them out, or simply asked them a question, is "going ape shit".

[.sm0ke.]: Jun 10th 2008; 6:17PM

I don't think the community content will be quite that big. And if it is, you can delete what you're finished with.

NATO_Duke: Jun 10th 2008; 6:20PM

Smoke, I think the idea is massively single player. The user content would be huge as everyone creates worlds and things evolve to move outside them. So it wouldn't be things you can dl and then delete as you felt. The idea is a fluid online universe.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 6:20PM

It looks like things won't be to big, here is a quote about it.

Wright mentioned in an interview given at E3 2006 that the information necessary to generate an entire creature would be only a couple of kilobytes, according to Wright, who presented the following analogy: "think of it as sharing the DNA template of a creature while the game, like a womb, builds the 'phenotypes' of the animal, which represent a few megabytes of texturing, animation, etc."

That should be good for this game since it seems to rely so much on user gen content.

Zoltargg: Jun 10th 2008; 7:54PM

Reading is fun? It's been known for a loooooong time this is coming to consoles. Here's a link about the one for the Wii and a mention about the DS. I was too lazy to find a better link.
Linky: http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2007/10/29/spore-definitely-coming-to-wii/

saladin0813: Jun 10th 2008; 8:15PM

on the sporepedia page (found here: http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=all)
It says all you need to add a creature is to drag the thumbnail into the creature creator. One of the files I downloaded was 24 kb, so I think you will be able to download a lot of user content, before space becomes an issue.

Giroro: Jun 11th 2008; 12:34AM

Like most/all Maxis games, It will definitely be better on PC.

Seroth: Jun 10th 2008; 5:44PM

Well, there go my hopes of my Macbook running it. Maybe I'll go clean up my old PC to play this.

Abuzar: Jun 10th 2008; 6:21PM

I don't like your avatar...

tmacairjordan87: Jun 10th 2008; 5:57PM

Wow a new PC game that will run on my 2 year old not so great laptop, providing those aren't far off the real specs. The once every 5 years I actually find a PC game I consider worth my time I prefer to play it at recommended settings since I'm not a fan of playing gimped versions of anything.

Marty: Jun 10th 2008; 6:00PM

I was afraid my computer might not be up to spec for this, but I'm happy to say that it's not. The dev team was wise for keeping system requirements low - that's probably the best way to ruin a PC game, especially one that needs a lot of players to generate content.

Hopefully the fact that a lot of the content is procedurally generated will keep file sizes down.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 6:02PM

I was wondering that to and looked around and saw a quote that it will be in the kilabytes.

Mitsuo: Jun 10th 2008; 6:56PM

a game of this size in kilobytes is insanely unrealistic. I think you're aiming for Terabyte. tera > giga > mega > kilo > byte

ThePerfectCompanion: Jun 10th 2008; 6:01PM

CTC it was actually on Joystiq that I read all this.

You can scoff all you want but I read several articles on Joystiq regarding the game.

If it turns out to be on PC only its not that big a deal. It has nothing to do with console wars. It just seems like its going to be an EXCELLENT game and I want to experience in the best possible way. Hence my first question.

Not sure why you're going ape shit over whether or not its coming to the 360 and ps3...

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw: Jun 10th 2008; 6:04PM

I wasn't aware I was going "ape shit", all I asked was a simple question which you seem unable to answer. It's OK to admit you were wrong sometimes.

ThePerfectCompanion: Jun 10th 2008; 6:27PM

WTF where exactly have I been proven to be wrong?

Plus why does it even matter?

I just asked a simple question! And I've already answered yours...I read it on an article here on Joystiq. In addition another poster has already provided what IGN has the game as coming to..

Again you're the one whos obsessing over this pettty little detail...but hey if you wanna bitch over nothing go right ahead.

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