1st off, Thank You BaldEagl & TilDeath.......
Drdeathx, please re-read the following quotes:
with such a wide variety of Video cards on the market right now,
I would go no lower than the following for minimal specs:
256 bit
GDDR3
512 meg
GPU Clock: 625/650
Memory Clock: 1050/1100
by lower I mean:
128 bit
GDDR2
GPU: 600 or under
Memory: 950 or under
this last quote was just added for a view of what one might get with mear basics and a good card & Clean WinXP install with about 20/21 processes running
......granted my old AthlonXP2800 (factory clocked) with 1 gig PC3200 and an Ati X800XT AGP Slot 256 meg GDDR3 played very well with 1280x1024 screen res/using High Res Textures, with most every detailed maxed out and playing at frame rates 50 to 69 95% of the time......with preloading turned on......only being taxed during full launches in Scenarios and FSO's.......thru time it did start to get worse but I place that more on the CPU verses the video card.....
just a personal opinion here......