I didnt see anything about this so I thought I would post my own experience on the subject. I did see on the LFS site that the minimum is 1ghz cpu, 128mb ram, and a 3D video card. My main computer is running windows xp, has an Athlon 2000+ cpu, 512mb ram, and a Gforce fx5200 128mb video card. This setup seems like more than is needed as I have never experienced the slightest hiccup, FPS range from low 40's to low 60's. When I go into task manager, I see LFS using 0-20% cpu and 130mb of ram so, I decided to try LFS on a much slower computer. The other computer is also running windows xp, it has a P3 800mhz cpu, 256mb pc100 ram, and an ATi Rage 128 16mb video card. In short, I would say this is the bare minimum computer requirements. In my opinion, the game is still playable, FPS range from 8.5-14. I know most would think the FPS are too low to play but, there is no question that if the P3 machine were all I had, I would still be playing LFS til the wee hours of the morning. Next, I will install windows 98 and try running LFS. If the FPS can get over 20, I would be pretty satisfied.

One question, does anyone know if it is more PC demanding to play or host?

EDIT: Okay, so I installed windows 98, but I also added a couple of upgrades to the slower computer. I swapped the ATi Rage 128 16mb video card for an ASUS V7700Deluxe 32mb video card. I also added a 256mb stick of ram for a total of 512mb. I apologize for adding two more variables if anyone is using this for a reference. The FPS now ranges from 14-20. This still may not sound great but, LFS looks pretty nice, and is more than what I would call "playable". I hope this helps another po' boy like me out there to figure out realistic computer requirements.

IMO the rewuirements depend on how you play, how much you play and last but not least how "sissy" you are.

I used to play duke nukem with my friends on an old 486-dx2-66 and it really rocked @5fps! The only disadvantage was the stupid headache after having played for 3 hours ;-)
Today I think 25fps is "my" absolute minimum, so I had to get my newer sys which contains a 3200+ (32 bit) and my radeon 9600pro. As you see I'm also not that rich.

Also I don't have any internet connection at home, so I have to play solo and with a full AI field framerate drops down massively, so a much slower cpu should be enough for driving online, but it would never do for single player racing.

cya,

butz

I absolutely agree upon this one.I have a P III 660 Mhz, with 196 MB RAM and some shitty on board graphics (must be 4mb) i guess.Well for me my sytem delivers about 10-20 fps....its not very pretty looking...all settings are on bare minimum.Often i come across diiferent peoples system configurations on the forums and wonder how it really would feel to play on an awesome 1.5gigs machine witha deadly graphics card and using a wheel for controller.But i don't feel bad i dont have these.I still enjoy playing LFS...infact it keeps me up all night....and still have a blast on demo servers and ya if there are more than 4 ppl on the grid... i am forced to start from the pits....but thats the best part....starting from pits and finishing in top 3...jus like kimi:woohoo: ...

many people here say..."get a new machine....get wheel......get s2 and come into the light"....one reason why i cant do all that "now"...is i simply have to many other financial commitments...i will just be finishing my under grad. in 2 months time....and getting a new machine or a wheel or s2..jus doesnt fall in my priority list now...although i long for that day when i 'll hav'em all....

there is no doubt LFS rocks......with an ancient sytem like mine and a demo version in hand with keys as controllers i can hav soooo much fun...then how wld the nxt step be ......

Quote from der butz :

Also I don't have any internet connection at home, so I have to play solo and with a full AI field framerate drops down massively, so a much slower cpu should be enough for driving online, but it would never do for single player racing.

dear butz,

i think it makes no difference....if u play single palyer with full grid AI or play online.....the point is that LFS has to calculate all the physics of each car with its position on the track....i have a very good internet connection (100.00 Mbps.its amazingly fast for my place...dono about elsewhere )....and have played both single player and online...its almost the same..infact as i said....i start from the pits on a full grid......though its fun,try it out ...makes things more challenging....and it has a big advantage where some races have a compulsary pit stop !!!

Quote from zeeaq :

i think it makes no difference....if u play single palyer with full grid AI or play online.....

With the AI's your PC has to also do the driving of each car, whilst online it only has to figure out what's happening to the other cars, so there's theoretically a performance hit from racing AI's.

oh ok! thats a good point i never thought about...

Quote from filur :

With the AI's your PC has to also do the driving of each car, whilst online it only has to figure out what's happening to the other cars, so there's theoretically a performance hit from racing AI's.

It IS in fact a big difference. Online I had min. 35 to 40 fps, offline full grid SO normal it drops to around 20 at the start.

if you see that the computer calculates heat and wear over 40 spots per wheel, contact patches, springs, dampers.......... it is in fact very cpu-unfriendly. When you drive offline the computer has to calculate ALL spots and springs on ALL cars. online you just get some little packages which include the information about what other cars are doing. thus you have network traffic but not as much cpu-usage.

maybe we'll meet online some day!

butz

Quote from zeeaq :

....i start from the pits on a full grid......though its fun,try it out ...makes things more challenging....and it has a big advantage where some races have a compulsary pit stop !!!

Er, that would be cheating as there is a reason for the compulsary pitstop. If you don't want to call it cheating, then at least it is exploiting a flaw as everyone else would have to pit during the race. Can't really brag much about winning a race that everyone has to take 30 seconds or so to go through a pitstop and you don't.

A significant proportion of my waking life is spent on my PC, I therefore have no problems in spending a significant proportion of my spare cash on it.

Think about it, if I spend 20% of my waking hours on the computer and it's an old rust bucket that gives me the wait cursor - how much of my actual life is spent waiting on an hour glass?

I'm not going to waste that much of my life simply because I refuse to fork out a few hundred quid once in a while...

I think anyone who plays LFS into the early hours on a minimum specification machine is either mad or waiting on an epiphany.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I'm not going to waste that much of my life simply because I refuse to fork out a few hundred quid once in a while....

Don't forget the amount of (silly) people who don't go for an upgrade once in a while, and instead visit their local pc store and look for a completely new machine, once every few years / decades.

Quote from mrodgers :

Er, that would be cheating as there is a reason for the compulsary pitstop. If you don't want to call it cheating, then at least it is exploiting a flaw as everyone else would have to pit during the race. Can't really brag much about winning a race that everyone has to take 30 seconds or so to go through a pitstop and you don't.

Mrodgers...that definitely is unfair...but i have no other options as i end up causing a big crash involving every other car behind me with my 2 or so FPS...no other go...

Quote from Becky Rose :

I think anyone who plays LFS into the early hours on a minimum specification machine is either mad or waiting on an epiphany.

Hmmmm...becky that is ur opinion and may be a few,or most of them here too have the same opinion...as from me.."no comments"

Quote from zeeaq :

Hmmmm...becky that is ur opinion and may be a few,or most of them here too have the same opinion...as from me.."no comments"

It doesn't really matter does it, if you enjoy the game on your pc then it's all good, and if you'd consider an upgrade then it could only get better. I remember one of the guys who regularly spanked me in qw, playing on a ~300MHz PC with a 14" screen, vs. my 500MHz/geforce/19" monster, he enjoyed it.

Very true

Quote from zeeaq :

I absolutely agree upon this one.I have a P III 660 Mhz, with 196 MB RAM and some shitty on board graphics (must be 4mb) i guess.Well for me my sytem delivers about 10-20 fps....its not very pretty looking...all settings are on bare minimum.Often i come across diiferent peoples system configurations on the forums and wonder how it really would feel to play on an awesome 1.5gigs machine witha deadly graphics card and using a wheel for controller.But i don't feel bad i dont have these.I still enjoy playing LFS...infact it keeps me up all night....and still have a blast on demo servers and ya if there are more than 4 ppl on the grid... i am forced to start from the pits....but thats the best part....starting from pits and finishing in top 3...jus like kimi:woohoo: ...

many people here say..."get a new machine....get wheel......get s2 and come into the light"....one reason why i cant do all that "now"...is i simply have to many other financial commitments...i will just be finishing my under grad. in 2 months time....and getting a new machine or a wheel or s2..jus doesnt fall in my priority list now...although i long for that day when i 'll hav'em all....

there is no doubt LFS rocks......with an ancient sytem like mine and a demo version in hand with keys as controllers i can hav soooo much fun...then how wld the nxt step be ......

Try this at the starting grid:

Do a quick Shift+N. It will disable the sound, and will give you a big FPS boost when surrounded by cars at the grid and at Turn 1. It works for me and my computer is old too (PIII 800 mhz, 512 RAM, Radeon 7500) As long as I hit the straight at Blackwood, I press Shift+N again and I get the sound back.

Quote from Marty502 :

Try this at the starting grid:

Do a quick Shift+N. It will disable the sound, and will give you a big FPS boost when surrounded by cars at the grid and at Turn 1. It works for me and my computer is old too (PIII 800 mhz, 512 RAM, Radeon 7500) As long as I hit the straight at Blackwood, I press Shift+N again and I get the sound back.

Also regarding sound, lower your sound acceleration setting to basic, this really boosts FPS especially in situations featuring many sound sources (grid).

Works for most people i've told to try.

Start->run, "dxdiag", tab "Sound", acceleration to basic.

Quote from filur :

Also regarding sound, lower your sound acceleration setting to basic, this really boosts FPS especially in situations featuring many sound sources (grid).

Works for most people i've told to try.

Start->run, "dxdiag", tab "Sound", acceleration to basic.

Hey, didn't know that.

Gonna give it a shot! I'll tell you how it goes.

BTW, kickass avatar!

PS: Well, it didn't help much. ~10 fps with 6 cars on the starting grid, regardless of the acceleration setting. Guess my computer is just helpless!

thnx for the tips MARTY...will go try it now....and yea FILUR jus did as u said...gonna go try now...

with my old PC (2003) i just got a 800Mhz AMD Duron, 256MB SD / Leadtek Winfast (GF2-MX175!).... a Pentium III with same frequency kicked my ass.
in 800x600 min details...7fps @ start / 12-20 in Race. After I overclocked CPU and GPU I got 10 @ start / 15-30 in Race :P......

Quote from Trunkz-Sa :

with my old PC (2003) i just got a 800Mhz AMD Duron, 256MB SD / Leadtek Winfast (GF2-MX175!).... a Pentium III with same frequency kicked my ass.
in 800x600 min details...7fps @ start / 12-20 in Race. After I overclocked CPU and GPU I got 10 @ start / 15-30 in Race :P......

Now that's odd. Supposedly, Durons are faster than PIIIs at the same frequency.

Probably the game isn't optimized for AMD CPUs.

Quote :

Durons are faster than PIIIs at the same frequency.

No ! Even a P III 667 /FSB 133 is much faster than a Duron@800Mhz.
No matter if 800/100 or 800/133 PIII is MUCH faster than a Duron @ same frequency.

Aren't Durons the AMD equivalent of the Intel Celerons, not Pentiums?

I have:

P4 2.5 overclocked to 2,8

1 GB Ram

Ati radeon 9250 40€ (I think it was the cheapest, decent and modern videocard in the store) little overclocked

I always get more than 35-40 fps in 1280x720, but in race it depends how many cars are racing. Always more than 30 fps

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

Aren't Durons the AMD equivalent of the Intel Celerons, not Pentiums?

exactly.


duron -> celeron
athlon -> p3
amd64 -> p4

Quote from Trunkz-Sa :

No ! Even a P III 667 /FSB 133 is much faster than a Duron@800Mhz.
No matter if 800/100 or 800/133 PIII is MUCH faster than a Duron @ same frequency.

Silly me. I mixed up the Celeron/Duron with the Pentium 3/Duron equivalency.