Berlin - If that game you've been waiting breathlessly to install doesn't live up to the graphics shown in the advertising, the problem may be with your PC - specifically, in the way it matches up to the hardware requirements listed on the packaging of every game. Why the confusion? Because two sets of requirements are typically listed on packaging: the "Minimum System Requirements" and the "Recommended System Requirements." The differences between the two can be significant.

Atari's role playing game The Witcher offers an example: the minimum requirements list a computer with a 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) processor as sufficient. At least 1 Gigabyte (GB) of RAM should also be available. The recommended benchmarks call for a much more powerful computer, however, namely a machine with a dual core processor and 2 GB of RAM.

Newcomers to the world of digital games may end up wondering which set of requirements are really most important here. "The minimum requirements generally list a setup under which the game will at least run," says Michael Trier, editor-in-chief at the Munich-based magazine Gamestar. Most of the graphic special effects will not run at that level of performance, however.

"If the computer just fulfils the minimum requirements, than the monitor resolution is ratcheted down, and in some cases the game will only run within a window," explains Axel Schmidt, spokesman for Berlin-based game maker Frogster. That's because the minimum requirements truly list only those hardware factors absolutely required for the game to run at all.

"It's standard practice to indicate lower performance numbers so as not to scare away customers," Michael Trier notes. The experts therefore advise against orienting oneself toward the minimum requirements. It's a better idea to review the recommend requirements and check how one's own computer matches up with them. "When dealing with the recommended requirements, you can presume that if they are met that the game will run at medium quality with medium settings," says Olaf Wolters, Business Director at the German Association for Interactive Entertainment Software (BIU) in Berlin.

Users who can't afford better hardware right now just need to wait a bit. Hardware in particular keeps developing at an astonishing pace. A computer considered at the high end today will be just an average device in only a few months - and as such will be available at a much cheaper price.

"You can count on hardware prices dropping by roughly half within 12 months," Michael Trier says. The same is true for the games themselves, no small factor for games that often start out priced at around 50 dollars themselves. (dpa)