The minimum system to play this

The cloth map is meant to run on extremely low-end machines. It runs on this laptop, which has integrated graphics. But it does come with its own problems. For starters, you lose the nice visuals. You're pretty much locked out of tactical combat and have to rely on auto-resolve. The A.I does a decent job, but it tends to spend your mana and sometimes ends up killing off champions and such. You have to avoid using your Sovereign/Spouse in most cases. Besides, looking at a cloth map and auto-resolving all the fights just isn't quite as interesting.

I have a bran-new fairly high end system, 64 bit windows7 with 8gb ram. I've been playing on cloth map since game 1, I like it much better than the fancy graphic board .. but that's just me. It's just a gamer's preference call. The game is "buggy," though not as much as it was on initial release. It still periodically crashes on my system (runs out of memory) despite having 8gb ram & no other programs running .. it's a memory leak problem with the game appication itself. I have the game set to auto-save every turn to minimize the pain of crashing.

If the poster only has access to low-end gaming system, you might have problems. I'm not a computer hardware expert, but sometimes minimum specs, frankly, are just insufficient for enjoyable play (turns taking too long, tac battles too long, etc..), more crashing problems.

Probably someone who knows a lot about computer hardware could suggest a reasonable rig needed to play this game enjoyably. I wouldn't recommend "minimum" specs, especially with a laptop.

Azkatraz - well, there's integrated graphics, and there's integrated "graphics"... While I don't know what kind of system you have and it is of course good to hear that it runs on it (the cloth map display sounds good, actually), I always assume that this here thing will not be able to play it. My system specs are namely this:

Intel Atom 1.66 GHz; Integrated Intel GMA 3150; 1 GB RAM

Of course, my system at home is closer to the one described by cpl_rk, but since that is currently impossible to access, I am trying to find a way to buy a system here that can run Elemental. But while I am not sure if that is feasible or even smart right now, I am also holding off on buying Elemental itself. 

There's also a major update, version 1.1 that's supposed to be out oct/nov. It's supposed to change many of the basic core game-play, frankly I would hold off buying elemental until this comes out & then you can read reviews whether it's improved the game or not (thus deciding whether it's worth buying).

Right now people are still having memory leak issues.  I would suggest something with 6-8 gigs of ram so that you can safely use the crash fix to grant elemental more memory.  This changed my game from crashing in a hundred turns are so, to never crashing.   Unfortunately on 32 bit systems I think you are just stuck dealing with crashes.

It's stilly to get any more than 3-4 gigs, as the program is only 32 bit and will only ever use up to 3-4 gigs (although there had been talk of a 64bit version coming out in the future). Also, the out of memory errors tend to happen around 1.6-1.8 GB anyways. So I would get 3-4 Gigs of ram (I am running on 3, and i'm running the game fine). Go for an AMD chip/MB to save some cash (again, I have AMD and it runs great). Try to get a decent quad core (althogh I have a triple core, and its fine). Video card you'll probably want to spend at least $75 on. All in all you could probably build a half decent machine to play this game (and others) at a comfortable level for around $500.

Here are the minimum specs listed when you click "Purchase" up in the way top right-hand corner. But of course, I'd recommend much higher memory:

System Requirements OS: Windows 7/Vista SP2/XP SP3
Memory: 1 GB Available RAM
Processor: 2.4 GHz Processor
Video Card: 128 MB 3D Video Card
(GeForce 6800/Radeon x1600 or Better)

try that again:

 System Requirements
OS: Windows 7/Vista SP2/XP SP3
Memory: 1 GB Available RAM
Processor: 2.4 GHz Processor
Video Card: 128 MB 3D Video Card
(GeForce 6800/Radeon x1600 or Better)

Well, I have a 64 bit system with 8Gb ram, and I still experience game crashes, although not as many as I did with the first version. Maybe every 12 to 20ish turns it'll crash. However, I also play on a large map with massive city spam, currently over 100 cities on turn 440. So, it also depends to some extent how you set the pregame game variables, map size, # of units & cities you spawn, etc..

I'd say if you're building a rig for this game only:

Go with a 32bit system, 3gigs of RAM (2 for the game, and spare for the OS), and any half decent modern Gfx card. That should run the game well. There's no magical fix for OOM problems, so getting any more isn't going to help.

Just remember that one thing the minimum requirements don't mention is that the resolution (At this point in time) needs to be 1024x768 minimum. There are ways around it, but if you can spend a few more dollars and not have to worry about it or wait for a UI mod, then why worry?

Just know that one of the main problems with the launch of the game, the out of memory crashes, can still occur. I have to watch my task manager to make sure Elemental isn't approaching the limit when I play. If it gets to 1.5G then I save, close, and reload. And the bigger the map, the faster it crashes. I run Windows 7, 2GB DDR2 (400mhz </3), Core 2 Quad 2.33ghz. Once the map gets fleshed out with AI, the game slows down. I'm sure this has something to do with the memory issues, as I also play Civ V and have a much lessened slowdown with the turns.

As most people have said, it's around 1.7+ gigs that the game typically crashes. Sometimes on larger maps I can only get two or three turns before saving and reloading, other times I can get almost to the end of a game. I played a multiplayer game against an AI, was kicking the tar out of it (I mean, it's simple stuff right now, fighting that AI), and I didn't get an OOM until around turn 400. Other times I'll be on a small 1v1 and get it around turn 200.

You may want to wait until 1.1 comes out as well just to see what happens in regards to these issues. I bought the collector's edition and while I like the game and can't wait to see the full concept realized, it's still being worked on.

On the other hand if you get it now, you can jump into the discussions and help Stardock make it the game we want, since they tend to take our suggestions seriously or at least consider the better ones.

The resolution should not be a problem. My EeePC is modified to handle 1024x768 (with some stretching)

Thanks for the input, I will wait to see if 1.1 fixes the memory leak issues or at least tunes them down a bit. Then I'll see if a new PC is the way to go. Again, thanks a lot!

Just for reference, this laptop is GMA X3100, 2G RAM, T3400 (Which I think is 2.1GHz)

Ok, I have pretty much the same system as you (except I have 2GB). I have a regular desktop to play on, but I thought I'd try it on my netbook to see the results anyway.

In cloth-map mode, you'll be getting around 10fps. It's passable, but not very elegant. I haven't played any full games, so I can't comment on how well it works beyond 100 turns or so.

It's a little hard to recommend with that performance. If you're looking for a TBS that will work on that, pick up Civ3 complete. Civ4 runs at 6fps in the early game...

I am playing on a Dell laptop with integrated graphics card. That means cloth map only and autoresolve. When I tried the game on a fast computer I found myself zooming out to the clothmap all the time to see better what is real stuff to do/find.

I would also like to suggest waiting for 1.1 as others here has said.