I figured it would be a good idea to start collating all the relevant anecdata about TS4 specs/performance in one place, so we can see patterns of what works and what doesn't as they start to emerge.
Official system requirements for the CAS demo, which appear to be 100% pure organic bullshit, as usual:
MINIMUM: OS: Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 (64 bit versions are preferred)
CPU: 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 4000+ or equivalent
Dual Core and SSE 2 required
For computers using built-in graphics chipsets the game requires 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 or equivalent
RAM: At least 2 GB
HARD DRIVE: At least 1.2 GB of free space with at least 0.5 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
VIDEO: 128 MB of Video RAM and support for Pixel Shader 3.0
SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better, ATI Radeon X1300 or better, Intel GMA X4500 or better
DIRECTX: DirectX 9.0c compatible
INPUT: Keyboard and mouse Source
Setups known NOT to work with the CAS demo:
HP Pavilion G6 Notebook. 1.8 Ghz AMD A4-3300M, 8GB RAM, Radeon HD 6480G.
Problem type: overheating. Source.
Windows: Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (64-bit) Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Memory (RAM): 7659 MB
CPU Info: AMD A4-3300M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics
CPU Speed: 1895.6 MHz
Display Adapters: AMD Radeon HD 6480G | AMD Radeon HD 6480G | RDPDD Chained DD | RDP Encoder Mirror Driver | RDP Reflector Display Driver
Monitors: 1x; Generic PnP Monitor |
Screen Resolution: 1366 X 768 - 32 bit
CD / DVD Drives: 2x (E: | F: | ) E: hp DVDRAM GT31L | F: ELBY CLONEDRIVE
Hard Disks: C: 581.2GB | D: 14.7GB | Q: 0.0MB
Hard Disks - Free: C: 310.8GB | D: 1.6GB | Q: 0.0MB
Manufacturer *: Hewlett-Packard
Product Make *: HP Pavilion g6 Notebook PC
Dell Studio XPS 435MT. 2.6 Ghz i7-920, 6GB RAM, Radeon HD 3600 Series.
Problem type: artefacts. Source.
Windows: Windows Vista Home Premium Edition (64-bit) Service Pack 2 (Build 6002)
Memory (RAM): 6135 MB
CPU Info: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
CPU Speed: 2658.6 MHz
Display Adapters: ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series | ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series | RDPDD Chained DD | RDP Encoder Mirror Driver
Monitors: 1x; Generic PnP Monitor |
Screen Resolution: 1280 X 768 - 32 bit
Hard Disks: C: 450.7GB | D: 15.0GB | K: 465.8GB
Hard Disks - Free: C: 188.3GB | D: 8.6GB | K: 206.1GB
Manufacturer *: Dell Inc.
Product Make *: Studio XPS 435MT
If you have come across any other reports of setups which do or don't work, please post or link them here.
What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.