my program runs well on a few computers I tried, but my friend’s cheap laptop with a crappy graphics card it still runs well. Here is my question Why do i need a great graphics card when i develop a game with BGE so shadows for example will work, but apparently when developing a game I need better hardware than when playing a game. It seems to me that if a computer can play a game even with a poor graphics card that same computer should be used to develop that same game
digiman
Are you saying that a runtime uses less processor, graphics and ram then playing from blender?
That really wouldn’t surprise me.
You see, blender can do way more than just make games, so when you have blender open and are playing from that it still has a lot of other features running. When it is a runtime it probably has a lot less going on as there is no need to.
It is a usual effect that you need more power while developing a software rather then running them.
It is sdfgeoff (name change?) wrote, your development tools are running in background. Also keep in mind the usual way is to optimize later which brings some performance increases.
When you are going to test it is a good idea to do that with clean hardware (without development tools) and lower power hardware, just to see it is running with it (but that depends on the availability).
The funny thing is that in a lot of companies the managers get the latest hardware just for writing e-mails 
while the developer has to use out-dated hardware to run resource-intensive development.
Hmm, it makes sense to me to develop on the crappiest, so that the game will run better on the greatest. But developing on a great PC speeds up development. Only you need to have the testing platform available(i.e.: crappy PC)!
As for me, while developing, I need blenderartist to be open including other sites. I need IRC blender channel running too. I need GIMP or Inkscape while running Blender (most of the time). I need to view Blender Python reference. I need to watch the video tutorial on youtube/vimeo. I’ll be happy and work faster when all are running smoothly… and I do open multiple Blender window for experimenting and reference ~ I’m still learning.
I have a low spec graphic card (ATI HD4650, P4 3GHz, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD) which can’t even run OpenCL. I’m happy with Blender because I can do things mentioned above.
Blender 2.59’s viewport has anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering built in. That also slows it down. The BGE player does not support either (for some strange reason).
You dont necessarily require the high end graphic card. A moderate one would do just fine. Also a simple device such as an extra cooling fan can remove lag from certian 2 yr old dx games. Besides you can upgrade any part as you wish. i’d suggest a medium end.
About anti aliasing, in windows use ‘-m 8’ as argument for blenderplayer.exe for 8x antialiasing.
in linux it didnt work for me.
Yeah, I kinda figured that. The real reason I wanted to know I was hoping to get a new laptop ( my desktop is 6 1/2 years old) On the Dell vostro
that i tested my program on was more than twice as fast ( I count the amount of objects that i add before it starts to slow down)
Never thought a laptop would easily beat my desktop, anyway I was looking at a laptop that has some great hardware so i can develop more programs but it was $1200.00 and the price has not gone down in over a year where as the dell vostro is about $500.00
P.S. I wanted a laptop because i can take it with me when i am out of town.
Thanks
digiman, there are some companies that buil a laptop for you, the prices are way lower and the quality is good, the diference is that thos laptops dont have a brand for example, they are just assembled laptops and that makes them cheaper. So if you want to buy something more professional( those notebooks dont have that fancy stuff that usually branded laptops have like those cool lights and a nicelooking desing, they are simple), it ll work better than any apple mackbook or something and it ll be way more cheaper.
For example a friend bought a macbook pro at the same time that I bought mine, he payed 4000 reais, the same as I did for my computer.
If we compare our specs we ll have:
Mine
I5, 500 gb HD, 4 gb of ram, GTX 285
HIS
i5, 500 gb HD, 6 gb of ram, GT 9500.
So you can understand the difference for game creation from mine to theirs and the price was the same.
I didnt knew this kinds of company that assemble a laptop for you till somethime ago, and i think that few guys know about that, and I tell you it worth more than any branded computer, as I said, its not fancy, but its way better.