My motherboard/RAM meet the recommended system requirements for Pillars of Eternity, however, for the graphics card, it only lists non-integrated graphics cards. I'm pretty sure my integrated graphics card (Intel HD Graphics 2500) is garbage for gaming, but I have no way of knowing whether it meets the minimum requirements or not without first purchasing the game to try it out for myself. And if I do that, and it doesn't work, then I'm not eligible for a refund because I don't meet the minimum requirements. A bit of a catch-22, if you will. Can anybody confirm whether or not this graphics card is enough to run this game? I'm tired of missing out on sales for technical reasons, and I want to know if it'd be okay to jump on this one.

Can't give you a definitive answer, since I don't own a processor that has an HD 2500, but I've found references of people mentioning it works (tuned down) on HD 3000 chips, so if we're to believe the notebookcheck description, it most likely will work with the HD 2500, as it's one generation newer than the HD 3000, though below it in performance.

My educated guess is: it will work, but I'm not sure if the performance, even with the game tuned down, will be bearable for gameplay.

If you go by the listed requirements, your Intel HD Graphics is definitely below. With that said, I won't be surprised if it can run PoE but the question is can it run well? You'll have to lower the resolution and turn off most stuff just to get it going at a low fps. Others can gotten it running with 3000. So it's up to you to decide if the sale is worth it to take the risk.

i saw that many games don't support intel integrated graphics but i never owned one myself

It will probably run, on Windows anyways. I don't think the 2500 has recent enough OpenGL support to run it on other operating systems.

I doubt it will run well enough to be enjoyable though, it doesn't even run very well on lower end nVidia and AMD cards.

Did they even ever advertise it as having any gaming prowess in that department? I can't recall.

That said, from about HD 3000 and onwards they have been perfectly fine for normal day-to-day computer operations as well as most of GOG's classic game catalog from around 2004 and older with a few exceptions that really want one to have a dedicated GPU for no good reason, like MoH AA for example.

It lacks on the power department, but in my experience e.g. Intel HD 4000 is very good for older games, including games where e.g. new Geforce GPUs fail. It seems to have quite good backwards compatibility these days.

It should work just fine. My laptop is running Intel HD Graphics 4000 (same generation as the 2500) and PoE runs just fine in it -not max settings, but fine enough-, so I don't think you should have any trouble.

I've had trouble with some games (e.g.: Witcher 1-2 won't run without a dedicated GPU), but none at all with PoE.

If you meet all other specs (RAM, OS, processor, etc) go for it, PoE shouldn't give you much trouble. If you're still not sure, ask in the game-specific forum or try contacting support.

For additional reference: I have a Intel HD 4000 in my current laptop. It runs the following "demanding" games at decent settings completely lag free. (I can't give actual FPS because I never enable/use a FPS checker)

Batman: Arkham Asylum/City/Origins: Medium Settings
Fallout 3/Fallout New Vegas: Medium Settings/ Max settings with low shadows and no Anti-aliasing
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor: Medium Settings
Rage: Max Settings
Skyrim: Medium Settings or Max Settings with low shadows and without Anti-aliasing
Skyrim : Medium Settings with lightweight ENB (slight hiccups in new areas with some ENBs)
Sleeping Dogs: Medium/High settings
The Sims 3: High Settings

It also runs a lot of more demanding games lag free at a mix of low and medium settings, like the Saints Row series (including up to Gat Out Of Hell), Risen 2 (haven't tried the third) and many others.

Those are just a few examples. Gaming with a 4000/4400 card isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be, although it's definitely not ideal if you're looking to play big name AAA games from 2014-ish onward haha.

Now for the game at hand: I have Pillars of Eternity with both of its Expansion Packs, and it runs flawlessly BUT the loading times can be ridiculous. The new game menu can take thirty seconds or so to load, save for loading a save game. Once you're in game it runs fine, it's just the loading that's an issue. That's my experience, with an 4000 card. If I were you though, I wouldn't take a chance unless I had cash to burn. The game is on sale fairly regularly in sales, and GOG has a lot more sales than most digital download stores.

That can be very subjective, frankly, especially when people leave out something important: the resolution at which one plays.

Anyway, the HD 4000 is magnitudes faster than the HD 2500 the OP has; almost three times as much. The latter is definitely not very good for much of anything new unless it's something undemanding in 2D.

Hello, can you please tell me what is your laptop system ? I mean CPU and memory... That interest me, to compare with mine...
Thanks!

EDIT - Hum, my question is for NoNewTaleToTell.

True! Personally speaking, I always use the max resolution for my laptop, which is 1366 x 768. If a game doesn't run lag free at that resolution then I put it on my "Will play when I get a gaming computer" list.

Oddly enough, I can actually play GTA V on it, but yeah only at minimum settings and at 800 x 600. Still, it actually is playable and mostly lag free on foot (some lag spikes when loading new areas when driving), which I never expected to be possible. Oh and with a lot (I mean A LOT) of ini tweaking and mods, I was able to start Fallout 4 and get all the way to the character creation screen, although that was as far as I was able to get with it.



Sure thing, no problem.
Graphics: Intel HD 4000
CPU: Intel i3-3120 @ 2.50GHz
Ram: 6 Gigs

It's a cheap Toshiba Satellite I picked up a couple years ago for $400-ish, maybe $430-ish after taxes. The base model might've been cheaper, but the one I bought was a bundle featuring the laptop and a mouse, case, etc. All things considered, it's been far better for gaming than it has any right to be haha.

WHAT ? Wow, thanks for your answer, maybe I can manage to play Pillars Of Eternity with my laptop then...

You could buy it in Steam, try it for an hour then refund it and buy it here if it worked.