I found that DOSbox required well over 1GB RAM to adequately run Syndicate. The original barely needed any RAM at all. Probably close to a 500th of what it requires when emulated.

I find that to be a fault of your computer. I have not had any problems running Dosbox games on my somewhat crappy 1.5 Ghz laptop with 512 MB RAM. That much.

Dosbox needs a good processor a lot more than it needs loads of RAM.

Eh? I've never known that as an issue. Sure they do need more than the original game and whatever is needed to run the OS but I've not really felt the need for much overhead

Not every game. But that one was certainly a sign that some games need over a hundred times their original requirements.

True, in a way. But DOSbox isn't optimised for multiple core processors, so no CPU upgrade in the past few years would have a noticeable affect on it. So while RAM might be a secondary requirement, it's going to offer the most noticeable speed increases.

Emulation usually means that you get a fair bit of overhead, Dosbox doesn't seem to be too bad in that regard though.
Fun fact: I can run Windows 95 inside Dosbox on my cell phone (ARM 11 369 MHz CPU, 8 MB RAM allocated to the virtual machine).

What hardware does it detect? Do you have to use the generic vga device?

But can it run Crysis?

It DID overheat a friend of mine's laptop though...

Of course it can't! Crysis isn't Win95 compatible ;-)

Evidently you're so stupid that you don't realize that your advice applies to YOUR
comment as well. If you don't care for my opinions, don't read them you moron.
Thank you for that concise and relevant answer.
I seem to recall seeing a link here on Gog that led to a Youtube "movie" demonstrating
a series of games....not exactly what I think of as a demo, but this really is essential.
I've made some poor choices here and elsewhere buying games based on reviews or screenshots, only to discover, too late, that the games are so flawed as to be unplayable.
Playable Demos are a must, in my opinion.

Evidently so. But I'm not the one with a prior history of being a dickbag on the forums.

When you're ready to buy me a new computer, let me know.

Once again, you're incapable of seeing the ironic and nauseating self-referential nature of your comments. Go kill yourself, preferably in an excruciatingly painful way.

Awesome. Good thing I've got these bottles of bourbon and a lot of cyanide here.