What does 16 MB Video requered mean?

[Tokelil]

Well it seems a bit obvious and may be a stupid question. But as an example Quake 3 claims to require 16 MB memory on the video card, but runs fine on my Radeon Mobility 8 MB DDR in my notebook. Why is that ? What does it actual mean that it requires 16 MB ? And most importantly will I be able to run other games that require 16 MB ?

 

[Rand]

It means simply what it says- the developers specify a minimum of 16MB of Video memory in order to run.
The vast majority of games often tend to over-state the absolute minimum DRAM requirements though, and there are seldom any hard-coded limitations preventing your from running the program with a graphics card with less memory then is specified.

The statement is primarily there because it is not expected that any graphics card available upon release of the program with less then the specified 16MB DRAM would be capable of running the program smoothly.
Other graphics cards may well be produced after the release of the application that can cope quite readily despite having less then 16MB of DRAM.

Whether you can run other games with a specified requirement of 16MB video memory will depend upon the specific application in question. Your almost certain to be able to start and run the program.... but whether it runs smoothly is another matter altogether and in most cases I'd be inclined to doubt it. matter altogether and in most cases I'd be inclined to doubt it.

BTW, does Q3 specify a 16MB graphics card?
I was under the impression that the stated minimum system requirements for Q3 specifed a 4MB 3dfx Voodoo1.

 

[Tokelil]

Yes it says 16 megs on their homepage:
http://www.idsoftware.com/games/quake/quake3-gold/sysreq.php

I guess I just have to try games before buying them for my laptop then.
Thx for the reply!