I do have a fairly good PC. It's nothing special but it could definitely run Dota 2 if I played Dota 2.

Maybe the problem isn't their PC's but a not-great internet connection on either end? Are load times consistently taking that long for you or is it just a problem in some matches?

No - I load instantly. More like 1/3 of the competition has ungodly loading times. I guess I didn't state that clearly enough in the OP? My guess it's players from low income countries with very outdated hardware - Europe is being lumped in with the Eastern Block, The Middle East, India, even Korea and everything inbetween.

I can scarcely imagine players from Western countries playing on PCs with 2 min loadtimes. But who knows. Just wondering what the circumstances are.

Maybe imagine harder? Not all of us have spare cash to spend on computer parts.

ahh good, comments like this have leapt straight from the in game chat and reddit to the forums here.

I'd imagine a 399$ laptop could run dota 2. My PC is 3 years old with 4 year old parts. I guess the two PCs I had before this one could have run it too. I'm just trying to see the picture.

I have noticed that in general Dota 2 is more "network bound" than "system bound". That is performance is more dictated by how much bandwidth and how smooth data is delivered than the machine that receives/plays it. At least in the US it seems to be more of a problem with ISP being draconian about bandwidth and throttling things without permission or knowledge that triggers lag than having a low powered machines.

There are plenty of games on Steam that can played with low-end PCs. And maybe some of these folks want to try out Dota 2. If it's playable at all, great.

This is you, isn't it?

@gunslingerpanda said:

@seppli said:

I can scarcely imagine players from Western countries playing on PCs with 2 min loadtimes. But who knows. Just wondering what the circumstances are.

This is you, isn't it?

I guess you're reading something into my OP that's not there. I'm merely curious. I'm not judging. Well, maybe a little bit.

Circumstances are what they are. Tell me though, because I want to know.

I have no idea. In DotA and league both, there are awlays people with ridiculously slow computers. But meh whatever, I'll just grab a sandwich in the loadscreen or something, at least they aren't affecting my gameplay.

It probably has a lot to do with the internet connection, more so than the PC specs.

WOODPC

Isn't the source engine very cpu-intensive?

I would imagine that there's still a lot of older processors out there still in gaming pcs. And hell, why wouldn't there be? The minimum requirements for a lot of games, even to this day, only require something in the neighborhood of a Core 2 Duo/Quad so there's no real dire need to upgrade unless you absolutely need to run everything at max settings and still get 60fps. My laptop is about 4 years old and has a Core 2 Duo in it. Source games, and only Source games I might add, load like ass, but I can play them just fine.

Oh - just had an epiphany. It could be people with office jobs playing from work on their work desktop, which usually are of the handcrank powered variety. I know lots of folks sitting in offices all day, regularly doing nothing. Guess if you're paid to show up from nine to five, and there's nothing else to do - play DOTA 2.

I'm running on a 5+ year old Q6600. My video card is up to snuff, so the game runs pretty well. The only problem I really run into is that the load times are a little egregious.

Probably my fault for all your bad load times. My computer is 8 or so years old. I've upgraded it to the point that the motherboard can't handle a single tick up on any component. I start looking at prices for new motherboards and then I think I might need a new powersource with it.........and a fan........and then I just hide my wallet.

My biggest sin is that I literally don't have a video card. I've got a small form factor Dell PC with 8gigs of memory and a core i3. I'd love to stop rocking integrated Intel HD graphics but finding a video card small enough to fit in the case is not a game of trial and error I'm willing to play right now. The game actually seems pretty responsive with most settings turned off load times feel reasonable maybe 30 seconds or so... My only complaint is that trying to play from my Couch makes 90% of the game text totally unreadable no matter what screen resolution I set.

Damn this misleading thread title, I thought we had some kind of revolution in hand-cranking technology that is enough to power a computer.

What is this fancy "hand-crank" you speak of. My computer is not capable of such wizardry.

I don't play DOTA, but I have a strong feeling that it would run like shit on my computer, since most games do.

Do you really need this explained?

DotA2 is a free-to-play game. Kids are drawn to free-to-play games. Kids cannot afford computers. Parents do not think kids need computers with decent graphical capabilities AND/OR parents do not understand that graphical capabilities are even something to be considered when buying a computer.

I'm not even going to bother finishing this line of reasoning. I'm dropping the microphone. There. It is dropped.

Yeah, my computer is pretty shitty. If you want to bitch about it, feel free to send me a new computer. Thanks!

This thread is dumb.

Heh. No elitism going on in this thread. No sir!

You gotta press the Turbo button on the front of your computer to get an extra 100 Mhz out of it.

Its even more obvious in League of Legends where there's a loading wall of shame. You get to watch as all ten players load and have a little race. Some people take forever and I wonder why.

There always seems to be one guy in dota 2 that's loading long after everyone else.

Nope! I have a Pos from Dell.com when I got it for either Black Friday or New Year's sale. I hardly ever play Steam games on it. Oh Burrito Bison, that's some good candy you're smoking to get that high.

A simple explanation is the one you yourself already partly mentioned (work machines).

It's not so much the case of old or bad computers as people playing games on laptops, PCs, or Macs that are not built for gaming at all, nor with gaming in mind.

Even a failry modern (non gaming) laptop can struggle horrendously with any game involving 3D, as the lack of a dedicated GPU really hits hard for those games.

@fattony12000:

Compy NOS! Verbal trademark!

I don't know anything about people playing on hand-cranked computers...

...but muthafuckers need to stop installing DOTA 2 and League of Legends on Ti82s and running 14.4kbps to those hoes!

Tell me baby girl cause I need to know.

It's gotta be net man. Internet infrastructure in the US is terrible. Try moving to Korea or Japan. The difference between them and us is like the difference between US broadband and dial-up.

Also, interestingly enough backing out of games makes Dota chug for me occasionally. All those particle effects in the background are really poorly optimized. And I'm running an AMD FX8350 with an EVGA 660Ti FTW. That game has some heavy menus.

Yep. I finally upped the ram this year but it's only been a bandage on a serious wound. Thinking about picking up a new computer next year.

Nope.