I thought I was destined to not being able to play this as it looked as if my trusty 6 yr old laptop would be nowhere near fast enough. Well sadly, that trusty old laptop is no more (no flowers please:-)).
I didn't see myself getting a new one anytime soon as, I may have mentioned before, we don't really get value for money in the UK as far as laptops are concerned. But then yesterday I saw something you dont see very often, a budget laptop with a dedicated GFX card (nVidia GT720m) for 320 quid - almost unheard of here. I ordered it today and was wondering if anyone knew if I would have more of a chance with the new SH with this card?

I don't know what the requirements of the new Sherlock game will be.
I don't think Frogwares has announced them yet.

However the 720m is not a high end card.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-720M.90247.0.html



According to the Notebookcheck article, the 720m is an "entry level" card based on the 540m.

According to Google, Sherlock Crimes & Punishments will use the Unreal Engine 3. Whether the card works or not with Crimes & Punishments may depend on how much dedicated video memory your particular card has (the 720m can have up to 2GB) and how high the specs for Crimes & Punishments are.

So you may want to try a demo before buying the game.

We'll have a better idea of whether it will work when Frogwares releases the system requirements for the game. I'm guessing it will run the game (as long as the card has 2GB video memory, or at least as much as the game requires), but it may be sluggish and you will probably need you to turn down game options.

Yes I know its nothing special but it's (hopefully) a huge improvement on what I've been using:-)

As for memory it has 1 gig.

The more hear about this SH the more it sounds like it is only going to be for people with proper gaming
machines. Hope not.

Has there been any mention of a demo?

Hopefully there will be a demo, but I think it's too early for one yet.
I'm not sure Frogwares ever made a demo for Testament, though there were demos for the earlier Sherlock games, like Jack the Ripper and Nemesis/Arsene Lupin.

If you contact Frogwares, they may be able to give you an idea.
They have a forum for Crimes & Punishments.
http://www.frogwares.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=70

It's not really an active forum though -- maybe too soon.

This page has a contact form toward the bottom, where you can ask about system requirements. If they answer, let us know. You're certainly not the only one who is concerned they may not have the specs to play it.

Well the comp came yesterday and I can play Civ 5 on max settings and Skyrim on High settings:-) I couldnt believe it. Fingers crossed for SH:-)

Sounds good.

Here are Game Debate's listings for Skyrim and Civilization V.
***Skyrim requirements***
***Civilization V requirements***

When Crimes & Punishments is released, see what Game Debate has to say about the requirements for that. Neither Skyrim nor Civ V requires more than 1GB of video RAM, even as a "recommended" requirement. So we still have to wait and see about the new Sherlock.

Here is the Minimum one:

OS: WINDOWS VISTA SP2/WINDOWS 7/WINDOWS 8
Processor: AMD/INTEL DUAL-CORE 2.4 GHZ
Memory: 2048 MB RAM
Graphics: 256 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 COMPATIBLE AMD RADEON HD 3850/NVIDIA GEFORCE 8600 GTS OR HIGHER
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 14 GB available space
Sound Card: DIRECTX 9 COMPATIBLE

Thanks, Olga!

Well, I don't know about the "Recommended" spec (whatever that turns out to be). But mj2c's laptop certainly meets the "Minimum" spec.