I was looking for stuff that wasn't exclusive to the Beta forums and the closest I can get is their own publicly available developer updates. So here ya go:
Right now a duo core system is our minimum spec machine but it is also our main focus of concern. It is playable on those specifications and I have tested it myself but it is currently very much a minimum spec type of experience running on low-detail settings. It’s obvious that a Quad core system is the key as even the earliest Core 2 Quad systems run the game very well and it is our goal (since there are still so many out there), to optimize the Core 2 Duo systems to run much faster.
Minimum specs (My setup is pretty much better than this in every aspect, just not quad core):
MechWarrior Online Minimum System Spec:
CPU:
Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz
Athlon II X2 245e
GPU:
GeForce 8800GT
Radeon HD 5600/5700
RAM: 4 GB
OS: Windows Vista 32-bit
DirectX: DX9
HDD Space: 4 GB
If you are in the beta you can just search their beta forums for "duo core" and you'd probably get all the results you need. Information such as this:
MWO is CPU intensive. While a Core2 Duo does meet MINIMUM system requirements, you have to think along the lines that minimum spec means you really want to play the game even though there will be hitching and some slowdown during gameplay. We will be optimizing the best we can but we can't promise you the world. I would suggest waiting until Launch and trying the game out. By then our advanced graphic options should be in the game and you can decide where to put your money.
- Lead Designer, taken from this thread on the
public forum.
As you can see, it's not a minor concern when even the lead designer advises caution.
But if it works fine for you then you should be happy. Just saying that for almost everyone else, including the developers on their duo core machines, it runs quite terrible. It's so bad it can be easily mistaken for lag. It's not unplayable by any means, just that you'd be at quite a significant disadvantage, especially when fights get hectic. The good news is that the developers have said they really want to improve the performance on that front, so they'll probably do so.
Edit: there should be a major patch today, so I'll check it again later after it patches to see if it's been optimized further. But since we're still quite a ways away from even the open beta, I'm not really too concerned if it's still choppy.