i just downloaded a demo, but it doesn't work. why?

Question

this is what the readme says

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Microsoft® Windows® XP Service Pack 2, Vista
1.8 GHz processor
512 MB RAM
8 GB available hard drive space
128 MB video RAM or greater, with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support (Nvidia 6x00 or better)
Sound card, speakers or headphones
Broadband internet connection (DSL/Cable).

every time i try to open the demo it says "please verify system meets minimum specifications" but i checked everything. i have just short of 20GB of hard drive space, 512MB of RAM, which is exactly the min requirement, my processor is over the 1.8GHz requirement, and i have 128MB of VRAM which is the min. i also have the service pack 2.
It also says
"with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader / Pixel Shader 2.0 support (Nvidia 6800 or better)"
i have DirectX9.0 but i am not sure about the other stuff. how do i check if i have them, and where can i get them if i dont.

where will it say if i do or don't have it on the display tab, and there is no ignore button. just an OK one.

Answer 1

Sounds to me you are using the onboard graphics. You need to upgrade your graphics m8. The cheapest and most effective one is the nvidia 6600 with 256mb of onboard video memory

Answer 2

If you have a video card with 128Mb, chances are it is not a 6800 or better.

There is more to video cards than just ram and processing power. Many of them have support for newer ways of processing data, which is what Pixel and Vertex shaders are.

You would need to get a newer videocard.

Answer 3

Start --> Run --> dxdiag
Check the Display tab.
Do you have a nVidia 6800 or better?

Answer 4

select ignore and try to start it anyway.