All ID games before were running on a new engine that was pushing the boundaries. I remember that it was absolutely common to upgrade your pc everytime ID released a new game in the 90s.
There is no sense in introducing a new and revolutionary software technology for old and dated hardware.
Performance is still the key for new technologies.

This has got nothing to do with the age or performance of the installed gamer pc basis but just with unexpectedly widespread OpenGL / driver problems.
Rage is one of the very few games running on OpenGL nowadays. Everybody else seems to use DirectX now.
So OpenGL and it's respective graphics card drivers need some servicing to get up to date.

Most users today are not used to these kind of problems anymore and expect a software to run flawlessly from the beginning without considering their personal hardware situation.
It's common nowadays to buy a prebuilt pc from a vendor. But these do not necessarily meet the requirements for all possible situations.
For an old fart like me it is essential to assemble a pc myself for my personal needs as i know what i want to use it for.
This includes choosing the right parts for all occasions and includes graphics cards that meet certain requirements.

They've had serious driver issues and bugs with every major game released this fall. Rage just happened to get the worst of it because it is openGL, its extremely unusual in that it reduces the textures to automatically maintain 60fps and, I believe, because AMD has been struggling with their new GCN architecture drivers. It's AMD first radically new architecture in seven years and they've had similar problems with windows 7 not being compatible with bulldozer. Sometimes the crap just hits the fan all at once and Rage just happened to be the tallest guy standing in the front row.

Well I must say this has been a great conversation and is defiantly worth the time. Thanks to all.... What I have been talking about is that, from the numbers I have noticed at steam, and the postings, plenty of people are upset about the fact they cannot run the game. Can we agree on this?

What I posted as to the machine I loaded it on AND it will not run is brand new right out of the box. Now; just how many people just walk in and buy a machine, and even look at what kind of video system it has? They walk in and buy one that they think will do homework or pay the bills via the bank and let’s not forget price point also. Can this be a true statement?

Now; if I hook this computer as posted to my 3D TV do you think it will play a 3D movie even if I add an external Blue Ray player? Of course not... Will RAGE play on a 3D capable machine and a 3D monitor if it is run through one in 3D? Then I have to ask this, why go through such extremes for the game in the first place? Because you can!

All I am pointing out is that management chose to go in the direction they did and I am willing to go out on a limb saying they knew what was going to happen. I have not said I agree nor disagree with what anyone has said, what I do know is most people are computer illiterate other than knowing how to turn it on… Do you have to lead them by the hand? Yes… Are they going to have a fit? Most likely…. Are they going to plaster their dissatisfaction all over the net? You can believe that…. Will ID lose money over this? Yes I think they will in the end.

All I can see is that it would be to ID’s advantage to patch this so it will run on almost any machine. People will most likely be extremely happy for it…. I remember all the crap over Microsoft Flight Sim X… where is it now???? Yes a new one is in the works, but look what you have to do to use it.

Its really quite simple its the responsibility of the buyer to get a system that will run today's games if that is what they have intent on doing with it.
If you want to stay cheap and buy a Walmart brand computer or even a GoodWill/Salvation Army used system then your stuck playing old games.
Any of these should play Quake 1 2 or 3, Doom 1 2 or 3 and so on. But if you want to play today's game your going to have to step up and buy
something just a little better, such as COD3, NFSTR, DiRT 3, JustCause2 & RAGE. None of these games will run on a GT6600, I know I just tested each.
I don't see any of the other game makers making games backwards compatible with din-a-sor computers, so why should id?
Sorry I can't see your point. Heck Rage can be played on a cellphone, but yet your computer is so outdated it will not. Sorry but I have to lol.

Maybe id will rework the cellphone version so it can be played on older computers just for you?
Wonder if I can get some commission off this since I came up with the idea? roflol

Dude ur system is not good enough get over it mate. If u need a gpu I'd say go for a 550TI nvidia that should be fine and won't cost much. Stop complaining and go buy that gpu if ur machine can take it.

I'll just put this here. I bought (and built) a new computer to play this game. My previous computer was ~10 years old and would almost play it but no. I only put about $800 worth of stuff into the new one (not including monitor) and I would consider that very "middle of the road" but rage runs great on it. Even with the ATI graphics card (owned before buying computer but include in total parts cost). YMMV but it doesn't take a beast of a machine to run this game, now an appropriate gaming machine maybe and not a homework/work computer.

--edit and yes maybe I'm a dummy but I also paid full retail/preorder and don't regret any of it. I am not independently wealthy nor using my parents or other peoples money. In fact I'd say I'm pretty middle of the road there too.