Google Hangouts system requirements (2GHz dual core) (support.google.com)

Required for decoding and encoding video I assume. Who doesn't have that at this moment anyway?

What I've found in my amazing tests, that disabling the Hangouts widget on a G+ profile page will cut the memory use of that tab in half...

Maybe they should look into optimizing Hangouts instead of scaling up.

This is required so that you can add the items on the video. You know adding yourself a moustache. It requires a lot of calculations where to place the moustache, and the moustache can't be lagging.

The smartphones don't have this amazing ability, this is why it can run on slower phone systems.

and requires you have a google plus account, even if you are invited directly to a hangout.

I was trying to integrate hangouts into an app this weekend, it sucks because of the G+ requirement.

Switching to tokbox