Does Minecraft 1.6 have higher practical system requirements than 1.5.1?

From https://help.mojang.com/customer/portal/articles/325948-minecraft-system-requirements

Current Minecraft system requirements

Last Updated: Sep 20, 2013 11:58AM CEST

A computer with the minimum requirements should be able to play Minecraft. However, for the best experience, please consider the recommended requirements.

Minimum Requirements:

• CPU : Intel P4 or its AMD Equivalent (AMD K7)
• RAM : 2GB
• GPU : Intel GMA 950 or AMD Equivalent with OpenGL 2.1 Support
• HDD : At least 100MB for Game Core and Sound Files

Recommended Requirements:

• CPU : Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 (K8) 2.6 GHz
• RAM : 4GB
• GPU : GeForce 6xxx or ATI Radeon 9xxx and up with OpenGL 2.1 Support (Excluding Integrated Chipsets)
• HDD : 150MB

Software Requirements:

• Minecraft Release 1.6 or newer. Older versions will need to be updated to current versions**
• Java (Java SE 6 Update 51 or Java SE 7 Update 40 or newer is preferred)
• Please note that some users experience issues playing Minecraft while using a mismatched version of Java for their operating system (32 or 64 bit), while using certain versions of Java 7, or while multiple versions of Java are installed

If you have a laptop with an a built-in (integrated) graphics card, rather than a dedicated card, it is highly suggested that you try the demo before purchase.

Information on system requirements for running a Minecraft server can be found on the Minecraft wiki.

Compare to previous:

Minimum (As of 1.5.2):

• CPU : Intel P4/NetBurst architecture or its AMD equivalent (AMD K7)
• RAM : 256 MB
• GPU : GeForce 256 or ATI Rage XL and up. (Any GPU with OpenGL 1.2 support)
• HDD : At least 10 MB for game data

Recommended:

• CPU : Intel Pentium D or AMD K8-Based CPUs and better
• RAM : 1 GB
• GPU : GeForce 7300 GT or ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT and up
• HDD : 150 MB for game saves + sounds

Net increases:

Minimum:

• CPU : Netburst architecture / no increase
• RAM : 256MB to 2GB / 1.75GB INCREASE
• GPU : GeForce 256 or ATI Rage XL to Intel GMA 950 or AMD Equivalent / no easily documented increase
• HDD : 10MB to 100MB / 90MB INCREASE

Recommended:

• CPU : Intel Pentium D or AMD K8 (2.6 Ghz-ish) to Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64/K8 (2.6 GHz) / no increase
• RAM : 1GB to 4GB / 3GB INCREASE
• GPU : GeForce 7300 GT or ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT and up to GeForce 6xxx or ATI Radeon 9xxx and up with OpenGL 2.1 Support / OpenGL 1.2 to OpenGL 2.1
• HDD : 150MB to 150MB / no increase

Note: this is for the minecraft client. Server specs are available here.