Well hey first of all I'd like to say hey, this is my first time posting on the forums here..

I'm trying to build a computer for Skyrim, I have a good idea of what I want but I need to know some things about what CPU and GPU I should get. I plan on using some texture packs to increase the resolution of the textures!

Is Skyrim more GPU focused or CPU focused? Do I need to overclock my CPU? Will an i5-2500 3.3GHz do the job well enough? what about GPU? How much Vram are we talking? Is 1 gig enough?

My cpu is Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, GPU ASUS GTX 460 768 MB, runs skyrim fine at high settings, vut you should go for the i5. Porbably should get a better card as well.

So you're running skyrim on high with 768 MB's of Vram? What resolution and fps?

What resolution can I expect to play on with 1 gig of vram and the i5 cpu?

The i5 is a good CPU, I should know as I have it. No need for overclocking, it's plenty powerful.

VRAM doesn;t really matter so much as the clock speeds of the GPU. Most modern GPUs with 1024 MB of VRAM should be plenty fast to play it though. What it comes down to is whether or not you want an Nvidia or ATI card. They both have good cards so it seems to come down to personal preference more often than not. I use Nvidia, but that's less to do with them being better then ATI and rather with the fact that I've always had Nvidia.

And of course when building a computer there are other things to think about. How much RAM do I want? Will I be getting a 32x or 64x OS to use all of my RAM? How powerful should my PSU be? What motherboard will I get? What size of a case will I be needing to house the motherboard? And others.

As for my personal FPS, I get about a 50 FPS average around the game running with the intel i5 2500K, a Nvidia GeForce GTX 460, and 4 GB of RAM at a resolution of 1920x1080. Except in Markarth. Freaking. Markarth. There it drops to about 35.

1680x1020 I think, at about around 49fps. I don't notice any jumpiness

I can't really decide on ati or nvidia. I don't know the pros and cons of each to make an educated decision.

Thank you for the reply Simpsonfly

If you are in the UK, Maplin (not sure if they have US stores) had a deal on for a ATI 6870 for ￡80.

Welcome to the forums!
Stick around...we'll treat ye so many different kinds of ways, you bound to like some of 'em!

You're looking at a better CPU than I have.
I only have an AMD dual core running @2.49GHz and only 2Gb ram...I'm running an nVidia GTX 560 2GB....
I'm able to run on high settings with at least 30 fps and higher everywhere & up to 60 fps in most wilderness areas. It drops by about 10 fps below that in Ultra.
Also, running Game Booster 3 program so that helps by temporarlily shutting down background system resources.
I'm happy with my GPU.
I upgraded from a nVidia 9600GT 512Mb card. I could run Skyrim in low settings, but it would choke after a while.

Good luck!

Thanks for the input! Can anyone explain the pros and cons of nvidia vs ati in terms of high end gaming?

Anyone?

Really, to compare AMD and Nvidia cards you should look at benchmarks. There is a long list over at http://www.overclock.net/t/502403/graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-and-last-updated-dailythat will order the cards in terms of most powerful to least powerful.

I tend to stick to AMD since I have always been an AMD fan.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1328500-the-community-tech-thread-no-111/page__st__30?