[Ron]

Hello everyone,

I installed Skyrim on this laptop and though the game itself detected Medium settings were appropriate, it runs horribly even on Low. I can't see fps but definitely feels below 15.

Specs on the laptop sticker:
Intel Core i3 370M 2.4 GHz (dual core I think)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
4 GB DDR3 RAM

That graphics card was designed for business, to look at charts, graphs, presentations, and spreadsheets. It is not a gaming card, and if there was an Ultra Low, that's where it would belong, worse than a console's quality. Try lowering the screen resolution to as coarse a setting as you can stand it to be.

Hi all, I bought Skyrim and it is a touch clunky with my PC, I want to know the best way to get a smoother performance. I would rather a smooth slightly lower graphics quality performance than playing a very pretty looking flick book.

I am running:

Vista home 64bit
4gb ddr2 RAM (I don't know if it is 1x4gb, 2x2gb or 4x1gb)
AMD phaenom x4 9100e Quad core (1.8ghz each)
ATI radeon HD3200 integrated graphics (256mb on the chip, but it uses my main RAM too).

My preference would be something under $200 from best buy, or wal-mart, or any major store so I can head out and buy it after work rather than have it mailed to me next week.

I am thinking graphics card would be the thing to aim at, although the "integrated" bit has me nervous, is there going to be a physical graphics card to swap out, or is it integrated on the motherboard and hopefully just slapping in a new card will override it.

New RAM is also a consideration which would probably come from newegg.com although I am never 100% clear on if I need the same size and manufacturer of RAM or if I can put in any old DDR2 RAM.

Thanks for your help.

The greatest majority of desktop PCs that are in a "tower" case have a video card slot inside, whether it is in use at present, or not. Only the funky looking "slimline" type cases and NetTops require special consideration because of limited space and poor cooling.

Incidentally, the FSB ("Fortron") PSUs are usually decent, and the Radeon cards from AMD run on less power than Geforces, although you are stuck with a Medium choice until / unless you upgrade (HD 5670, HD 6670).

[Saul C]

I'm looking to run Skyrim on medium/high settings. What will I need to upgrade? These are my specs:

Windows XP 32 bit; 1024x768 resolution
Intel Core2 Duo CPU
E8500 @ 3.16GHz
2.53 GHz, 3.37 GB of RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4600 series. Thinking of getting http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-150-561&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=2#scrollFullInfo to replace it

If you need more info, just ask!

[Pete Schmitzer]

I'm looking to run Skyrim on medium/high settings. What will I need to upgrade? These are my specs:

Windows XP 32 bit; 1024x768 resolution
Intel Core2 Duo CPU
E8500 @ 3.16GHz
2.53 GHz, 3.37 GB of RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4600 series. Thinking of getting http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-150-561&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=2#scrollFullInfo to replace it

If you need more info, just ask!

That is a "Low" screen resolution, so it wouldn't have required such a large jump in power to reach as good of a quality as that display can handle. The price on that one is a good one, after rebate, and that is a good brand. You will almost certainly require a power supply upgrade (wattage is not as important as amperage, and BRAND is more important than watts, also), to go beyond the level of an HD 6670.

[MARLON JOHNSON]

You will almost certainly require a power supply upgrade (wattage is not as important as amperage, and BRAND is more important than watts, also), to go beyond the level of an HD 6670.

Have any brand suggestions?

[Anna Krzyzanowska]

Corsair, Enermax, Fortron, OCZ, Seasonic, Sparkle ~ ~

this one has a good price, after rebate, if you are in the States or Canada:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341048

[Ruben Bernal]

I recently purchased a new Labtop for 400 bucks with the new A6-3400m Processor from AMD. I started installing a couple simple games to see how it would run and it did fine, so I started installing bigger, badder games. To make a long story short. I installed Skyrim and it plays it great on High settings, with 8x Anti-aliasing, 16x antistropic filtering. I even had it playing on Ultra-High settings with 2x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Antistropic Filtering, and it was playable. Note that this is at a resolution of 1366x768 and not 1080p, I want to see how well it plays connected to a tv at those resolution, I will update later with the results.

For clarity, here is the specs of my Labtop. It plays fantastic at High Settings with 8 times AA and 16x AF.

Quad Core A6-3400m processor with Radeon HD 6520G Graphics.
4 gigs DDR3 Ram.
500 gig 5400rpm Hard Drive.
Screen Resolution of 1366x768.

[sam smith]

I recently purchased a new Labtop for 400 bucks with the new A6-3400m Processor from AMD. (snip)

For clarity, here is the specs of my Labtop. It plays fantastic at High Settings with 8 times AA and 16x AF.

Quad Core A6-3400m processor with Radeon HD 6520G Graphics.
4 gigs DDR3 Ram.
500 gig 5400rpm Hard Drive.
Screen Resolution of 1366x768.

We are glad to hear from you on that little laptop. A couple of our members have been waiting to buy pending such a go-ahead from someone such as yourself. Thank you.

[Damian Parsons]

Hey guys, I'm currently running Skyrim with the lowest setting possible with 2gb ram and a GeForce 8400 GTS 256mb. It runs good except por the parts when there are too many people fighting, gets laggy then. I try to play it but it gets very frustrating and I'm missing so many stuff. So, I'm gonna buy more ram and a new video card. This is how my PC is gonna be.

DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2400 MHz (12 x 200) 4600+
Asus M2N-MX SE Plus (2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x16, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
4gb RAM (Gskill 2gb 800mhz DDR2 x 2)
EVA GeForce GTS 450 1gb

My question is... how good will Skyrim run with this? I don't mean if I could play it on ultra, I know I can't but I just wanna be sure it will run good maybe on medium settings without lagging at all. That's good enough for me.

Thanks in advance.

[Lillian Cawfield]

Hey guys, I'm currently running Skyrim with the lowest setting possible with 2gb ram and a GeForce 8400 GTS 256mb. It runs good except por the parts when there are too many people fighting, gets laggy then. I try to play it but it gets very frustrating and I'm missing so many stuff. So, I'm gonna buy more ram and a new video card. This is how my PC is gonna be.

DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2400 MHz (12 x 200) 4600+
Asus M2N-MX SE Plus (2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x16, 2 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
4gb RAM (Gskill 2gb 800mhz DDR2 x 2)
EVA GeForce GTS 450 1gb

My question is... how good will Skyrim run with this? I don't mean if I could play it on ultra, I know I can't but I just wanna be sure it will run good maybe on medium settings without lagging at all. That's good enough for me.

Thanks in advance.

The GTS 450 would get better than Medium, matched to a newer, faster CPU than than 4600+ (I have just such an AMD X2, matched to a Radeon HD 4850, in my living room here, although I haven't tried Skyrim on it yet). Keep your screen resolutions to Medium, and your average animation rates should be good at Medium Quality.

[Chad Holloway]

ATI Radeon HD5870 2GB
Intel i7 Quad-core processor ~2,9GHz
4GB of Ram

Can run it on low with about 50-60 fps, anything above that makes the game unplayable.

[Angelina Mayo]

The GTS 450 would get better than Medium, matched to a newer, faster CPU than than 4600+ (I have just such an AMD X2, matched to a Radeon HD 4850, in my living room here, although I haven't tried Skyrim on it yet). Keep your screen resolutions to Medium, and your average animation rates should be good at Medium Quality.

I won't change my CPU because I don't have any more money at the moment, but I don't mine playing in the lowest resolution for that matter. It's ok, I just want it to look a little better than the lowest quality and have it running good. So, this will work for me!

Thank you for your reply!

[D IV]

Chaos theory, wood you mind giving be the name of that laptop? That sounds perfect for what I want to buy

[DeeD]

That graphics card was designed for business, to look at charts, graphs, presentations, and spreadsheets. It is not a gaming card, and if there was an Ultra Low, that's where it would belong, worse than a console's quality. Try lowering the screen resolution to as coarse a setting as you can stand it to be.


The greatest majority of desktop PCs that are in a "tower" case have a video card slot inside, whether it is in use at present, or not. Only the funky looking "slimline" type cases and NetTops require special consideration because of limited space and poor cooling.

Incidentally, the FSB ("Fortron") PSUs are usually decent, and the Radeon cards from AMD run on less power than Geforces, although you are stuck with a Medium choice until / unless you upgrade (HD 5670, HD 6670).

TY for the reply, I will double check mine has the same PSU as the one mentioned in the forums I linked, (I assume so as it is the same model). It is a tower with a video card slot, that much I know. I just need to work out if I need a new PSU to run a new video card now. Off to bestbuy after work to see what they say. Although I am tempted to test them by not mentioning the PSU and see if they bring it up themselves.

[leigh stewart]

Compared to almost any other retailer, Best Buy has always been "WORST" for graphics card overpricing. Surely you can find a better seller.

[Chenae Butler]

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series (this is how my computer now recognizes it since I updated the drivers, it used to be HD 4350 512MB) @ 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz) (yeah I use a small screen, don't really need anything bigger)
MOBO: Acer EG43M
I don't know my PSU or how to find out.

Will this even boot up Skyrim? What do I need to replace?

[quinnnn]

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: Intel® Core™2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
RAM: 4GB
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series (this is how my computer now recognizes it since I updated the drivers, it used to be HD 4350 512MB) @ 1024 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz) (yeah I use a small screen, don't really need anything bigger)
MOBO: Acer EG43M
I don't know my PSU or how to find out.

Will this even boot up Skyrim? What do I need to replace?

You have all of the features and functions, just very little horsepower. The GPU is particularly very slow, but at such an extremely low screen resolution, even a "Medium" replacement would get you HIGH image quality. An HD 5670 will run well with most stock desktop brands' original power supplies, and at 1024 by 768, would give you a nice looking view of the game.

[Kyra]

You have all of the features and functions, just very little horsepower. The GPU is particularly very slow, but at such an extremely low screen resolution, even a "Medium" replacement would get you HIGH image quality. An HD 5670 will run well with most stock desktop brands' original power supplies, and at 1024 by 768, would give you a nice looking view of the game.

I plan on getting a new graphics card this christmas, got my eyes on of 'em popular 560 TI. But I don't know if I have to replace my CPU or motherboard for that (or even if I need a new PSU, I don't know which one I've got)

[Mr. Allen]

If you don't know anything about your power supply, that almost guarantees you must replace it to choose a GTX 560 Ti, but my advice is to save some money for a sharoer new display. It doesn't have to be physically larger to have higher resolution. Right now, the only real bargain I know of from the Green side of the aisle is the GTX 460, getting some really generous rebates from places such as Amazon. From $30 to $300, with the exception of the GTX 460, AMD's prices are enough better that for a given performance level, they offer the best value in frames per dollar.

[Monika Fiolek]

If you don't know anything about your power supply, that almost guarantees you must replace it to choose a GTX 560 Ti, but my advice is to save some money for a sharoer new display. It doesn't have to be physically larger to have higher resolution. Right now, the only real bargain I know of from the Green side of the aisle is the GTX 460, getting some really generous rebates from places such as Amazon. From $30 to $300, with the exception of the GTX 460, AMD's prices are enough better that for a given performance level, they offer the best value in frames per dollar.

I've got an HDTV right next to my PC, should be able to connect PC to HDTV. Will a GTX 460 be able to run it on 30+FPS on High with my CPU and motherboard?

[Zosia Cetnar]

I've got an HDTV right next to my PC, should be able to connect PC to HDTV. Will a GTX 460 be able to run it on 30+FPS on High with my CPU and motherboard?

Yes, it should.

[Nicole Mark]

Yes, it should.

Why the 460 and not the 560 Ti?
Do I need to replace my motherboard of CPU?

[Logan Greenwood]

Why the 460 and not the 560 Ti?

At the price that the GTX 560 Ti is getting, you can get a far more powerful Radeon HD instead, that's why. The 460 happens to be quite a lot better on a bucks for frames basis than any similarly powerful Geforce (most of which are overpriced, due to the problems of poor scaling from the very complex, and huge, Fermi 480 / 580 design). nVIDIA is concentrating on the ION at the low end, for Smartphones, and on the highest of high ends, for the scientific massively parallel CPU market, not what's in between. (They have no economic choice otherwise).

Do I need to replace my motherboard of CPU?

I shouldn't think so, not unless or until the one (CPU) you have doesn't seem able to support the 460. Wait to see how it goes.

[Jamie Moysey]

At the price that the GTX 560 Ti is getting, you can get a far more powerful Radeon HD instead, that's why. The 460 happens to be quite a lot better on a bucks for frames basis than any similarly powerful Geforce (most of which are overpriced, due to the problems of poor scaling from the very complex, and huge, Fermi 480 / 580 design). nVIDIA is concentrating on the ION at the low end, for Smartphones, and on the highest of high ends, for the scientific massively parallel CPU market, not what's in between. (They have no economic choice otherwise).

If I'm getting a new graphics card, let it be worth it. Which one would you advise then to last at least through 2012's games. Something that would allow me to comfortably play Skyrim, and possibly BF3 (on high too).

Are those graphics cards compatible with my motherboard? Do I need to replace it or the CPU?

[Tamara Dost]

Budget? Don't worry about motherboards unless you are changing CPUs. PCIe is PCIe, whether six years back, or brand new, they all work with all PCIe slots

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-gaming-performance,3042-4.htm

[Jamie Lee]

Budget? Don't worry about motherboards unless you are changing CPUs. PCIe is PCIe, whether six years back, or brand new, they all work with all PCIe slots

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card-gaming-performance,3042-4.htm

Budget? I guess total 200 euros (270 dollars), with a new PSU included. You sure I don't need to replace the CPU? It is only 2.50 GHz.