[D IV]

You are asking a business graphics card to do a gaming graphics card's job, and it's just not up to the challenge. You need a 550, not a 520 or 540 (the latter is a budget version, for older games, and if you have lowered screen resolutions, would have worked quite a lot better than your poor 520 could ever perform.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=650&card2=647

[Amy Cooper]

Thanks for the quick reply! Ah, so it is the video card...alas, my Newegg "gaming PC" isn't quite as equipped for gaming as I had hoped. Incidentally, my mobo is an Asus M4N68T-M V2, and the system has a 450W power supply. I assume the CPU is ok, and the RAM not terrible (though I think my board is expandable up to 16GB if needed).

Now this is where I get really lost, I have no idea what this setup is capable of handling. Would this GTX 550 Ti that you linked be my best bet? Are there similar alternatives/something better? I don't have a whole pile of money right now, but I can put off playing for a bit longer if saving up means I get a vast visual improvement!

[Chrissie Pillinger]

Your PSU probably needs to be a 550 watt Corsair or Fortron to go beyond the level of a Geforce 550 Ti, although an AMD Radeon probably uses less power for its performance at the same performance level, sort of the 6990 (dual GPU cores) class. Skyrim's GPU requirements are relatively undemanding compared to the CPU needs, which are understated for minimum, and should be corrected to


* Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
* Processor: Dual Core 2.3 GHz C2D or equivalent CPU
* 3GB System RAM
* 6GB free HDD Space
* Direct X 9 compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM (and
sufficient performance to actually put that VRAM to use)
* DirectX compatible sound card
* Internet access for Steam activation

The Recommended level probably should be amended to

Recommended Specs (For running Skyrim on "High" settings at 1920x1080 resolution)

• Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
  
• Processor: Quad-core 3.0 GHz Intel or AMD CPU
  
• 4GB System RAM
  
• 6GB free HDD space
  
• DirectX 9 compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher; ATI Radeon 4890 or higher).
  
• DirectX compatible sound card
  
• Internet access for Steam activation

Are you committed to using only an nVIDIA graphics card?

[David John Hunter]

Hello forum goers! Ive been playing skyrim since launch on my PS3. I am interested in getting a new computer for work, school, and of course gaming. I really do like some of the mods Ive seen out already. Long story short is I like to know if this system is pretty good, or if someone has a better suggestion. All feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229283

By the way I'm looking at running it at the highest possible settings, Thanks

I got a CyberPower PC as well, I was a bit hesitant on a purchase, but decided to go for it! The fact that it's still going strong (Bought in 2010) and that NewEgg is sponsoring it makes it a must-buy!

[Kim Bradley]

AMD A8-3870K
Radeon HD 6550D
4GB DDR3 1333MHz

how well could it run on medium with AA off?

[Jordyn Youngman]

AMD A8-3870K
Radeon HD 6550D
4GB DDR3 1333MHz

how well could it run on medium with AA off?

While I am well aware that a CPU such as the A8-3870K is a harbinger of what the future will surely entail, I don't yet have any of the AMD APUs' specs memorized, nor do I keep any handy reference chart by my elbow here. I don't know how well the cores will Turbo upward when needed, so without that datum, along with screen resolution, I can't make a proper answer.

[Harinder Ghag]

The A8-3870K is a medium chip for Skyrim - unfortunately it performs worse than the predecessor (Phenom) in single-threaded tasks so is going to prevent running on the highest settings unless well overclocked. But that's OK because you only have a 6550 as well, which is also not great. As Gorath mentions, we need screen resolution to answer the question, but assuming something like 1280x1024 then you should be able to play on medium. On the other hand 1920x1080 might begin to struggle with some scenes.

[Danii Brown]

1280x1024

[Wane Peters]

Are you committed to using only an nVIDIA graphics card?

I don't really have a preference, I'm just looking to get the best performance out of my PC within my budget, which right now probably means sticking with my existing PSU and CPU

[Robyn Lena]

Hello Community
As Skyrim seems to be a really fantastic game, I'm also considering getting it. Now as here are very experienced people, I'm curious what results I'd get with the following:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T (2806 MHz, Turbo Core to X3 at 3200 MHz (said to be worse than normal overclocking but I don't unterstand anything of that))
GTS 450 DDR5
8 GB RAM DDR3

I'll probably set the following: AA 2x or off, Shadow on medium, resolution 1920x1080 or 1650x1050 - rest on high. Should this be able to achieve a decent fps or would I have to reduce settings a bit more (assuming there aren't sudden complications)?

[Emma]

snip

Should be ok, not sure about resolutions. I am sure someone else can shed more light on that.

It will run, of course

[Motionsharp]

Hello Community
As Skyrim seems to be a really fantastic game, I'm also considering getting it. Now as here are very experienced people, I'm curious what results I'd get with the following:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T (2806 MHz, Turbo Core to X3 at 3200 MHz (said to be worse than normal overclocking but I don't unterstand anything of that))
GTS 450 DDR5
8 GB RAM DDR3

I'll probably set the following: AA 2x or off, Shadow on medium, resolution 1920x1080 or 1650x1050 - rest on high. Should this be able to achieve a decent fps or would I have to reduce settings a bit more (assuming there aren't sudden complications)?

Keep AA off, especially at 1920x1080, you might need to lower some draw distances as well, but you can probably increase others (try increasing grass, but lowering actor and object distance.)

[Sheila Reyes]

Hello,

here is my current PC setup - Intel Dual Core E6400@2.94Ghz, 4GB RAM, 8800GT 512MB, Realtek Sound using headphones, 26" LCD 1920x1200

if I want to play high details with shadows AA and all the fancy things at 30-40fps - is it enought for me to upgrade graphics card to GTX560 1GB ?

[brenden casey]

Hello,

here is my current PC setup - Intel Dual Core E6400@2.94Ghz, 4GB RAM, 8800GT 512MB, Realtek Sound using headphones, 26" LCD 1920x1200

if I want to play high details with shadows AA and all the fancy things at 30-40fps - is it enought for me to upgrade graphics card to GTX560 1GB ?

You will probably be limited by your CPU. Reduce shadows and object/actor distances and it might be OK - you would mostly notice it outdoors. Indoors will run very fast as the 560 is a good card - that means you'll be able to add in AF and AA without slowing things down.

[Shaylee Shaw]

I have mainboard LGA775 and dont want to invest to mb & memory at moment, so I can go for relatively cheap upgrade to quad core Q8400 - 2.66 Ghz and GTX560 would it be good improvement for Skyrim ? so instead of above mentioned E6400+8800GT I will go for Q8400 (overclocked maybe 3.3Ghz) and GTX560

[Oceavision]

I have mainboard LGA775 and dont want to invest to mb & memory at moment, so I can go for relatively cheap upgrade to quad core Q8400 - 2.66 Ghz and GTX560 would it be good improvement for Skyrim ? so instead of above mentioned E6400+8800GT I will go for Q8400 (overclocked maybe 3.3Ghz) and GTX560

Yes you need to get the clockspeed up. Going for more cores but a slower chip would actually be a move backwards for this game. A 3.3ghz chip and gtx 560 would give you a good experience with the game however.

[Jenna Fields]

Hi, I've recently decided I'm going to look into upgrading my PC if at all possible and try and get a new graphics card if necessary. At the moment my rig can run Skyrim fairly well on Medium settings, but a lot of other current games are struggling on it. I don't know if it's the processor or the graphics card or what so I thought I'd post here, as most of you know far more about PCs than I could hope.


I currently have an Acer Aspire G7700 that I received a couple of years ago and I have not upgraded it since I received it (Mainly due to a lack of knowledge on how).

My specs are:
64bit Vista Home Premium
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz
2x Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT, 512MB GDDR643
4GB RAM

I was wondering with a budget of around ￡100-￡200, are there any particular upgrades you could recommend? A friend suggested a GTX 550Ti, but I don't know if it would be an upgrade on my current two cards or would it be better to pay a little extra and go for an even more powerful card?
Thanks in advance, guys!

[Esther Fernandez]

Hi, I've recently decided I'm going to look into upgrading my PC if at all possible and try and get a new graphics card if necessary. At the moment my rig can run Skyrim fairly well on Medium settings, but a lot of other current games are struggling on it. I don't know if it's the processor or the graphics card or what so I thought I'd post here, as most of you know far more about PCs than I could hope.


I currently have an Acer Aspire G7700 that I received a couple of years ago and I have not upgraded it since I received it (Mainly due to a lack of knowledge on how).

My specs are:
64bit Vista Home Premium
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz
2x Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT, 512MB GDDR643
4GB RAM

I was wondering with a budget of around ￡100-￡200, are there any particular upgrades you could recommend? A friend suggested a GTX 550Ti, but I don't know if it would be an upgrade on my current two cards or would it be better to pay a little extra and go for an even more powerful card?
Thanks in advance, guys!

A first step would be to get a single more powerful graphics card - definitely something better than the 550ti though! A gtx 560 is about ￡140, same with the AMD 6870 which is also a great choice. Your CPU will become limiting at higher settings though, so make sure to keep shadow detail down (medium). You could look for a second hand CPU upgrade, or buy a nice cooler and overclock.

But it's vital you check your PSU as well. You probably have an OK one, but check it can power upgraded graphics stably (good brand, good performance on the 12V rail/s).

[Tamika Jett]

A first step would be to get a single more powerful graphics card - definitely something better than the 550ti though! A gtx 560 is about ￡140, same with the AMD 6870 which is also a great choice. Your CPU will become limiting at higher settings though, so make sure to keep shadow detail down (medium). You could look for a second hand CPU upgrade, or buy a nice cooler and overclock.

But it's vital you check your PSU as well. You probably have an OK one, but check it can power upgraded graphics stably (good brand, good performance on the 12V rail/s).

Ahh right thanks, so I'm definitely better off with a single powerful card? I've found a GTX 560 for around ￡150 on Aria.co.uk, but there's a 560Ti for an extra ￡20. What's the difference between the two and is it worth paying the extra twenty pound?

Also, I know nothing about PSU quality and performance and the pictures I took were horrific quality. I noted down the details on the side sticker of the PSU as they are all pretty much just random letters and numbers to me. I am a 'noob' of the highest calibre when it comes to this sort of thing.

Delta Electronics

AC Input
100-240V/ 10-5.5A
47Hz-63Hz
Max continuous 750W

DC Output
+3.3V 30A 160W Max
+5V 30A 160W Max
+12V1/2/3/4 18A 648W Max
-12V 0.6A 7.2W
+5VSB 3.5A 17.5W

727.8W Max

Cheers again for the help!

[Robert Devlin]

Ahh right thanks, so I'm definitely better off with a single powerful card?

For Skyrim, definitely.

I've found a GTX 560 for around ￡150 on Aria.co.uk, but there's a 560Ti for an extra ￡20. What's the difference between the two and is it worth paying the extra twenty pound?

The 560ti is a different card, perhaps 10% faster in games that are GPU limited. But you won't see an advantage in Skyrim. Keep looking as you should be able to get a 560 for ￡140 (we got one for ￡137).

Also, I know nothing about PSU quality and performance and the pictures I took were horrific quality. I noted down the details on the side sticker of the PSU as they are all pretty much just random letters and numbers to me. I am a 'noob' of the highest calibre when it comes to this sort of thing.

Delta Electronics

AC Input
100-240V/ 10-5.5A
47Hz-63Hz
Max continuous 750W

DC Output
+3.3V 30A 160W Max
+5V 30A 160W Max
+12V1/2/3/4 18A 648W Max
-12V 0.6A 7.2W
+5VSB 3.5A 17.5W

727.8W Max

Cheers again for the help!

I don't know much about delta, the important figure is the +12 line. The 1/2/3/4 indicates you have four rails, each rated to 18A. This is not as good as it could be, but for a relatively efficient card like the 560 it should be fine (make sure to keep to a stock clocked version, not an overclocked one).

[Christie Mitchell]

I have mainboard LGA775 and dont want to invest to mb & memory at moment, so I can go for relatively cheap upgrade to quad core Q8400 - 2.66 Ghz and GTX560 would it be good improvement for Skyrim ? so instead of above mentioned E6400+8800GT I will go for Q8400 (overclocked maybe 3.3Ghz) and GTX560

Not a bad move. The Q8400 is quite an OCable chip if you're savvy enough to do it. Still find the chip quite capable at stock speeds though for this game.

Ahh right thanks, so I'm definitely better off with a single powerful card? I've found a GTX 560 for around ￡150 on Aria.co.uk, but there's a 560Ti for an extra ￡20. What's the difference between the two and is it worth paying the extra twenty pound?

Also, I know nothing about PSU quality and performance and the pictures I took were horrific quality. I noted down the details on the side sticker of the PSU as they are all pretty much just random letters and numbers to me. I am a 'noob' of the highest calibre when it comes to this sort of thing.

Delta Electronics

AC Input
100-240V/ 10-5.5A
47Hz-63Hz
Max continuous 750W

DC Output
+3.3V 30A 160W Max
+5V 30A 160W Max
+12V1/2/3/4 18A 648W Max
-12V 0.6A 7.2W
+5VSB 3.5A 17.5W

727.8W Max

Cheers again for the help!

Depends on which 560 Ti....there is the original and older 384 Stream Processors version or the newer 448 Stream Processor version. The original Ti was about 10% better overall than the vanilla GTX 560. The newer 560 Ti is a good amount faster being close to GTX 570 speeds.

Your PSU is fine and more than enough. Delta is huge in the OEM markets for providing decent quality power supplies. Wouldn't worry about this one.

[Carlos Vazquez]

I just wanted to contribute to this section by listing my speccs as i have a relatively outdated system (except video card) And am still able to run the game maxed out.



---- Abit IP-35 PRO mobo - This is pretty outdated by a long shot. Abit hasn't even made motherboards now for 3-4 years. Still able to max out modern games with this as my base.

---- Intel Core-2 duo E6750@2.66Ghz (3.0Ghz OC) - Pretty mid range dual core, pretty old. Still I'm able to pump out 25 minimum to well above 60 FPS on Skyrim. So when people tell you your CPU is lacking, it may be just fine. Ideally newer faster chips are better and will improve performance. But I have had no trouble with my CPU at all. The game runs butter smooth 99% of the time.

---- 4GB DDR2 800 Mhz (running around 900 Mhz) Corsair Xms2 4-4-4-12. Once again, pretty outdated stuff. But once again. Still able to run game as mentioned above.

---- Radeon HD 6950 2GB. Yup, I know it's being bottlenecked. But upgrading from a 4870 to a 6950 improved performance more than anything else would in the price range. So, if you have a kinda outdated system like mine, just a new GPU might put you in the ballpark for Ultra maxed settings with no need to blow a bunch of $ on an all new compy.


I play Skyrim at 1080P resolution, 16x inisotrpic filtering, 8x anti-aliasing, everything else at max as well. Sometimes the game can get a little stuttery in certain areas, but this is usually brief as i think my system is basically just trying to keep up with my GPU. NOTE- After installing the "skyboost" performance mod I get average of 5-10 FPS higher than before eliminating virtually any noticeable slow down of FPS. I highly recommend getting it if your pushing your system like I am.

There you have it. Go home naysayers. Old dual cores and DDR2 runs Skyrim just fine. A nice mofern GPU is required, but heck that's a lot less than an entire overhaul! Heck, I can play pretty much any game maxed out with this rig still. BF3 runs smooth as butter all maxed same res as skyrim. So if you got crappy FPS on an old system, I recommend first upgrading your video card and going from there depending on the results you get.

Oh ya... I'm also running several graphics mods including the HD texture pack. Still runs like a charm!

[natalie mccormick]

Hi, I've recently decided I'm going to look into upgrading my PC if at all possible and try and get a new graphics card if necessary. At the moment my rig can run Skyrim fairly well on Medium settings, but a lot of other current games are struggling on it. I don't know if it's the processor or the graphics card or what so I thought I'd post here, as most of you know far more about PCs than I could hope.


I currently have an Acer Aspire G7700 that I received a couple of years ago and I have not upgraded it since I received it (Mainly due to a lack of knowledge on how).

My specs are:
64bit Vista Home Premium
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz
2x Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT, 512MB GDDR643
4GB RAM

I was wondering with a budget of around ￡100-￡200, are there any particular upgrades you could recommend? A friend suggested a GTX 550Ti, but I don't know if it would be an upgrade on my current two cards or would it be better to pay a little extra and go for an even more powerful card?
Thanks in advance, guys!

See my other post in this thread i just put up. You do NOT need to upgrade your CPU. I run a core-2 duo 2.66Ghz and Skyrim runs fine. A new GPU is what will drastically boost your performance. I have a radeon HD 6950 which only cost me $220. You could upgrade your CPU if you had money, but i doubt it would help much at all. If I were you in your shoes, I'd keep everything i have and buy a graphics card. 6950's are pretty good values and will run virtually any game out there maxed out relatively well. a GTX560 is another good choice, but a 6950 is better IMO. a GTX570 is pretty spendy but will murder anything out there. And a Radeon HD 6970 will also handle any game out there. Radeons are usually better value as they cost less and perform well. But if you've got money to blow Nvidia's are the way to go imo. Both are gonna get the job done perfectly fine. I kind of just comes down to preference and how much $ you want to spend. A new processor, say a Core i5, will boost performance, but only with updated graphics cards too. So please dont buy a processor thinkign it will boost your FPS, cause it will not. Pretty much any GPU I mentioned above will allow you to destroy Skyrim, even with your current CPU. Hope this helps! [For your budget a GTX560 or Radeon HD 6950 is your best bet.]

[Lillian Cawfield]

Thanks for all the input guys! Looks like I will just go for a new graphics card. I just need to now find either the GTX 560 or the Radeon HD 6950 and see which is cheaper.

One final little question though, does the make of the GPU matter? For example Asus, eVGA, Sapphire or XFX etc. Or is the difference in these makes purely appearance based?

Cheers again.

[Lizs]

Some of the brands offer better service and better warranties, a couple of brands have questionable QA on occasion. Asus, eVGA, Gigabyte, and HIS do have good reputations, and good service, TTBOMK.