I posted earlier in the thread asking about a system, but I was wondering if changing the graphic card from a AMD 6950 to a GTX 570 would still enable me to comfortably play the game on the highest settings?

Thanks.

while it's a pretty significant step down it would probably still play on highest settings with no problem.

here, for future reference, these are great charts: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2011-gaming-graphics-charts/benchmarks,123.html

edit...lol sorry, thought you said 6990. that should be a fairly even swap.

I wondered, because the 570 has a decent lead over the 6950 in the link you provided.

Thanks all the same.

I would like to add that if you live in Canada, Newegg.ca for parts and PC is a good option but I prefer NCIX.com to be better for buying PC's and parts. You choose the parts, they assemble and test it for a mere $50 (if you're under $2000. If you're over, assembly is free).

A GTX 560 or HD 6850? The HD is cheaper but with the 560 you get Crysis 2 Limited Ed.

Ok. I'll add my guess....

Minimum System Requirements:

CPU: Any Core 2 Duo from 1.8 Ghz onwards. Skyrim won't run on single-core CPUs ( So long Pentium 4, you served us well)

RAM: 1.5 GB for Windows XP SP3- 2 GBs for Windows Vista/7

HDD: Around 10-15 GBs.

GPU: Geforce 7900 GT - Dx 9 compatible - 256 MB VRAM


Recommended System Specs:

CPU: Quad Core CPU. They are going to recommend an I7.

RAM: 3 GBs. I can't see Skyrim asking for more RAM than that.

GPU: From any mid-ranged Geforce 400s/Radeon HD5000 GPU onwards. - 512 MB VRAM


Uber System Specs, to play with everything maxed out at high resolutions:

CPU: A high-end Quad Core CPU. The game will benefit from extra cores but not that much.

RAM: +4 GBs - It's not about quantity, but speed of RAM.

HDD: A good SSD disk will help to get faster load times and a smoother gameplay experience.

GPU: High-End Geforce 500/Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs, with more than 1 GBs of VRAM.



And that's it. Let's wait for the official specs and see how close (or not) we were ;P

Very nice thread. Everything in my PC would be perfect for tip-top graphics, except my GPU is an ATI 5770 :/

If you want to play crysis 2 then its worth it. They are on level pegging.

@scamp that should still run it fine on high graphics. Its a good card.

Agreed apart from the quad core needed for max graphics. Quad core is only if you want lots of mods

Edit : Also there is no way they will reccomend an I7, that's completely unnecessary. I5 750, at the most.

they might recommend a quad core depending on how the new engine is designed.....

That's still not definite, and I doubt very much if that will be the case. The main focus is going to be on the consoles and those are all DX 9 machines. So they're not going to completely recode the PC version so that it only uses DX 11. Not to mention that there are still alot of people that don't have DX 11 cards yet, the technology is still relatively new. So they're not going to make it exclusive, it just wouldn't make economic sense. It sounds like they're going to add some DX 11 features into where ever they can but that it will primarily be a DX 9 game. Firaxis did the same thing with Civilization 5. People with DX 11 cards gained some benefits, but DX 9 people weren't excluded either.

DX 11 was confirmed by todd howard himself. Whether skyrim will use DX 11 FEATURES or not though, is another question.

@gecko Yes, the engine that is designed on the bad CPU of the xbox 360. Trust me, quad core is only for mods.

That doesn't mean that it will be exclusively DX 11, only that it will make use of some of the features in that technology. It would make absolutely no sense to rewrite everything into two separate formats, one for consoles, the other for PC. They'll stick in some DX 11 functionality where they can, but it will basically be a DX 9 game. Exactly the same way Firaxis did it for Civilization 5. There just aren't enough people with DX 11 cards right now to make it economically feasible to make it exclusive to that format alone.

yeah I see what you mean by that.

... Wait a second.... Oh god... Well it's time to unleash my deadly plan: Ask for a new PC before my birthday.

I should have specified it a little bit.

My line of thought was like this:

While there's no proof of this I think the game engine foundation is the 360's CPU. That's a triple-core system. So, Dual Core CPUs would run the game just ok, but not great. 3-Core-Cpus like some AMD models and Quad Core Intel/AMD models will have all the power you need. And hexa-core CPUS won't speed up the game a whole lot, but they are going to be even better than Quad Core CPUS, anyway.

Now, by "i7" or i5 I meant the first-generation of iWhatever Cpus. Today's dual-core CPUS are much more efficient than my ancient Core 2 Duo, that's why I think C2D from 2006 is the oldest CPU you'd need, and Quad Core Cpus from 2008 if you want to get closer to the "recommended" specs.

"Quad core is only if you want lots of mods "

And I want tons of mods, anyway

That thing which you quoted... trust me, pentium 4 is not dead.

if you are ordering a new pc it is

I feel your RAM requirement in the OP was a little low. I would suggest probably at least 6 GB of ram will be needed to run Skyrim in top graphics and even then there might be stuttering depending on the dual core processor's clockspeed in conjunction. Personally I suggest 8 GB of ram as that will definitely make sure you have the raw power to make sure you can run Skyrim in full graphics. Also, wouldn't hurt to overclock the 460 and CPU either.

If your getting a ready made computer I suppose, but you can still buy one individually on lots of sites :]

No way. 6 gigs of RAM is only used by 64 bit systems, and most people are still using a 32 bit OS. There's no way they would design the game to require that much RAM. Not to mention, that all the basic design parameters are going to be based on consoles, and none of those have a great deal of memory. The Xbox leads at 512 mg, so the basic operating specs for the PC are going to revolve around that somewhere. I'd put minimum at 1 gig with recommended at 2.

The bottom line is that since the primary focus is going to be on console sales, you only need look at those to get an rough idea of what will be required. Since their technology hasn't changed in 5 years, then any game made by Bethesda in the last few years is going to be the benchmark. This means that looking at Fallout New Vegas, being their latest title, will probably give you the best estimate of what the game will require on the PC, with the exception that a DX 11 card will be listed as recommended. I doubt very much if the requirements will be any different than New Vegas otherwise.

according to this i can pretty much run it with everything on top graphics then just reduce something unneccessary like shadows or water quality or whatever with my current system, however i honestly still want to upgrade my pc, get a 120hz monitor and all that jive.

Nice thread btw.

If you're getting a PC for Skyrim it's best to wait until at least October. AMD's bulldozer will probably shift around CPU pricing and video card prices may change by then too.

What do you think about using other OS's such as Linux Ubuntu? Would Skyrim possibly run on that or is it too soon to tell?

Agreed. I think it's crazy to purchase before October, maybe even the end of October. Around September I'd start looking for specials and discounts, and I'd start purchasing then if I was buying components separately, and only if the deals were great.