I don't personally own a 220, like you say, it isn't a gaming card - but it's capable of playing most games reasonably well, surprisingly.

A useful resource I've used in the past:

http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/502403-graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-last.html

It's a ranked list of graphics cards. With so many model numbers out there, it's sometimes hard to tell which are stronger than others just by the numbers. This list can help.

For example....


These cards range from #110 on the list (8600GT) to #57 (5670)......



These ones range from #59 (8800GT) to #39 (4870)



And I certainly hope the minimums are at least a little bit lower, since mine isn't quite as strong.
(I'm at #122, with an HD2600XT/256... was able to run Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age, and FO3/NV. On low-mid. And I can't upgrade it, since my computer's an all-in-one. Which is a shame, since I have a 4650/512 I won as a door prize. Heh.)

Hey,btw Supahdonkey, I'm a major nabcake when it comes to systems and rigs. However, I've got an intel i7 950 at like 3 ghz, nvidia gtx 460 and 6 bg ram i think. Your thoughts on this and skyrim? XD

Can I just say thanks to the OP for starting this thread. It is really helpful to people like me, who are looking to get into PC gaming, but know little about it. Speaking of which, based on the OP's predictions, I assume this system I am thinking of getting would be able to run Skyrim on max settings, wouldn't it?

Intel i5-2500 Quad Core 3.3 GHz
ASUS P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0)
8GB RAM 1333 Mhz
2GB AMD Radeon HD6950
60GB SSD
1TB Hard Drive

Thanks.

Very good topic. Thanks especially for clearing up the misconception that you'd need an i7 or hexacore CPUs to play newer games on high settings.

I still have an AMD 4830 which I plan to replace with a GTX 560 Ti by November. Otherwise I'll be fine - and so will probably most of PC gamers.

Thanks for the list, might put a few more cards into my list and clean it up a bit. Anyhow, im about to edit in a little bit for people playing at 1024x1024 resolutions. If it can run NV on low mid then it can probably run skyrim.

@Adoring fan, more than enough, definently max.
@fireal almost definently max, ever thought of a 2nd 460? I think that I7 overpowers it. Im running two 570's with my I7

I was planning of adding a second one, yeah, or perhaps two entirely new ones by november, if i can afford it.

Cheers, thanks a lot.

Oh realy?

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:System_Requirements

http://kotaku.com/#!5062487/fallout-3-+-the-system-requirements

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/10/04/fallout-new-vegas-pc-specs-announced/1

Notice anything?

To be fair, they were optimizing the same basic engine through those three games. Skyrim having a new engine, it may have new issues. :shrug:

That system will absolutly destroy any game on the market until the next gen drops at the very least, I guarantee it.

I've got this system build in the mail as we speak:

• APEVIA X-DREAMER3-BK Black Metal ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ front LCD temperature indicator, transparent side panel window and 3 120mm fans at front, side and rear.
  
• OCZ StealthXstream II 700W ATX12V v2.2/ EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Power Supply w/ 4 +12v rails and 2 PCI 6 pin power connectors.
  
• GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATAIII 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard w/ Dual PCIe 2.1, 2.6 gig FSB and exclusive auto unclock.
  
• AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor w/ unlocked multiplier.
  
• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATAIII 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
  
• ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner
  
• CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 Desktop Memory
  
• HIS IceQ X Turbo Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity and manufacturer overclock.
  
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express x1 Interface Sound Card w/ Adv Hd 5.0, X-ram and digital audio out.
  
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I'll throw another 6850 in there by time Skyrim gets here. I'm confident it will crush everything I throw at it, especially in a year or so when I upgrade to an SSD.

Yes, and you know what I notice? I notice, that all 3 of those games use the same engine, and the person doing the requirements didnt say anything about the resolution.
Maybe that card was a little better than I thought.

Great thanks, and very nice system you've got there.

I built myself a new rig as well. Mostly for Skyrim, but for other things as well. The pride and joy of my rig is my new monitor - a 24" LG with 1080p HD. Makes everything so much clearer.

But my system boils down to this:

AMD Athlon II x4
4gigs Kingston Hyperblue
Dual GeForce GTS 450's (in SLI mode)
Western Digital 500gig hd.

I suppose nothing too special but it makes me happeh.

Its pretty solid. Good value.

Would it make a massive difference if I took out the SSD and went with a 2TB Hard Drive? It lowers the cost by quite a bit.

For games, not so much. The SSD will lower inital loading times, but you will hardly notice anything afterwards.
I only have my OS and some minor programs which I use frequently on my SSD.

That's great, thanks.

So you haven't bought it yet?

Not worth it to me to buy Sata II with III right there nor do i want anything smaller than 120gig. Sata III HDD's are affordable and performance is comparable to Sata II SSD. Me personally, I'm waiting until the 128gig Sata III SSD reaches 150$ and then I'll buy, should be about this time next year, so I will wait. If you got the cheese for an Sata III SSD though, I say go for it.

Suggesting slower more expensive DDR2 for a new rig is asinine, as is suggesting 4 year old GPUs like the 8600 GT, the 7800GT.

That you group a 8600GT and a 7800GT in the same class as a 9600GT shows you have a poor understanding of hardware.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=557&card2=313

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=557&card2=513

You say I have a poor understanding of hardware when your mixing a Q9450 with a 5970? I'm not saying they are the same, they still vary. I guess I could change it to a 9600 GSO or something like that to bring it a bit closer.
DDR 2 is all you need for basic gaming, obviously you would go DDR 3 if you want a proper enthusiast machine. We are talking a console port here, not crysis or something like that.

No, I haven't bought it yet, but I am hoping to secure the funds relatively soon. Needless to say, savings that do not compromise performance are very welcome, hence the removal of the SSD.

This "system requirements guide" also applies to pretty much any new game about to be released when you think about it...

I have an alienware m15x. If it's a completely new engine that could mean either it's gonna take a ridiculous computer to play it or it could mean nothing at all. For now my preorder is on the 360 version.

I guess you can wait for SSD prices to come down. For me an SSD made a big difference with startup times (windows installed on it ofc) and the loading times of a few applications I had such as photoshop and microsoft flight simulator.