Hey guys I have always played games on consoles dating back to the original Nintendo, but after seeing screen shots for Skyrim on the PC I know my 360 will not quite look the same as those beautiful shots. So I do not know much about computers at all and I would really like to get the full experience while playing this awesome game. My PC is an HP Pavilion, AMD Phenom x4, and it says graphics by Nvidia Purevideo. I don't know if this is already good enough to run Skyrim but any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again

All screenshots released so far are from the 360 build.

At this point, there is only speculation. Until it gets closer to the game being released, we don't know anything for absolute :shrug:

Most integrated chipsets will most likely not run skyrim at all, I'm afraid. Depending on the rest of your system you may be able to buy a cheap graphics card and run it higher than console graphics, but either way I'd reccomend waiting until closer to release until we have some proper required specs.

You should definitely wait until we're closer to release before upgrading.

In the meantime, you should start getting acquainted to how hardware works. Start reading about graphic cards on sites like Tom's hardware.

www.tomshardware.com

There are other, perhaps better sites. But if you're a newbie, Tom's hardware could be quite good. Every month they list the best hardware in different price ranges.

It could also be a good idea to register at a hardware site's forum and ask there instead of here.

**Double post, please delete mods!**

1: todd has stated we get higher resolution screens
2: bethesda has stated the versions will look about the same.

1+1= pretty basic gaming rigs. If you can run oblivion w/ quarls in high/max just fine you'll probably run this just fine. Better example if you can run crysis at med/high you'll probably be fine with oblivion.

Alright thanks guys I'll wait til some more info is released and yea everything in my PC is all stock parts and nothings been upgraded. But are there some good graphics cards you can point me to that will surely run this game?

Here are the minimum and recommended specs for a few other 2011 releases

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-area51-alx/pd?refid=alienware-area-51-alx&~ck=mn :hubbahubba:

I guess I should hit up the local casino and hope to win the jackpot. :biggrin:

For such an expensive desktop, it's a bit odd that Dell offers no SSD options.

Now, there's one hilariously overexpensive machine!

I think I can answer you question appropriately at this point, but I need to know what you have. Download some program to show what your hardware is. Something like Speccy [google it]. I need your exact CPU and graphics.

CPU: Being a 1st gen Phenom, you are clock limited... this shouldn't matter if Skyrim is quad optimized. What to do about the CPU will have to wait until the minimum/recommended specs come out.

GPU: If you have stock graphics on the HP Pavillion, if you haven't upgraded.... and if you did you'd sound like you know more than it sounds like you know... so I'm guessing you didn't, then you will need a Graphics Card and a reliable Power Supply capable of running it.

At this point, save up some money... about $300 optimally. If your not going to install the PSU and GPU yourself, plan on another $100 for labor unless you can find a friend. A knowledgeable college/high school student will do it for half.

Thanks for the help I downloaded it and this is what I have::

Operating system
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit SP1

CPU
AMD Phenom X4 9750 38 °C
Agena 65nm Technology
RAM
8.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 400MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard
MSI Aspen (Socket AM2 ) 100 °C
Graphics
HP w2338h (1920x1080@60Hz)
512MB GeForce 9500 GS (MSI) 54 °C
Hard Drives
732GB AMD 1+0 RAID Ready SCSI Disk Device (RAID)
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH40L SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

@ OP:

The folks over in Community Discussion are very knowledgeable and could really give you some excellent advice on what to buy or build. Of course you may get some of that help here, I'm just offering you an alternative http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1160717-the-community-tech-thread-no-96/.

Thanks I will check it out as well

That's not sufficient info to judge your rig. Here are the main factors:

Processor:
Processor speed (measured in MHz or GHz) and number of cores (f.e. dual-core)
I recommend at least a dual-core processor with 2.6 GHz or better.

RAM:
Rcommend at least 3GB, DDR3 if possible

Graphics:
This is the most important part. NVidia chipset based graphics cards are all very different depending on the series of the chipset, that can be determined by it's number. But for some mysterious reason NVidia uses a very engimatic numbering system: The fewer digits in the number the better. NVidia GeForce 9500 GT is worse than NVidia Geforce GTX 260. Also, the older GT series were numbered strangely as well - the first digit is the series and the last three are the type. There are three types: bare essentials (200), medium (500) and power-gaming (800). So a 9500 isn't necesserily better than a 8800.
I recommend at least a 9500 or one of the more expensive GTX models.

Alienware charges out the ass for the computers. I built my desktop with better specs then the best specs you can get for the Alienware Area-51 ALX for less than half the price. Alienware is highway robbery.



Oh they do but only up to 512 mb of SSD. My computer has 1TB SSD raid 0, it's expensive as hell but worth it.

Looks good enough for me. The only thing that won't let you play on high settings is your GeForce 9500. But it'll handle the defaults fine. Though you might want to consider to upgrade your graphics card a year from now.

Unfortunately at this time, the tech behind DDR3 isn't good enough to make it worth having less ram over something else. If you can get an equivalent amount of DDR3 RAM compared to your DDR2 then it's worth it but if you have say 12 GB DDR3 then 16GB DDR2 will let you be better off. I would love to be able to replace my 24 GB of ddr2 with ddr3 but I still can't find packs with enough ram to get to 24gb of ddr3. My motherboard has 6 slots for ram which is a top dollar motherboard and there just isn't large enough ddr3 memory blocks to reach 24 GB :sadvaultboy:

Hm, I didn't know that. It's a thing to consider if you're buying a new rig though.
And for the games of the current generation anything above 6GB is over the top anyway.

You can't find enough packs of DDR3 4GB sticks?

Or they are too expensive?

The things in bold is all that really matters. A 9500GS isn't going to cut it and the PSU that runs it won't run the kind of GPUs you'll be looking for. So you will need replacements. A decent PSU runs $50-$70. Corsair, Antec [except BP series], Seasonic, Xigmatek are ok too. Unless you want to start some PC gaming prior to Skyrim... and there are an unusually high number of AAA games coming this year, you can hold off. AMD HD7xxx series comes late summer/early fall and moves to a 28nm process with Nvidia following suit around then too. If you want in on some great games coming between now and summer, then the AMD HD6850 or HD6870 or the GTX 460 1GB are the current cards that, along with a PSU, will run $250-$300. [...and then add the cost of installation, however you get it done] As for the CPU, it doesn't look like your mobo will take an upgrade to Phenom II/Athlon II, so you're sort of stuck. I think the CPU will suffice. It isn't the best, but I doubt the game won't run on it.

Of course, taking a 2nd look at your specs, I'm sort of concerned about that 100c. That's high. If there is a place for a fan or two, I'd consider adding them.

And they'll all be the same as far as we know.

The specs are probably not going to be all that high...