Okay so I was talking to my computer tech guy and he wants to sell me a Nvidia Gforce 550 TI for $170. I currently have a Nvidia Gforce 450 which isn't TI whatever that means. He says it will be a lot better then my 450, but I heard TI's aren't very good am I mistaken? I want my Skyrim to be 100% smooth on ultra graphics, with my 450 its SO close to being smooth but not quite there! So any opinions? Like opinions on price and how good it is? Oh by the way I live in Australia so for you Americans $170 is more like $140 - $160

Huh, no. Ti is a better version of the standard card. But that's a bit of a crap deal seeing as how it costs around $130 here in the US. The 560 Ti is much superior but the 550 Ti is still better than the 450 so go for it.

I don't know anything about Nvidia cards, but it doesn't sound like much of a jump. My rule of thumb is that an upgrade's only necessary/reasonable if the first number is at least 2 above my card, e.g. an upgrade to a Gforce 650 from a Gfoce 450. Even then, I usually just wait for the first number to be 3 above before I swap them out.

I use ATI, though, so I could just be talking nonsense.

Anyone else?

I just did some research and imo there wont be much of a difference... Do you disagree?

560 TI or bust.

Tell him you'll give him 120 and not a cent higher.

new cards will be releasing soon. very soon.

if you want your skyrim to run smooth and on ultra, you had better start tweeking, turning knobs and modding, because it is horrid un-optimized console trash. (meaning, console port to the max)

No, I don't. There isn't much of a difference, but it's a bit better anyways. If you're going to get a Ti than get the 560 Ti. But if you just want a better GPU then give me your budget and I'll get you the best card.

I'll say $250 and I need the place to be willing to post to Australia without costing way extra.. :/

And to the OP's surprise, after he gets the "best" card, the game will still run gash, until it is tweeked/modded for his system specs.

if you want to see how well your system does, benchmark it properly. DO NOT use a poorly optimized game to decide if you need new hardware.

Yeah my specs are

CPU: 3.4GHz
GFX: Nvidia 450
Ram: 8GB

Do you think its not my computer and maybe the game?

I got a 550ti OC version and it runs the game fairly well. 50-60 fps all the time on high settings with a 1920x1080 resolution.

well your card can be upgraded, but TBH, unless you're willing to spend $500+ don't even bother. You'll literally be paying XXX amount of dollars for XXX amount of (limited) FPS gain.

I run this game with 2 460's SLI'd and now and again I'll get my FPS crushed. Yes, I have tweaked, twisted, turned knobs etc etc etc. This isn't my first time at the rodeo, if you catch my meaning.

to make it short OP, save your money and buy more games, you'll be happier until you do a FULL system Upgrade.(when needed)

That's quad core, right?

If so ... yeah, it might be the game.

I had a bit of a similar problem.

Here's a quick check you can make: When you open the game, alt-tab out of it, open your task manager, go to 'Processes', right click on the TES item, and set the priority to 'High'.

This made a huge, huge difference in my game. No stuttering, no jerkiness- perfection.

If this fixes your problems, don't bother with a new card until the new series comes out.

Addendum: if this is a solution to your problems, I'll assume Skyrim was very poorly optimised for the PC.

OP here is a site that has proved invaluable to me. There are others that I use as well but I hit this one up first ;D.

http://www.tweakguides.com/

/edit
another great site

http://www.guru3d.com/

You could need an upgrade with your Geforce 450, yet a 550 ti is only barely faster. Below a Geforce 560 ti / Radeon HD 6950 2GB I would not upgrade. Exchanging a card that is a good deal to slow with a card that is still to slow isn't an upgrade worth ~120$.