Hey there. Currently I'm extremely skeptical that my rig would play Oblivion, let alone Skyrim. It doesn't even play Black and White 2, and that's saying something I guess. I wouldn't really know where to start with upgrading things, but I'd presume a graphics card improvement would be a helluva good start. If I post a rough overview of my system hardware, could you folks provide suggestions for primary improvements to make? Maybe suggestions on good affordable graphics cards too?

I mean, I have Oblivion on '360 anyway, so it's not like getting it for the PC is an imperative... But I don't think I'd be able to play Skyrim the same way. I need mods, gorramit.


The stuff (tell me if anything else is required):

• AMD Athlon II X4 630 Processor (2.80 GHz)
  
• 4GB RAM
  
• NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

If it was a laptop, the Chipset video chip would normally be described as a "Mobile" one, so you have an empty add-on slot for a graphics card upgrade. The 6150 is a real dog of a Chipset video chip, but that was nevertheless a PCIe chipset, despite its age.

Nope, it's a desktop computer, not a laptop. So, work on the graphics card then? Any suggestions for an affordable one?

What's your budget?

What's your screen resolution?

If you haven't shopped lately (past two years + / -), the prices have really become bargains.

Currently the screen resolution is 1680 x 1050, which I believe is the max for this particular monitor. And no, I haven't been shopping in that time period - computer is still pretty much stock. I think there may be a small RAM upgrade in there somewhere, but otherwise, that's it. Shop brought, pretty much.

I don't really know what the budget would be seeing as I don't know the average prices. I'm willing to leave the actually purchase until Skyrim's specs are released, but I'd like a good idea of the sort of thing to be looking for. Maybe something that I could play Oblivion on in the meantime (mostly so I could get at those wonderful mods, and play around with the Construction Set, as I loved doing with Morrowind ).

That resolution is quite high, and would put some strain on the more ordinary of Mainline Gaming cards. If we use FNV as a marker for what gamesas's game engine has reached as of now,

Minimum System Requirements (VGAs corrected for Obsidian stupidity):

* Windows XP/Vista/Win7
* 1GB System RAM (XP)/ 2GB System RAM (Vista)
* 2.0 Ghz Dual Core processor
* Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 256MB RAM
(NVIDIA 6800 "GS" or better/ ATI X1300XT or better)
{Added my note here, the X1600 Pro & up really, and
avoid both the Geforce 6800 SE, and the 6800 XT}
* 10 GBs of free hard drive space

Recommended System Requirements:

* Windows XP/Vista/Win7
* Intel Core 2 Duo processor (or the equivalent AMD Phenom)
* 2 GB System RAM
* Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM
(NVIDIA 8800 series, ATI 3800 series)
* 10 GBs of free hard drive space

None of the named minimum or recommended cards are still in production, although all but the 6800 SE / XT would run Oblivion.

The equivalent of the HD 3850 today is the HD 6850, while the equivalent of the Geforce 8800 is the GTX460 (more or less, anyway).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125348

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125352

And you will need a new power supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004

Right. Thank you for the input, you've been really helpful.

I'll keep my eye on those products you listed, and have a look at alternates of similar level. If push comes to shove I can save until the specs for Skyrim are released, then buy then. That'll lower the price of current technology, or give me the flexibility to scale up as required. Again, thank you for the help.

I think "equivalent" is a bad term to use here. The Radeon 6950 destroys the 3850....like-wise the GTX 460 to the GeForce 8800.

The Radeon 3850 is more matched by something in between the Radeon 5570 and 5670. The GeForce 8800 is more closer to something like the GTS 440

Actually, rather than the benchmark equivalent, since both are / were 256-bits worth for memory, what I wanted was a current 256 bit replacement, and I purposely omitted the HD 5700s, siince both are 128 bit. I also made no reference to the HD 6950 or the Geforce GTX 580.