Hi. I know that games like Skyrim generally tend to be highly CPU dependant when it comes to performance, but do you think that a GPU upgrade would make a substantial change on performance? Has anyone gone through a GPU change and seen the level of change that your FPS gets? My CPU is pitiful (i5 650) for Skyrim, but I will be upgrading from a GT430 to a GTX660 or a 660ti (which is the highest I can go with my CPU without any bottlenecks). I'm wondering if that would give me a substantial performance boost or not.

Check out http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1433825-unofficial-will-my-pc-run-skyrim-thread-62-w-hardware-guide/ (particularly the opening post).

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the two cards.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=644&card2=670

So the answer to your question is yes, you should see a substantial performance boost. If you're going to try out the official HD texture packs, or any high resolution texture mods, you'll want to pick a card with more than 1GB of VRAM. Also, make sure your PSU has enough capacity to handle the extra power demand of the new card. Many pre-built computers come with PSUs in the 250W - 300W range, and in that case you'll need to upgrade that as well.

Cool thanks. Yeah I realized I probably will have to upgrade my PSU

I actually just went from a GT460 OC to a GTX 660 because the 460 crapped out on me mid-game the other day. I am running an amd phenom II x4 3.2 with 8GB of RAM and I have all my settings at max/ultra and it runs smooth like buttah, heh. not sure what your RAM and PSU are but if they are simliar to mine you should be fine. My PSU is a 650W and the GTX 660 that I bought has a low power draw also so I didn't have to upgrade my PSU with it either. what is the speed of that CPU by the way?

Processor Number i5-650 (socket 1156)

Cores: 2, Threads: 4,

Clock Speed: 3.2 GHz
Max Turbo Frequency: 3.46 GHz
Intel? Smart Cache: 4 MB
Instruction Set: 64-bit
Instruction Set Extensions: SSE4.2
Lithography: 32 nm
Max TDP: 73 W

I doubt it - you should be fine.

The more complete answer is that it will depend on what games/settings/resolution you play at, but I don't think you need a CPU upgrade to use something like a 660.

you'll find a similar discussion here, about my Hardware ---> http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1460183-what-gpu-can-fit-a-core-2-quad-q9400/

I have a Core 2 Quad Q9400@3.2GHz, 4GB DDR2-800, Intel P35 mobo, WesternDigital Caviar Black...

I used to have an ATI HD5850 1GB which could run vanilla Skyrim (high settings) @50fps and @70% gpu load, on average; after going trough the S.T.E.P. modding guide (Baseline) I got 35fps on average and a lot of stuttering when outdoor, because of the shortage of VRAM and the 95% gpu load.

I was very lucky and could buy an ATI HD7870 GHz Edition 2GB for little money; then, I updated the S.T.E.P. to Extreme, with all the bells and whistles... Now I can play @60 fps (capped) indoor and @45fps outdoor, with a 60% average gpu load...

The cpu average load is 50% (before and after the upgrade)... It seems Skyrim can't handle multithreading very well.

I think that, provided you are not gpu or cpu bound (100% load all the time), it's way more important to have a lot of VRAM