UESP Forums

New to TES and forums, but not new to Bethesda's work, long time Fallout fan.

In case this has already been answered somewhere I apologize as it is early and my brain can't handle much before I have my coffee, anyways here is my question.

Are the PC specs for Skyrim floating around somewhere? Have they been officially released or at least speculated on other newer PC released games such as The Witcher 2?

I have always loved the deep, immersive, lore heavy RPG games, played Morrowind way back in the day on my Xbox and as a general rule of thumb, console versions are sub par to their PC cousins and was thoroughly unimpressed. Having seen Skyrim in person at this years E3 I recently picked up a copy of Oblivion for my PS3 only to find out that most of the DLC is unavailable on PSN. Despite these facts and the utterly aggravating leveling system of Oblivion I have very much enjoyed the game so far, currently lvl 35 and still going.

Skyrim will no doubt be vastly superior an experience on the PC compared to the console versions, if not the out of box version then with the help of the insanely dedicated modding community. I am unsure if my current machine could handle Skyrim and would like to play it on the highest possible settings. So with all that said, what would be required in a PC to run the game with minimal hits to performance? Even if the info is just suggestive all opinions are helpful. I can include my system specs upon request if any of the "geeks" out there want to tell me where to spend money. I am not a tech friendly person but follow directions and instructions very well so just tell me what to do.

Thanks in advance!

Hi assassin! Welcome to the Forums. Be sure to have brushed up on the Forum Rules and swing by to say hello to everybody too!

The official PC specs for Skyrim have not been released yet, but I'm sure Bethesda will announce them in due time.

These are some predicted requirements, but they are just speculation, although perhaps a very rough guide:

systemrequirements wrote:Minimum System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz or Althon X2 2.0 GHz
* RAM: 3 GB
* HDD: 15 GB
* Graphics: 512 MB card
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c
Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Core 2 Quad 3 GHz
* RAM: 3 GB
* HDD: 15 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c
Supported Graphics Cards:
Minimum – 8800 GT
Recommanded – Geforce GTX 460/Radeon 5850

One thing to note, I doubt that the game will require 15GB of HDD space. Even though the game gets better meshes for PC, it fits on one disc for Xbox, so it can't be that big. Also, DirextX 9 is almost 'old' now that we have DirectX 11 .

You'll be the first to know when something official pops up, but for now, welcome!

OblivionDuruza wrote: Also, DirextX 9 is almost 'old' now that we have DirectX 11 .

IIRC it was mentioned in one of Todd's interviews that DX11 won't be required, but if you have a DX11 card you will be able to take advantage of some DX11 optimization features implemented in Skyrim.

OblivionDuruza wrote:What I mean is, Oblivion uses Direct X9. 11 is the latest version, so I don't expect it to be a requirement, but I don't know, Direct X10?

No, it's been stated explicitely the game will work with DX9, they don't want to alienate users who still use Windows XP (a larger number than anybody thinks)

"Recommanded – Geforce GTX 460/Radeon 5850"


Crap.... I have a Radeon 5770
Looks like I might have to update my graphics card

OblivionDuruza wrote:Okay then, I had not read that anywhere (link would be nice). In that case, it's not really a concern of mine regardless. We'll know the full details in due time.

http://www.giantbomb.com/the-elder-scro ... 35-491686/

that nice link for you.

The game's specs should be pretty lenient, kinda has to be if it can run on consoles as well.

OblivionDuruza wrote: ...One thing to note, I doubt that the game will require 15GB of HDD space. Even though the game gets better meshes for PC, it fits on one disc for Xbox, so it can't be that big. ...

I have my doubts about this. There are more than a few Xbox 360 games out there published on multiple discs.

Thank you OD for the info in that post, and to the rest of you, as stated all contributions are helpful.

My current system run on XP pro as I can't stomach Vista and can't afford a legit copy of Win7 at the moment.

This is what I am currently using, taken from Dxdiag.

GPU: GeForce 9500GT
RAM: 4 gigs (max that XP will use even tho i have 8 in the case)
Processor: Intel Core2 Quad CPU @ 2.4GHz (4 CPU's)

The other parts are fairly standard and cost efficient.

I have not really done any heavy PC gaming mainly due to the fact that i can't afford to keep upgrading my machine but I would be willing to make that sacrifice if Skyrim is half the game I am hoping for. So I might not be aware as to what exactly my machine can handle in extremes. The most graphically intense game i play on my PC is Heroes of Might and Magic V and its expansions (been a fan since the first game).

OblivionDuruza wrote:Cool, thanks. Looks like I'll be able to run Skyrim on the top side of the scale and still expect good performance.

@Dark Sprak, yeah but is it really 3 times bigger than Oblivion?

I think I recall watching a video on youtube where one of the devs stated the game world of Skyrim was comparable with that of Oblivion but they packed something like 3x the content, excluding dungeons.

Jormungand wrote:"Recommanded – Geforce GTX 460/Radeon 5850"


Crap.... I have a Radeon 5770
Looks like I might have to update my graphics card

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions based on the "estimated" information on that website. At least wait until Bethesda releases the official minimum specs and recommended specs.

Skyrim is not likely to be much more demanding than most other 2010-2011 games. And your AMD 5770 is a DX11 card, so it will be able to take advantage of Skyrim's DX11 optimization features, resulting in a higher frame rate.

If you are using a 1080p or 1200p monitor, the AMD 5770, Nvidia GTX 460 (even the GTS 450), are among the lower end DX11 cards that can still deliver acceptable frame rates for most recent games. If your monitor is lower resolution, then you can drop down to a lower ranked card.

I have the AMD 5830m card in my laptop, which is basically a gimped version of the desktop 5770, and I'm able to get perfectly acceptable frame rates for just about every game I've tried at 1080p, most if not all settings maxed. Hopefully Skyrim will prove no more demanding than New Vegas and FO3 (I got around 35-40fps for those), or perhaps slightly more demanding than Oblivion (constant 60 fps)

Checks wallet. Looks like I'll definitely need a new computer to handle this.

Is a GeForce 9500GT DX11 capable? For that matter is Win XP DX11 capable? I am sorry but I don't know nearly enough about hardware/software + compatibility other then what I looked up to build this machine.

OblivionDuruza wrote:
@Dark Sprak, yeah but is it really 3 times bigger than Oblivion?

I read somewhere that it's on one disc. I'll find a link.

The last three titles I bought for my Xbox were all multi-disc installations. Skyrim will most assuredly suck if they scrimp on the data in order to fit the entire game into a mere 7 gigabytes.

Dark Spark wrote:The last three titles I bought for my Xbox were all multi-disc installations. Skyrim will most assuredly suck if they scrimp on the data in order to fit the entire game into a mere 7 gigabytes.

Which Xbox games are multi-disc?

Final Fantasy XIII, Forza Motorsports 3, and L.A. Noire.

Which goes to show you my tastes in gaming.

>Looks over recommended list of specs

>Looks at my i7 @3.05GHz, 8GB RAM, ATI Radeon 6870 computer

Yeah, I'm good.

I'll need a new GPU methinks...do you think the GTS 250 will still be good enough?

Shadow wrote:

OblivionDuruza wrote:
@Dark Sprak, yeah but is it really 3 times bigger than Oblivion?

I read somewhere that it's on one disc. I'll find a link.

Apologise to the Spark

Anyway, here's a link: Click