User:TechAngel85/Sandbox

Template:Notice by frihyland & S.T.E.P. Team Prices only valid 90 days max

Updated: 7:54:51 15 December 2012 (UTC)

GUIDE FORUM THREAD

Introduction

CPU

SSD

GPU and VRAM

RAM

Motherboard

Operating System

Video Cards

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This is not a guide of required hardware to run Skyrim, that is on the box. I assume you have basic computer building skills, if not print it out and use it as features to look for when buying a new computer or go to the sites recommended to learn more about computer hardware after reading.

This is a hardware upgrade guide to help you decide what will give you the greatest performance boost per dollar (example prices given in US $, I recommend searching google shopping for the specs given and buy whatever has the lowest total price(+ship+tax), use a tool such as WOT to filter out untrustworthy sites). Please check Toms Hardware and AnandTech for the latest detailed hardware information.

In absolute terms CPU and VRAM are the most important upgrades for a heavily modded Skyrim, but once you enter the real world and things like money and interdependence of hardware come into play you get a list like the following.

'Your greatest bang for the buck upgrades in order are:'

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CPU

Skyrim is incredibly dependent on a fast processor, to such an extent that even with the fastest available processor you will still very often find it to be the limiting performance factor in your game. In order to accommodate a new processor, you often have to buy a new motherboard, which can severely effect the "bang-for-your-buck" aspect of upgrading your CPU. The minimum recommendations for upgrading when purchasing for AMD you'll want an FX-Series (Zambezi) or for Intel a Core I5 (Ivy Bridge) unless you already have a sandy bridge in which case just stick with it. The closer you can get to 4Ghz (higher is faster) the better and as for multi-core, Skyrim uses the first 2 pretty effectively and after that the value for each additional core seems to be geometrically diminished.

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SSD

Skyrim requires 9 GB of hard drive space un-modded, and you can easily triple that with heavy modding. Skyrim has a great many loading screens, and you can greatly diminish the time spent on these screens by installing Skyrim on an SSD (solid-state drive), as well as increasing overall stability and performance of the game. If you do not have an SSD the next best thing would be to install an extremely fast traditional drive or a RAID0 array (Caution: RAID0 can be unstable longterm, see here for details). When Purchasing an SSD SATA 6 GB/s is what your looking for (at $1/GB) and make sure your motherboard supports it natively through AHCI (set it up to use AHCI in BIOS as it is never the default, and must be done before OS detection), otherwise you will find your uber-SSD running in emulated IDE mode.

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GPU

The video card is easily the most expensive part of a gaming computer and thus although it is quite critical, when formulating a performance/price scale it move quite dramatically.

Video cards need DirectX 9 support with a minimum of 1GB of VRAM to run Skyrim, although 2-4GB is highly preferable. Here the GPU although still critical, is much less important than the total VRAM, and SLI/Crossfire can be helpful for an fps boost particularly if using Ultra settings and Post Processors (but certainly not enough to warrant buying another card, unless you have at least 2-4GB on each card and want to run in 3D or Multiple Monitor Mode).

Minimum recommended GPU models are the Nvidia GTX 550TI or ATI HD 6850 each with 2GB VRAM (these are last seasons mid-range models with a boosted VRAM and available fairly cheap at ~$150, 1GB versions run only $35 less and you will hate yourself if you skimp here). PCIe 3.0 x16 support would be nice here but certainly not necessary (unless you are spending $500 or more), but a PCIe 2.0 with a full x16 dedicated bandwidth is a really good idea, check your motherboard for this support.

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System RAM

As for system memory 4GB is the baseline "required", and 8GB will create a much more stable Skyrim when heavily modded. If your system runs out of VRAM (see below) it resorts to using your system memory somewhat inefficiently, so if you plan on using HD mods make sure you have at least 6GB. If you have less than 4GB move this to the top of the list, RAM is almost free right now and its a highly volatile market so it won't stay that way forever, so knock yourself out. Always buy RAM in a kit (a set of RAM designed to work together much faster and more stable). Consult your motherboards list of supported models (and update the bios to latest) before purchase, this can lead to a new motherboard purchase if new faster and less expensive memory models are not supported. Note that a 64 bit OS is required to make us of more than 4GB of system RAM.

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Motherboard

Most of the recommended upgrades require certain specs on your mother board. Besides those specific specs, the chipsets are the defining factors here: for AMD you want 900 series chipsets, on the Intel side Z77.

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OS

A word on Windows 64-bit: while not necessary, x64 will allow you to add more than 4GB of system RAM and that will increase stability in your games. I would not recommend 64-bit XP and especially Vista as they are fairly buggy in regards to hardware and games, neglecting the benefits of the RAM increase.

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Video

Template:Notice The following chart lists cards by GPU power and sorts them into tiers along with a range of appropriate VRAM amounts required to get the best performance/price value.

First check your own video cards model and specs, if your card is on the table already you don't need to upgrade unless you have less than 1GB VRAM. If not peruse for an upgrade in your price range. Note that if you upgrade from one model on this list to another, jumping at least 3 tiers is recommended in order to actually be able to 'feel' the upgrade, anything less is fairly trivial.

Not all models will be available with recommended VRAM as that is entirely up to manufacturers, it's up to you to find one with the appropriate VRAM specs. Also be aware that these are seriously oversimplified recommendations, all types of different configurations are available for each model, I am just suggesting a rather idealized upgrade path, don't hesitate to buy a card (if you feel its a good price) just because its slightly below the ideal.

Dual Chip boards are not listed, if you have one you should be fine as long as you have at least 2GB (1GB for each chip), if you are buying one, make sure to get 4GB (2GB for each chip).

Price listings are just what I was able to find with a quick online search and are meant as examples not definitive in any way (if the VRAM is less than recommended I provide the available amount).

GeForce and Radeon Graphics Card Performance Hierarchy Chart

Value is arbitrary but gives an indication of what to shoot for, if its way over wait for a price drop or choose another model, if way under its a deal. The top 2 tiers will unlikely ever be a value, just there as an indication of how much money your burning to have the best

US$ Value/Performance	Nvidia Models and Available Pricing	ATI Models and Available Pricing
High End GPU's, look for models with 3GB VRAM and up
340	GTX 680 2GB $499, GTX 680 4GB $590	HD 7970 3GB $540
310	GTX 670 2GB $400, GTX 670 4GB, GTX 580 $480	HD 7870 2GB $360, HD 7950 3GB $430
Mid Range GPU's, look for models with 2GB to 3GB VRAM
250	GTX 480 1.5GB $250, GTX 570 2.5GB $350	HD 6970 $360, HD 7850 $250
220	GTX 470, GTX 560 Ti $250, GTX 560 Ti 448 Core	HD 5870, HD 6950 $250
Low End GPU's look for models with 1.5GB to 2GB VRAM
190	GTX 560 $230, 580M	HD 5850, HD 6870 $200, 6990M
160	GTX 285, GTX 460 $215, GTX 465	HD 6850 $180, HD 7770, 6900M
130	GTX 260, GTX 275, GTX 280, GTX 460 SE, GTX 550 Ti $140, 570M	HD 4870, HD 5770, HD 4890, HD 5830, HD 6770, HD 6790, HD 5870, 6800M

My personal conclusion at this point is that for ballsout graphics without sending you to the poorhouse (and future-proof for 4 years) a GTX 670 4GB (of Samsung DDR5) priced at $400 is the way to go, it may be several months before we see this but I am a patient man. The 670 is only 4% slower than the 680 and has much less cooling issues, the Samsung DDR5 is proving to be much faster and more reliable than other vendors and 4GB should be sufficient to guarantee 4 years of usefulness. Go to Toms Hardware if your looking for a comprehensive chart, it was used as a primary information source.