Upgrade for Skyrim

Audi0slave

Audi0slave

Adept
Hello TE,

I have the following rig:
AMD Phenom II X2 550BE unlocked to B50 @ 3.81 Ghz
4GB Ram DDR2
Asus M4A78-E
1280x1024 Resolution
Corsair TX750
Evga 9600GT

I want to upgrade for skyrim. Budget is 5-12K. Just looking for some advice on what to get that will help me the most.

Thanks in advance
 
ALPHA17 said:
^^ This is Skyrim -- The Elder Scrolls Official Site.

For OP will recommend a step up to a

GTX 560 ~ 12700/- OR GTX 560 Ti ~ 15500/-.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help but the thing is I dont wanna invest all my money into the GPU as I'm pretty sure it will be overkill for my processor and my puny monitor (17in) and I wont be playing any other games other than skyrim.

I was thinking about getting a 7-8k GPU with some more ram (if DDR2 is readily available). This seems kinda VFM at the moment for me. What do you guys think?
 
Audi0slave said:
Thanks for the help but the thing is I dont wanna invest all my money into the GPU as I'm pretty sure it will be overkill for my processor and my puny monitor (17in) and I wont be playing any other games other than skyrim.

I was thinking about getting a 7-8k GPU with some more ram (if DDR2 is readily available). This seems kinda VFM at the moment for me. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Your processor is strong enough for that low resolution. All you need is a used HD5850 (approx 7k), as it will convert wasted power supply investment (TX750) into pure eyecandy.

Buying a used GPU makes alot more sense to any VFM buyer.

EDIT: Here's the comparison with HD6870 http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/295?vs=290 . And as we know, the HD5850 overclocks very well, so it should be able to beat HD6870.
 
If all you want to do is play Skyrim, you really don't need much of an upgrade to play at 1280x1024. Recommended for 1920x1080 as per Bethesda is HD 4870 or GTX 260. In other words, HD 6770 or GTX 550. This isn't a graphically intensive game, since the Creation engine was designed for consoles. For 1280x1024, I would suggest you to wait till it launches. See how it runs with 9600 GT. Then upgrade to HD 6770 if required.

The other requirements are quad-core CPU, 4GB RAM, and you are covered on those.
 
^^ Best bet Sire [Audi0slave], go for a HD 6870 / GTX 560 ~ 11900/- [both are around this price band], keeping the future in mind. I doubt you'll be stuck with a 17-incher for the rest of eternity. So keep that in mind, go for a card that can drive all game titles [current] at full-HD atleast.

Rest you can put in for RAM ~ 4GB is decent for gaming these days, but again 8GB RAM will make it potent for future, main advantage of DDR III over DDR II is in same performance at lower voltages [1.5 v vs. 1.8v], so DDR III mainly improves on the green quotient, but not much apart from that, more on this in these links -- http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/273484-30-ddrii-ddriii-1333 / http://www.anandtech.com/show/2232.

Quad-cores are enough for most applications these days, until you are encoding-decoding HD-content on a daily basis and are heavily invested into such productivity application(s) [Photo-editing / video editing et al].

Hope this helps, the above is strictly my point of view.
 
I'm almost at the end of my gaming days (hopefully) and only interested in playing Skyrim. Future proof, encoding decoding, voltages and everything else apart from basic usage doesn't mean jack to me now. Will be retiring this PC soon and shifting to a lappie so just wanna pick something up to play skyrim at high setting without any fps concerns.
 
If that's the case then get sapphire 6790-8.5k or 6850-9.8k,this will be enough to play skyrim at high setting considering your resolution.
 
I dont think you need an upgrade. Do you have the 512 or 1GB version? I have the MSI 9600GTOC and I squeezed out very playable framerates in Crysis(high&very high mix), Metro 2033(max), Dirt3, Crysis 2(extreme). Maybe consider an upgrade for BF3 :p

And you wont have a problem at that resolution.
 
Don't buy a GPU, your 9600 GT is more than good enough to play Skyrim with Ultra settings at 1280x1024. It's a very light game on the GPU, so much so that it will definitely be CPU bottlenecked at a resolution like 1280x1024. In short, it won't make any difference if you upgrade GPU.
 
sato1986 said:
Your processor is strong enough for that low resolution.
Click to expand...
Err...actually the lower the rez, the more cpu-limited are games, if you increase rez then most games becomes GPU-limited.

OP..I would recommend you to get a used GTX 460 for around 6k & save the rest of the amount for a full-fledged upgrade later on. And moreover you already have a 9600GT, the GTX 460 1GB will be a drop in replacement for you. You wont even have change drivers etc.
 
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