For those getting a new card to play Skyrim, some relevant info.

[cmdrdredd]

They all seemed like decent ports other than GFX.....in fact, Vegas is one of the best shooters ever made IMO, even though it's often considered an RPG.

Yeah I throoughly enjoy all of them. Never got far in new vegas because I came across a game breaking crash bug. I recently installed it again and have a new video card. Might try again after I finish up this holiday season's games.

I have one of those, but I don't fancy using it

I don't mind using it I don't have room for a wheel and I find most wheels to be harder to use since it is never as realistic as steering a real car.

 

[Pacman4]

I don't mind using it I don't have room for a wheel and I find most wheels to be harder to use since it is never as realistic as steering a real car.

Dirt3 is epic fun with a G27, as are virtually all modern racing games.
Try GTR Evolution, that seems very realistic to me, the range of car behaviour and car control is impressive.

 

[Pacman4]

Yeah I throoughly enjoy all of them. Never got far in new vegas because I came across a game breaking crash bug. .

On PC....where abouts?
Do use the NMC mod as Vegas really comes alive, I also added a lighting mod, and the improvement was dramatic.

 

[Silverforce11]

So people say gaming is about the story and gameplay then turn around and complain about graphics...typical.

A game is measured by a lot of factors. One of which is graphics. It happens to be particularly important, just as much as gameplay IMO. If graphics wasn't important, why bother upgrading, we could still be using xbox360 in 2020.

 

[MrK6]

Man, 20 minutes, I'm seriously jonesing here. I'll remember to take pics and will post them in several hours for some graphics quality analysis.

 

[Red Hawk]

"If you're not pushing 70 GB/s around the video card, you won't like playing on High at 1080p."

What modern card > $100 has less memory bandwidth than that? Even an HD6790 has 134. HD6870 can be found for $140 and that will likely max this game out without problems.

Indeed. My 5770 only has a 128 bit memory bus, but it has 76.8 GB/s of bandwidth.

Russian, official review sites are pretty much worthless in review value. Those same sites gave MW3 glowing reviews, a terrible game. For the most part IGN, PC gamer and gamespy are paid shills and serve a purpose mostly as advertising not providing unbiased reviews.

The perception that reviewers are "bought" somehow is one I don't really buy into. For example, look at two games from EA: Mass Effect 2 and Dante's Inferno. Released very close together, and it was clear that EA was willing to spend money promoting both. Dante's Inferno got a Superbowl commercial, while Mass Effect 2 had its full 2 minute launch trailer aired during the NFC championship game (a game that leads up to the Superbowl). Metacritic scores? 95-96 for Mass Effect 2. 70s for Dante's Inferno. If EA was spending money buying good reviews, shouldn't Dante's Inferno at least have gotten up to the 80s?

So yeah, without real evidence, publishers buying reviews is just a myth as far as I'm concerned.

Just look at Metacritic for a game like MW3 that got amazing reviews from official sites and look at its user score http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3 1.3 out of 10.

The user scores should be more in question than the critic scores in that case. 1.3 would mean a game that's essentially broken on all levels, which Modern Warfare 3 certainly is not. It's got a polished, enjoyable singleplayer, and while they aren't changing up the multiplayer it's still some of the best multiplayer out there. IMO an honest average for Call of Duty would be around 6 or 7. 1.3 userscore is just a result of anti-Call of Duty backlash.

 

[kreacher]

Lets face it, most game publishers / developers are targeting consoles first and PC later because that's where the money is. Almost all major PC games will be either bad ports (GTA4) or good ports.
I still plan to buy Skyrim because its a huge single player gaming experience where most games are including a token campaign with multiplayer (CoD series and now BF3).

 

[Grooveriding]

Groover, mods might save the day!

I hope so. Should of been smart and done what others did, wait for the GOTY edition. All DLC and patches included :whiste:

The lack of mouse support in the menus is really something.

 

[Grooveriding]

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1256595-consolidated-potential-fix-thread-co-authordesi/

Most important visual tweaks are

bTreesReceiveShadows=1
bDrawLandShadows=1

In your Skyrimprefs.ini under my documents/my games/skyrim

And adding the line fdefaultfov=80 under the [General] area of Skyrim.ini in the same location.

With aforementioned tweaks and TRSAA enabled, the game looks decent now that I am in outdoor areas.

 

[Kaekae]

Sweet I made those changes in the .ini, I'll report back how they look! Shadow's add a lot of depth I would agree.

 

[happy medium]

Recommended Specs
•Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
•Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
•4GB System RAM
•6GB free HDD space
•DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher (i.e GTX550Ti); ATI Radeon 4890 or higher).
•DirectX compatible sound card
•Internet access for Steam activation

Minimum Specs
•Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
•Processor: Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor
•2GB System RAM
•6GB free HDD Space
•Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM
•DirectX compatible sound card
•Internet access for Steam activation


If a gtx4601gb dont max this game its a driver issue.

I mean really 1.5x the recommended specs?

Its allmost like Nvidia and AMD are paying software makers to make you buy a new card.

 

[toyota]

Recommended Specs
•Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
•Processor: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU
•4GB System RAM
•6GB free HDD space
•DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM (Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher (i.e GTX550Ti); ATI Radeon 4890 or higher).
•DirectX compatible sound card
•Internet access for Steam activation

Minimum Specs
•Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
•Processor: Dual Core 2.0GHz or equivalent processor
•2GB System RAM
•6GB free HDD Space
•Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM
•DirectX compatible sound card
•Internet access for Steam activation


If a gtx4601gb dont max this game its a driver issue.

I mean really 1.5x the recommended specs?

Its allmost like Nvidia and AMD are paying software makers to make you buy a new card.

um you do know that most games take a much faster gpu and sometimes faster cpu to max a game out smoothly? an example would be Far Cry 2 that has an 8600gts for the recommended card. lol, try maxing that game out even a 9600gt which is twice as fast and let me know it goes.

 

[happy medium]

um you do know that most games take a much faster gpu and sometimes faster cpu to max a game out smoothly. an example would be Far Cry 2 that has an 8600gts for the recommended card.

1.4x the specs? no wrong answer

 

[toyota]

1.4x the specs? no wrong answer

what?

 

[happy medium]

what?

opppps

 

[toyota]

dont play dumb..............

a gts450 or 5750/6750 wilth a small overclock will give you better image quality + = fps in the latest games.

I'll give you a hint driver optimizations. 4870= none, gts450/6750 ongoing.

another hint direct x 11 games that now run faster and smoother vs direct x 10 games.

whats up your butt? I had no idea what you were saying so I asked you. and you may want to check the thread because you seem to be confusing this with the 4870 thread you were posting in.

 

[happy medium]

whats up your butt? I had no idea what you were saying so I asked you. and you may want to check the thread because you seem to be confusing this with the 4870 thread you were posting in.

apologies,,,,tired is all goodnight ()

 

[toyota]

apologies,,,,tired is all goodnight ()

lol, you need to stop going on those late night posting binges.

 

[happy medium]

It's a texture-happy last-gen beast. It's not big on shaders (mostly post-processing and HDR lighting), it's big on textures. It'll fill 1.7 GB of VRAM without trying on "Ultra". "High" limits it to 1 GB.

I'm just so sick of this BS, sorry Toyota really.

 

[MustangSVT]

This little bit posted on Ars Technica might help you decide what card to buy. For me, I'll play it for a bit on my 4870 still as I'm waiting for the 7000s to show up before I buy.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

"Skyrim doesn’t appear to be optimized for more than two threads. Although this isn't a surprise, considering the original version of the game engine was developed prior to 2006, it’s a little disappointing that threading isn't more prevalent, since the title is so clearly affected by CPU performance."

oh well, still using just 2 cores.:$

 

[toyota]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

"Skyrim doesn’t appear to be optimized for more than two threads. Although this isn't a surprise, considering the original version of the game engine was developed prior to 2006, it’s a little disappointing that threading isn't more prevalent, since the title is so clearly affected by CPU performance."

oh well, still using just 2 cores.:$

wow where they tested at is just like the cpu limited spot I was testing at in Fallout NV. I had to oc my 2500k to get over 60 fps just like they did there. it may be a new engine but it appears to be almost as poor as the previous one when it comes to effectively using cpu cores. using only 2 cores is pitiful and a fast cpu like a 2500k should not have to be oced to average over 60fps in game that looks like this.

 

[skulkingghost]

thought you guys may appreciate this, did some INI tweaks, and octupled some settings, and others I just set insanely high (ex/1,000,000 LOD settings.) Still managed to get 20fps with FRAPS recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKeuHAns0MM

 

[Red Hawk]

Hm. Unless I throw in some texture mods or want to force AA in the drivers, even my rig wouldn't need an upgrade to play the game at Ultra details. I wouldn't get 60 fps, but I would get playability at 1080p.

 

[FalconHorse]

thought you guys may appreciate this, did some INI tweaks, and octupled some settings, and others I just set insanely high (ex/1,000,000 LOD settings.) Still managed to get 20fps with FRAPS recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKeuHAns0MM

Thanks for the video! What vid/cpu/ram are you running it on?

Game looks a lot like modded Oblivion to me. Also, kind of looks like Cimmeria in Age of Conan.

 

[skulkingghost]

Thanks for the video! What vid/cpu/ram are you running it on?

Game looks a lot like modded Oblivion to me. Also, kind of looks like Cimmeria in Age of Conan.

Radeon HD5870
i7 920 @ 4ghz
12gb DDR3 Ram