Card recommendation for Skyrim Remastered

[Winston Marmaduke III]

Hey all,

I've been putting together a build on PC Part Picker for a while now, saving up.

I want something that will run Skyrim Remastered really well (the only game I'm really interested in at this point).

My original build list was a i7-6700K and 1070, but I decided that I don't want to mess with 1440p at this point, and would rather build a blow out 1080p rig.

I'm thinking of going down to an i5-6600K now. Save some money on the processor and not having to buy a closed loop water cooler (Cooler Master heat sink instead) and apply that to the Samsung 950 M.2 SSD where I think I will notice a bigger performance difference as far as general usage goes.

My question is...would you stick with a 1070 for the new Syrim revamp? Could I run it maxed out with a lesser card do you think? If a cheaper RX 480 can run the game great maxed out at 1080p I may as well just go with that!

Thanks.

 

[railven]

In before all the infighting:

I was able to run Skyrim with a slather of mods at 1440P with 50+ FPS on a GTX 660 Ti. Something tells me unless they bust out the Fallout4 version of the engine, you'll be fine on RX480.

I'd personally always opt for the beefier parts that I can muster, for example I'd sacrifice the M2 drive for the better CPU and GPU. But if money is truly an issue, I'd stick with the 480+i7 taking from the M2 funds. EDIT: What I mean is, if you had the funds for the i7+1070, I'd go that route, but if you're downgrading both for a reason outside of upgrading to that M2 drive, I think you'll gain more from the i7+1070 than i5+480+M2 drive. EDIT #2: You also don't need a water cooler. Unless you were aiming to OC to the moon. Haha.

Good luck and prepare yourself...

 

[Winston Marmaduke III]

Hmm I know Skyrim is CPU intensive, but do you really think the i5 would bottleneck? If I ever do any video editing or anything like that, it would be very light and infrequently, so I have a hard time justifying paying extra for the i7, no matter how cool it would be to have one with a closed loop system. I assume, the money spent on a better performing storage drive like that Samsung M.2 would be more noticeable to me day to day usage-wise.

I admit my logic could be very well screwed up here and welcome someone to correct me Thanks for the response.

 

[Triloby]

According to the requirements for the Special Edition:

Minimum

• Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
  
• Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945.
  
• 8GB of ram.
  
• 12 GB free HDD space
  
• NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB

Recommended

• Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
  
• Intel i5-2400/AMD FX-8320.
  
• 8GB of ram.
  
• 12 GB free HDD space
  
• NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB /AMD R9 290 4GB

It looks like you don't even need THAT much to max out the Special Edition, especially at 1080p. If all you care about is playing Skyrim Special Edition and nothing else, you could probably spend about $170 or so on an RX 470 4 GB which should be more than good enough for just this one title. I guess maybe the new 1050 Ti 4 GB is also another option here.

On the other hand, if you're going to playing this game with a lot of mods installed then I would probably suggest either the RX 480 8 GB or GTX 1060 6 GB simply due to VRAM. A GTX 1070 would be too overkill for this game at 1080p, but it's your choice either way.

 

[Bacon1]

I'd also recommend keeping the i7. Games have finally been using 4+ cores well so having the i7 will let you keep the CPU for much longer. I mean people are still rocking i7 2600 series while the 2500k is starting to fall off on newer games.

CPU will last you 3+ GPUs and other parts, so make it a good buy!

 

[Winston Marmaduke III]

Great, I'll consider all of that thanks.

I definitely want to keep this rig as long as possible. I'm coming from an Athlon X4 Propus and GTX-660 heh!

 

[railven]

Great, I'll consider all of that thanks.

I definitely want to keep this rig as long as possible. I'm coming from an Athlon X4 Propus and GTX-660 heh!

Mother of god! :O I was going to ask, are you still using a mechanical drive (HDD)?

 

[Red Hawk]

In before all the infighting:

I was able to run Skyrim with a slather of mods at 1440P with 50+ FPS on a GTX 660 Ti. Something tells me unless they bust out the Fallout4 version of the engine, you'll be fine on RX480.

That's exactly what they're doing with the Skyrim remaster though, porting it to the 64 bit Fallout 4 engine. Also why Skyrim Script Extender won't work with it.

 

[railven]

That's exactly what they're doing with the Skyrim remaster though, porting it to the 64 bit Fallout 4 engine. Also why Skyrim Script Extender won't work with it.

Then I think everyone is in for a world of hurt.

I'd just get Vanilla Skryim + Mods if those were my two options.

 

[Deders]

Don't worry about the M.2 drive, the performance difference isn't going to be that noticeable. You are better off getting a large Sata SSD so you can fit more games onto it. That's where you'll notice a difference. Spend the rest on a GPU.

 

[railven]

Don't worry about the M.2 drive, the performance difference isn't going to be that noticeable. You are better off getting a large Sata SSD so you can fit more games onto it. That's where you'll notice a difference. Spend the rest on a GPU.

Pretty much this. Why I asked if you were coming off an HDD. If yes, any SSD will be night/day difference to you.

 

[Winston Marmaduke III]

Wow, a lot to think about thanks. I have (had, before the wife made off with the PC entirely) a SATA Samsung 840 120GB SSD. So I'm not new to SSDs

I figured that new Samsung M.2 would be loads better....looks like I was wrong. So, Skyrim build then...

i7-6700K + closed loop
RX 480 4gig
24" 144hz 1ms F-sync monitor

Or should I save a bit longer for a 1070/G-Sync monitor.

 

[railven]

Wow, a lot to think about thanks. I have (had, before the wife made off with the PC entirely) a SATA Samsung 840 120GB SSD. So I'm not new to SSDs

I figured that new Samsung M.2 would be loads better....looks like I was wrong. So, Skyrim build then...

i7-6700K + closed loop
RX 480 4gig
24" 144hz 1ms F-sync monitor

Or should I save a bit longer for a 1070/G-Sync monitor.

Seems like a solid build. If that's where your funds cap is, you got something nice. If you wish to stretch, that's on you. (Personally I'd aim for a larger screen though)

 

[Winston Marmaduke III]

Here's what I got so far.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/sqM4NN

 

[Winston Marmaduke III]

Seems like a solid build. If that's where your funds cap is, you got something nice. If you wish to stretch, that's on you. (Personally I'd aim for a larger screen though)

Really? I was thinking if I went up from 24" to 27" that would make the 1080p not look as good, making me spend much more money to go the 1440p route with the rest of my system buid.

 

[railven]

Really? I was thinking if I went up from 24" to 27" that would make the 1080p not look as good, making me spend much more money to go the 1440p route with the rest of my system buid.

It's all subjective. I had a 27" 1080p monitor for perhaps...2 years? And I tell you what, it was amazing! BUT, this is the trick. Never see better! Because then I got a 27" 1440P and I couldn't stand using my GF's PC which still had a 27" 1080p monitor.

And now I got a 34" 3440x1440 monitor and I can't even imagine using a 27" 1440P haha.

All that out of the way, yes the PPI would bad, but until you see better, you might find it suitable. Of course also with a bigger screen you can sit a little further back

 

[Deders]

Can you afford an 8GB RX480?

 

[Snarf Snarf]

If the original budget was 6700k+GTX 1070 I'd say that's the best combo performance wise.

For the 24" vs 27" argument it depends on what games you play and how far back you sit from the screen. Any type of game that requires fast reactions and map awareness I have always thought 27" was too big to see the full screen without having to move your eyes. That is unless you sit 3' away from the monitor, then 27" is perfect.

Anecdotal evidence, I own a 27" 1440p monitor and I noticed a huge improvement in my situational awareness in WoW, LoL, and Overwatch as soon as I started playing in windowed mode instead of fullscreen, I sit about 16-24" away from the screen.

 

[MajinCry]

Keep in mind that there is a physics mod, by the name o' HDT Physics, that enables things like cloth physics on OpenCL 2.0 (AMD 200 series and newer) cards. Might get ported over, if we're lucky.

Also, Skyrim Special Edition isn't exactly close to Skyrim and intense ENB. My 7850 maxes out the game with all the bells 'n' whistles @ 1280x1024, with a full blown ENB and layers of tonemapping.

Biggest thing for the game, really, will be to have a modern intel CPU. AMD's processors are >3x slower at processing draw calls than Intel's, so as long as you get a Nehalem or newer CPU, you should be fine and dandy.

 

[Headfoot]

Yeah I have to agree with the folks saying go with a beefier CPU. A top end Skylake i7 will last a very, very long time given the state of CPUs today. You will end up being thankful you decided to get those 4 extra threads soon enough given the long lifespan.

I personally use 22" 1080p screens (3x) and I like 24" the best. I'm not a fan of 27" 1080p unless you're sitting a ways back. I sit quite a ways back and use my 22" fine, though it can get a little hard to read at times.

 

[Winston Marmaduke III]

Thanks so much for the help everyone. I can't afford any sort of PC right now, but am saving up and I can save a little longer if the i7/1070 route is the way to go, which it looks like it is. I sit a bit too close to the screen for 27" I'd think as well.

I was just getting a little anxious wondering if I can build that box sooner rather than later, but looks like I should wait.

 

[Red Hawk]

Then I think everyone is in for a world of hurt.

I'd just get Vanilla Skryim + Mods if those were my two options.

Well you can debate if the remaster is worth it to PC players, luckily for everyone who has the original game and all the DLCs, it's free on Steam. Just check your Steam library.

It's actually very good for modders in the long run that the game has been ported to Fallout 4's 64 bit engine. It means that more than 4 GB of memory can be addressed by mods, meaning less stuttering and hacks to try to get around the limit. Mods should be able to look better than ever in the Skyrim remaster.

 

[Winston Marmaduke III]

Yeah. I never got into mods, or even got any DLC back when I last payed Skyrim several years ago. To me the remaster would be worth it wanting to get back into it.

 

[bystander36]

So, I logged into Skyrim Remasted Edition, and it recommended Ultra settings with my i7 5820k @ 4.4Ghz, and GTX 1070. It had 4x MSAA without FXAA. I am getting a range of 45 - 100 FPS. Mostly in the 60-70 FPS range. This is with a 1080p resolution (120hz). If you turn up the settings, it can definitely stress your system.

This is without mods. There are lots of settings that can be adjusted, and I have not messed with anything but lowered MSAA to x4.

 

[Newbian]

Yeah. I never got into mods, or even got any DLC back when I last payed Skyrim several years ago. To me the remaster would be worth it wanting to get back into it.

You will need the dlc's for it or pay for the special edition because you don't have them.