How should I upgrade?

[Matthage]

Hey, I have a pretty old PC and I was wondering how best to upgrade. I'd like to play Skyrim on atleast medium settings (I know it's guesswork at this point so just an estimate will be fine)

My PC at the moment is 2.6 Ghz Quad-Core
2x 512mb ATI Radeon HD 3870
3gigs RAM

 

[dfuze]

What is your quad core cpu?
What resolution are you looking to play at?

 

[Skott]

My first advice is to say and wait until game release but if you cannot wait then a i5 quad and a 6850 should do the job. An i3 2100 CPU might do the job but we simply do not know yet and won't till the game hits users hands. If you want to make absolutely sure... go for a i5 2500k and a 6950/GTX560Ti rig if you are running a higher res like 1920x1200 and your budget allows. If that don't run it decently then nothing will I'm thinking.

 

[digitard]

I'm in the same boat. I'm pushing my dual core (E8500) to it's limits, and I decided to just bite the bullet.

My honest recommendation... is go for best for your buck, and not a "I want to play it at medium" setup because you're going to limit yourself out of the gate. Building something that just "hangs" now is going to make you in the same boat once the next engines come out and push your rig again to its limits.

I'm not saying spend 2000 on a new rig, but give yourself a little bit more wiggle room so you can push things a bit more.

With the new build, which is currently in transit, I went with a 2500K, 8GB G.Skill DDR3, and picked up another EVGA Superclocked 560 GTX (I know it's not near top of the line, but I already had one) for SLI. I'm looking forward to it, and plan to bump it to 16GB shortly as well.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Damn it this thread just reminded me that my GPU is a 8800 GTS.

 

[shingletingle]

I'm in the same boat. I'm pushing my dual core (E8500) to it's limits, and I decided to just bite the bullet.

My honest recommendation... is go for best for your buck, and not a "I want to play it at medium" setup because you're going to limit yourself out of the gate. Building something that just "hangs" now is going to make you in the same boat once the next engines come out and push your rig again to its limits.

I'm not saying spend 2000 on a new rig, but give yourself a little bit more wiggle room so you can push things a bit more.

With the new build, which is currently in transit, I went with a 2500K, 8GB G.Skill DDR3, and picked up another EVGA Superclocked 560 GTX (I know it's not near top of the line, but I already had one) for SLI. I'm looking forward to it, and plan to bump it to 16GB shortly as well.

Why do you need 16GB of memory?

 

[digitard]

Why do you need 16GB of memory?

Very rarely, but from time to time, I do some minor video editing. Just not enough to warrant an I7 to me.

When I do this I keep most video/picture formats in their "raw" formats which are HUGE so when I convert them it's minimal loss. So the more memory the better as far as a happy & snappy application goes.

With the price of memory right now it's a "why not" type thing.

 

[Corporate Thug]

GPU would be the best way to go. what's your budget?

 

[PrayForDeath]

OP your current rig can probably already run it at medium settings, so no need to upgrade if that's what you're shooting for (medium.)

If you want high/ulti settings @ 1200p however, then you'll want something like a 6870/GTX560 minimum.

Also, you never stated your budget.