Skyrim Official Specs

[TakeNoPrisoners]

I don't see this posted here so...

Source

Min PC Specs:
Win XP/7/Vista (32 or 64 bit)
Dual core 2GB(Ghz?)
2GB RAM
DX9c video card w/ 512MB RAM
Internet Access for Steam activation

Recommended PC Specs:
Win XP/7
Quad-core Intel/AMD CPU
4GB RAM
6GB HD
DX compatable sound card
DX9 vid card w/ 1 GB. GTX 260/Radeon 4890 or higher

Seems pretty easy to run on minimum specs but the game looks very demanding on the high settings for a DX 9 game.

Also a note: The recommended specs are for the game on high, ultra will require better HW.

 

[Red Storm]

Thanks to the current consoles holding us all back those recommended specs are quite unintimidating. However, I expect greatly increased texture pack mods that will require some actual power to run.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Thanks to the current consoles holding us all back those recommended specs are quite unintimidating. However, I expect greatly increased texture pack mods that will require some actual power to run.

They aren't intimidating to us.

 

[dpodblood]

Holy crap where am I going to find a 2GB processor!?

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Holy crap where am I going to find a 2GB processor!?

lol

Gigabillion hz.

 

[Rhezuss]

lol

Gigabillion hz.

time to OC I guess...or work on that nuclear powered 4nm CPU i've been thinking of...

 

[Skott]

I would say use the 'recommended' specs as your minimum. Doesn't say how powerful of a quad though. WTF? LOL

 

[shortylickens]

I would say use the 'recommended' specs as your minimum. Doesn't say how powerful of a quad though. WTF? LOL

Yeah specifications these days are kind of a joke.
A dual core 1.6Ghz Atom isnt the same as last gens 1.6Ghz double CPU.

A 3Ghz dual core i3 is different from a 3Ghz dual core i5. Both of which are much different from any number of cpu's in the Pentium D line even if it went to 4Ghz.

The Radeon 4890 is definitely a solid suggestion, in terms of explicitness. But I ran New Vegas with that exact card and it wasnt exactly max details with smooth frame rates, and Skyrim looks to be quite a bit heavier on the eye candy. Suspect they just dont want to scare people off.

 

[Red Hawk]

Holy crap where am I going to find a 2GB processor!?

D: My processor's L2 cache is nowhere near that big!

 

[s1njin]

Damned if you do damned if you don't. W/ recommended specs this low everybody is going to assume the game will look like garbage. If the specs were really high, everybody would assume that even WITH the recommendation it wouldn't be smooth enough.

 

[Texashiker]

No dx11 support on the recommended specs?

Why recommend windows 7 if they are not going to use dx11.

 

[jlee]

No dx11 support on the recommended specs?

Why recommend windows 7 if they are not going to use dx11.

Maybe it runs the game better/faster than XP? Beats me.

I hope it's more interesting than Oblivion...I couldn't get into it at all.

 

[Merad]

Thanks to the current consoles holding us all back those recommended specs are quite unintimidating. However, I expect greatly increased texture pack mods that will require some actual power to run.

I'm betting they'll be limited on what they can do. Oblivion easily ran into issues with memory. Since Beth isn't making a 64 bit exe for Skyrim, it will have similar problems. And Skyrim is certain to use more memory stock, so modders will have less room to work with.

 

[Texashiker]

I'm betting they'll be limited on what they can do. Oblivion easily ran into issues with memory. Since Beth isn't making a 64 bit exe for Skyrim, it will have similar problems. And Skyrim is certain to use more memory stock, so modders will have less room to work with.

I have a thread that might be related to your post, its about windows xp and the future of gaming.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2200116

The recommended specs for skyrim is at the maximum amount of memory supported with XP. This leaves almost nothing for developers to play with.

Skyrim is pushing xp to its limits with gaming, but does not utilize dx11 built into windows 7.

Its as if the developers are trying to balance between an outdated OS, while not fully adopting the new features of windows 7.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Its as if the developers are trying to balance between an outdated OS, while not fully adopting the new features of windows 7.

I know, it is as if there is a device out there that the developers are developing for that has a more advanced OS then XP, but lacks the modern hardware to take advantage of that power.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

A lack of DX10/DX11 support in Skyrim shows just how low on the totem pole PC gamers have become for Bethesda now that the console gravy train is rollin'.

I have no doubt all of the menus will be oversized too, which will need a mod to fix.

Thanks goodness for modders, in most cases they're who we should be sending our money to.

 

[Merad]

I have a thread that might be related to your post, its about windows xp and the future of gaming.

Lack of 64 bit support is really a separate issue from moving away from WinXP support. The main issue is that 64 bit support basically requires the developer to make 2 different PC versions of their game. 64 bit support isn't terribly difficult to do, but to give the 64 bit version any really advantage you are going to have to make your game engine be able to recognize and take advantage it when additional memory is available.

The main barriers to effective 64 bit support are, IMO:
*Consoles - as long as developers are having to heavily trim memory usage for console versions, there isn't much motivation to do even more work supporting more memory for 64 bit.
*64 bit Windows adoption - rates are going up steadily, but 64 bit users are still a minority AFAIK. Maybe the rate of adoption is higher among gamers, but still not that high. Seems that no major devs want to risk losing a lot sales by requiring 64 bit.
*Simple lack of need - they can get by on 32 bit; so that's what they do. It's apparently proven easier and/or more cost effective for them to improve compression and so on than to move to 64 bit. Eventually though they'll hit a wall with this. IIRC in his original article on the 64 bit transition Anand speculated (in 2006 or so) that it would happen within 3-4 years. Well, 5 years later and they're still stretching 32 bit. How much longer can they do it? Dunno.

 

[dennilfloss]

Crap. My 1GB 4870 is below recommended spec.

 

[wanderer27]

Well, if this is accurate it confirms some rumors I've been seeing around in reqards to requiring Steam.


I was pretty much iffy on this after the Oblivion bugs, but requiring Steam just ain't gonna happen for me.

I know you all think Steam's the best thing since sliced bread, I'm just not going to mess with it.

First Civ V, which turned out to be a major turd, and now this . . . .

Quite disappointing :thumbsdown:

 

[Texashiker]

*64 bit Windows adoption - rates are going up steadily, but 64 bit users are still a minority AFAIK. Maybe the rate of adoption is higher among gamers, but still not that high.

For later reference, and from the steam survey

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Windows 7 64 bit - 41.06%
Windows XP 32 bit - 18.47%
Windows Vista 64 bit - 12.44%
Windows Vista 32 bit - 11.94%
Windows 7 (I guess this is 32bit windows 7) - 9.66%

 

[Demo24]

No dx11 support on the recommended specs?

Why recommend windows 7 if they are not going to use dx11.

These aren't the best written specs, but I suspect the way they wrote it so that people wouldn't think you needed XP to run the game, and that any of the 3 would be acceptable.

 

[Modelworks]

Holy crap where am I going to find a 2GB processor!?

With a cpu with that kind of on chip cache no wonder it runs so well !

 

[dpodblood]

No dx11 support on the recommended specs?

Why recommend windows 7 if they are not going to use dx11.

I would guess that this has more to do with how the game is QA'd rather than whether or not it can technically be supported under XP. Not running QA cycles in XP will save them money long term. Especially considering how few gamers these days are running that OS. I don't have any hard numbers, but my guess is it would be a very small percentage.

 

[Rhezuss]

I may be naive but let's just wait and see. Maybe Beth learned from past experience and matured...damn I sound stupid now

 

[Red Storm]

I may be naive but let's just wait and see. Maybe Beth learned from past experience and matured...damn I sound stupid now

Yes you do.

But it's no matter, as long as their games continue to ship with editors the fans will clean up their mess and then some.