Should my pc have trouble running Skyrim?

[Exo909]

My pc meets all the recommended specifications on the Skyrim page in steam, but I get terrible lag even with everything on the lowest settings.

Specs
AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.80GHz
4GB of ram
ATI Radeon 4200 (1916mb of dedicated memory)
Windows 7 64bit

I do realize that my graphics card is quite old, but it still meets the specifications.

 

[DM186]

What is your PSU brand, model, and how many watts it is? Lag in a game is usally caused from heat, not enough power, the CPU can't keep up with the GPU, and/or your GPU is integrated with the MOBO.

So now how are you monitoring your temps? and is your GPU intergrated? If you could repost the answers we all will try to help you through this problem.

 

[Exo909]

I'm not sure if my GPU is integrated, but I don't think it is since it has dedicated video ram. Also, I am not sure how to find out information about my psu, but my pc never feels hot in any area nor are it's fans ever working super hard.

 

[jaguarskx]

The ATI Radeon 4200 is an integrated graphics core and it uses your system RAM, it does not have any RAM of it's own. You need to buy a dedicated graphics card if you want to play games.

To find out what type of PSU you have you need to open up the case and look at the sticker. It's best if you can post a picture of the sticker. It should look somewhat similar to the following:

 

[Exo909]

Even though my graphics card isn't the best, do you think it should have problems running Skyrim on the absolute lowest settings? Right now I get like ~10 fps on average outside of a city.

 

[venjhammet]

Integrated card will not be able to handle that game what you need is atleast a dedicated videocard like say HD6770/GTS450

 

[Snowsniper2]

The integrated card will struggle to play anything the most I've seen an integrated graphics card play was minecraft on low
Buy a graphics card and make sure that it is capable of playing the games you wanto play

 

[HEXiT]

the 4200 is way below minimum recommended. so no your system wont run skyrim even at minimum settings @30fps, until you get a decent gfx card... as suggested a gts450 would be great for the other hardware you have...

the 4200 is ok for video but doesnt have enough shaders to run the game... you seem to think it will , but it wont... really it wont!. it only has 40 stream processor units. now compare that with a modern basic card which will have 160 and that will still struggle with minimum settings.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Even if you could run the game, it would be at very low settings, which would look horrible. I don't recommend it.

 

[DM186]

I'm not sure if my GPU is integrated, but I don't think it is since it has dedicated video ram. Also, I am not sure how to find out information about my psu, but my pc never feels hot in any area nor are it's fans ever working super hard.

Your GPU is integrated and when it shows you dedicated video ram it is telling you your GPU is using your ram. Open up the case and on the side of your PSU should have a sticker like jaquarskx has posted.

On that sticker look at all the numbers and right them down. What we are looking for is the amps that are on the 12v rail. That is the main number we need. All the answers on here are right on about your rig.

If you do up grade your GPU you need to make sure your MOBO has a PCIe x 16 slot. But don't expect a high end GPU because of your CPU and/or PSU. let us know about your PSU.