GPU solutions for maxed settings in Skyrim

[frozenmangos]

Hey all,

I'm building a new high end gaming rig with Skyrim in mind. My goal is to build a system that will be able to blow Skyrim out of the water at max settings with the inevitable high-res mods installed. I know we're not aware of the system requirements for Skyrim yet, so my question is do you think this will be possible with what's out on the market now or am I just dreaming?

I will only be playing on a single 1920x1080 screen, but I'd also like to play future games at max settings for as long as possible.

My original thought was to include a single GTX580 now and install a second one in SLI when the price drops. I'm having second thoughts though as I've been looking at the benchmarks and two GTX570's in SLI destroy the GTX580, and come pretty darn close to 580 SLI. Price isn't a huge issue, but I'd rather stay under $750 total. 570's in SLI also outperform the 590 for $100 less.

Current relevant build parameters:
i7 2600k
ASRock Z68 Extreme4
Cooler Master 1000w Modular 80 Bronze
Crucial 256gb M4 SSD

Thoughts?

 

[jaguarskx]

I think either a GTX 570 or 580 will be fine.

Overall, it is difficult to say since Skyrim to based on a totally new game engine (Creation Engine) that Bethesda is developing in-house. Since it only uses limited DX11 effects (Tessellation is not one of them), the performance impact in DX11 mode shouldn't be big.

 

[frozenmangos]

Cool, thanks Jaguar! I'm leaning toward the pair of 570's at the moment - at only $140 more than a single 580, I think the cost/performance ratio is worth it.

If I were smart I'd wait until November (maybe some nice Black Friday deals), but I'm not that patient.

 

[bystander]

Keep in mind that heavy use of shadow and lighting effects can still require a lot of performance. I'm going to guess they'll make it very playable with a high end card, but may have some settings that are still out of reach. I've noticed that most RPG titles I've seen released lately are setting up predefined settings up to Ultra, but their Ultra settings are not max settings.