Recommended GPU to run skyrim max 1080p+HD mods?

michael874

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Jan 6, 2013
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Hi, I want to get at least above 50 fps on Skyrim at 1080p with max settings on everything, and even HD texture mods.
I will be running an i5 3570k and 8GB of ram with this.
 
Solution
You have a pretty good CPU.
CPU is more important in Skyrim.

As for a GPU, you can get a GTX 660 Ti\7950
Not to mention you should get a 3GB Model.
As Skyrim HD Mods use alot of VRAM.

Would be good if you get a GTX 670.

Sumukh_Bhagat

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Nov 11, 2012
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You have a pretty good CPU.
CPU is more important in Skyrim.

As for a GPU, you can get a GTX 660 Ti\7950
Not to mention you should get a 3GB Model.
As Skyrim HD Mods use alot of VRAM.

Would be good if you get a GTX 670.
 
Solution
if your just talking about the official high res texture pack, then a 2gb model is fine, it doesnt use more than 1.5gb vram. If your talking about community mods, then they can use more vram. my gtx660 2gb runs 60fps constant on ultra with high res texture pack 1080p. I dont run many other mods though.
 
check out these links:
HD7950
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150588
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202003
HD7970
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150596
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127670
GTX670
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121659
GTX680
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127672
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121635
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121705


all these cards are capable of running out skyrim with everything maxed out
choose the one that best suites your price
 

Ferrariassassin

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Jul 3, 2014
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Does my setup look good enough for a modded skyrim? its in my signature.
 

zaysk

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Mar 10, 2013
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I LOVE my heavily modded Bethesda games, your system looks like it should be able to handle modded Skyrim without to much issues. The 3GB of VRAM on the 280 will come in handy, rather than my 2GB 770. I highly recommend checking out Vividian ENB, it's by far the best ENB I've found on the Nexus and it comes with tons of patches to use multiple weather mods together.

For reference, my system runs heavily modded Skyrim at around 40-50 FPS. That's with a bunch of high res texture packs, the aforementioned ENB, and crap tons of "gameplay" mods.
 

Ferrariassassin

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Omg did you say 30FPS :D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That is sooo amazing!!! See i play Skyrim on my PS3 and i have beaten every quest, got every item, and have done every possible thing to do in Skyrim. I have 365 hours into it but the downfall of this is whenever a save goes over 5MB n PS3 or Xbox it tends to go down on FPS a LOOOOOT and my save is 21MB ;) haha. But on average my FPS is between 8 and 14FPS on PS3 :'( WHen i get my new GPU i am going to burn my PS3 and have a huge ritual of killing the evil thing! lol
 

zaysk

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Mar 10, 2013
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Oh dear lord, did you just say Skyrim and PS3 in the same sentence? You poor, poor soul.

You're in for a HUGE treat if you haven't played Skyrim on PC before, even vanilla Skyrim looks pretty awesome on Ultra, just wait until you add texture mods and an ENB. If you've already done a good majority of the stuff in Skyrim, then you would be the perfect candidate for a game overhaul mod. I recommend checking out a mod called "SkyRe AKA Skyrim Redone" It adds TONS of new perks to the perk trees and overhauls them completely, while giving you many options in what kind of weaponry you'd like to specialize in, Yari's, Battlestaffs, Halberds, etc.

Usually I would get bored of my Skyrim characters around mid level 40 because things got to easy, nothing could hurt you and your weapons and armor were enchanted/smithed to the max. Not so with SkyRe, I'm now level 44 and I can barely play on expert without getting destroyed, it makes shields a LOT more useful, I'm still fighting dangerous enemies with a shield and sword, rather than just killing them in seconds with dual wielding.

So check out these mods, Vividian ENB, Skyrim Redone, Immersive weapons, Immersive armors, all the unofficial Skyrim patches, Climates of Tamriel, and Immersive creatures.

Edit: Also check out Civil war overhaul, it makes the Civil War quests in Skyrim actually feel like a real Civil War and not a couple tiny skirmishes. Dragon combat overhaul is another epic mod if you thought Dragons we're to much of a pushover.
 

Ferrariassassin

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Haha yes you have noooooo idea how horrible it is on PS3 man. Every time i played it some horrible glitch happend. When i fight alduin for the first tie i could not damage him and i had to wait an hour and 20 minutes every time before it allowed me to damage him. Also i could not complete the cevil war missions from Galmar Stone fist attacking me for no reason i had no bounty and i tried to go somewhere and come back and he was under the map and could not be talked to and somehow i had his armor in my invatory. Hell one time after i beat Alduain in sovngarde i went to search him my guy started absorbing his soul!!!! WTFFFF?!?!?! and when i searched him he came back to life and killed me in one hit and i had Daedra armor maxed out :O WTF!!!! But it takes exactly 8 minutes and 26 seconds for it to load wether i go to a city or just into my home. And i just turned it on today and built a new house and my save is bigger now and i get 8FPS on average :'( If you look at my PC specs you will see i am only building this PC for skyrim haha
 

Zsizzle

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Apr 10, 2015
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So I've also only played skyrim on PS3. I loved it so much and made so many characters but I'm seeing all these mods like omg I've been missing out so now I'm set on spending money just to play with these ENBs but I understand it takes away the fps. But as long as it looks like next gen with probably some new gear mods and gets at least more than the 25-30 fps which ps3 gets, I'd have meaning in my life once again lol i know next to nothing about computers but id be willing to spend alot for a fastet loading better graphics skyrim. I like the mod where it doesn't even load to get into the cities, definitely want that on top of this TAZ enb or whatever and still play at a decent fps. Any specific builds to accomplish this?
 

Ferrariassassin

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Jul 3, 2014
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Well i have put ofer 200 hours researching and such to build the best price/performance pc for "JUST" skyrim and i built my PC to just be able to play skrim perfectly. Yep, i dedicated my PC just to ONE game eve though i play all other games fine but i mainly kept Skyrim in mind as it is my fav game. lol First make sure you have atleast 4GB of VRAM with a graphics card such as the R9-290. The GTX 980 is better but unless yuou have $600 or more for a GPU than stick with the $250-$300 R9 290. Once you have that GPU you need to get any i5 CPU atleast an Ivy Bridge or Haswell absed one you do not want a super old one but make sure it is an i5 quad core as dual core will suck once you mod the hell out of Skyrim. The R9 290 will run any possible mod, ENB you throw at it i have over 180 High Graphical mods with Real Vision enb all mas settign and get constant 40FPS sometimes going to 30FPS in high grass areas. The R9 290 will play it at 1920x1080p in its sleep. 4GB of VRAM usually is overkill for most games but for games like Skyrim it is a must have if you want to mod the hell out of it. And also PS3 does get 30FPS but once your save is more than 6MB it loses around 3 FPS for every 4MB that adds up. My PS3 save is 20MB and i get around 5-10FPS and 30FPS in houses and such. And it is not my PS3 as 3 of my friends and thousands of others online have the same problem because most Skyrim players just beat skyrim and stop playing but some like myself must beat and get everysingle thing possible in the game and that is what kills your FPS. So an R9-290 with an i5 is your best bet with 8GB of RAM of course. And you may hate to hear this but BUY A SAPERATE SSD FOR SKYRIM! Do not use your SSSD that has your OS on it because i made that mistack thinking id never go over 50GB of space with my Skyrim and mods and........138GB later of mods io am screwed and now i bought a new Samsung Pro SSD and i am good. I suggest you buy a 120GB or more Samsung 850 EVO or more because they are only $70-$10 something now. Sorry for my god awful grammer as i am kinda doing this one handed on my pohone while putting new paneling up lol