Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: PC Performance, Benchmarked

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion redefined our expectations for open world fantasy RPGs, and it was brutally hard on the hardware of its day. Is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as challenging on today's PC hardware, or can a modest rig handle it?

High Detail, FXAA Enabled

Visual fidelity improves a lot with high details selected and FXAA applied to smooth out aliasing artifacts. Of course, at this setting, the game asks a lot more from graphics hardware, too.

At 1080p, a Radeon HD 5770 or GeForce GTX 550 Ti is required to handle high details with FXAA enabled. At 1680x1050, the GeForce GT 240 GDDR5 is just capable of delivering a 31 FPS minimum. However, the other low-end cards struggle.

Don Woligroski
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Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.