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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, PC System Requirements
The fifth installment in the Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim is due out on the 11th of November, 2011, or 11.11.11. For eager fans looking forward to playing the game on their PC, there is one major question at the forefront of their minds, what are the system requirements for the Elder Scrolls V: Skryim?
At the time of writing, system requirements are still a general guideline, but this article should give you an idea as to whether or not you'll need to upgrade your system before the game comes out. The information contained in this article comes directly from the Bethesda unofficial Skyrim forums.
According to Bethesda, Skyrim is being designed primarily for the XBOX 360, which makes things interesting for PC gamers because the load won't be particularly intensive on the graphics card, but you will need decent RAM and CPU speed if you want to play the game. Bethesda openly admit that the game will not be optimized for the PC because of various hardware setups. The 360 is easier to work with because everybody with an XBOX 360 has the same system, PC gamers on the other hand, are a rag tag bunch with systems as varied as snowflakes in a snowstorm.
(LIKELY) MINIMUM SYSTEM SPECS FOR SKYRIM
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim should work on a decent dual core PC with at least 2.8 GHz with at least 4 G of RAM and 512 MB on the graphics card.
If you want to get a decent performance out of the game on higher settings, you're going to need a better system. A quad core with a decent graphics card (2G or more) is probably going to be able to handle Skyrim just fine. There's some debate over RAM requirements, with some picking 4G to be sufficient, and others backing 8G systems.
Skyrim certainly isn't a game for older systems, though its doubtful anyone would make the mistake of thinking it was. Many gamers who played Elder Scrolls Oblivion are going to be looking at necessary upgrades in order to play Skyrim, and in many cases, the upgrades are going to be a good deal more expensive than the game itself. (Especially if you have an older system that maxes out with just 2G of RAM and will never, ever be able to touch Skyrim.)
Still, for a seamless world and the opportunity to shout at dragons, it should be worth it, right? Raid your piggy banks and whip up a few hundred 'Restore Fatigue' potions gamers, you've still got a few months to go before Skyrim is released. Unless of course, you read this at any time after the middle of August, in which case I can only recommend panicking and joining the Thieve's Guild.
