New system recommendations

[MidbossVyers]

When I first bought Skyrim, I took a look at the minimum requirements and found that my laptop does indeed have those specs. I enjoyed Skyrim for a couple of years. However, many of the mods on this site and others actually require specs higher than the minimum. Equipment mods are fine for the minimum requirements, but race mods and "face smoothing mods" (so I look like I'm playing Skyrim, rather than Minecraft) often cause my game to outright crash or have frequent black/gray/transparent skin bugs.

 

In fact, according to Novem99 http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3370065-texture-memory/ my computer is unbelievably weak. I also found that Skyrim "gets better with time", in other words, the later it is, the newer versions of mods or even better alternatives of those mods will come out. Therefore, I am considering buying a new computer (considering means that I've yet to pump actual money into it). I would prefer that everything that I need come straight out the box with little need for modification (I'll have enough on my plate modding Skyrim itself), and it seems that my main issue with my older laptop was RAM and VRAM.

 

However, here's the rub. Whatever PC that I get must be cheaper than a PS4. If it is more expensive, I will just get a PS4 to play Disgaea 5 or Onechanbara Z2 Chaos on (possibly also The Witch and the Hundred Knight remake and sequel).

[obobski]

Simply, what you want is not possible. You are coming from a laptop, which means there's no recycling of parts in a new machine, and you're looking for a high performing gaming system for under $400. As far as the other thread you linked - I have no idea what the other poster is talking about, nor did you provide complete specs. Go to Windows' search (start menu -> search or start screen -> search) and type in "dxdiag" without quotes, and run dxdiag.exe; you can say no to checking if drivers are signed (it doesn't hurt anything to say yes it just takes extra time to do something we don't need to do), from there you can get an idea of what hardware your machine has. On the first tab you will have "System Information" - what is listed for processor, and memory, and then click over to the next tab (Display) and what is listed under Device (we just really care about name, chip type, and approx total memory). That'll tell us exactly what directX is seeing as far as CPU, total memory, and graphics controller. If the machine is running Skyrim it likely does meet the requirements/specs for the game, and you are either having trouble with improperly installed/configured/etc mods or needing to update a mod or similar - if the machine was inadequate, performance wise, you would generally experience slow-downs and stutter and such, not texture errors and frequent crashes (the exception to this one is if you're overheating the machine and its shutting down due to that, but that would hopefully be fairly obvious if it were the case).

[MidbossVyers]

Well, the new computer does not have to be a laptop. It's just that my current one is. In terms of my System Information:

Processor: Intel® Core i5 CPU M 520 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz

Memory: 3072MB RAM

Display Device:

Name: NVIDIA NVS 3100M

Chip Type: NVS 3100M

Approx. Total Memory: 1702 MB

Please tell me, if you need more information. Having mods, even properly installed ones, that are above your current computer specs can cause transparent skin bug. For example, I had FSC installed http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51602/? but constantly got transparent skin bug. Uninstalling it fixed the issue. The FSC developer even said that the mod is not recommended for lower end computers. Funny thing about overheating. I actually did have to take my machine into the shop because there were fan errors, resulting in overheating. However, it has since been fixed. The technician also said that my specific computer model was particularly difficult to open up, which I can confirm.

[obobski]

Well, desktop or laptop doesn't matter - you aren't going to build or buy a brand-new gaming computer for $350-400 in its entirety, especially as you have no parts to re-use. For future reference, the NVS 3100M is very nearly equivalent to the GeForce 210M; it should run "base" Skyrim just fine, but performance with mods is not guaranteed (for any system) and if there are mods that don't work, that's just a limitation of the machine (and I will add that having been playing with mods since Morrowind, I've never experienced things like missing textures or other problems if the mod makes the game's requirements "higher" than it was previously - performance just takes a nosedive and it can create instability (if the mod A) sucks B) is improperly installed C) is conflicting with something etc). Just my 2c though.

 

Another piece of the puzzle may be that you have a Quadro, and not a GeForce; they are built from the same GPUs (and largely separated by drivers), but I've experienced games in the past to have issues with Quadro cards (and they're rarely officially supported). That isn't to say "Quadro can't game" but a certain degree of quirkiness may exist in some titles. A decent gaming computer will run you closer to $1000 altogether; if it's really looking like spending that just to run a few mods, I'd probably pass on the few mods and enjoy Skyrim as-is, and get your PS4 and assorted games.

[MidbossVyers]

Yes, I did confirm that my computer can run vanilla Skyrim perfectly. It's just that, for me, the main "lure" of Skyrim is its mods. Also, it's not that the textures and whatnot are missing. It's just that they don't load in time. For example, I enter a new cell, and I see texture issues. I save the game, exit to the desktop, load the save, and that fixes it. It's just that it gets tedious to do so every other time that I enter a new cell. I also only experience CTD when the game is forced to do something "flashy", such as during the Potema battle. $1000. Whoa. Yeah, probably the PS4 is the more economic choice.

[obobski]

Yes, I did confirm that my computer can run vanilla Skyrim perfectly. It's just that, for me, the main "lure" of Skyrim is its mods. Also, it's not that the textures and whatnot are missing. It's just that they don't load in time. For example, I enter a new cell, and I see texture issues. I save the game, exit to the desktop, load the save, and that fixes it. It's just that it gets tedious to do so every other time that I enter a new cell. I also only experience CTD when the game is forced to do something "flashy", such as during the Potema battle. $1000. Whoa. Yeah, probably the PS4 is the more economic choice.

 

Interesting - I understand what you're seeing now, and I've honestly never seen that happen before; I even remember running Oblivion on a GeForce FX and not having that happen (that's uh, probably a lot worse than what you're experiencing with Skyrim in terms of performance too). On the pricing, the biggest hang-up is that you have to do everything "from scratch" - if you had an existing desktop you could probably just upgrade from there, but you don't, so it's either an all new laptop, or an all new desktop, and there's a price floor that will run around the cost of the PS4 just to get you a Windows licence, power supply, hard-drive, case, monitor, etc and then you've got the "guts" on top of that - motherboard, CPU, GPU, RAM, etc. You may have luck finding a used computer that can fit into your budget and accomplish what you want, but I wouldn't pursue that route if you aren't technically inclined (e.g. willing to do some/lots of work on it to make it work). If you're up for building a machine it may be worth perusing ebay and seeing what you can do. Of course, I still would agree with my original thought: if all of this money and effort is just to run some mods on Skyrim, versus buying a PS4 and having multiple other games you want, it still may make more sense to get the PS4. Just a random side thought in that vein: I've been reading that Xbox One will allow mods for Fallout 4, so if the next-gen games you want are on Xbox One as well, that may be worth thinking about/looking into if you're after modding and a Bethesda game in the future.

[MidbossVyers]

Are you saying that it would be cheaper to upgrade my current laptop, rather than to buy a new computer? I have considered that, but as I mentioned, on the technician's advice, my particular laptop is actually rather difficult to open up to do so. He let me watch him clean my machine, and I saw that even that required a lot of effort, so even if I wanted to build my own machine, I would at least need to get a computer that is easier to open up to replace parts with. Probably, the PS4 is better, though.

 

In terms of modding console games, I have seen some videos of Oblivion mods on Xbox, but those mainly consisted of changing equipment numerical values or colors. Basic stuff. Nothing, like adding new races or items. On a side note, I've also seen nude mods of Street Fighter and Soul Calibur, but I'm not sure where to even start on that, as I'm not sure if Street Fighter has PC versions, but I know that Soul Calibur does not. Still, I digress.

Edited December 31, 2015 by MidbossVyers

[obobski]

Are you saying that it would be cheaper to upgrade my current laptop, rather than to buy a new computer? I have considered that, but as I mentioned, on the technician's advice, my particular laptop is actually rather difficult to open up to do so. He let me watch him clean my machine, and I saw that even that required a lot of effort, so even if I wanted to build my own machine, I would at least need to get a computer that is easier to open up to replace parts with. Probably, the PS4 is better, though.

 

In terms of modding console games, I have seen some videos of Oblivion mods on Xbox, but those mainly consisted of changing equipment numerical values or colors. Basic stuff. Nothing, like adding new races or items. On a side note, I've also seen nude mods of Street Fighter and Soul Calibur, but I'm not sure where to even start on that, as I'm not sure if Street Fighter has PC versions, but I know that Soul Calibur does not. Still, I digress.

 

Laptops are generally never upgradeable, at least in the way you would need. So no, there would be no upgrade path there, and that's not what I'm suggesting (and it is a big part of the reason that you're looking at a much higher initial cost for a gaming PC). Console modding is outside of Nexus' TOS because it generally violates the game's EULA, at least for games like Oblivion on Xbox 360; Fallout 4 (and afaik only Fallout 4) is getting "legit" or "legal" mods on Xbox One, and as far as I've seen that's exclusively for Xbox One, not PS4/Xbox One. It wouldn't do anything for you for Skyrim, but it would be more functionality/options than with PS4 (at least, if what I've read is correct, and PS4 isn't allowing mods).

[MidbossVyers]

Well, I was never really a Fallout fan, given lack of vampires (yes, I mean actual vampires, not a clan of cannibals, who think that they're vampires), so the fact that Xbox One has moddable Fallout is not really a sell for me. FYI, Fallout with vampires is basically just Seraph of the End, which is basically Enclave (Fallout) vs. Volkihar (or one of the Morrowind vampire clans, given that, unlike the vampires of Daggerfall and Cyrodiil, Volkihar and Morrowind vampires often keep thralls who are technically "part of the clan", in that it is against clan law to kill them without cause). Moddable ESO or Skyrim on the other hand...