What mods to use to play on a 256mb card?

[terrarizing]

I am considering adding Skyrim to my PC game collection on Steam since its on sale right now (75% off), but if I do I would like to know the best mods to make the game as playable and good looking as possible (I realize I will likely not get much in terms of good looking but that's ok).

My PC specs are:

Operating System- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Processor- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8ghz

RAM- 4gb

Video Card- Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M (256mb)

 

Also I would like to know if I can use other mods (like new content) along with mods that make playing on my lower end PC possible?

 

[cronosnake]

Hi,

 

I used to play Skyrim on a 2010 macbook (not pro), which had lesser specs; I had 256 VRAM and 2 RAM (about 1.86 when running Windows on Bootcamp). I can't recall the processor at the moment, but yours is the same, if not better, than that one.

 

Skyrim was very playable for me. I could run on medium pretty consistently, but the only graphical mod I used was Climates of Tamriel. You'll probably also want to check some of your config settings and turn off other features, such as water reflections and shadow quality. Beyond that though, I got Skyrim to work.

 

In addition to this, I also use various content mods; I don't think those are so affected by hardware, besides the intensive ones that make huge battles. Stuff like Helgen Reborn or Falskaar(two popular mods) should function as if they were in the original game itself.

 

The vanilla game itself looks great, honestly. It's not the best we see nowadays, but I would imagine that your system would be able to run it.

[terrarizing]

Thank you that's good to know. I bought it anyways as $13.59 was a great price for the Legendary edition. But I am curious as to what your framerate was?