Melquiades Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Hi! I'm putting together a new gaming rig that I hope will be able to run most games on good settings, but I'm focusing on Skyrim mostly since it's the game I've been dying to play the most. Currently I'm deciding whether to go for a Radeon HD6850 or a 6950, obviously I know the 6950 beats the former model hands down, but I'd have to import whichever of the two cards I choose since computer parts costs are prohibitively expensive were I live, so I'm wondering if a single HD6850 would allow me to run the game at high settings on a 22" inch monitor with a 1920x1080 resolution (with the option of using graphical mods to make the game look better). I'd love to hear from anyone who is running the game on that model, I know it exceeds the recommended settings but I'd prefer not to jump into anything before getting a look at some first hand accounts. Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowderdToastMan Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Howdy First off, be aware that the game is very cpu heavy. Thumb thru pages 5-9 on this article: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074.html Secondly, with a game like skyrim, the important factor is your gpu mhz, and secondly, its stream processors. The vram is not a factor at all. The major difference between those two cards is that one has 2 gigs of vram and one has 1 gig. One gig is more than you'll every need for this game. One has 1500 stream processors and the other has 1100. Both those cards are 13 inches long, and it would be important to see if your box can fit a card that long before you purchase it. I am running the shorter version of those, a 6850. Its an 8 inch card with 900 stream processors overclocked to 840 mhz.With my I5-2500k, my FPS stays at the 60fps limit on ultra settings in 90% of places and never drops below 50 in the most intense locations. With a decent CPU, either one of those GPU's will run ultra settings without batting an eye. But unless you plan to use a game that requires 2 gigs of vram in the future, which is currently unheard of, save youself 100 bucks and get the 6870. (if it will fit) *edit* i misread you card type. I thought you said 6870 vs 6950. oops. But like i said, the 6850 is good, but that 6950 is great but long. If your box can fit it the 6870 is the superior card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melquiades Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 Thank you very much, I'll be using the same CPU and GPU as you apparently so it should be smooth sailing =) I will look into the 6870 as well to see if it fits into my budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nadimos Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 (edited) Take a 2 GB card, if you want to be on the safe side with high res texture mods. Also it can be usefull, if you want to render a scene via opencl. Edited November 25, 2011 by Nadimos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderiii Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 I regularly top 1GB of VRAM useage with my setup on ULTRA with a tweaked .ini file. I expect it to use 1.5 to 2 GB once high resolution texture mods are made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melquiades Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 Which cards are you guys using? To be honest I'm mostly interested on how Skyrim will perform and I expect to mod the hell out of it as I did with Oblivion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elderiii Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 I'm using the video card in my signature... (averaging 53 or so FPS with dips as low as 46 in wooded areas with several enemies on the screen - all Ultra with 4x MSAA & 16x AF) I hit 1.1-1.2 GB of VRAM useage, without any mods installed. I do have a tweaked .ini (configuration file) that greatly increases the draw distance, increases shadows, and increases the size of many of the landscape meshes, among other things. I have not tested it without the tweaked .ini, but I would be surprised if it hit 1GB let alone went over it. However, if you wish to have higher resolution texture packs and lots of mods in the future, then you should look at a video card with more than 1 GB of memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarefootWarrior Posted November 26, 2011 Share Posted November 26, 2011 I just installed a new video card not long ago, about a month. I am using a Zotac GeForce GTX 560 TI and am having no issues with this game. For myself, I prefer Nvidia so that part is a personal choice. I don't regard my system as a high performance game system, I built it to handle the graphics work I do at home. Asus Crossfire IV Formula motherboardPhenom II T1055 six core AMDCoolit ECO R-120 liquid cooling for CPUVengeance DDR3 1600 RAM / 16 GigZotac GeForce GTX 560 TI / 1 GBCorsair 850 power supplyCreative Labs Supreme FX XFI audioCooler Master Sniper Case / black edition28 wide screen i_Inc monitor, not the best but works nicely.Win 7 64 Ulitmate Good luck and hope you build a nice system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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