help!

[terdmcnugget]

hi i just bought skyrim the other day and my computer absolutely refuses to run it.
im only getting 2-4 fps on low after waiting 5 minutes to get to the intro scene.
heres my specs:
Windows Version: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition Service Pack 2 (build 6002), 32-bit

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+

Graphics Card: GeForce 6150SE nForce 430

Total RAM: 1.9 GB

400GB hard drive space

2.8ghz processor

397mb video memory
temps: CPU:110F HARD DISK:95F

i checked my processes while it was running and it says its using 5% of my cpu
its so annoying because my gf's laptop can run it and it has about the same specs as my desktop but a lower quality video card and 3gb of ram instead of 2gb
someone please help me i dont see why i cant run it i have all the min requirements besides dedicated video ram
i can run oblivion and new Vegas on medium at about 20-25fps if that says anything

[IsharaMeradin]

You need 2gb ram minimum and 512mb video ram minimum according to the system requirements on the back of the case.

 

I'd say it is a clear case of you not having enough memory especially video.

 

Minimum requirements are exactly that MINIMUM. That means that on the systems they tested that setup was the lowest that could passably perform. You MIGHT be able to limp thru it but you will have problems and certainly not be able to use mods especially heavy processing mods.

[Deleted3507349User]

Skyrim can indeed run on less than 512 MB of video ram (I did it for a while, ran fairly smoothly also). I'd say your biggest problem is your system RAM. You need a minimum of 2GB, preferably more. Skyrim itself will have no problem using it's maximum of 4GB, and you still need to have some available for other system processes. Outside of a system upgrade or a new computer, about the only thing you can try is to set everything to their lowest possible settings. If that gets you a playable game, slowly start raising the settings on notch at a time.

 

Good luck!

[terdmcnugget]

okay i just checked my girlfriends laptop specs and it has 4gb of ram i thought it had 3gb but it also has only 64mb video memory and an intel chipset and it runs pretty smooth so my problem is ram i guess i need more ram (which i was going to get anyways) and a 64bit version of windows

Edited May 11, 2013 by terdmcnugget

[ripple]

I also had Skyrim running on a 4-year old 512 MB GPU for a month or so, 'medium' everything setting except textures, which I had on 'high'--until Skyrim literally fried my card. But I had 4GB ram, was on Win 7 64 bit, and lots of ini tweaks to milk the engine for everything it's worth. In your case, aside from turning down the graphic settings, you are probably going to have to deploy a combination of tools, mods, and ini tweaks to get playable framerates. There are a couple of 'ultra-low texture' replacers for the base game textures on the Nexus, I recommend you start there. They'll make your game look ugly but will give you the promised performance boost. Turning shadows off -completely- will also boost your performance significantly, because shadows is a FPS killer in this game. If you plan to use mods and download any mod that comes with custom textures, you'll need something like the 'Texture Optimizer' to compress the custom textures to a lower resolution that your GPU can handle.

Alternatively, you can just get a new GPU (at last 1GB vram), which may solve all of your problems completely (it did for me, but then I -had- to get a new one once the old GPU died).

Edited May 11, 2013 by ripple