system requirements

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Beowns

New Member
So i'm going to buy a new notebook and one of the things i would like to do on that notebook is, well you guessed it, play skyrim. I don't know alot abouth laptops and such so i'll need a little bit of help.

I found this notebook: http://icecat.ch/p/acer/lxrq002073/aspire-notebooks-4717276713140-5755g-2678g64mn-11115786.html

Would it be able to run skyrim? I don't really need high setting just normal would be nice.

Thanks for your support :D (As english is not my main language there will be mistakes, srry)
 

Finalchrono

Time Bandit
You're good. Core i7 processor + Nvidia 540M = almost desktop quality laptop. However, never play with it unplugged from the wall. If you do, it'll drain the battery in about 45 mins to an hour, and you may experience some slight lag.
 

Toshiro

Member
Not really useful, but thanks anyway.
 

Finalchrono

Time Bandit
It's hard to tell Toshiro. It says the graphics card is "Intel gfx". Most Intel graphics cards don't support hardware t&l, so i'm leaning towards no.
 
Toshiro, in my thread there is a list of GFX cards and their ratings. Since the list of your components says only "Intel GFX" it is hard to figure out exactly what you have. Usually stock computers will have what is called "integrated graphics". Which means the graphics chipset is built integrated into your motherboard.

If that is the case, from my extensive reading, I have learned that any integrated graphics is pretty much a "no go" on Skyrim. Skyrim needs a moderate to higher quality dedicated graphics card to run it. This is partly due to the nature of integrated GFX using your system RAM and processor to calculate graphics functions. Which means your processor and RAM resources will be stressed.

This is why a dedicated GFX card will actually have RAM built on it as well as a GPU. Graphics Processing Unit which will function to carry out your graphics calculations. If a system processor can be thought of as the human brain, think of a good GFX card as like a "Graphics Brain" which is there to concentrate on the graphics only.

I'm intermediate skill level at best, with tech stuff. I understand a lot of concepts but have not actually done much myself. You might take your Laptop to a PC shop nearby your house and ask them specifically "If they can tell you what kind of graphics card you have or if it is integrated into the motherboard." Or you can ask how to do it yourself in forums like this or Tom's Hardware that FinalChrono told me about. There may be diagnostic programs you can use to tell you as well. This can be helpful to let you know where you stand currently, in order to get you to where you want to be, which I assume is having an enjoyable experience playing Skyrim.

As your machine sits now it looks like it may have the bare minimum requirements and so, based on my 2 to 3 hours of research on comparable machines, I would say you would not be able to run Skyrim well on that PC.

1. I base that off your processor being the bare minimum requirement.
2. Plus the unknown GFX card, which, if it does not specifically say we can assume it is integrated GFX.
3. And if your system only has 2 GB of RAM you will need at least 4 GB. (find that out too)

4. Ahh yeah and as I read the description of your Asus F80Q Laptop I see that, due to the 32 bit Operating System, your OS will only recognize 3GB of a 4GB setup. Which means you will lose 1 GB of memory b/c of the limitations of the 32 bit OS versus a 64 bit OS. That will be a problem as well.

Sort of bad news i know, but good to know where you are in order to get where you want to be.

Although I've been out of PC gaming for a few years, I have been doing research since playing Skyrim at my cousin's house and loving it. You might check out the thread I originally posted in too. As it has some tech info straight from Bethesda that might be of help to you.

http://skyrimforum.com/threads/double-checking-my-incoming-hardware.2210/
Good luck! I know how you feel b/c this is all i want for Christmas! Hehe.

~Matt
 

Toshiro

Member
Thanks for the input, guys. I would say you are right that the graphics is integrated. I saw something about a need to upgrade the F80Q graphics hardware in order to be able to play 3D games.

I have my eyes on the ASUS N53SN (local version, Thailand, SZ023V): http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Multimedia_Entertainment/N53SN/#specifications
with the i7 CPU. The graphics card should be more than enough I'd say.
The ASUS dedicated game laptops are way too expensive.
 
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