PC Can these specs run Skyrim?

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Farkyu

New Member
I got a new laptop for my birthday and I was wondering what framerate I would get with it. Here are the specs. Quad-core AMD A6-3430MX processor @ 2.4 GHz. AMD Radeon HD 7470M dedicated graphics card with 1 GB RAM. 6GB of RAM. In my opinion, it meets the requirements on Steam, but I would like to know what I would get before I spend £35 on it.
 
If u just meet min requirements then dont get it. I had a laptop that exceeded the minimum requirements by a little, but it was too laggy to play on even lowest resolution with lowest graphics settings.
 

Farkyu

New Member
If u just meet min requirements then dont get it. I had a laptop that exceeded the minimum requirements by a little, but it was too laggy to play on even lowest resolution with lowest graphics settings.
Are you even considering the specs? I know it is better, I am wondering what framerate it could get.
 

Farkyu

New Member
I know that everything meets the reccomended specs, but i am not sure about the graphics card. Is the Radeon HD 7470M as good as the AMD 4890?
 

Dagmar

Defender of the Bunnies of Skyrim
I know that everything meets the reccomended specs, but i am not sure about the graphics card. Is the Radeon HD 7470M as good as the AMD 4890?
Absolutely not. The Radeon HD 4890 is exponentially superior to the HD 7470M. The former is one of the highest performing desktop video cards from the 4000 series while the latter is an entry level laptop video card from the 7000 series. The performance from a laptop video card with the same series designation is notably inferior to the desktop counterpart and the second number indicates the cards hierarchy in the video card series in terms of performance. The HD 7470M should provide stable fluid frame rates if you keep the settings anywhere from low to medium.
 

Farkyu

New Member
Absolutely not. The Radeon HD 4890 is exponentially superior to the HD 7470M. The former is one of the highest performing desktop video cards from the 4000 series while the latter is an entry level laptop video card from the 7000 series. The performance from a laptop video card with the same series designation is notably inferior to the desktop counterpart and the second number indicates the cards hierarchy in the video card series in terms of performance. The HD 7470M should provide stable fluid frame rates if you keep the settings anywhere from low to medium.
I'm sorry if I offended you, seeing as I'm not as clued up on graphics cards as you are, but what framerate would I get from medium settings?
 

Dagmar

Defender of the Bunnies of Skyrim
Surely the framerate for my laptop must be higher seeing as it has a quad-core processor with 2GB more RAM? It also has Windows 7 ultimate.
No, the video card is the most important factor for frame rates in PC games today. In addition the tests were all done with CPUs with comparable speeds and Skyrim, and most PC games in general, don't take advantage of quad core technology. RAM is even less relevant.
 

Farkyu

New Member
No, the video card is the most important factor for frame rates in PC games today. In addition the tests were all done with CPUs with comparable speeds and Skyrim, and most PC games in general, don't take advantage of quad core technology. RAM is even less relevant.
I found this video
where this guy is playing on medium settings, with an ATI mobility Radeon HD 4250 and he said when he was not recording he would get 24-30 fps. I did a bit of research on notebookcheck.com and I believe the Radeon HD 7470M is much better, seeing as on the games that both graphics cards were tested on, the HD 7470M gets more than twice the framerates for the games. Am I wrong?
 

Dagmar

Defender of the Bunnies of Skyrim
FYI the person who posted that video is not playing on medium settings. Saying it doesn't make it so. Common sense dictates that if he had to force the resolution down to a 640x480 resolution in the .ini file he's already playing with one setting on a setting that is lower than what even the game considers low. He also says his shadows are set on low. Pressing the medium setting button on the options and then custom nerfing almost everything down to low settings in the .ini files does not equal medium settings.

On top of that his game performance is poor no matter how he tries to sugar coat it. The frame rate looks awful with FRAPs running and by his own words it runs lower than what he posts in his description (the range drops down to 11 not 18). His posted non FRAPs FPS is probably equally unreliable which means he lags a lot in regular gameplay. He's also having problems he mentions in the video which are being caused by his weak video card (the lack of images in inventory, the lack of particle effects like fire, etc.).

TBH the video looks like an exercise in self-delusion if not deception. If that's the kind of gaming experience that's going to satisfy you then go ahead but your question has already been asked and answered. You just don't like the answer you're getting and there's nothing I can do about that.

Btw this is what real medium settings look like on the PC

7078671761_41ca7b4ca3_b.jpg
 

Farkyu

New Member
No, the video card is the most important factor for frame rates in PC games today. In addition the tests were all done with CPUs with comparable speeds and Skyrim, and most PC games in general, don't take advantage of quad core technology. RAM is even less relevant.
I'm sorry but I simply can't see why my specs can't run Skyrim. I know I don't have a supercomputer like an elitist pc gamer like you has. I also have Skyrim on the Xbox 360, so I am not looking to play the game at max settings. I know my laptop is not the best type for gaming, however it plays MW3 on medium at an average of 36 FPS, it plays minecraft on fancy graphics at a constant 80 FPS, and games like TF2 run even better. Skyrim on medium settings will suffice for me. According to you, if the CPU and RAM are irrelevant, then why are a Quad-core processor, Windows 7 ultimate and 4GB of RAM reccomended by Bethseda themselves? My laptop exceeds those criteria. I know the graphics card is not amazing however it is a mid range graphics card and is categorized as a class 3 card by notebookcheck. Therefore my laptop must achieve better results than notebookcheck recorded.
 

Rayven

Global Moderator
Staff member
I can't see where anyone here suggested you couldn't run Skyrim. You can. If you're going to go into specific framerates and graphics settings, it seems to me you'll be fine probably at low with a few tweaks individually up. Or medium with a few tweaks down.
 
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