Wow those are some really good-looking graphics. What are your PC specs if you don't mind me asking? Does the game run smoothly?
I play on an old Macbook Pro that is below minimum spec
. Windows XP on it just seems to fly, after turning off all unwanted background processes. It is basically an XP install just for games, no firewall, no antivirus, no internet, no animated dogs. Nohing but what is needed to run offline games.
I run at low resolution 900*630 (or something like that), which is fine on a 15 inch screen. It runs a little choppy outside, full speed inside. Totally playable.
Judging by this and things I have read, If you have a good CPU you can play the game even if you graphics card is below minimum spec, because the graphics engine leverages the CPU instead of the graphics card for many things.
In this case the CPU is OK, Core2Duo @ 2.2 GHz, Graphics card is not OK, Nvidia GT8600M, with a wonking 128MB of Video RAM
but seems to handle things very gracefully.
The quality you see is largely down to using the excellent "Realistic Lighting with Customization" mod, it has no impact on performance, but you may have to try various setting to find what you want.
Also, the following texture mods:
"Snow and Rocks Textures HD" (low res version)
"Vurt's Flora Overhaul "(hi res!).
"Better Landscape Skyrim" (low res)
"Enhanced Distant Terrain", which actually seems to help with performance outdoors.
I'm also using the nVidia control panel for antialising and anisotropic filtering (2x). This low setting means I get crappy water reflections from a distance, and some transparency issues that are aesthetic and not that easy to notice.
I was going to get a better machine but after the above and some informed .ini file tweaking I was just happy enough with performance/quality to continue playing.
However I am too aware of what I'm missing by not having this on a 24 inch sceen at high res .... Must save up for the next TES....