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PC specification advice


PepperPlunge

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I have Skyrim running on my PC but the quality is a bit off. It runs in medium quality and for the most part runs smoothly. There are parts where things in the distance just pop up or it runs a bit slowly.

 

I have an nVidia GeForce GT120 which has 1GB dedicated memory, 4GB RAM and an Intel quad core processor. I believe it's 2.33GHz. I'm on my phone so can't say for definite. What graphics card should I get if I want it to run fine in 'high' or 'ultra'? How much will it set me back? On CanYouRunIt.com, I think it said everything was fine except the graphics card and it was reading my RAM as 3.25GB.

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Thank you mate, that sounds brilliant. Lots of good reviews for it. Would I need some kind of fan to support it? Someone said about the highest temperature they got whilst running it at full whack was 80 degrees celsius. Also, at the moment I put a HDMI cable into the back of my PC and plug it into my TV. I imagine I'd be able to do the same on this one?

 

And one last thing; when I checked Amazon, there was an option for an over-clocked version. Is that a good idea? I don't know much about over-clocking. What are the side effects? I've seen places sell PCs with the processor already over-clocked. Does it suffer in reliability?

 

Thanks again.

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I'd always invest in a good fan no matter what other hardware you're running but the problem you could run into would be the PSU not being powerful enough, the 550 needs at least a 400 watt power supply. It'll be HDMI supported so no worries about that, all recent cards are these days.

 

You shouldn't have any problems with an OC'd card at all, it's pretty much the norm now to have other companies releasing them with either OC's, better fans or just a better look.

Yep, just install a 64bit OS but Skyrim only uses 2gb of ram unless you mod it anyway.

 

What's so good about these
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How would I know if I need a new fan? How would I find out how many watts I'm pumping out?

 

Is 'high' quality on games these days comparable to a 360 with 'ultra' surpassing it? As lovely as absolute top notch graphics would be, I'm fine with no lag as I haven't the money for high end. I assume this card can play games fine in full HD?

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How would I know if I need a new fan? How would I find out how many watts I'm pumping out?

 

Is 'high' quality on games these days comparable to a 360 with 'ultra' surpassing it? As lovely as absolute top notch graphics would be, I'm fine with no lag as I haven't the money for high end. I assume this card can play games fine in full HD?

 

I'd say medium is more like the 360 these days, console hardware is old as hell. I mean, i'm running a crap 9600 GT and can get better looking games at times. It should play 1080p no problem, it's best to get a program like Fraps that can tell you the framerate anyway so you can tinker with the settings till it runs as good as possible.

 

You're gonna need to open the PC up and take a look at the PSU, it'll have a max output on the sticker somewhere or the model number might say. The only real way to know if you need a new fan is to just test the card really, it has it's own though so you should be fine.

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Cheers for the help, I was completely in the dark beforehand. I think I'll end up taking your recommendation even though I probably shouldn't with Christmas around the corner.

 

I don't suppose there's any way of downloading Windows 7 64 bit and getting away with it? I don't think I'd like to risk it but just wondered.

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Cheers for the help, I was completely in the dark beforehand. I think I'll end up taking your recommendation even though I probably shouldn't with Christmas around the corner.

 

I don't suppose there's any way of downloading Windows 7 64 bit and getting away with it? I don't think I'd like to risk it but just wondered.

 

It's suprisingly easy to get it free, all you need is a file called "WATremover" after a pirate copy has been installed.

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That is a better card and if you have the dosh then sure, go for a 560 but watch out as it uses a LOT more watts so i'd say make sure you have a 500 watt PSU just in case. Yeah an OC'd version will be faster and your motherboard should be fine, if it runs a GT120 that must mean it has a PCI 2 slot.

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