Graphics Upgrade for Skyrim

[bobmus]

Given that I've currently got integrated graphics, but an otherwise alright PC (Dell Inspiron 570), are there any Escapists who can help me pick a suitable graphics upgrade to meet the following?
1. I want Skyrim to be playable - ie. people render as soon as possible, not 5 foot in front of my face
2. Ideally it'd look nice all around
3. I'm working on a student budget here, so sub £100 is pretty much a must

I was thinking of this one - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11189-00-20G-6770-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B004XSJR5Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1319909196&sr=1-3

Thanks in advance.


Are there any other Escapists out there upgrading in advance of this game?

 

[Luke5515]

An integrated graphics card means that you cannot remove it from the motherboard.
Sorry to say, you're going to need a new motherboard if you want to upgrade.

 

[bobmus]

An integrated graphics card means that you cannot remove it from the motherboard.
Sorry to say, you're going to need a new motherboard if you want to upgrade.

As far as I'm aware I can plug into a free PCI slot and override the internal one?

 

[QPCloudy]

An integrated graphics card means that you cannot remove it from the motherboard.
Sorry to say, you're going to need a new motherboard if you want to upgrade.

As far as I'm aware I can plug into a free PCI slot and override the internal one?

Yes, you can! That's what anyone with integrated graphics has to do. It's what I do

 

[EHKOS]

Uhhhhh. Nope. That is totally wrong. You just need a PCI slot. It will override the integrated chip. The card looks good but Dell isn't being very helpful to tell me if you have a slot or not.

 

[bobmus]

Uhhhhh. Nope. That is totally wrong. You just need a PCI slot. It will override the integrated chip. The card looks good but Dell isn't being very helpful to tell me if you have a slot or not.

From their website:
Slots
PCIe x16 (1), PCIe x1 (2), PCI (1)

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I made a topic like this for graphics cards around the £100 mark that could ideally run Skyrim and future releases. If you're interested it's here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.320428-Graphics-Card-Confusion-Questions#13090698], I decided to go with a GTX 460. I really don't know much about graphics cards (as illustrated in the thread), some people say some shit; some others disagree and say some other shit.

There is however a topic on the Skyrim forums here [http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1248590-unofficial-will-my-pc-run-skyrim-thread-46-w-hardware-guide/] that may help. The graphics card you're looking at seems to fall around the high medium/low high area. I imagine there are more factors than just the graphics card though.

 

[EHKOS]

Uhhhhh. Nope. That is totally wrong. You just need a PCI slot. It will override the integrated chip. The card looks good but Dell isn't being very helpful to tell me if you have a slot or not.

From their website:
Slots
PCIe x16 (1), PCIe x1 (2), PCI (1)

Thanks, unfortunately you do not have a big enough power supply. You have 300 watts and it needs 500 to run. You could try to upgrade that too, but it's a tad more complex.

 

[bobmus]

Uhhhhh. Nope. That is totally wrong. You just need a PCI slot. It will override the integrated chip. The card looks good but Dell isn't being very helpful to tell me if you have a slot or not.

From their website:
Slots
PCIe x16 (1), PCIe x1 (2), PCI (1)

Thanks, unfortunately you do not have a big enough power supply. You have 300 watts and it needs 500 to run. You could try to upgrade that too, but it's a tad more complex.

Ah. This could be an issue. Any alternatives or workarounds you might suggest?

EDIT: Where did you find this information by the way?

 

[Corven]

If you do buy a graphics card, make sure that your computers power supply can handle it, you don't want to end up forking over even more cash for a new power supply.

 

[AugustFall]

I'm not saying it's impossible but I opened up my old Dell to see what I could necro from it for my new computer and the only thing I got was the CD/DVD drive. Dell seems to try their best to make it difficult to upgrade your current system (Thing was a mess inside) in hopes you'll just buy a new one.

 

[Luke5515]

An integrated graphics card means that you cannot remove it from the motherboard.
Sorry to say, you're going to need a new motherboard if you want to upgrade.

As far as I'm aware I can plug into a free PCI slot and override the internal one?

Well a free PCI slot, that's a different story!
Firs things first, check your power supply and see what your limits are.
then I'd go through newegg.com to see what kind of deals you can get. If you find a few you like, don't forget to shop around. In my experience Newegg has the best prices and warranties, but you can still find some good deals elsewhere.

 

[Salpingo]

I concur with others on this thread, anything in that price range is going to require a power supply upgrade. This little combo will give you the power of an OC'ed 6850 and a decent power supply for right around your price range. If these deals don't transfer to where you are at, black friday is coming up, and you can expect to snag something similar for a good price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150516

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182044

 

[The Lugz]

Yes, you totally absolutely CAN override your integrated chip and you do have a slot for a graphics card, so long as it will physically fit it will be fine, if you have the power for it

you WILL need 2 6pin, or 1 8pin and a 6 pin pcie power adapters or a new psu, if you don't have a modular system

if you get:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-160-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=1830

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-034-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

you'll be set for a while.

the problem is you're upgrading the power requirements for your pc as-well, make no mistake any 'decent' gpu is going to suck an additional 100-200 watts from your system

even some of the more power hogging plug in variety may such too-much juice and overload the stock power supply's dell provide
they are mass produced very low quality and inefficient units and get very hot

a decent power supply will go along way towards a stable pc platform and save you power at the same time

there is an alternative, you could go for a low draw card such as:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-268-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

which is totally silent, buss powered and possibly the most efficient card you could run for modern gaming
according to reviews it will handle new games such as portal, dirt 3 but nothing intensive
it probably wont run skyrim on max, but i grantee it will run it at low, and possibly at medium settings with respectable rates

unfortunately gpu prices are going up recently and there isnt much you can do about it other than save a bit longer.

in your position i would go for the radeon card, by the way it will run most modern games even if it cant manage eye-candy to the max it really isnt needed

 

[bobmus]

there is an alternative, you could go for a low draw card such as:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-268-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1983

which is totally silent, buss powered and possibly the most efficient card you could run for modern gaming
according to reviews it will handle new games such as portal, dirt 3 but nothing intensive
it probably wont run skyrim on max, but i grantee it will run it at low, and possibly at medium settings with respectable rates

in your position i would go for the radeon card, by the way it will run most modern games even if it cant manage eye-candy to the max it really isnt needed

I like the look of the Radeon, and avoiding a power supply upgrade would save money - thanks for that!

 

[The Lugz]

glad to be of assistance, happy fragging

a side note, if the gpu dosen't work on first boot you may need to enable it in the bios when you restart

just hold delete while you boot you should get a list of options
alternatively it may be f11 or f12 depending on which bios you have,

you might want to research that first!


personally mine says

'init gpu first'
make sure 'pci' is enabled when you install the card, but try it without changing first, sometimes it will automatically detect the card and set it itself and you wont have to mess with the bios

 

[bobmus]

glad to be of assistance, happy fragging

a side note, if the gpu dosen't work on first boot you may need to enable it in the bios when you restart

just hold delete while you boot you should get a list of options
alternatively it may be f11 or f12 depending on which bios you have,

you might want to research that first!

Sounds something to consider. Though surely it'd boot with integrated first and I'd have to disable them first anyway?

 

[The Lugz]

most modern systems will indeed detect a gpu and auto-configure itself to run with it
it really depends on what bios and version of bios you have, and how old it is

some still have
'gpu init' as an option, just make sure it's set to pci/e
and nothing else
( but only when you have the card, and only if it doesn't auto-configure it when you first install it else you may get errors crop up )

the reason that might happen is because you need to move the monitor cable to the new gpu, and if it isnt configured right, it may still be sending pictures to the on-board gpu

basically, if it black-screens, put the cable back to the on-board one, reboot and select a different option in the bios

it's really not difficult, sorry if i made it sound over complex i'm sure you can handle it

 

[Dectomax]

Given that I've currently got integrated graphics, but an otherwise alright PC (Dell Inspiron 570), are there any Escapists who can help me pick a suitable graphics upgrade to meet the following?
1. I want Skyrim to be playable - ie. people render as soon as possible, not 5 foot in front of my face
2. Ideally it'd look nice all around
3. I'm working on a student budget here, so sub £100 is pretty much a must

I was thinking of this one - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11189-00-20G-6770-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B004XSJR5Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1319909196&sr=1-3

Thanks in advance.


Are there any other Escapists out there upgrading in advance of this game?

If you shop about you can get a GTX560 for around £135 and that's a fucking decent card.

 

[The Lugz]

If you shop about you can get a GTX560 for around £135 and that's a fucking decent card.

true stuffs are true, but it also requires +12v and will bring the system to 500w again as mentioned before

plus psu.. we have the same problem, ends up near £170 again

the 6670 will work, but it does leave you in a bit of an upgrade dead end
you'll need to get red of it in a couple years, but let's face it the whole pc will be needing an upgrade in a few years, right?

if you want, you could grab a higher end psu and gpu ( and it will work great )
and in a few years grab a new motherboard, ram, cpu

waiting is always a good strategy in the technology market, prices ultimately fall even though they regularly fluctuate
plus you'll have more money to spend later, the longer you save the more stuff you get, basically.
also, people are always going to want cheap office pc's
honestly i believe getting a card to match the system and flogging the whole thing when you want to upgrade is the way to go